Empire of Shadows

Chapter 667: The Moment Before the Eruption

Chief Bruce sat in the passenger seat of the police car. Seeing that they were about to enter the old industrial district, he drew his handgun, checked if the magazine was full, and then reloaded it.

He hadn’t checked his weapon so carefully in a long time. Of course, this was not the police department’s service pistol.

In the words of the police officers, not even a dog would use a service revolver.

A total of six bullets, and the speed of reloading was so slow that an opponent could rush over from twenty meters away and stab you to death.

Except for those who had just joined the police force, basically all the old police officers would have many weapons.

After ensuring that there were no problems with the weapon and that the safety was off, he then inserted the handgun into the holster in his coat.

He opened the glove box in the passenger seat. Inside was a magazine pouch, and several loaded magazines.

He tied the magazine pouch around his waist, and after inserting all the magazines, he let out a heavy breath.

He twisted his body, straightened his clothes, and then sat up straight again, and grabbed the handle on the side of the door frame with his right hand.

He had a premonition that today would be a bad day.Along the way, he could already see some signs of unrest. The public security in this area was rapidly deteriorating.

As the chief of the city’s police department, he knew how much trouble and workload this would bring to him and the entire city’s police force.

Who wouldn’t want to be able to sit in the office and read the newspaper until it was time to get off work every day?

These sons of bitches!

On both sides of the street, there were already some stopped police cars. They were dealing with the smashing incidents on the side of the road.

Some of the rioters who had run out from the center of the incident were smashing the shops on the side of the road. The shops on the side of the road were almost all the property of federal citizens. When the police officers saw someone committing a crime, they had to respond to protect the safety and property of the citizens.

Some of the rioters had already raised their hands and were lying on the cold ground, accepting management and control. But there were also some rioters who were using the weapons in their hands to fight against the police.

The strategy of these police officers was still too conservative. This time, they were not facing immigrants with federal citizenship or federal citizens.

They were facing those refugees who were not considered federal citizens. They did not need to be so careful.

“Stop the car,” he suddenly shouted. The driver was stunned for a moment, but still quickly pulled the car over to the side and stopped.

Two of the cars in the convoy behind stopped, while the other vehicles continued to drive to the location of the alarm.

This was the New Port District. The commercial atmosphere was certainly not as prosperous as in other districts, but recently, because a large number of refugees were stranded in the New Port District, the commercial environment here had undergone some good, positive changes.

The money of the refugees was also money.

As long as they could make money, the merchants didn’t care whether the person paying the banknotes was a gentleman from the upper class or these refugees who were not even citizens.

But it was estimated that they had not expected that they would lose a large sum of money before they had earned much from these refugees.

In a shop on the side of the road, several refugees were putting the sundries in the shop into a woven bag in their hands.

Food, drinks, cigarettes, they seemed to want everything!

The shop owner was lying on the ground at the entrance, with blood on his head. It was unknown if he was already dead, and he was motionless.

The police at the scene were in a standoff with them, demanding that they put down their weapons and come out and lie on the ground.

This was the normal procedure.

The four police officers saw that Chief Bruce had personally come. One of them turned and walked over, planning to report on the situation at the scene.

“On my way here, I saw them looting the shop. At present, we are also unable to determine the health of the shop owner. The situation is a bit tricky now…”

“Tricky?” Chief Bruce, who was striding over, glanced at this police officer and then shook his head.

He didn’t wait for the police officer to continue to react and walked to a place close to the shop. At the door, two refugees holding clubs waved their weapons and loudly stopped the chief from approaching.

They didn’t know how to distinguish between a chief and a police officer. They just simply knew that they couldn’t let them get close. “Don’t fucking come over. My baseball bat is not as easy to talk to as I am!”

He used the threat of attacking Chief Bruce with a baseball bat to intimidate him, but this time, he failed.

Chief Bruce directly drew the handgun in his hand, held it with both hands, his arms straight. The man’s eyes suddenly widened. In his panicked and uneasy look, he pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Bang, bang bang!

Three bullets accurately hit the refugee who was standing there in a daze, waving a baseball bat.

He looked down at the three small holes in his coat in disbelief, and even touched them with his hand.

He couldn’t believe the fact that he was about to die. Just as he was about to open his mouth to call for help, he suddenly fell to the ground, and his body began to convulse.

His companion who was looting goods in the shop ran out after hearing the gunshots. They looked at their companion who had fallen in a pool of blood in terror, and then looked at Chief Bruce, who was standing outside the shop window with his gun raised, in terror.

One of them pushed his hair back from his temples with both hands. “What the fuck have you done?!”

But what answered him were bullets, flying bullets.

The bullets flew wildly. Chief Bruce calmly continued to shoot. Several people fell to the ground one after another, until the handgun in his hand was empty and made a “click click” sound.

He let out a breath of hot air, quickly changed the magazine, put it back in its holster, and then turned around.

“Is it still tricky?”

He shook his head, then walked towards his car. “Deal with the rest in the same way. We don’t have so much time to reason with them!”

“Remember to write in the report that they violently resisted arrest!”

As he spoke, he returned to the car. “Drive.”

A few minutes later, the convoy entered the scene of the incident. After seeing the actual scene of this demolition site, Chief Bruce couldn’t help but suck in a breath of cold air.

All the engineering machinery that could be overturned had been overturned—they had driven forklifts to overturn other engineering machinery vehicles.

And those that could not be overturned were now burning fiercely.

These people had completely gone crazy. Under the leadership of a few people, they began to release the anger, fear, and unease that had been constantly accumulating since they had come to the Federation. All the negative emotions, at this moment, were completely released like a bomb!

All the pain, hunger, cold, humiliated dignity they had faced, everything that required their wives to sell their bodies to let them live, had completely erupted!

In the collective consciousness, regardless of whether they really hated the people of the Federation as much as they showed, at this moment, they all behaved as one, hating the people of the Federation incomparably!

There were already some police cars at the scene. The police officers looked at the rioters in shock. The rioters had also discovered the police. They were in a preliminary stage of a standoff.

Chief Bruce got out of the car. He straightened the police cap on his head, glanced at the police officer in the driver’s seat, and said in a low voice, “Go get a rifle.”

Then he took out a microphone from the car.

The chief, and the “command car,” had a loudspeaker. He turned on the loudspeaker. “We are the Golden Port City Police Department. I am Chief Bruce. I now demand that you immediately stop your atrocities, put down your weapons, and accept our management.”

“Your actions have seriously affected, threatened, and harmed the public security of Golden Port City, and threatened the lives and property of the people.”

“Immediately stop your atrocities and accept management, otherwise we will take necessary measures!”

“I repeat…”

Chief Bruce’s warning had an effect. Some of the rioting refugees began to gather. Only by gathering together could they have a sense of security.

Under the leadership of a few people, they silently gathered together and stood directly opposite the police force. The two sides entered a state of standoff.

But this kind of standoff was an unstable one. Some of the refugees who had already been on a killing spree were holding crowbars and steel pipes in their hands, their faces stained with some blood, looking at these police officers with an eager look!

They even wanted to fight these police officers together!

For the first time, they felt a… indescribable pleasure!

The war, the flight, the dissatisfaction. Those foremen were like the slave owners of the slave era, whipping them black and blue with the whip of “survival.”

If they didn’t work, if they didn’t listen to them, they would lose their jobs, lose everything.

This was a riot, more like a resistance against the exploitation and oppression of the federal society!

At this moment, they did not see themselves as rioters, as the villains who had caused the turmoil, but as warriors!

They had bravely resisted all the inequality imposed on them, so even when facing the police, they were not so afraid.

They believed that as long as they were united, they were invincible.

The silent standoff between the two sides lasted for several minutes. Chief Bruce turned on the microphone again. “You have five minutes. Drop your weapons, leave the crowd, and go over there to accept management.”

“After five minutes, we will take coercive measures!”

A very tough dialogue, simple and powerful.

Some of the refugees were already a little panicked, but most of them still stood together.

When the collective consciousness dominates the individual consciousness, they will give up thinking and, like those herd animals, will turn their gaze to the “leader.”

There are lead sheep, lead horses, and alpha wolves, so naturally there are also leaders.

In this situation, the few people who took the lead would decide the direction of the next event.

They were actually also very nervous, because there were already some gunshots around. There was no doubt that the police had begun to use weapons.

The few who took the lead looked at Chief Bruce from a distance, and also at the other police officers. They seemed to have no intention of surrendering.

They actually also knew very well that as long as they chose to surrender, then they would definitely be unlucky.

Neither side made any further moves. It seemed that they were all restraining themselves. But the more they restrained themselves, the more obvious the atmosphere became, heavier, more oppressive!

Just like the moment before a volcano erupts, no one can see what changes it will have in the next second.

But once it erupts, it will be devastating!

(End of a Chapter)