If the power plant explosion made people realize Lynch's decisiveness, then the frequent attacks on patrols in the following days chilled people's hearts.

In this straightforward world, there are no philosophically rich sayings like "As the saying goes," yet human wisdom still sparks some brilliant insights, such as the idea that "You can't always keep your eyes on one thing."

This saying nicely highlights the relationship between "being a thief for a thousand days" and "guarding against a thief for a thousand days," and it also shows that other languages and cultures do have some merit.

In these past few days, every night the entire city has been cloaked in darkness, and patrols have been frequently attacked.

Initially, only a few people had accidents, but soon it was more than ten, and by the fourth night, two patrols, eighteen people in total, had disappeared!

Without a sound, without even gunfire, they vanished into the night.

Nights in Zulis are very quiet. If you slightly use your sphincter to constrain the gas expanding from a fart, people in the house next door might hear it, let alone gunfire, which can be heard throughout the city.

Yet during these nights when incidents occurred, there was no gunfire. At one point, the outpost even thought that maybe these two patrols were experiencing severe fear and had deserted, considering desertion seems to be a tradition in the army.

Only later, when they found the corpses of some of them, did they realize these people had been murdered.

Subsequently, Darkstone Security reported new results in bandit suppression, mentioning that some key anti-government forces had slipped through and warned agencies across Amelia to be cautious of retaliation.

See, they even found excuses.

This also made the merchants in the Empire district a bit frightened; Lynch truly dared to kill, yet no one could find fault with him.

Someone like him, who has a certain diplomatic status, is indeed difficult to deal with, not to mention potentially causing international disputes. If anything valuable is found out, he can directly return to his country, as he holds a layer of diplomatic status. Unless Gafura wishes to break ties with the Federation, they cannot stop diplomatic personnel from returning.

Impossible to kill, ruthless and daring, people now understand that he is indeed a major problem!

After Lynch demonstrated fully that he was a hedgehog, the merchants became docile.

On the fifth day of the blackout, some repaired generator units started operating again. Seeing the room's light bulb flicker briefly before emitting a faint glow, the Gafura people in the Empire district all began to cheer.

In this less than a week's time, they had truly had enough, with every household using torches and candles.

But regardless of which was used, they would blacken the walls and weren't bright enough. The whole society seemed to have reverted directly to ancient times, with the darkness concealing fear-inducing things.

Now, electricity finally returned, and people discovered an unrecognized desire for light, electricity, and technology.

It was also during the power restoration that the phone in front of Lynch rang.

"This is Lynch..."

There was some crackling sound from the receiver, then a stranger's voice told Lynch to wait a bit, followed by some electrical noises, indicating a transfer.

After about a minute of messing around, the phone finally became quiet again, then a familiar voice appeared.

"Sorry, Lynch, the board decided to bypass me and speak directly with Soron..." Wardrick's cold voice carried a bit of anger.

During these past days, he also tried to salvage this situation. On one hand, he had promised Lynch he was the only choice, but now the board's direct interference made him passive; on the other, he didn't want to be led by the board.

The CEO and the board are never on the same line. The CEO will have his own ideas, and the board will have theirs.

The shareholders who hold group company stocks may seem to have no real power in the company, but they often possess the power to impeach all subsidiary CEOs, including the group CEO, at any time.

Meanwhile, on major issues, board members can initiate board meetings or shareholder meetings for voting.

This creates a social phenomenon where the board, which shouldn't and doesn't have much executive power, can often bypass the CEO to interfere in matters, sometimes even opposing the CEO's position.

For all major company, group, and conglomerate CEOs, they must not only be wary of commercial competitors, but also watch out for backstabs.

Wardrick's words left Lynch momentarily perplexed, "Soron?"

"Which Soron?"

Wardrick said a bit embarrassedly, "Sedel Governor's heir..."

Only then did Lynch realize what had transpired during the blackout, he furrowed his brows tightly, a surge of anger and even rage welled up instantly.

He's come to the frontlines to contribute to the Federation's development, yet the people in the background not only don't lighten his load but seem to be stabbing him so hard that the arm is a blur, and the blood erupts like a fountain.

But he quickly calmed down; he had encountered worse situations than this. For instance, he once thought those people would never confess the truth, since these were life-threatening matters, yet they all did.

Compared to now, this thing is not so despairing.

"It's not your fault, I understand."

Capitalists always have no stance, or rather their position always highly aligns with profits. From the subsequent conversation with Mr. Wardrick, he already understood the reason.

A bigger market.

More profit.

If they could completely open up Gafura's thermal power generation market and gain some industry discourse power, besides the various benefits that Gafura could bring to the enterprise, there is also the possibility for their generator sets to control the market share of power facilities in developed countries worldwide.

This enormous allure is filled with deadly temptation for those greedy and ugly capitalists on the board; aren't they willing to forgo their dignity just to earn more money?

Not to mention if a president has different opinions, if Mr. Wardrick continues to counteract, the people on the board might consider him no longer suitable for that position and vote him out.

This is also why Lynch can understand him; he knows that sometimes a non-equity president feels powerless in front of the board.

After Mr. Wardrick comforted Lynch for a few words, he hung up the phone; if he continued talking, he would only feel more ashamed.

Just as the phone call ended, there came another one.

Still following the same procedure, the person calling this time was somewhat beyond Lynch's expectations, it was Ferrari.

"I don't know how you still got this phone number..." Lynch felt a bit odd as soon as he spoke; Ferrari's "level" was somewhat low. This wasn't looking down on him; it was a fact.

Lynch's current affairs aren't entirely for himself, so the Federation would relatively offer him some protection. If he didn't personally give someone a call, the average person wouldn't be able to trace his communication method abroad.

Ferrari's voice didn't seem so relaxed either, which prompted Lynch to have not-so-good thoughts, "Someone gave me this number. I called to let you know you might have some small troubles now."

"People from the Federal Tax Bureau have restarted the previous investigation against you and Fox. Old Fox has already been taken by them, and they seem to be collecting evidence related to you."

After listening, Lynch couldn't help but laugh, but his expression was somewhat intimidating, "Looks like they intend to drive me out of here!"

Undoubtedly, Lynch dares to vouch; as long as he leaves Amelia, the Governor's Mansion will publicly tender to the society, and the Tax Bureau's investigation surely has something to do with Governor Sedel's son, that Soren.

His options now are not many, only two.

First, stay and continue dealing with the situation here, and pray that Old Fox and all related people and evidence won't have issues; as long as one link breaks, the whole circle collapses.

The second choice, immediately abandon everything here and return to the Federation, personally lobby with the Tax Bureau people, find ways to fill the gaps and deficiencies, and finally get through this big trouble.

"Thank you for informing me in time; I'll handle it cautiously..."

After hanging up the call, Lynch rubbed his fists, sat for a while, then couldn't help but stand up, walked over to the window, and lit a cigarette.

Invisible and formless smoke slowly rose, much like human thoughts, elusive and without pattern.

After a good while, he had made a decision, he was going back to the Federation.

Some things need to be thoroughly resolved, once and for all, while also teaching some people a lesson, letting them understand one truth: Some people are hard to deal with and quite crazy.

When Lynch started packing, sold a ticket, and waited to return to the Federation, Governor Sedel was also on a call with Soren.

"...Lynch has already bought a ticket and is ready to leave; you did well over there." Governor Sedel had a bit of a smile on his face.

Lynch indeed is a very troublesome guy, bold and also knows how to leverage his advantages. If you don't get rid of him, many things will be filled with variables.

But now he doesn't have these concerns anymore, and at the same time, this also equates to teaching all foreign businessmen in Amelia a lesson.

No matter how capable they are, no matter what background they have, as long as they are on this land, they must follow the governor's rules, and there's no exception!

This warning effect will last a long time until people voluntarily comply with all the rules here.

"Federation people only see interests; as long as enough money is given, they don't care who they sell things to!"

"No faith, no awe, people on the roadside seem soul-lost; this is the Federation in my eyes!"

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