Retaliation Arrives

The next morning, Carlos woke from a genuinely luxurious bed. Dressed in black pajamas, he rubbed his temples as he walked out of the room.

They had celebrated until late last night, and countless people had drunk themselves unconscious. The effects of the alcohol still lingered in him as well.

"My lord, please have some tea." Outside the door, a young maid in a maid's uniform lowered her head nervously and uneasily, offering him a cup of hot tea specially made to dispel drunkenness.

Carlos casually took it and drank as he walked. After breakfast, he heard that Noah had arrived, changed clothes, and went down to the spacious living room on the first floor.

"Boss, please take a look."

Carlos accepted what Noah handed him. It contained records of the Mike Family's current forces, assets, and businesses in every field.

After roughly looking through it, Carlos gained a general understanding of the Mike Family—and the forces now under his control.

After two internal conflicts, the Mike Family's original force of more than 2,500 members had sharply fallen to just over 1,600. Their strength had weakened considerably, and they were close to falling out of the ranks of medium-sized Mafia families.

But no matter what, the forces under his command had greatly increased, from a mere two hundred men to sixteen hundred. The growth in wealth was even more terrifying; even calling it getting rich overnight would not do it justice!

Carlos had not had much in savings before, only a little over 500,000 Berries. But now, counting liquid funds, real estate, and all other assets, he possessed roughly two billion Berries.

This was what the Mike Family had accumulated over more than twenty years. The Mike Family was involved in quite a few businesses, but most were small-time operations. Their main income came from three industries: acting as intermediary arms dealers, iron ore mining and sales, and protection fees from the entire East City area.

Of those three main industries, iron ore mining and sales and intermediary arms dealing brought in the most money. Protection fees from all of East City actually brought in the least. The first two industries were enormously profitable.

However, their income would likely shrink sharply for a while, especially their intermediary arms business. That business depended on the John Family, and its main supply channel was already gone. Their arms volume would be greatly reduced, and their income would naturally plummet.

Carlos had taken over the Mike Family's position without the John Family's permission. To protect their status and authority, the John Family would not let him off easily.

Unless the John Family eventually discovered that dealing with him was not worth the cost, and he could offer them greater benefits.

Put plainly, his crisis had not yet been resolved. If he wanted to firmly establish himself as Iron Island's big shot, he had to deal with the John Family!

And Carlos had no intention of keeping a low profile any longer. He had already stepped into the spotlight, so it was time to be moderately high-profile.

"Noah, pass down the order. Suspend the arms business for now. Keep all the stockpile for our own use, equip every official Mafia member with firearms, and improve the equipment issued to combat personnel."

"Yes, Boss."

"Don't appoint a leader for now. You'll serve as a leader first."

"The John Family won't let this go. Tell the brothers to be careful and not wander around if they have no business outside."

"Although they'll most likely be targeting me, they may still come after you."

"From this moment onward, keep close watch on strangers who come to Iron Island, especially those heading for East City."

"Yes, Boss!"

"You can go."

After Noah left, Carlos sat on the soft sofa, slowly savoring red wine as he considered how the John Family would deal with him...

Putting himself in their shoes, the most direct method would naturally be to kill him and support a puppet in his place. That way, the John Family's interests on Iron Island would not only remain unharmed, but actually increase!

They would definitely take further measures as well, such as cutting off arms supplies. That would weaken his forces, and weapons would never lack buyers.

However, they probably would not touch their other cooperative businesses for the time being unless they discovered they could do nothing to him. In their eyes, a small fry like him should be easy to eliminate in a short time.

Their last resort would be to send a large number of Mafia Members to attack him. That would be a desperate move.

Should he fight them to the bitter end, or wait for the right opportunity to give in a little, build them a staircase out of Berries, and play along with them?

Forget it. Man proposed, Heaven disposed. There was no use thinking too much. He would deal with soldiers as they came and stop water with earth; he would decide according to the circumstances when the time came.

Now that Carlos had become Iron Island's new Mafia Boss, there was no reason for the Lord's Mansion not to deal with him. The Marine branch, however, disdained dealing with Carlos. With Marine Headquarters and the World Government backing them, they looked down on forces like the Mafia.

In the Marines' eyes, all the Mafia in the West Sea combined might be worth a glance. A Mafia organization on a single island was beneath the interest of even an ordinary Marine branch, so long as it did not provoke them.

Although Iron Island's other two major powers had no interest, some of the island's other forces were interested. Whether or not Carlos could survive the John Family's retaliation, they considered such a young Boss remarkably impressive.

As a result, Carlos had attended some social engagements recently. Besides those engagements, he also needed to go out and inspect the various Mafia bases in East City.

Mafia Members could not really be called a ragtag bunch. After all, the Mafia was not made up of street punks. They had power, influence, money, and excellent equipment. But their combat strength truly could not compare to that of regular troops.

Forget comparing them to the Marines—even compared to the guards of various kingdoms, they still fell short. If they had to be ranked, they were at the bottom among organized forces of any scale.

At least, Carlos's own underlings were like that. The underlings of the five great Mafia families should be somewhat better.

There were many reasons for this, but Carlos did not intend to reorganize them for now. He would wait until he had dealt with the John Family; only then would he have time to do so.

He did not expect his underlings' combat strength to improve too drastically, but they could not be weaker than the guards of an ordinary kingdom. He would strive to bring them up to the level of ordinary Marine troops.

As for the elite units of Marine Headquarters and the Pirates forces of the New World, forget it. Their foundation was insufficient for now. No matter how harshly they trained, they could not reach that level. Those troops had been tempered through blood and fire, while Mafia battles were still just minor scuffles by comparison.

On the night of Carlos's third day as the new Boss, he prepared to return to his residence after attending a social engagement.

Carlos did not particularly enjoy such events. He simply had little experience with them and still felt curious.

Three understated yet luxurious cars drove out of East City with bright headlights on, entering a fairly short road leading to the mansion atop the mountain. Suddenly, the convoy stopped. Under the headlights, they could clearly see thick tree trunks and massive rocks strewn across the road.

At that moment, five figures emerged from each side of the road, wielding various cold weapons as they charged at the convoy. All ten were nimble and swift, like monkeys.

Twelve car doors flew open. More than a dozen elite Mafia combatants drew their guns, while two held rocket launchers. They opened fire at once. Gunshots and explosions rang out in an instant, and muzzle flashes stood out sharply in the night...

"Finish this quickly!"

Someone among the ten spoke, and their speed increased again. In the darkness, the Mafia combatants could not lock onto them at all.

This made everyone increasingly anxious. Their opponents were clearly skilled in close combat. If they got close, then...