Night Visit to Odaiba Wild Port

Ports were different from prisons.

A prison was merely a stronghold, with a relatively simple economic backdrop. A bunch of people fought back and forth; whoever took it, took it. Even if other forces pushed back, it would not be too fierce.

What could occupying a prison do besides provide somewhere to eat and sleep? Could they turn it into a military base? That was the judgment based on common sense. Of course, if the outcome deviated, it was because extraordinary powers had intervened.

But the interests tied to a port were far too great. After all, who did not know how important ports were?

Present-day Japan could be said to be living entirely off its ports. It was precisely because Tokyo, Japan could openly conduct so many illegal trades and brazenly become the greatest city of crime in the world that it could maintain such a fragile, distorted prosperity.

But all those illegal products had to be shipped out, sent into vast markets, before they possessed any value.

The forces behind Tokyo's deepwater ports were tangled and intricate, with extremely deep roots. Even with Shi Tiexin's current position, he only knew the broad outline. How many hidden twists lay beneath, he could not see clearly.

To monopolize the ports was equivalent to monopolizing the sales channels for nearly all legal and illegal manufacturing industries in Tokyo. That was de facto ruling power. Accomplishing it was as hard as ascending to heaven.

Not to mention the current underworld gangs—even the former, legitimate government of Japan had been unable to standardize the interfaces of the nation's power supply system.

The major electric companies had each gone their own way. They could not even sort out the interfaces for power-supply vehicles, resulting in the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant under the Tokyo Electric