Legal Identity

The plane landed at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas. Sitting in a taxi, Jiang Hao breathed in the dry Nevada wind and watched the desert dunes, scrub grass, and cacti outside, suddenly reminded of the Red Dead Redemption world.

In fact, present-day Las Vegas had something of the modern American Wild West about it. During America's Great Depression in the 1940s, Nevada's economy had been on the verge of collapse, so it made a major decision: legalizing gambling and the sex industry.

From then on, Las Vegas entered a period of unchecked growth. Don't think the government could control everything with laws and regulations. That was merely an ideal—even God couldn't accomplish it. Nearly every industry in Las Vegas was now controlled by gangs, and behind those gangs stood the major financial conglomerates.

Du Yuesheng once said that, in the eyes of important people, the underworld was a chamber pot: indispensable when needed, then kicked beneath the bed after use.

By the late 1970s, the gangs of Las Vegas had largely been squeezed out by capital. From then on, money ruled everything here. Still, Jiang Hao believed the gangs had not disappeared; they had merely moved from the open into the shadows.

Of course, this was still gang territory for now.

As the car entered downtown Las Vegas, Jiang Hao looked over the buildings on both sides: casinos, hotels, nightclubs, entertainment centers, brothels, theaters, restaurants, dance halls, and shops.

This place was called the "City of Sin," and Jiang Hao could already smell freedom in the air.

It was afternoon, still early. This city had its own particular schedule: mornings were for rest, and it only woke in the afternoon, opening its sleepy eyes. Only at night did the city truly come alive.

Jiang Hao checked into a luxury hotel.