"And I've been told that in advance, I have to pay interest to Boss George for my salary, so now I have to work an extra four hours every day just to offset the interest from the boss."

Booker, upon hearing this, looked at Little Wood with a trace of pity in his eyes and threw him on the ground.

"Fool, the Black Light Clinic is run by George's son.

That idiot dropped out of college in less than a year due to not studying properly, and later, with George's help, he opened a Black Light Clinic.

The so-called prepayment of your treatment fee is nothing more than transferring money from one hand to the other.

If nothing unexpected happens, your sister's condition hasn't improved, has it?"

Little Wood nodded.

"Then the reason is simple: George's son can't heal at all, so George just found a reason to withhold your salary for two months and make you work overtime for free."

Little Wood had a blank expression, full of disbelief.

Seeing this, Booker patted Little Wood's face and said: "Alright, I've told you the truth so you can understand your plight, but not a penny of the protection fee can be missed.

I don't care whether you ask Old George for your salary back or sell your sick sister off, you must make up for these two months of protection fees."

"Recently, fewer people are paying protection fees. If you can't make it up, I'll use you as an example."

The surrounding workers looked at Little Wood, who was sitting paralyzed on the ground, with a trace of pity in their eyes.

As fellow workers, they knew very well that Little Wood had no chance of getting his salary back.

And even if he wanted to sell his seriously ill sister to the streets, no boss would buy her. Who knows if she carries some infectious disease?

Little Wood's final fate would only serve as a tool for the gang to assert its authority.

The gang in the industrial district has been around for a long time; they don't have the power to extort the well-protected big capitalists, so they only prey on the workers.

The workers' wages barely cover living expenses, and once they pay the protection fees, they can only grit their teeth and go hungry for a few days.

But fortunately, these gangs are selective in their targets; they don't choose workers from large factories who work in groups, and if a worker has siblings, they won't drive them to desperation.

But Little Wood, who only has a sick sister, will be seen as an object for long-term exploitation. Even if he dies one day, no one would bribe the police to investigate.

The crowd around him grew larger and larger. Amidst the mass of people, Little Wood trembled all over, his hands and feet icy cold, his heart growing more desperate as time passed.

"I… I was raised by my sister since I was little, I just wanted to use my salary to treat her illness, why did it turn out like this?"

Little Wood questioned the surrounding crowd, but no one responded to him.

Behind him, Booker already pulled out a folding knife that glistened with cold light.

But just at that moment, the crowd parted to create a path, and a gentleman in formal attire walked over slowly.

He held a silver staff, his demeanor elegant and extraordinary, starkly at odds with the hazy, gray environment and the plainly-dressed workers surrounding him.

The visitor was none other than Lu Yan.

Booker looked Lu Yan up and down, his eyes filled with a trace of fear.

But after confirming that Lu Yan had no noble insignia on him, the fear in Booker's eyes faded slightly, and he respectfully addressed Lu Yan:

"Oh esteemed sir, you…"

Before Booker could finish his words, Lu Yan flicked a gleaming gold coin from his hand.

"The protection fee, I'll pay it for him."

Booker's face instantly showed surprise as he grabbed the gold coin.

Looking at the gleaming eagle relief on it, Booker smiled widely and kicked Little Wood, who was still paralyzed on the ground.

"Fool, you should be grateful that you've encountered a generous gentleman."

Little Wood's face showed a blank expression, seemingly shocked by the sudden twist of fate. After a while, he suddenly realized and thanked Lu Yan:

"Thank you, sir! Thank you, sir!"

Lu Yan ignored Little Wood's reaction and simply asked Booker:

"Are you with the Black Robe Gang? I'm looking for your boss; I want to make a deal with him."

Booker showed a bit of difficulty on his face, but as soon as Lu Yan flicked out another gold coin, he spoke again.

"I'm sure the boss would be eager to do business with a generous gentleman like yourself!"

Saying this, and pocketing the gold coin, Booker took the initiative to lead the way for Lu Yan, leaving behind the bewildered workers.

...

The leader of the Black Robe Gang, Sain, was one of the most legendary figures in the industrial district.

Five years ago, Sain single-handedly took down a gang of over a hundred people and then built the Black Robe Gang on his own, with over a thousand subordinates managing the protection fees of one-fifth of the industrial district.

Rumor had it that Sain possessed powers beyond a normal human, even the police were threefold in awe of the Black Robe Gang.

But today, in the reception hall of the Black Robe Gang's headquarters, Sain, known as a gang legend, had turned into a terrifying half-man, half-wolf monster.

However, this monster was kneeling on the ground at the moment, mouth wide open and expression blank as if his soul had been taken away.

In front of him, Lu Yan slowly retracted his right hand, sorting through the information from Sain's memories.

In the Victoria Kingdom, the Extraordinary does not stand out, with only the official and the True God Church retaining some traces. Lu Yan found out about Sain, a suspected Transcendent, after making numerous inquiries.

Lu Yan appeared in the worker district intending to find Sain through the Black Robe Gang to learn some mysterious version of Extraordinary information.

Lu Yan initially planned to use relatively gentle methods, but after stepping into the Black Robe Gang headquarters, he saw something unclean, prompting him to change his methods somewhat.

Combining Sain's memories, Lu Yan now had a rough understanding of the whole mysterious version.

The whole mysterious version is situated around the eighteenth century or so, a period coexisting with the Industrial Revolution and overseas colonization.

On the surface, the entire mysterious version is ruled by seven major countries, with numerous small to mid-sized countries being dependencies of the seven major countries, but in fact, the Seven Major Gods Church firmly controls the entire mysterious version.

The Seven Major Gods Church is the core of the state; the existence of the seven major countries is merely because there are only seven True God Churches.

In the past thousands of years, secular divine power far surpassed royal power; even a king's ascension required the Pope's approval.

But with the recent years of the True God behind the Church falling into slumber, the layout of the entire mysterious version has begun to change.

Although the Church still wields the most powerful force, it ultimately cannot maintain the absolute suppression present with the True God awake, causing the aristocracy in the Kingdom's upper echelons to waver in their thoughts.

Coupled with the Evil God Cults and Hidden Factions hidden in the shadows interfering, attempting to weaken the rule of the True God Churches.

They seized the opportunity as the Church's dominion wavered, actively developing technology, expanding overseas colonization, and embarked on the path of industrialization.

The booming development of industrialization and technology posed a threat to the Church's rule.

Secular power is constantly growing, and along with the changes in life brought about by industrial development, the faith of the populace began to waver.

The Extraordinary Power of this world is ultimately unseen by ordinary people; the legends within the scriptures and mythology, how can they compare to the changes in productivity brought about by technological development?

Under such circumstances, some True God Churches heavily impacted had to make changes, beginning to incorporate new divine functions and authorities into the scriptures, even altering the doctrines of the True God.

The Victoria Kingdom, as the starting point of the Industrial Revolution, saw its True God Church directly change the divine oracle, altering the honored name of the God of Creation they worshiped to the Steam God.

With the help of the Celestial Dao, the Steam Church instantly jumped to become the Church with the highest ranking among the Seven Gods Church.

Lu Yan slowly sat on the sofa in the reception hall, gently tapping the armrest with his right hand, falling into deep thought.

Sain is merely a Seventh Rank Werewolf of the Monster Pathway. Even though he knows some information regarding the Extraordinary and the Church, most of it is hearsay, and the level of understanding is extremely limited.

These pieces of information, in Sain's eyes, appear without any anomaly, but in Lu Yan's eyes, they are full of loopholes.

One of the key issues is that the Seven Great Gods, as This World's Only Ones, have long transcended the version, and don't need the so-called faith to sustain themselves.

In such a case, changes in faith brought about by the era's development, alteration of doctrines, and respectful modification appear somewhat ridiculous and laughable.

"Are these events behind due to the ignorant randomly speculating about the True God leading to this joke, or is it related to the mist shrouding the entire mysterious version?"

Lu Yan's eyes became ever deeper; within the small Underworld dimension, the stars rotated, and the future they depicted seemed to vaguely capture a hint of truth.

"This version is getting more interesting."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.