America: Starting with Daily Intelligence

"What's going on? What exactly is this situation?" Martini, a shareholder of Lightning Petroleum Company, was tied up by Beggar Gang Disciples and pinned to the ground, completely bewildered, shouting loudly, "Is there some kind of misunderstanding? We are on the same side!"

"Who's on your side? Be quiet and behave!" A Beggar Gang Disciple backhanded him across the face, and Martini immediately became much more docile with a clear-eyed look.

"Misunderstanding? There's no misunderstanding here. Weren't you the one who hired people to kidnap me, attempting a hostile takeover of my Estate Ranch?" Allen Zhang stepped out of the car and approached the other party, saying with a superficial smile, "I'm right here in front of you now, so go ahead and tell me what you want to do to me."

Martini looked at Allen Zhang, his face changing slightly. He wasn't an idiot; he quickly realized that his own people had messed everything up.

"Did you turn my men against me? Or did you get rid of them? You actually have a private armed force."

Upon glancing at the fully armed Beggar Gang Disciples, each carrying an AR or M4 rifle, he panicked, regretting what he'd done, and couldn't help but curse, "Damn useless private detectives, taking money and still screwing up, we put too much trust in these people's capabilities! And those hitmen! Useless as well!"

"Is the entire board of directors at Lightning Petroleum Company made up of idiots? To handle this matter, investigate me, kidnap and extort me, and you only offer them Thirty Thousand Dollars? And another Fifty Thousand Dollars? You think you can close a deal worth hundreds of millions with that kind of money? Who gave you the audacity?" Allen Zhang interrogated.

You get what you pay for. You only gave them a few tens of thousands of dollars; the fact that they didn't take the money and run without doing the job is already very generous of them.

Besides, their opponent is the cheat-code-like General Sect Leader.

"What? I clearly took out a budget of Half a Million Dollars for my subordinates to hire help. How could it be less than One Hundred Thousand Dollars?" Martini was also flabbergasted.

"Do I need to spell it out? Obviously, your subordinates took kickbacks." Allen Zhang sneered, "So you're saying you never actively paid attention to or contacted the hired hands yourself?"

"Of course not, look at my status, their place, am I supposed to do such things myself?" Martini's face turned red as he couldn't help saying, "Fine, I've taken a fall. Let's talk business. How much money do you need to let me go?"

"Do I look like someone who's short on cash to you? Like I'm begging for money? You think throwing money at the problem can make it all go away?"

Allen Zhang sneered at his unrepentant attitude; even pinned to the ground, Martini still acted all high and mighty, accustomed to a life of luxury, undoubtedly deserving of a beating!

He rolled up his sleeves and gave him a couple of slaps, leaving Martini entirely bewildered, bleeding from the nose, and unable to help but wail, "Why are you so barbaric! Shouldn't we be more civilized? I'm wealthy! I can pay you for my life!"

"Too late, my friend, your money isn't almighty. How much money can you have anyway?"

"Lightning Petroleum is a company worth tens of billions of dollars; every board member is a billionaire; money isn't an issue for us. Just let me go, and I can certainly give you tens of millions of dollars!" Martini hurriedly proposed.

Allen Zhang gave a cold smile, "I am sure there will be plenty of people interested in your company. They don't need my involvement. Keep your money for the politicians to fill their pockets with, why don't you."

He immediately called over the Beggar Gang Disciples to take the man up to the camp on Qiliye Mountain. The bunch tried to shout and scream, only to be gagged straightaway.

"What about this car?" Zorro pointed to the unremarkable private car they had driven here, just a regular BMW 3 series, from which he had also retrieved two cell phones.

"Find a way to dispose of it." Allen Zhang took the phones and connected to the Terminator 2.0 system, cracked the passwords, and glanced at the contacts. All members of the Lightning Board, along with marked contact details of high-end call girls, models, and female stars.

He browsed through the other phone, finding not much other than a dozen encrypted short videos in the storage directory. He tried to decrypt them, and upon opening, discovered quite the scandalous collection of self-recorded clips.

Allen Zhang marveled internally, though wasn't particularly surprised. He copied these videos and sent them to Blitz.

Allen Zhang: Anonymously send this stuff to the media and the relevant departments, let them handle it. Lightning Petroleum Company must have angered quite a few people regularly, right? Send the videos to them too, one for each person, let them accuse the company, attack and acquire their assets - this is a rare opportunity that I'm sure they'll be interested in.

Blitz: Regardless, Lightning Petroleum Company has a market value of tens of billions of dollars, their stronghold is in Texas with the board having ties to many local politicians. They are wealthy with considerable influence; patchy videos won't take them down. They can simply throw money at the problem, at most losing some cash.

Allen Zhang: I'll arrange for a retaliation against them. If those board members turn into idiots, I don't believe those politicians will keep protecting them. Everyone on this list is in touch with them and involved in interest conveyance; you should dig up their dirt so they stay in line. We're only interested in members of the Lightning Board, not the rest.