Chapter 358: Chapter 275: Darkness Beneath the Lamp

Coincidentally, Wang Ye also wanted to see what the local police looked like.

So he followed Li Weimin to the hotel lobby.

At this time, the officer invited by Li Weimin was already sitting on the sofa.

This officer looked somewhat overweight, seeming to be in his thirties or forties.

The stubble on his face seemed to have gone two or three days without shaving, forming a thick, coarse beard that made him look quite unkempt.

Li Weimin pointed to the officer and said:

"Wang Ye, come and say hello. This is Daniel."

"Hello."

Wang Ye stepped forward and shook hands with the officer named Daniel.

Daniel appeared relaxed. After a brief handshake, he sat back on the sofa, lit a cigarette with a traditional kerosene lighter, took a deep drag, and exhaled a dense cloud of acrid smoke to his left.

Although he did not exhale smoke directly towards Wang Ye, to Wang Ye’s hypersensitive sense of smell, the burning tobacco smell lingering in the air was no different from a cesspool.

Wang Ye frowned and also sat on the chair directly opposite Daniel.

He remembered there was a world champion arm wrestler from Kazakhstan also named Daniel. But the guy in front of him was clearly different from that world champion arm wrestler.

"You must be the renowned sports star everyone’s talking about recently?" Daniel first scrutinized Wang Ye with his eyes. "Nice muscles, no wonder you’ve won so many championships and set world records."

"Thanks for the compliment, but can we talk about the gang issues?" Wang Ye said.

Daniel pursed his lips, his expression somewhat displeased, and after a moment said, "Of course, I came here to handle this matter. But I must warn you, the gangs have been in more chaos than usual lately."

"What do you mean?" Wang Ye feigned confusion.

Daniel chuckled, "Exactly what I said, it’s been very chaotic here recently. You’ve picked quite the time to arrive."

"Can you tell me more about it?" Wang Ye continued to inquire.

"This was meant to be internal information; our police department is investigating secretly, and in principle, it shouldn’t be disclosed to the public. But since you’re a friend of Old Li, I can give you a small hint." He took another puff of his cigarette, exhaled the smoke slowly, and said gravely:

"According to our investigation, a powerful figure has recently emerged in northern Utah, leading an obscure little gang that has quickly swallowed other gangs, causing numerous deaths and injuries. No one knows what methods he’s using, but he’s very dangerous. Our police department is currently mobilizing all personnel to track this guy down, trying to capture him before he fully establishes himself."

"Sounds really dangerous. Are you confident you can catch this guy?" Wang Ye inquired, feigning curiosity.

Of course, he knew the "guy" Daniel was talking about was himself, after all, the only active gang in Utah recently was the Sloos Gang, which he led.

By now, almost the entire underworld in northern Utah had been turned upside down by him.

So the dangerous person Daniel was referring to could only be himself.

Daniel put out his cigarette butt, pondered for a while, and said, "In my over ten years as a police officer, my instinct tells me that guy will definitely be a very tricky criminal; otherwise, we wouldn’t have found not a single trace of him after several days of investigation."

"Seems really tricky." Wang Ye nodded in agreement.

Daniel added, "Oh, by the way, that guy seems to be named Rein. This name we got from a small-time thug we recently arrested. But we suspect it might just be an alias, because practically no one uses Rein as a name nowadays."

"Rein..." Wang Ye lowered his head, his eyes narrowing slightly.

He had been focusing on his own matters these days and hadn’t expected his name to spread so quickly. It had only been three days, yet the local police department had already learned of it.

Although he had annexed a lot of gangs, he had actually only interacted with those gang leaders. Only a mere few dozen people had actually seen him or heard his alias.

So the probability that one of his subordinates leaked his alias was quite high.

And it was very likely a member from one of the gangs he had subdued over the past three days.

Since he subdued their gang, they harbored resentment and acted as spies.

"Looks like I need to conduct a thorough investigation when I get back..." Wang Ye shook his head internally.

Indeed, those not subjected to mind control are not very reliable.

The Terry he had mind-controlled would never betray him like this.

But given Wang Ye’s current level of evolution, he could not control hundreds of people at once.

Controlling just a dozen people would completely drain his stamina and energy.

Leaving him feeling lethargic for several days.

Having only mind-controlled a dozen gang leaders, Wang Ye already sensed a slight decline in his physical functions. To not hinder his evolution, he had to minimize his use of mind control and apply it strategically where it mattered the most.

But by doing so, he couldn’t completely control all his faction members. If he failed to promptly implement a strict and sophisticated system to manage his faction, chaos would inevitably ensue once the faction grew beyond a certain scale, leading to internal conflicts and even fragmentation.

At this point, Daniel seemed to sense Wang Ye’s low mood and suddenly patted him on the shoulder, "Hey, don’t worry. Since the police department sent me here, we’ll definitely protect you."

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com