America: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 264 Upgrade

The next morning.

Zhang Ailun woke up in the luxurious villa's large bed, stretched, felt sore all over, and gasped. God knows what he had been through yesterday.

I absolutely cannot be this indulgent again!!

I got up and stretched to relieve my fatigue, then went to the bathroom to wash up. I took out my phone and saw that the foundation's project had received two more payments.

Huasen Petroleum and Merlin Petroleum have already paid the remaining balance.

+4.7 million US dollars.

Looking at the daily news, I found that, unsurprisingly, the weighting has been upgraded.

After all, the Grand Master's influence and wealth are now vastly different from what they used to be.

[Your private armed forces, wealth, and influence are growing rapidly, increasing your intelligence weight. Current intelligence weight level: B. You can receive a maximum of three + 3 random daily life or business-related intelligence reports per day. This includes military resource recycling, commercial activities, personal privacy, official business, and gang transactions.]

[Daily News: The Whale Auction will be held at 10:30 AM. Parker Recycling Company will be auctioned in serial number 17, but no one is interested. Serial number 24 is a horn coin, which collector Madison has been collecting. You might be able to use it to make connections with him.]

[Daily Intelligence: Your trusted lieutenant Zorro has invited a skilled retired assassin to join him. They are expected to help you resolve your troubles and problems within 36 hours. The entire board of directors and their list of fifteen people are likely to be wiped out. You will need to pay them $30, or you can choose to increase the compensation to recruit them.]

[Daily News: The Rolls-Royce Cullinan at Old Pick's Auto Repair Shop has been fully restored. You can choose to sell it or keep it yourself.]

[Daily Intelligence: Your partner Mark's Mike's Scrap Metal Recycling Station is in trouble. His boss, Mike, has been charged by the police for unauthorized vehicle modifications and theft, and faces criminal charges, jail time, and a hefty bail. He is now preparing to raise funds to flee. You might consider investing in or acquiring Mike's Scrap Metal Recycling Station and the suburban custom car dealership.]

Mark's boss?

It's only been a short time, how come all my old friends have either gone out of business, gone bankrupt, or run away with their buckets?

Isn't this another perfect opportunity to buy at the bottom, my good brother?

[Daily News: Your best friend, actress Amanda, is inviting you to her girlfriends' private party tonight. There's exciting entertainment, and she's also invited her good friend from film set, Kat Dennings. Details: Kat Dennings lost her phone while traveling and is going crazy over her nude photos being leaked. You might be able to help her.]

Who? Kat Dennings? Max, the lead actress in "2 Broke Girls"?

Zhang Ailun still remembered her somewhat. After all, she had F-cup breasts, a true weapon of mass destruction.

A quick search of recent trending topics revealed that the other party's private photos had been leaked, and related topics have now been taken down. Moreover, this doesn't seem to be the first time such an incident has occurred.

Many perverts left comments on the topic, discussing how a thief once stole her phone and exposed her nude photos and F-cup breasts, which led to her being noticed by behind-the-scenes investors and receiving numerous offers for films. She even participated in the production of a Marvel movie. Now that everything has been exposed, will there be even more explosive content next time?

Some have accused her of using this as a marketing tactic, claiming that she hasn't been able to get any popular movies to film in the two years since her marriage, and that she's already in her thirties with no suitable roles and an unhappy married life, so she's considering a career change.

Maybe she's eyeing some rich tycoon and is using him as bait; after all, this kind of thing isn't uncommon in Hollywood.

Zhang Ailun couldn't help but sigh, "Being a female celebrity these days is really tough."

Without financial backing, it won't become popular even if it involves selling sex appeal or skirting the edges of societal norms.

[Daily Intelligence: Old George's pawnshop gang member, Coulson, is planning to set a trap for a wealthy man from Central Africa at a Las Vegas cruise ship casino. He intends to acquire his villa and collection at a low price, including a pocket watch belonging to the richest man among the Titanic victims, an antique from the ancient Elamite kingdom of Gheno, West Asia. Your help is needed; it is estimated that you will receive approximately $1000 million in bonuses afterward.]

[Details: The pocket watch is a master-crafted replica; the luxury villa is rented; the Central African tycoon is a fraud ring with imposters, wanted internationally; the cruise ship casino manager is in cahoots with them; yet you can still receive at least $500 million in cruise ship casino revenue. If you can arrest the imposters and hand them over to the real tycoon, you might gain the Central African tycoon's approval and favor.]

Zhang Ailun: ? ? ?

A complex game within a complex game of antiques?

I searched for the Gno lioness antique from Elam, an ancient kingdom in West Asia, and found that it was supposedly made during the Mesopotamian civilization, between 3000 and 2800 BC, a time when humans had just begun to invent the wheel.

The Genoese Lioness is a very small and extremely rare white limestone sculpture of a lioness standing upright with her two front paws clasped to her muscular chest and her head turned to the left. It was sold at a Sotheby's auction in New York in 2007 for $5720 million, equivalent to approximately 4 million RMB.

Holy crap, if this thing is real, Coulson, that pervert, is really going to make a fortune.

Unfortunately, it's a fake; even the wealthy person involved was involved in fraud.

If you walk by the river often enough, you're bound to get your shoes wet.

Zhang Ailun didn't intend to warn Coulson, since he was the one who set up the scheme first, but he accidentally fell into their trap. Even if he warned them, they probably wouldn't believe him. Fortunately, George probably wasn't involved.

After getting dressed, I woke up Jennifer and the others who were still sleeping and told them to get up and eat. When I went downstairs, I saw Sieg running and exercising outside.

Dominic had already gotten up and was cooking in the kitchen. Zhang Ailun could already smell the aroma of roasted bread and bacon.

"Sig, you're up really early today," Zhang Ailun greeted Sig with a smile.

"Boss, when have I not gotten up early?" Sig immediately retorted.

"I hope you can maintain this level of performance every day," Zhang Ailun praised.

The leader of the sect was not doing well. He had been repeatedly drained of his yang energy by several female demons, leaving him somewhat weak. He took the opportunity to go next door and make himself a cup of kudzu root and honey water to replenish his energy and relieve some of his fatigue.

"Breakfast is ready, you can eat now." Dominic announced to the group, carrying a tray of food as he prepared breakfast.

Olivia came downstairs too. She straightened her clothes, put on her shoes, grabbed a slice of bread from the table, and pecked Zhang Ailun on the cheek. "Honey, I'm off to work! See you later."

"Don't you need me to take you?" Zhang Ailun asked.

"I have my own car." Olivia waved her hand, picked up her bag, and quickly left.

"Okay. Be careful on the road."

Zhang Ailun sat back down at the dining table in the living room, waiting for Dominic to bring the bread and fried eggs to the table. Jennifer and Erin enjoyed their breakfast with refreshed expressions, chatting and laughing with Jesse.

After a glass of milk and a few bites of breakfast, the leader was basically full. Once Jennifer and the other woman had finished their breakfast, he got up, went to the garage, drove his Wrangler, picked them up, and took them to work at Armed Nation.

"See you tonight, darling!" Upon arriving at the Armed Nation store, the two beautiful women, one tall and one short, kissed on the cheek and waved goodbye. "See you tonight." Zhang Ailun watched them enter the Thunderbolt Armed Nation, feeling gratified, and then drove away from the street.

Passing through a traffic light intersection, seeing the information about Mike's recycling station in the intelligence report, I drove to the street to take a look. Sure enough, I saw that the recycling station in the city was not open. I immediately took out my phone to contact Mark.

The other party answered the phone quickly.

"Hello? Mr. Jin, so early? Is there something you need?"

"I passed by Mike's Recycling Station in the city and saw a 'For Sale' sign posted outside. It wasn't open for business. What's going on? Is your boss running away because of some trouble?" Zhang Ailun asked.

"You noticed this? Yes, our boss has indeed run into some trouble. One of our distributors was arrested by the police. In order to avoid going to jail, he betrayed the recycling station and modification shop that he had worked with. The police charged them with vehicle theft and illegal modification. Now several modification shops in the suburbs have closed down, and even that fat guy across the street has been laid off and run away."

Mark said helplessly, "Our boss was also notified by the police last night, who charged him with these crimes. However, considering his good attitude in admitting his guilt and the fact that he wasn't involved in much business, they treated him leniently and didn't arrest him immediately. They just notified him to go and pay bail, otherwise he would face criminal prosecution and have to go to jail."

"But this bail requires at least several hundred thousand dollars, which our boss simply doesn't have. If he pays the bail, he'll lose all the wealth he's worked so hard to accumulate in his life, and he can't bear to part with it. Now, to avoid criminal charges, our boss is preparing to flee by boat. Last night, he sold his apartment in the city and his luxury car, converting them into cash. He also found a loan company on the street to take out a debt. Now, all that's left is the recycling center in the city and the modification shop in the suburbs waiting to be dealt with," Mark said.

"You're telling me all this, aren't you afraid I'll report your boss for running away? If the police find out, they'll definitely be out hunting him down immediately," Zhang Ailun said in surprise.

What's wrong with the owners of these recycling stations? They're all cut from the same cloth. When trouble comes, they just want to run away and then try to get free loans.

The last time, the owner of the Hornets did the same thing: he found a loan company, made a quick buck, and then ran away.

"What does this have to do with me? I'm just an employee. He hasn't given me a raise in all these years, and even old Mr. Fury thinks so." Mark complained without any qualms. "If he hadn't settled my wages, I swear I would have reported him immediately."

Old Fu Rui was the old man who ran the car dealership in the suburbs. He was also there when the leader went to the modification shop to buy a hiking campervan and drove off in his glider the first two times; he was a long-time employee.

An elder in the family is a treasure. The Grand Master especially likes these experienced, physically strong, and low-paid "old babies."

Old Jack is out of the question; he's a ruthless bandit who demands exorbitant sums of money! He also loves to argue with the leader.

But it is indeed easy to use.

"Your boss is really unlucky to have two employees like you. But you've worked for him for so many years and he hasn't given you a raise, which shows that you're not that important to him. He's a complete miser! Not a wise ruler at all."

Zhang Ailun joked, "So, how about it? Interested in working for me? I can take over your boss's assets, and everything else will remain the same. You can continue doing your jobs, and I won't interfere with you. It's just a change of boss."

"You're interested? Then I can go and inform my boss right now. Wait for me a moment." Mark hung up the phone and ran off to inform his boss.

After waiting for two minutes, the other party called Zhang Ailun again. After answering the phone, Mark said, "Our boss agreed to meet with you. Just come to the car graveyard in the suburbs. He's hiding there right now, avoiding trouble."

"Okay, I'll go right away."

Zhang Ailun hung up the phone, stepped on the gas, and drove to the car graveyard modification shop in the suburbs.

It took several tens of minutes to reach the car graveyard. I drove onto a side road and parked on the side of the road. I sent a message to Mark and waited a while. I saw him walking over with his two bulldogs. He waved and greeted me listlessly, still looking unkempt, with a stubble beard and a disheveled,颓废 (颓废 is a difficult word to translate directly, but it implies a state of being listless, dispirited, and颓废) appearance.

"Dude, can't you at least tidy yourself up? You look like you're on drugs all the time," Zhang Ailun complained as he got out of the car.

Mark waved his hand dismissively, "Life is full of disappointments, and I'm not looking for a girlfriend anyway. I'm going to dedicate my life to modifying cars."

Zhang Ailun then looked at the two bulldogs, who remembered him and wagged their tails as they came over.

He chuckled. "Are you selling these two dogs?"

"I'm not a dog, how would I know if they want to be with you?"

Mark said, "But it seems they like you quite a bit. You bought the repair shop and the customization shop, so of course they're yours too."

"Okay. Take me to your boss." Zhang Ailun patted the dog's head, got up, and beckoned Mark to meet the person.

Mark led the way with the dog to a makeshift shelter deep inside the car graveyard. Hearing the barking outside, old Fury gave a warning, and a thin, stubble-faced middle-aged man emerged from the makeshift shelter.

Upon seeing Zhang Ailun, he greeted him warmly and shook hands. "Hello, Mr. Jin, you're the one who wants to buy my assets, right? I've already heard about it from Mark, and I've been following you closely. You have a lot of prestige on the streets of District 5, and I think you're a remarkable person."

Seeing his shabby living conditions, Zhang Ailun couldn't help but gasp, "Dude, how did you end up in such a miserable state?"

"There's nothing I can do. I haven't answered the police's calls for over six hours. They require me to answer every two hours to report on the situation, but I've been busy selling assets during this time and haven't had time to talk to them. They've probably already come looking for me. They're probably sending people all over the streets to search for me right now, so I can only hide in the garbage dump."

Mike, the boss, gave a bitter smile: "Can you imagine? The day before yesterday, and even yesterday morning, I was a wealthy man with hundreds of thousands in savings, a happy family and career. Now, I'm not only burdened with huge bail debts and wanted by the police, but I also have to sell my assets and run away."

"This is my wife and daughter. Hey, Ida, say hello to Mr. Kim!" Mike called out as he turned around, and a woman carrying a child came out of the shed.

With blonde hair and blue eyes, she still retained her charm, but you could also see that she looked a little confused. Her hair was messy and she hadn't washed her face, but despite this, she still greeted Zhang Ailun with a very enthusiastic attitude.

Seeing his family of three in this predicament, Zhang Ailun could no longer laugh.

It's true that you never know which will come first, tomorrow or a cruel accident.

"Hello there, little cutie." Zhang Ailun greeted the little girl, then magically produced a lollipop. "What flavor do you like?"

"I'm sorry, sir, my daughter is still losing her baby teeth and can't eat anything too sweet," Ida, Mike's wife, said apologetically.

"It's okay." Zhang Ailun smiled.

(End of this chapter)