They all call me an Outer God.

"The Mafia?" Ria lowered her head thoughtfully after hearing the word.

"Judging from your expression, you don't even know what the Mafia is, do you?"

Claden showed a hint of pride when he mentioned the word; as he finally got to his area of ​​expertise, the man's tone became a bit arrogant.

"You should also know that we are called the clones of the Famine Knights, but we appeared before the famine awakened."

Approximately forty-five years ago, a wave of Mafia immigrants swept into Enderles, quickly establishing themselves as a dominant force in the city's underworld. They engaged in a series of clandestine transactions, including assassinations, prostitution, and drug trafficking. Then, superhuman black market dealers seized this rare opportunity.

Given their superhuman status, they could easily intervene in this market, controlling underground transactions through an unseen hand, thereby becoming the biggest beneficiaries.

As a result, the black market dealers outside the organization joined together to invest in this gray trade and established their own unique black market party organization.

In the beginning, its members would leave a black handprint as a perverse gesture when accepting a murder or other commission.

Over time, the extraordinary mafia organization in Enderus came to be known as the "Black Hand." In essence, these people controlled a significant portion of Enderus's economic network, and even members of the Order Association were unable to completely eradicate them.

Every instance of economic turmoil reveals the presence of illicit activities by black market merchants.

However, just as James had initially told Ria, black marketeers are a bunch of clever people, a bunch of cunning old foxes.

Never believe anything they say. The best way is to communicate with them by spending money and winning them over.

Upon hearing this, Ria probably realized that the manifestation of famine was different from the traditional concept of a manifestation. All the culprits that caused famine in the world could be considered manifestations of it, and among these people, the black market merchants stood out.

Even if we could truly reclaim the power over famine by curbing the greedy nature of black market merchants, greed is like their very lifeblood, and putting it into practice is far from easy.

"This knight is more troublesome than I thought, yet he doesn't seem to be a representative of black market memes."

These shady businessmen, after all that, turned out they were targeting their own hometown.

Lia sighed inwardly. He had seen official black market merchants before, and those people seemed quite normal, their greedy nature could still be restrained. But it was hard to say about the wild black market merchants. Without the protection of the plague doctor, every black market merchant was struggling in the mire of money, and probably none of them were easy to deal with.

"Take me to see them. I have something I want to say to the leader."

After saying this, Lia walked towards the restaurant door, but as soon as she stepped out, she suddenly realized something and turned to look at the wall next to her.

A pure black handprint appeared above, and next to the handprint was a wanted poster with a portrait of Ria on it.

[Wanted Person: Ria Kercha, dead or wounded]

Bounty: 900,000,000.00

[Unit: Gold Coins]

"Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands... hundreds of millions!?"

Claden was still staring at the string of zeros, counting them off, and the more he counted, the more shocked he became.

"Nine...nine billion gold coins?!"

He looked at the wanted poster and then at Ria, completely dumbfounded. What surprised him even more was that the wanted poster had been posted everywhere in the streets and alleys at some unknown time.

Using extraordinary means, all of this was not difficult to do. These wanted posters were of no consequence to Ria, but only represented the instigator's provocative intent. He seemed to be blatantly telling Ria that the Black Hand did not take him seriously.

We already know your identity; we have all your information, big and small. In the eyes of black market dealers, everyone is like a blank sheet of paper covered in writing. Identity and privacy? With money, nothing is unbuyable.

"Your...Your Excellency..."

Claden felt a chill run down his spine. It was fine for the Black Hand to provoke Ria, but he was still here. If this person had a bad temper, he could be suspected of being a mole and die without a burial place on the spot.

However, the young man beside him just stared at his wanted poster without saying a word. Just when Craden thought he was about to say something, Lia suddenly spoke.

"I never imagined I'd become so valuable."

"what?"

"Do you think they would give me nine hundred million if I removed the arrest warrant and turned myself in?"

"Please don't joke like that. This is not the time for jokes."

Claden felt like he was about to cry, but the person next to him suddenly clapped his hands, as if he had thought of a good idea.

He watched as Ria pulled a stack of white papers from the shadows and asked him, "What's your boss's name?"

Claden was dumbfounded. He didn't understand what Ria was trying to do, but he was a man of principle. The members of the Black Hand were like a family. From the moment they joined, they swore an oath to the flag that they would never betray their family.

The next second, the man's expression turned cold, and he leaned closer to Ria: "Our boss said..."

Lia silently pulled a wad of gold banknotes from her pocket.

"Family members will never abandon family members..."

Lia pulled out three stacks.

"I'm not that kind of person; I have my own principles—"

"Snapped!"

Several deep black tentacles pulled a suitcase half the height of a person out of the shadows, opened it, and the golden light inside almost blinded Claden.

Claden's face grew colder, as if he felt insulted and angry. His breathing quickened and his face flushed: "To hell with principles, our leader is Sofia Miller, sir."

“I can provide not only his name, but also which school and grade his daughter attends, and which brands his eighth wife has endorsed. Do you need any more information?”

Claden spoke through gritted teeth, but his gaze never left the things that shone with gold.

"Your intelligence is quite detailed. It seems you've made quite a few backstabbing decisions. As they say, a mafia member who doesn't want to be a parent isn't a good mafia member."

Ria admired Clarden's fine business sense, and just as the man was about to pounce on the gold, the tentacles snapped shut on the suitcases, slowly dragging them back into the unfathomable shadows.

"GOLD!!!"

Clarendon's eyes widened, while Ria smiled and said, "Those things are just for display; just look at them and enjoy the view."

"The information you just provided me can be used as payment for the exhibition fees. Isn't that a very fair deal?"

(End of this chapter)