Roughly thirty minutes later, Maverick Cohen called Albion back before informing him, “Your subordinate has finished compiling the information you required, Boss.”

“Un. Let’s hear it then,” Albion stated casually.

“Yes, Boss. The Sunflower Orphanage is a government-owned property run by a person called Mother Stacy. They rely on donations to support the orphan children who were either abandoned, sold by desperate parents, or those without them.”

“The Sunflower Orphanage and the other orphanages were actually doing pretty well due to the generous donations from the rich; but ever since Dimensional Rifts appeared, such donations stopped completely. As a result, many orphans starved to death.”

“These orphanages are government-owned properties, yet they aren’t government-funded? Is there no foster system?” Albion frowned.

“No, Boss. Due to the rising crime rates and the number of gangs that exploited the orphanages by taking their donation money and trafficking their orphans, the government chose to abandon them,” Maverick Cohen replied.

Albion’s frown deepened.

He understood that continued funding and donations were equivalent to funding the underworld gang’s illegal activities.

However, not only did the government cut off the funding, but they didn’t even fix the problem, abandoning the orphans to a life of misery.

“Not only were the orphans abandoned by their parents, but they were also abandoned by the rest of the world. How terrible. The world changed, and countless people had indeed suffered; however, it shouldn’t be the children who bear the brunt of that suffering…” Albion muttered.

Even if people do bad, they still need to have bottom lines and principles to follow.

Otherwise, they are no different from beasts. No, even beasts don’t eat their own cubs for survival; that is the work of demons.

“Heed my orders; with whatever means available to you, I want all the orphanages’ property ownership transferred to our Blackthorne Group. It doesn’t matter whether it’s under my name, your name, or anyone in the group; just get it down,” Albion ordered.

“Our people will fund these orphanages, and if we don’t have enough funds, we will get them from Polemos. I want these children well-fed and well-cared. From now on, they are all our people. Have them trained alongside the other member after the paperwork is done.”

“Understood, Boss. I will have everything settled before the meeting,” Maverick Cohen complied, thumping his chest on the other side of the call.

Just before Albion ended the call, Maverick Cohen quickly added, “Oh right, Boss. There’s still some miscellaneous information not mentioned in my report. Would you this subordinate to send you a copy?”

“Yes. Send it over.”

Albion replied.

Beep.

Shortly after ending the call, Albion received the emailed document before he tapped on it for a read.

As Maverick Cohen mentioned, they were miscellaneous information; listing the people who have donated to the orphanages and the gangs exploiting the orphans, the Metti Gang.

It didn’t take long before a piece of information caught his eyes.

…

…

…

After sending the document, Maverick Cohen called a few core members into his office before assigning tasks to them.

“Why the sudden interests in the orphanages, Instructor? Although the orphans are unfortunate, our group can’t afford this sort of charitable expense. Moreover, it will greatly affect our group’s operations.”

Reagan Declan questioned Maverick Cohen’s decision while the other core members of the Blackthorne Group stared at him with doubt.

Nevertheless, Maverick Cohen was unaffected by such gazes.

He casually pointed upward and said, “Orders from above. Don’t question it. We only have to get it done and not think otherwise.”

“Oh?”

The core members were surprised as they followed Maverick Cohen’s finger and glanced up before seeing the sky beyond the transparent glass dome of the top floor they were on.

They immediately thought of Emperor Polemos on Damocles.

Meng Yan nodded with understanding and said, “I see. If it’s Polemos’ order, then there shouldn’t be any problem.”

“True, no one can compare to Emperor Polemos in wealth. Although this plan requires heavy investment before it bears fruit, we will have an army of loyal members in the long run.”

“Emperor Polemos has big plans.”

The core members commented as if they understood the whole picture. However, Maverick Cohen shook his head and pointed upward again.

“Higher.”

“Higher?”

The group was startled.

Shortly after, their eyes lit up while one of them wore a puzzled face before asking with doubt, “Higher than Emperor Polemos? Since when did we start taking orders from aliens.”

Meng Yan and the others shortly directed their gaze at that member as Reagan Declan gave the person a smack on the back of the dead.

Smack!

“Not literally, idiot. There’s only one person above Emperor Polemos.”

“Ooh! Our Big Boss!”

Realization finally dawned on the slow-witted person’s face before he scratched his head with an embarrassed laugh.

“This is great. Big Boss must be back!” Ah Zhen exclaimed.

Everyone’s eyes quickly fell on Maverick Cohen.

“I intended to surprise everyone at the meeting, but since you all found out, I guess it can’t be helped,” Maverick Cohen shrugged before admitting, “That’s right! The Dark Lord has returned from his trip.”

“I knew it! With the boss around, Stillwater city’s problem is no longer a concern.”

The Blackthorne Group felt a weight being lifted off their shoulders.

…

…

…

Meanwhile, in another city further north of Stillwater city, a more confidential meeting was held in the Tier-1 city, Winterdrift city.

Inside the conference room, high-ranking government officials of Winterdrift city sat together at the conference table and stared up at the satellite image projection.

“These are the images of the elf and wolfkin caught appearing in the bug’s territory some time ago. This is the images minutes before they left on the water dragon.”

One image at a time, the projector snapped to different scenes of the destruction caused by Albion and Fenriri inside of Stillwater city’s bug territory.

When half of the 10-million bug army disappeared off the face of the earth in a single wave of black flames, the high-ranking officials shot to the feet with shocked looks.

“W-who is this person?!”

“What kind of power is that!?”

A middle-aged man calmly watched their shocked looks before standing up and clapping his hands for their attention.

“Ladies and gentlemen, as you have all seen, this elf that had shown up out of nowhere is incredibly dangerous and powerful.. We need to discuss whether to consider this person an enemy or a friend.”