235: I am willing to serve you

Tian Ming looked at Charlie, a hint of appreciation flashing in his eyes. Within a large family, not competing either means being truly useless or being able to endure extremely well while waiting for an opportunity.

When the opportunity arrived, Charlie seized it.

"Let's begin. I've reduced some of the Superpower Potion's energy. Since this is your first injection, you might experience pain, so be prepared," Tian Ming said.

Charlie took a deep breath and said, "Let's go somewhere else, inject it in my private office."

Tian Ming nodded and said, "Good!"

The three of them arrived at Charlie's office. As a member of the Lawrence Family, even Charlie, who was excluded from power, enjoyed very generous treatment.

His private office was spacious, with simulated screens on the walls, simulated windowsills, a huge bookshelf, and a luxurious fitness area. The material provisions were very abundant.

Charlie sat at his desk, his eyes fixed on the Superpower Potion, feeling extremely nervous.

He gritted his teeth, rolled up his sleeve, exposing his arm. Then he grabbed the potion, closed his eyes, and injected it.

The moment the injection was administered, Charlie's face suddenly turned pale, and large beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. He clenched his jaw, his hands tightly clasped, trying to resist the flood-like energy. However, that energy seemed to penetrate every crevice, invading every cell, tearing at his muscles and bones.

Charlie was in so much pain he almost fainted, but he gritted his teeth and refused to fall. He felt as if his body was being torn apart and then reassembled, and every breath felt like a knife cutting him. This pain was beyond his imagination, but he persisted because there was no turning back.

Tian Ming observed coldly, but he knew he had chosen the right person. Charlie was accustomed to being lazy, yet he could still possess such willpower to resist this pain, which was enough to show that he was not a man without ambition.

Tian Ming was only afraid that the person he chose would give up and lie flat, because such a person would not only fail to help him but also easily cause trouble at critical moments.

After an unknown amount of time, the pain finally began to subside. Charlie felt a warm current flowing through his body; it was the potion's energy repairing his bodily damage.

He slowly opened his eyes and found himself lying on the ground, with Tian Ming and Lisa standing beside him, just watching him.

After a struggle that felt like life and death, Charlie finally recovered successfully.

He slowly got up. At this moment, he felt his body become very light, yet filled with explosive power.

Charlie stepped forward and bowed deeply to Tian Ming.

"Charlie Lawrence is willing to follow and pledge allegiance to Tian Ming, Sir."

Tian Ming looked at Charlie, no particular emotion showing on his face, only a slight nod. This Charlie could bend and stretch, and might become an excellent aid in conquering the Lawrence Family later on.

"Very good, Charlie. The position of Duke Lawrence will be yours from now on. You are more familiar with the internal personnel of the Lawrence Family than I am. Next, tell me your plan."

"Sir, the Duke controls real power, while people like me control the family's businesses and resources. Take my base, for example; the supplies produced here support five bases. The Commanders in those five bases are also members of the Lawrence Family."

Tian Ming nodded, signaling him to continue.

Charlie nodded slightly and said, "To contend with the Duke, we must first integrate the family's peripheral personnel. In the Apocalypse, we, the non-power faction, control responsibilities such as supplies, production, and maintenance. These are the foundations of the family. Therefore, to prevent the Duke from going rogue, we must first restrain these foundations."

After listening, Tian Ming was silent for a moment, then asked, "Your idea is fine, but if we directly confront the Duke, force him to abdicate, rescue Shen Yuan first, and then let you slowly integrate, wouldn't that work?"

Charlie pondered for a moment, then replied with a bitter smile, "You might not understand our Duke very well. I can take you to the location of the family base, but important personnel will absolutely not stay in the family base. The Lawrence Family has many small hidden bases, and even our internal personnel are unaware of their locations. Even if the alliance were to search, it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack."

Tian Ming frowned. It seemed the cunning rabbit had three burrows. Charlie's meaning was clear: going to the Lawrence Family base would likely be futile, and it would easily alert them. In that case, finding Shen Yuan would become even more difficult.

Charlie continued, "Sir, the Duke is my family. The family's power is immense. All the bases' longitudes and latitudes are encrypted, divided into 5 keys held by five elders. For secrecy, if a single elder needs to go to a certain base, they need to authorize it with their key, and then the base will dispatch a dedicated aircraft for pick-up. The aircraft has no windows, and navigation and positioning are completely disabled around the base."

Hearing Charlie say this, Tian Ming's head started to ache. He glanced at Lisa, but Lisa remained silent.

"Your family is truly cautious, not only having three hidden bases but also playing with encryption methods."

Tian Ming's words contained both sarcasm and helplessness. Now, even if he could read minds and found the five elders, he still couldn't know the exact locations of all the bases.

Charlie said, "The Lawrence Family does this to prevent major changes within the family. No matter what happens, as long as Blue Star exists, the Lawrence Family will always exist. To obtain the locations of all bases, all five key holders need to simultaneously authorize the supercomputer in the family base and simultaneously authenticate the key holders' biological information. Only then can the specific locations of the bases be decrypted."

Charlie's words plunged Tian Ming into thought. He didn't even know where the five key holders were, let alone gathering them. Tian Ming now felt a sense of powerlessness. He also understood why the Lawrence Family was the world's invisible controller. Even an invincible existence like him would have to expend considerable effort to deal with this family.

There was also a more direct method: everyone stops playing, directly create an Apocalypse bomb, and directly plow over all the land and oceans on Blue Star. But doing so would have only one consequence: only Tian Ming would remain in the whole world.

Tian Ming took a deep breath and slowly said, "How can we solve this problem in the fastest way?"

Charlie was slightly stunned and said, "The food produced at our base will be centrally transported to three material transfer bases. The various bases of the Lawrence Family have different functional allocations; some produce weapons, some transport raw materials. The family has also long developed an unmanned cargo system that distributes materials through transfer to various bases. Therefore, as long as we first take down the person in charge of the transfer bases and then infiltrate the cargo drones, we can gradually figure out the locations of the bases."