Latvinia, also known as the Pearl of the Balkans, is located between Hungary, Serbia and Romania, surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains to the north and the Mahla Mountains to the south.
This is a small, poor and backward country. Like most countries in Eastern Europe, it has been trapped in regime changes and unrest all year round. With the economic decline, partisan disputes, and people suffering from war and disease, the aftermath of the drastic changes in Eastern Europe has also The impact is still spreading to this day.
Since the collapse of the great red empire, the situation in Central and Eastern Europe has been in turmoil. Unemployment has increased significantly, inflation remains high, people’s resistance to new policies and power institutions has risen, large-scale strikes have seriously Economic difficulties… These are enough to drag Eastern European countries into a bottomless quagmire, and Latvinia is among them.
After the Yalta system was completely shattered, the world structure showed a trend of development toward multipolarity. Some countries, such as Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine, temporarily gained a chance to survive at the cost of joining the European Union, while Latvinia was a backward country. Small countries can only survive in the turbulent wave of change by trying to survive in both directions and struggling to survive.
This is an evil soil where the law of the jungle prevails, and there is no stable order. Therefore, the vampires and werewolves who were hunted and expelled by the temple mages will thrive here, hiding and dormant. Even the power of the London Temple cannot have a deep impact on this chaotic paradise controlled by gangsters, warlords, and political parties.
Dr. Doom, shrouded in a dark green cloak, finally set foot on the barren land where he grew up as a child after twelve days of sailing and then transferring to a passenger plane. The gray sky is covered with clouds, and occasionally lightning pierces the clouds, and it seems that a heavy rain will fall at any time.
Victor Doom carried a black suitcase and walked out of the country’s only airport. There were rows of old-fashioned cars parked at the door. Generally speaking, foreign tourists who boarded these cars would be stabbed severely. Those drivers There are wrenches and iron bars in the trunk, and they will ask you to add money when you drive halfway down the road. This is still the best situation. More people who encounter this kind of thing will usually be robbed.
As for calling the police? In Latvinia, sometimes even the police cannot avoid being ripped off. Even if they are equipped with guns, they are still of no use when encountering arrogant and unreasonable taxi drivers.
When you point a gun at a taxi driver, it means that you have offended the entire transportation industry. Those taxi drivers who asked for a group to stay warm will come to your door in droves. This is not a funny joke. Or low-level intimidation.
They have the support of local gangs behind them. One-third of taxi drivers have transported drugs or prohibited items. Those who want to live a peaceful life have already been swallowed up to the point where there is no dregs left.
There used to be a widely circulated joke that in Latvinia, if you lose a dog, you can go to the police, but if there is a thief in your home, go to the gang for help.
In the eyes of many people, local gangs are much more efficient than the police. They are involved in all industries. Those legitimate industries or gray businesses are inseparable, forming an intricate chain of interests.
However, compared to warlord leaders and nobles with private armed forces, gangsters have become little sheep unable to resist. They have to “pay” a certain amount every month. If it is less or late, your payment will be made that night. Your home will be blasted into the sky by a group of armed thugs with rocket launchers.
At the top of the country’s food chain is the prime minister who holds military power, as well as political parties and groups supported by Western countries. Whether it is warlord leaders, old aristocrats who occupy large amounts of land resources, or local gangs, in front of them They are all like tiny ants, easily trampled to death.
Victor Doom randomly picked a car and got in. Obviously he was not very lucky. The driver’s greedy eyes were almost undisguised, and he was always staring at the suitcase in his hand intentionally or unintentionally. He must have The other party is already calculating in his mind how much wealth he can harvest from this trip.
Sure enough, the taxi did not drive to its destination, a luxury hotel in the city center, but instead diverted towards the suburbs. Doom seemed to turn a blind eye to this. He looked out the window at the scenery without any plan. The houses are cluttered together, and most of them use tinplate as the building material. Tinplate has a layer of electroplating, which is more resistant to rust than other thin iron sheets, allowing the simple houses to survive the entire rainy season.
In the slums on the outskirts, this kind of house can be considered good. Most of the houses on the outskirts are made of a few wooden boards. When the rainy season comes, they leak and rot, and are filled with a cold and damp smell. Every year, strong winds blow and they collapse. The house can crush a group of people to death.
The stiff face under the steel mask suddenly twitched. Doom had lived in this kind of slum when he was a child. He had to run several kilometers of dirt roads every day to go to the only school in the town to teach students from poor families like his. Naturally, it is impossible for children to afford private schools in the city.
In fact, even in public schools funded by the city hall, he struggled to finish his studies with scholarships. If the trajectory of his life did not change, Victor Doom, a successful man who once dominated Wall Street, might have read You will drop out of high school and then work as an apprentice in a factory or store. If you are lucky, you may be able to accumulate your first capital with your clever mind, start a small business, and slowly develop. Join the middle class and escape life in the slums.
The turning point of Doom’s fate occurred when he was fifteen years old. He met a kind-hearted priest and was lucky enough to enter the city center library on the recommendation of the priest. What followed was a voracious study of the books on the bookshelves. The gray books became Victor’s key to opening the door to a new world, steps to climb to a higher goal.
Poverty can consume a person’s will, but it can also stimulate inner potential. Victor Doom, a child who showed his talent at a young age, relied on diligent self-study to receive an admission notice from the State University of New York and thus obtained Latvinia’s walkout spot.
As for going to the United States and starting a new life, falling from the peak to the trough, that is another story.
The memory ends here.
The moving car turned off and braked. The thin driver pulled out a wrench from under the seat, stared at Doom with evil eyes, pointed to the suitcase on the back seat, and said in English with a strong accent: “Bring that over here.”
The driver’s tone was commanding, without any room for discussion. The driver’s right hand held a metal wrench, which could easily make a hole in the passenger’s head, and his left hand held a phone. He could call a large number of colleagues at any time. If this If outsiders dared to resist, the best outcome would be to be robbed and dumped on the street.
As for the bad ending…
They may be treated as missing persons and registered in the mountain of unfinished cases at the police station, or they may be sent to private clinics to have their organs harvested and sold…and so on. The glory of humanity or the justice of the law cannot be radiated. In every corner of the world, darkness is everywhere and evil happens from time to time.
“You shouldn’t do that,” Victor Doom replied in his Latvian accent.
This made the driver slightly stunned, and then he saw the other person lift off his dark green cloak, and a ferocious and cold steel mask emerged. The empty eyes reflected a cold light, which made people feel chilled all over.
“You…ho ho!”
Click.
With a slight sound, Doom easily broke the driver’s neck. He glanced at the cell phone that fell on the seat, and then made a call.
ps: I personally really want to write a story about Dr. Doom becoming a god, but I’ll keep my lesson in mind and not be too self-indulgent~
