Blackstone Code

Mr. Wadrick looked at Lynch. Lynch glanced at Severella, who was standing not far away. He was starting to get a headache from this father-daughter pair.

Initially, Mr. Wadrick didn’t want him getting too close to his daughter. Although he later allowed them to date, it was strictly limited to just that—dating. Anything beyond was off-limits.

Not long after their brief relationship ended, Mr. Wadrick suddenly had a change of heart and began hinting that Lynch should consider pursuing Severella again.

Aside from Severella’s own issues, part of the reason was Lynch’s rapid rise.

Back then, there was essentially no difference between the Federation and today’s Gephra. The old aristocrats had already seized and locked down all available resources. New nobles simply didn’t have the capital to compete.

The same applied to the Federation—first and second-generation capitalists had firm control over all industries. The new generation could only rise through light manufacturing, which gave many of them their breakout opportunities.

But ultimately, true power remained in the hands of the old financial groups.

Manufacturing might look like a low-barrier, unregulated field, but the upstream and downstream sectors are tightly controlled. Without raw materials or distribution channels, manufacturers collapse—and the bigger they are, the faster they fall.

Lynch’s rise wasn’t easy. What surprised everyone was that instead of focusing on domestic development, he leveraged various means to gain a foothold overseas.