Chapter 118 This World Does Not Need Puppets

Chapter 118 This World Does Not Need Puppets

Wayne completely broke down.

He stared at the rusty meat cleaver in Ethan's hand, and every last wall of his mental defense crumbled in that moment.

"I'll talk! I'll talk! Get that damn thing away from me!" Wayne let out a blood-curdling scream.

Ethan stopped, casually tossed the knife aside, and smiled at Wayne. "Alright then. Start talking."

"The Winston family... they used to be complete nobodies. In Boston, they couldn't even pass for second-rate money. But about two years ago, a bunch of guys in black robes showed up at their door..."

Wayne was gasping, his words tumbling out fast, terrified that any pause would make Ethan reach for that knife again.

"They called themselves 'The Aeterna Causality.' They handed Miguel a massive pile of cash, along with those green gene serums. The Winston family used those serums to swallow up every small company around them. Even the branch managers like us — we only turned on you because Miguel made it worth our while."

Fear filled Wayne's eyes. "Miguel gave me the serum too. He told me that once I took it, nobody in this country could kill me. But he never said... never said I'd run into a monster like you!"

"The Aeterna Causality." Ethan muttered the name under his breath. Sure enough — the same rats hiding in the sewer.

"What else are they planning?" Ethan asked, his voice cold.

"I don't know... I really don't know!" Wayne sobbed. "I'm just one of Miguel's guys. He only ever dealt with us to hand out serums and told us to tear down your company and steal your research. Miguel's at his estate right now — that place is built like a fortress. He's waiting to hear good news from me..."

Ethan narrowed his eyes at Wayne and slowly picked the knife back up off the floor.

Half an hour later, Wayne had completely shattered mentally and passed out cold. Ethan paid no more attention to the broken man, got to his feet, and walked out of the warehouse in long strides.

But the moment Ethan stepped outside, Noah was already waiting at the door and handed him a tablet.

"Boss, here's what we just pulled up. The Winston family's total assets were valued at under a hundred million dollars two years ago. But in just twenty-four months, they grew nearly ten times that size and even pushed their way into arms supply chains."

Noah delivered the report without any expression. "This clearly isn't normal business growth. There's definitely a massive force behind them."

Ethan scrolled through the screen, looking over the list of victims the Winston family had illegally absorbed. He let out a cold snort.

"The Aeterna Causality is playing a big game — building puppet families like this across the whole country just to stir up chaos and then move in for the kill. If they want to play, I'll start by cutting off their claws."

Ethan tossed the tablet back to Noah, his tone direct and decisive.

"Get a helicopter ready. We're heading to the Winston estate now. I want this family wiped off the map before dark."

"Understood, Boss. The helicopter will be on the roof in three minutes." Noah gave a quick bow and left immediately to get things moving.

......

Meanwhile, at the Winston Villa on the outskirts of the city.

This mansion, built at a cost of tens of millions of dollars, had been turned into something closer to a military base.

Infrared sensors lined the top of the outer walls, and mercenaries with assault rifles and hard, cold eyes patrolled the lawn at every turn.

Miguel stood at the floor-to-ceiling window on the second floor, holding a glass of bourbon.

He wore a finely tailored custom suit, and his face carried the kind of baffling self-confidence that only comes from being newly rich.

Behind him, a figure draped head to toe in a black robe stood in the shadows.

"My friend, is this Ethan guy really as dangerous as you say?" Miguel swirled the ice in his glass and let out a dismissive laugh.

"Sure, Wayne and those idiots took the serum, but they had no idea how to actually fight. I've got the latest defense systems set up here. Even if he rolls up in a tank, he's dying at the front gate."

The robed figure spoke in a low, raspy voice with no feeling in it at all.

"Don't get too comfortable. He wiped out the Thorne family and the Lopez family — that wasn't luck. Your job is simple: kill him and get the serum formula."

"Don't worry. The second he shows his face, I'll blow him to pieces." Miguel turned away with a scoff.

Just then, the distant thrum of rotor blades rolled in from the horizon.

Miguel's eyes lit up, and a vicious grin spread across his face. "He's here! This guy really has no sense of staying low — flying in on a helicopter, of all things."

He put down his glass and pressed the red button on the desk.

Behind the villa, hidden in the grounds, two advanced surface-to-air missile launchers rose from the grass and automatically locked onto the helicopter closing in through the sky.

"Target locked. Ready to fire!" crackled the operator's voice over the radio.

Miguel spread his hands toward the robed figure with a smug look. "You see? Up against real firepower, gene soldiers are a joke. No matter how strong he is — can his body actually take a missile head-on?"

Two Stinger missiles screamed into the sky, carving two deadly arcs through the air straight toward Ethan's helicopter.

Miguel kept his eyes glued to the screen, already hungry for that fireworks show up in the air.

But what he saw made his smile freeze solid.

The helicopter's side door was ripped open.

At the very last second before impact, a lean figure leapt straight out of the helicopter — hundreds of feet above the ground.

"Is he out of his mind? That's suicide!" Miguel shouted.

But in the next second, he saw something he would never be able to make sense of for the rest of his life.

The dark figure adjusted his position with perfect precision in midair, and as the screaming missile hurtled toward him, he whipped out his right leg and slammed a hard side kick straight into the missile's tail fin.

A heavy, muffled boom.

The missile was kicked into a full 180-degree spin right there in the air, and with an even more terrifying shriek, it came flying straight back — directly at the floor-to-ceiling window on the second floor of the Winston Villa.

In Miguel's eyes, the nose of that missile was growing larger by the millisecond...