Chapter 36: Flaw
Is it Evelyn?
Ethan pressed the answer button, but what came through wasn't Evelyn's usual bright and energetic voice—it was a disgusting, lewd laugh.
"Ethan, right?"
On the phone, Mason's voice dripped with mockery and malice. "That pure and stupid cousin of yours is kneeling at my feet crying right now... This skin, this body, she's a real prize."
"Mason?" Ethan's eyes instantly darkened. Clara, standing beside him, keenly sensed the terrifying killing intent and her smile immediately vanished.
"Hahaha! That's right! You stupid pig, did you really think having a bit of power meant you could run wild on my turf?"
Mason laughed wildly on the phone. "The abandoned meat processing plant in the western suburbs. You've got twenty minutes. Show up one second late, and you can enjoy watching online videos of me destroying Evelyn! Hahaha!"
The call was cut off.
Ethan slowly lowered his phone. In his deep eyes, there was no anger—only a deathly cold stillness.
Twenty minutes later, at the abandoned meat processing plant in the western suburbs.
Ethan pushed open the car door and turned to look at Clara in the passenger seat. "Wait in the car."
Clara looked at Ethan's profile and nodded. "Be careful. I'll keep watch outside."
Ethan said nothing. He turned and kicked the rusty iron door, sending it flying!
The massive boom echoed through the empty factory building, stirring up clouds of dust.
In the center of the factory, Evelyn was tied tightly to an iron chair. Her once-neat clothes had been torn in several places, exposing large areas of skin. Her face was covered in tears, but the moment she saw Ethan appear, her desperate eyes burst with intense light. "Ethan! Save me!"
Behind Evelyn, Mason was toying with a large-caliber semi-automatic pistol.
Around him stood more than a dozen muscular, heavily armed professional bodyguards.
"You really dared to come alone?" Mason took a deep drag on his cigar and blew the smoke in Evelyn's face, then fixed his vicious gaze on Ethan.
Ethan completely ignored Mason's mockery. His cold gaze swept over the armed bodyguards before returning to Mason, his tone flat. "Let her go, and I might consider giving you a quick death."
"Still talking to me like that when you're about to die?! So what if you're strong? Today you're going to die anyway!"
Mason was completely enraged by Ethan's attitude. He suddenly grabbed Evelyn's hair and yanked her head back violently, roaring viciously.
"Shoot him! Don't kill him right away! Shatter all the joints in his limbs! Today I'm going to make him crawl on the ground and watch me violate this bitch, then torture him to death!"
"Yes, boss!"
The dozen or so bodyguards around him simultaneously cocked their guns, their dark muzzles instantly locking onto Ethan.
BANG BANG BANG BANG—
Deafening gunshots echoed madly through the enclosed factory as bullets rained down on Ethan like a blanket!
"No!" Evelyn desperately closed her eyes and let out a piercing scream.
Mason's face had already twisted into an extremely perverted and cruel grin. He could hardly wait to see Ethan riddled with bullets, kneeling on the ground and wailing in agony.
However, the next second, the smile on Mason's face completely froze.
The instant those bullets—capable of tearing a human body apart—were about to touch Ethan, he moved.
His body moved at a terrifying speed that defied human physiological limits, leaving blurred afterimages in the dense rain of bullets!
Those bullets that seemed lightning-fast to ordinary people moved as slowly as water droplets floating in the air under Ethan's drug-enhanced neural reflexes!
Ethan simply made a casual sidestep, easily dodging three lethal bullets, then stomped his right foot hard on the ground.
BOOM!
The hard concrete floor shattered, and Ethan instantly plunged into the crowd of bodyguards!
"What kind of monster is this?! Shoot! Shoot now!"
The bodyguards screamed in terror, trying to re-aim, but Ethan gave them no chance.
CRACK—
Ethan's fist slammed into the chest of the nearest bodyguard.
Accompanied by the sound of shattering bone and flesh, the bodyguard's chest caved in with a horrifying depression. His entire body crashed into a discarded machine in the distance, dying instantly!
Then, without any pause, Ethan continued.
Each of his strikes carried no fancy fighting techniques—only pure, extreme violence and power!
In less than five seconds, the dozen or so vicious armed bodyguards had all become incomplete corpses scattered across the floor.
Blood mixed with fragments of internal organs stained the factory floor a deep red.
For a moment, the entire factory fell suddenly silent, as if even the wind had stopped.
The arrogance and madness on Mason's face had long disappeared, replaced by extreme terror! His whole body was shaking uncontrollably!
"Stop! Stop right there!"
Fear instantly shattered Mason's psychological defenses. He suddenly raised the pistol in his hand, grabbed Evelyn's neck, and pressed the gun barrel hard against her head.
"Don't come closer! Take one more step and I'll blow her brains out!!!"
Seeing the gun pressed against Evelyn's head, Ethan stopped.
He could indeed kill Mason instantly, but at this distance, he couldn't gamble with Evelyn's life on the one-in-a-thousand chance of an accidental discharge.
Seeing Ethan standing still, Mason gasped for air, his face once again showing that sick madness.
"Hahaha! Weren't you so tough?! Monster! Why aren't you moving now?!"
Mason gripped Evelyn tightly, jabbing her head hard with the gun barrel as he roared madly at Ethan.
"Now! Get on your knees right now! Pick up that gun at your feet and shoot out your own kneecaps! Otherwise I'll blow her head off!"
Faced with Mason's threats, Ethan just stood there, staring at Mason with an abnormally calm gaze—so calm it was chilling.
Ethan's mind was extremely sharp. He understood the underlying logic of this kind of hostage game all too well.
As long as he remained standing here, still posing a lethal threat to Mason, then Evelyn as the only hostage had absolute value, and Mason would never dare actually shoot her.
But if he really did what Mason said and crippled his legs, then both of them would truly be fish on a chopping board, at the mercy of others.
He needed to wait.
Wait for a gap, even if it was only a tenth of a second.