251: Chapter 251 Empty the old thief's vault, make him have diarrhea and dance.

Morgan Manor, Long Island, New York.

At two in the morning, heavy rain was pouring down.

The study was dimly lit without the main lights on; only a vintage desk lamp cast a warm yellow glow.

Old Morgan leaned back against his leather chair, an unlit Cuban cigar held between his fingers.

Two knocks sounded from outside the door.

Old Morgan's voice was raspy.

"Come in."

Henry, the butler, pushed a serving cart inside.

The sixty-something-year-old man had his hair slicked back neatly and wore a crisp tailcoat.

Having served the Morgan family for thirty years, his authority in this manor was second only to the head of the family.

Henry picked up a white porcelain cup and placed it steadily on the desk.

"Your hot milk, sir."

Old Morgan's gaze never left the cigar between his fingers.

"Have you made contact with the Los Angeles side?"

Henry lowered his head and kept his voice very soft.

"Yes, we have."

He stood straight, his eyes fixed on the patterns of the wool carpet.

"That researcher named Jack has already accepted the deposit. He is responsible for the daily maintenance of the ventilation system on the fifth underground floor. During his shift change tomorrow night, he will put that canister of VX nerve toxin into the main circulation pump."

Old Morgan let out a cold snort.

"Does Chen Feng really think building his base underground makes it foolproof?"

He rolled the tip of his cigar between his fingers.

"Young people are still too green. As long as the toxin goes down the ventilation shafts, those Tyrant monsters of his, along with himself, will all turn into a pile of rotten flesh."

Henry continued.

"Jack wants the remaining fifty million final payment. He said that once this job is done, we must immediately arrange for him to go to South America."

Old Morgan tossed the cigar onto the desk.

"Give it to him."

He laced his fingers together and rested his chin on them.

"As long as we can kill Chen Feng, what's fifty million? Once Umbrella is leaderless, that useless president Clark won't be able to control the situation at all. When that time comes, the Neo-Genesis medical special zone, along with all the data on those bioweapons, will all be ours."

Henry bowed.

"Understood. I will go arrange the transfer channel right away."

He carried the empty tray and exited the study.

The hallway was dead silent, the thick wool carpet swallowing all footsteps.

Henry walked toward the security monitoring room at the end of the hall, preparing to use an encrypted line to send instructions to the West Coast.

Thunder rumbled outside, and the half-open carved window frame clattered against the wall in the howling wind.

A bolt of lightning tore through the night sky, its bright glare briefly illuminating the hallway.

Just as Henry passed the large floor vase, the shadow on the floor tiles came alive.

A puddle of thick black liquid slithered along the base of the wall, climbing onto his body in the blink of an eye.

The old butler didn't even have time to open his mouth before a sharp claw covered in hard scales clamped directly over his face.

The fluid flowed upward, completely enveloping his entire body.

There was no struggle, and not even the sound of the tray hitting the floor was made.

The black substance writhed and rolled on the floor for a few seconds, its volume starting to shrink rapidly.

The cracking sounds of bone restructuring echoed in the darkness.

Dark red veins interwoven across the surface, weaving skin, hair, and even that crisp tailcoat.

In less than ten seconds.

A brand-new butler stood in the hallway.

He looked down to examine his hands, slowly flexing his fingers, then bent over to pick up the tray from the floor, brushing off non-existent dust from his tailcoat.

The fine lines at the corners of his eyes and his rigid temperament were identical to those of the old man just now.

He turned his head, the dark gold eyeballs concealed beneath his suit fabric rolling once.

Facing the security camera at the end of the hall, his facial muscles pulled into a bizarre smile.

The scene shifted to the seventh underground floor of the Los Angeles Umbrella base.

Chen Feng leaned back in his leather sofa, watching the data stream constantly refreshing on the large screen.

The Red Queen's synthesized voice echoed in the empty room.

"Received memory fragments transmitted back by Nightmare. The target subject is the butler, Henry. Memory analysis is one hundred percent complete."

The main screen quickly split into a large number of documents and surveillance footage.

Sarah walked forward holding two white porcelain mugs, her gaze sweeping over the data.

"Old Morgan is really willing to pay a heavy price. VX nerve toxin—just a small canister of this stuff could suffocate half a city."

Chen Feng reached out to take the hot coffee, bringing it to his lips for a sip.

"He's been backed into a corner."

Chen Feng looked at the ripples forming in his cup.

"The incident in Antarctica dealt him a heavy blow, and he was bitten back by Rockefeller's people in Congress. That old bag of bones just wants to flip the table now."

Sarah placed the other cup of coffee on the desk.

"How should we handle that mole named Jack?"

Sarah reached out and gripped the hilt of the tactical dagger at her waist.

"Should I go arrest him right now and throw him straight into a cultivation pod as a snack for the Lickers?"

Chen Feng let out a soft chuckle.

"Why arrest him?"

Chen Feng spun the ceramic cup in his hand.

"Since he took that fifty million, he has to finish the job, right?"

Sarah paused her movements.

"Boss, you plan to let him release the toxin?"

Chen Feng put the cup back.

"Release it, of course we have to let him release it. But as for what exactly gets released, we'll have the final say."

He pressed the communication button on the desk.

"Samantha."

Rapid keyboard clatter came through the speaker.

"Here, Boss."

Chen Feng tapped his fingers lightly on the desk.

"Do you have any compound that smells similar to VX gas, but isn't actually lethal when inhaled, and instead makes people make fools of themselves?"

The keyboard clatter on the other end of the communicator stopped.

"A compound that makes people make fools of themselves?"

Samantha thought for a moment.

"Are you referring to a hallucinogen or a neuroparalytic? I have a newly extracted T-Virus by-product here. Its scent is completely identical to VX, but it isn't lethal."

Chen Feng pressed further.

"What are the specific effects?"

Samantha reported the parameters in a precise tone.

"Within the next forty-eight hours, the inhaler's muscles will completely relax, their sphincter will lose all control, and their brain will experience extreme euphoria."

Samantha flipped through the paper report in her hand.

"Simply put, they will suffer from incontinence while uncontrollably tap-dancing."

Chen Feng's throat tightened, and he almost choked on the coffee he had just swallowed.

He pulled out a tissue to wipe the corners of his mouth.

"We'll use that one."

Chen Feng turned to look at his secretary.

"Sarah, go make the arrangements. Tomorrow night, make sure Jack smoothly releases this stuff into the ventilation shafts. Remember to distribute gas masks to our people in advance."

Sarah nodded in response.

"Understood."

Chen Feng looked up at the main console.

"Red Queen, what is Nightmare's current position?"

The mechanical voice responded immediately.

"Nightmare has completely replaced Henry and is currently infiltrating Old Morgan's private vault."

The large screen flickered for a moment, and the display switched to a first-person perspective.

It was the real-time image feed sent back by the bio-weapon through its optic nerves.

Deep in the basement of Morgan Manor stood a half-meter-thick alloy blast door.

Nightmare, in the guise of the old butler, stood before the console and skillfully entered a thirty-six-digit random password.

He pressed his right eye against the retinal scanner, then pressed his thumb onto the recognition area.

A prompt tone sounded.

[Identity Confirmed]

The heavy metal door slid open to both sides.

There were no mountains of paper bills piled inside the vault, only rows of temperature-controlled safes embedded in the walls.

The intruder walked straight to the deepest cabinet and pulled it open.

A black hard drive lay quietly in the compartment, with several bound paper documents pressed beside it.

Chen Feng issued an order.

"Scan the contents of the documents."

Nightmare's non-human eyeball activated its high-precision scanning mode, his fingers turning the pages one by one.

The data turned into a cascading waterfall, surging across half the globe into the servers in Los Angeles.

Chen Feng stared at the text continuously being decrypted on the screen, his previous smile fading.

Sarah leaned down, carefully identifying the complex financial charts.

"Boss, what is this data about?"

Chen Feng pointed at the few lines of highlighted code.

"This is Old Morgan's password book for his offshore accounts, along with the nominee shareholder agreements for all the shell companies under his name."

He slid his finger across the desk.

"That old fox hid all his real trump cards in these inconspicuous shell companies. No wonder our previous round of short-selling on Wall Street only stripped away his outer layer of skin."

Sarah straightened up.

"With these keys, we can completely empty out his entire family fortune."

Chen Feng leaned back into the cushions again.

"No rush."

He pointed at the black square.

"Analyze the contents of the hard drive."

The Red Queen's computing matrix ran at full power, quickly projecting the results onto the secondary screen.

"Boss, this is a detailed list recording all the politicians and military brass Old Morgan has funded over the past twenty years, complete with detailed ledgers of bribes received and high-definition video recordings."

Chen Feng raised his eyebrows.

The destructive power contained in this list was by no means inferior to that master tape of the Eden Island video that had shocked the world.

Old Morgan held the lifeblood of the entire upper circle of the U Federation firmly in his hands. No wonder he dared to act so arrogantly, not even putting President Clark in the White House in his eyes.

"Chen Feng leaned closer to the microphone."

"Nightmare, put the things back exactly where they were."

The imposter on the screen complied, putting the hard drive and documents back in place, then closed the cabinet door and locked the blast door once more.

Sarah looked full of doubt.

"Boss, just leave it there like that?"

Chen Feng stood up straight and stretched his sore shoulders and neck.

"Taking it now would alert him. I want him to feel like everything is under control."

He walked to the liquor cabinet by the wall and poured himself half a glass of spirits.

"Tomorrow night, when he is filled with joy, thinking the base has been wiped out by the gas and preparing to throw a grand victory banquet, we will deliver this big gift to him."

Chen Feng turned around holding his glass.

"Notify Alan's side to withdraw all the short-selling funds and prepare to fully take over Old Morgan's offshore shell companies."

He swirled the ice cubes in his glass.

"With the passwords and agreements all in our hands, when the sun rises tomorrow, this financial emperor will find that he doesn't even have a coin left in his pocket to buy a sandwich."

Sarah responded immediately.

"I'll get right on it."

Just as she turned around, she was stopped by Chen Feng again.

"And one more thing."

Chen Feng drank the liquor in one gulp.

[part:gemini-3.1-flash-lite]

"Keep Nightmare in the manor and make sure it stays quiet. Old Morgan has a habit of drinking hot milk every night. Put something in his goodnight milk tomorrow."

He placed the empty wine glass on the bar counter.

"The drug doesn't need to be lethal. It just needs to paralyze his limbs while keeping his brain absolutely clear."

Samantha quickly understood the intention.

"You want him to watch with his own eyes as his empire crumbles to nothing."

Chen Feng loosened his tie.

"Dealing with an old fox like him, physical elimination is too boring. I need to mentally extract his backbone."

The next night.

In the study of the New York manor, Old Morgan leaned back in his leather chair, his gaze locked on the classic bronze clock on the wall.

The hour hand pointed directly at the number eight.

If everything went smoothly, Jack would have already poured the toxin into the ventilation ducts of Umbrella Headquarters by now.

That underground fortress on the West Coast must have already turned into a lifeless, massive graveyard.

Old Morgan picked up the crystal goblet and brought the purple-red liquid to his lips.

"Henry." He called out toward the door.

The solid wood door was pushed open, and the old butler stepped into the room with a steady gait.

Old Morgan put down his wine glass. "Has there been any news from Los Angeles?"

Henry lowered his gaze. "Just received the safety signal from Jack. It's done."

Old Morgan downed the remaining red wine in his glass, a wild sense of satisfaction appearing on his liver-spotted face.

"That arrogant brat is finally dead." He slammed his hand on the desk.

"Contact the congressmen immediately. Prepare to fully take over the Medical Special Zone, and hire a top-tier private armed force to fly to Los Angeles. Strip Chen Feng's laboratory down to the bricks."

Henry picked up the hot milk from the tray and set it in front of the desk.

"Sir, please drink your milk and get some rest. I will arrange the follow-up handover work one by one."

Old Morgan was in a great mood. He took the porcelain cup and drained it in a few gulps.

"Go do it immediately. I want to watch Umbrella's stock crash into worthless paper when the market opens tomorrow morning."

He leaned back against the chair and closed his eyes, preparing to enjoy the aftertaste of victory.

A minute passed. The butler opposite him remained standing in place, not having moved an inch.

Old Morgan opened his eyes suddenly, feeling a strange tingling sensation in his fingertips.

He tried to lift his arm, only to find that his entire right arm had completely lost control.

The paralysis spread rapidly. His legs, torso, and even his cervical spine all stiffened uncontrollably, becoming too heavy to move a single millimeter.

He bulged his eyes, a murky gurgling sound coming from his throat. "Henry, what did you give me to drink?"

The butler across the desk shed his mask of respect. He looked up; the once cloudy old eyes were now covered by dark golden vertical pupils.

The right sleeve of his tuxedo split open, and a sharp, pure black bone blade shot out, gleaming with a chilling luster under the dim light.

Old Morgan's chest heaved violently, his breathing nearly cut off. The monster before him wore the face of an old servant, but inside that shell was a complete alien entity.

The oversized LCD screen on the study wall automatically lit up. "Mr. Morgan, good evening."

Chen Feng sat in the War Room of the Los Angeles base, holding a coffee cup in one hand, watching the dying financial tycoon through the screen.

Old Morgan tried desperately to move his body, but could only let his limbs remain paralyzed in the leather chair. "You're actually still alive?"

Chen Feng brought the coffee cup to his lips. "You were counting on that idiot named Jack to finish me off?"

He swallowed the warm liquid. "That guy is currently hugging his fifty million, doing a tap dance in the basement confinement cell. The drug Samantha concocted works extremely well; he has already changed his pants three times by now."

Old Morgan felt a sharp ringing deep in his brain. He roared with a hoarse voice. "You went through so much trouble, what exactly are you after?"

Chen Feng tapped a few times on the keyboard. "Relax, I'm just here to offer a friendly reminder."

The screen switched, and equity transfer agreements for various overseas shell companies appeared.

"The firewalls for those offshore accounts you hid in your underground vault were pitifully weak. Alan spent less than half an hour moving all the invisible assets under your name into Umbrella's accounts."

Old Morgan's eyes split, bloodshot. That wealth was his last capital for a comeback.

Chen Feng pressed the Enter key again. The death list, recording the dirt on powerful figures, filled the entire screen.

"By the way, I made a copy of this list." He looked at the camera. "Tomorrow morning, every editor-in-chief of the major news media will receive this gift in their inbox."

The veins on Old Morgan's neck bulged. "Chen Feng, you are a madman. If you expose these things, the entire operation of the U Federation will be completely paralyzed."

Chen Feng leaned back comfortably in his chair. "Paralyzing the old system just makes it convenient for me to establish a new order."

He locked eyes with the cripple through the screen. "You loved manipulating chess pieces from the shadows your whole life, but now you don't even have the qualification to sit at the table."

Chen Feng spread his hands. "Your treasury, your authority, and even the butler who served you tea and water, now all belong to me."

He waved at the camera. "Nightmare, leave him one breath, and throw him out onto the main road."

The monster wearing the butler's skin acknowledged the order. The sharp bone blade quickly softened and stretched into a thick black tentacle, directly wrapping around Old Morgan's neck, lifting him into the air with one hand.

Old Morgan's vocal cords were tightly constricted, his throat bones emitting a sound of unbearable friction.

He watched helplessly as the solid wood door grew further and further away, his body roughly dragged out of the warm study, all the way into the bone-chilling rain outside. The rough texture of the asphalt road tore through the expensive suit fabric, and cold rainwater mixed with mud poured into his collar.

A sports car sped past, splashing water all over him.

The headlights flashed over his old face, filled with terror and despair. The young person in the car didn't even bother to take a second look at the homeless man lying on the side of the road in the rainy night.

Old Morgan's eyes rolled frantically, and a wheezing sound like a broken bellows came from his throat.

He used all his strength, but could only make one finger twitch slightly.

The former financial emperor had now become a Wild Dog with its teeth pulled out, thrown on the side of the street, helpless as he waited for dawn, waiting for the judgment of the whole world.

Los Angeles underground base. The main screen was broadcasting real-time footage from outside the Morgan Manor.

Samantha turned off the surveillance, and the War Room returned to silence.

"Boss, news from Alan." She pulled up an electronic report.

"The seventy-three offshore trust funds Old Morgan hid overseas, totaling 370 billion USD in liquid assets, were all transferred to our designated accounts half an hour ago."

Chen Feng held his wine glass, gently swirling it. "What about the physical industries held by his shell companies?"

Samantha's fingertips swiped across the screen. "The equity for the twelve core sectors, including military, energy, and mining, has also been fully transferred."

She looked up. "Legally speaking, the wealth accumulated by the Morgan family over 150 years now bears the name Chen."

Chen Feng walked to the huge floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking the brightly lit miniature city seven levels underground.

He didn't turn back. "As for that old dog, leave him be."

He looked at his reflection on the glass. "Let him live. Let him live to see how everything he built with his own hands falls apart. That is much more interesting than killing him directly."

Samantha bowed slightly. "Understood."

Just then, the familiar synthetic voice of the system rang in Chen Feng's mind.

[Epic Quest: The Fall of the Titan, completed.]

[Mission Rating: S (Perfect Strangulation)]

[Calculating mission rewards...]

[Congratulations to the host for obtaining Research Points: 500,000.]

[Congratulations to the host for unlocking the special unit tech tree: Nightmare (Mass-produced) genetic map.]

On Chen Feng's retina, a golden stream of data cascaded like a waterfall.

He could clearly see the complex genetic sequence map belonging to Nightmare being simplified bit by bit by the system, stripping away the uncontrollable berserk factors in the progenitor, and replacing them with more stable Gene Locks and control modules.

Chen Feng closed the system panel.

Wealth and points were just tools; what really interested him was the list copied from Old Morgan's vault.

He walked to the main console and pulled up the encrypted folder named "Damocles".

On the screen, a dense list of names and positions was displayed.

Senate Majority Leader, Supreme Court Justice, four-star general at The Pentagon, and even several directors of the Federal Reserve Bank.

Behind every name was attached video and transfer records sufficient to ruin their reputations.

"Ada." Chen Feng started another communication channel.

"Boss, what are your instructions?" Ada Wong's slightly lazy voice came from the speaker.

Chen Feng's fingers slowly traced over those names. "Send this list, in the form of an anonymous email, to every person on the list."

He stopped at the name of the Senate Majority Leader, "John Miller". "Tell them, the old king is dead, and now it is time for the new god to ascend the throne."

A cold arc appeared at the corner of Chen Feng's mouth. "Before sunset tomorrow, I want to see all of them kneeling in the Oval Office of the White House, swearing their allegiance."