169: Chapter 169 Yes, I am an arms dealer, so what?
Chen Nuo slowly stood up, following that hand clad in a black leather glove.
The cold lights of the second underground level hit Chen Yuan's deep black tactical trench coat, refracting a chilling, icy texture.
She stared fixedly at the man before her.
That face was clearly familiar to her very bones, yet at this moment, it exuded a sense of unfamiliarity that made her soul tremble.
"Brother..."
Chen Nuo's voice was still drifting, as if it could be blown away at any moment by the cold wind in the ventilation ducts.
"You just said... the real world?"
Chen Yuan did not answer immediately.
He turned and walked to the main console, his fingers tapping rapidly on the holographic keyboard.
The massive holographic screen instantly switched images.
It was no longer those red radar dots blinking with a death countdown, but extremely clear, real-time surveillance footage.
That was the underground armory of Elysium Manor.
Rows of brand-new individual exoskeleton armors were neatly arranged under the lights, shimmering with a cold metallic luster.
The screen changed again.
It was the automated biochemical weapon cultivation tanks, with countless sleeping T-103 Mass-Produced Tyrants rising and falling in the green nutrient solution.
It changed again.
There were mountains of military-grade C4 explosives, portable Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, and crates of depleted uranium armor-piercing rounds.
"Nuo Nuo, didn't you just ask me why there are machine guns on the wall?"
Chen Yuan turned around, his back against the weapons display vault, which was enough to equip a modernized reinforced regiment.
He looked at his sister's small face, which had completely lost all color, and a wild, unreserved smile curled at the corners of his mouth.
"Because this is not some damn Pharmaceutical Factory at all."
"The so-called special animal gene drugs are just a layer of window paper I use to fool the FBI and those idiot politicians."
"This paper breaks at a single poke."
Chen Nuo stared blankly at the killing machines on the screen, capable of launching a localized war.
Her brain completely crashed in an instant.
"No... that's impossible..."
She shook her head desperately, stumbling backward, "Brother, don't scare me. You clearly do legitimate business, and you even saved that burned Husky..."
"Don't mention that stupid dog."
Chen Yuan ruthlessly shattered her last bit of naive fantasy.
"That was a Licker that failed to mutate after being injected with the T-Virus. It has no skin because it was born to peel the skin off its enemies."
"As for legitimate business?"
Chen Yuan chuckled, a laugh that carried an arrogance of looking down on all living things.
"On this land of America, there is only one kind of legitimate business."
"And that is violence."
He strode forward, walking step by step toward Chen Nuo.
The terrifying aura belonging to a superior was released without reservation, pressing down on Chen Nuo until she could barely breathe.
"Brother..."
"What exactly are you doing?"
Chen Nuo's eyes were red, tears swirling wildly within them.
"What am I doing?"
Chen Yuan leaned in slightly, his deep, pitch-black eyes staring directly into his sister's.
"Yes, I am an arms dealer. So what?"
This lightweight sentence was like a ten-thousand-ton hammer slamming down on Chen Nuo's head.
"I don't just sell those exoskeleton armors that can turn people into sieves; I also sell Nano Medical Worms that make high-ranking officials and dignitaries behave."
"To get my goods, generals from The Pentagon have to beg me subserviently in my office."
"Those arrogant tycoons on Wall Street have been shorted by a single word from me, to the point where they line up to jump off rooftops."
Chen Yuan spread his arms, as if embracing the world he had trampled underfoot.
"By day, they are the rulers of this country."
"But in the dark of night, in this city of San Verde."
"I am the king who sets the rules."
Chen Nuo completely broke down.
She looked at the man before her, with his towering arrogance and defiance, and her past memories shattered in an instant, like a glass house hit by a magnitude-10 earthquake.
She remembered that rainy night at the Jinghai Chen Family.
She remembered the boy who wore a faded school uniform, kneeling in the mud, letting his uncle and cousin insult and trample him.
The weak brother who, every time he was bullied, would only hide in his room and clench his fists silently, not even daring to retort aloud.
That was how she remembered Chen Yuan.
Humble, enduring, even somewhat cowardly.
But now.
That cowardly boy was gone.
Standing before her was a terrifying tyrant who could easily stir up a storm of blood and gore, making the entire American state apparatus tremble.
This extreme sense of contrast caused Chen Nuo's cognitive system to completely malfunction.
"Why..."
Chen Nuo murmured to herself, tears finally breaking through the dam.
"Why did it turn out like this? Brother, you weren't like this before..."
"Because I have died once."
Chen Yuan's voice suddenly became extremely cold, and a sinister killing intent flashed in the depths of his eyes.
"When they threw me out of the country like trash, the Chen Yuan who would swallow his pride was already dead."
"If I don't become a devil, how can I survive in the mouths of these man-eating jackals?"
"How can I avenge Mom?!"
Chen Nuo trembled violently.
Mother's death had always been an untouchable taboo for the Chen Family and the deepest pain in the hearts of the siblings.
She stared blankly at Chen Yuan.
Looking at the ferocity in his eyes that was almost tangible.
She finally understood what kind of hell her brother had gone through to transform into this chilling figure he was today.
The holographic screen emitted a piercing alarm sound again.
The Red Queen's mechanical voice broke the brief silence between the siblings.
"Boss, the enemy special flight formation has breached the first air defense identification zone."
"They are expected to begin an airborne assault in one minute."
"They are carrying heavy thermobaric bombs; requesting to initiate interception protocol."
The cold severity on Chen Yuan's face instantly vanished, replaced once again by that irreverent smile.
He turned his head to look at the red dots on the radar that were approaching frantically.
"One minute? These soldiers' efficiency is passable."
"Tell Ada, no need to intercept."
"Let them in."
Chen Yuan slowly pulled out the tactical pistol at his waist and clicked the slide back.
"Since they came all this way to deliver their heads, I have to show some respect."
Shock.
Incomparable shock.
When Chen Nuo watched her brother remain so nonchalant in the face of a fully armed special forces unit, the aftershocks of her worldview being repeatedly crushed were still reverberating in her mind.
But after the shock.
Came an overwhelming fear.
That was a regular army!
Those were America's most elite special killing machines!
Even if her brother had more monsters, how could he possibly fight against the power of an entire country?
"Brother!"
Chen Nuo lunged forward, grabbing tightly onto the sleeve of Chen Yuan's trench coat.
She looked up, tears streaming down her face like broken beads.
The original shock and confusion were completely replaced by extreme panic for her brother's safety.
Her small hands were clenched so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
"Let's run!"
"I'm begging you, let's not fight them, okay?"
Chen Nuo cried heart-wrenchingly, her voice trembling violently.
"They have armies and missiles! You will die! You will be killed by them!"
Chen Yuan stopped.
He looked down at his sister, who was clutching his sleeve tightly, feeling the desperate trembling coming from her body.
He reached out with his leather-gloved hand.
Gently wiping away the tears on Chen Nuo's cheeks.
The movement was still that of the familiar, doting brother.
But his words carried a wild arrogance sufficient to make even the Grim Reaper retreat.
"Run?"
Chen Yuan leaned down slightly, staring into his sister's tear-filled eyes.
A bloodthirsty sneer curled at the corners of his mouth.
"Nuo Nuo, your brother is now the biggest arms dealer in America."
"On my turf."
"They are the ones who should be running."