Becoming A Tech Tycoon Begins With Regression-Chapter 169: Disappeared

Ethan paced up and down, a random Rubik’s cube in hand which he was absent mindedly trying to solve while he was lost in thoughts.

The reason for his pacing?

----A few minutes earlier----

Ethan stepped into his temporary office, ready to finally put his plans in action.

He wanted to get this over with soon and go back to his plans, the more time he wasted, the lesser his chances of preparing for their future visitors from the stars.

But the moment the turned on the PC, he was greeted by Athena’s avatar who had a small frown on her face.

"What’s wrong?" He asked and her reply soon came, {he’s gone.}

"Who?" Ethan asked, a bit confused.

{Jian Long,} Athena said, {I was keeping an eye on him last night, but I was suddenly ejected from their systems around 7 PM and I couldn’t get access to it again.}

"I see," Ethan muttered before asking, "what about madam Xu?"

{Dead} Athena replied.

"What happened?" He asked, not really surprised at the information, at least, it was not as surprising as someone being able to restrict Athena from within a system.

{Her car exploded,} Athena said. {Two blocks from her residence, around 7:16 PM. I ran diagnostics on nearby traffic and surveillance cams, but... there’s nothing. Every recording within a two-kilometer radius has been completely overwritten. The city’s grid shows no data gaps either. It’s as if that accident never even happened, not even the news channels reported anything."

"And the power gap they left behind?" He asked.

Even if Jian suddenly disappeared and Madam Xu mysteriously ’died’, there was bound to be a power gap left behind.

{Filled,} she answered, {both their right hands took over the positions without a word of complain or even announcement at the disappearance of their various heads, it was like any other normal day for them.}

Well, that was strange.

"What about Jian?" He straightened, his expression unreadable, "did he go underground?"

{No,} Athena said. {There’s no digital trail to follow, not a single one. I’ve used every surveillance networks throughout Beijing and Shanghai, but the results remained the same, there was nothing. He had vanished completely.}

{The strange part is, his name is being systematically scrubbed from every system that once contained it. Even the state archives are being overwritten in real time, and not by me.} She continued, her voice lowering.

"Someone’s keeping them hidden," he muttered as he stood up, picked a Rubik’s cube that had always been on that desk and started pacing, allowing his mind to freely roam.

Madam Xu’s men were supposed to be completely loyal to her, so there was no way she’d just disappear and they pretend like nothing happened.

Which meant they were assured that she was okay and the plan was to act like nothing happened.

Then there was Jian.

He was an asset in the underworld and with the connections he had, there was no way China’s underworld would be this quiet if anything had really happened to him.

Ethan continued pacing the sound of the Rubik’s cube being solved being the only sound currently filling the room.

Slowly the colors started aligning, first red, then blue, then yellow followed by green and then white, but just when the cube seemed to have been fully solved, he lifted it to eye level, noticing a single green among the whites and white among the green cubes.

"A variable," he muttered looking at the cube, "someone who shouldn’t be part of the equation."

There still remained the question, was this someone one that was targeting Ethan or someone with vendetta with the two and just took advantage of the distraction he had created.

But that didn’t feel quite right.

This didn’t feel like opportunism, this felt intentional, almost as if the person had known Ethan’s next actions and had interfered, completely foiling it.

Ethan spun the cube in his hand as he continued with his thoughts, whoever this was, this person was dangerous.

Even more so than Nathaniel since he had known who he was going against from day one, but this time, both the person’s identity and intentions were hidden.

Which wasn’t a good thing.

Every plan of Ethan’s needed information, something, which he currently lacked on his opponent.

But his advantage still remained, he didn’t know who his enemy was, but neither did the enemy.

This was just a battle between two unknown figures.

{What do we do next?} Athena asked, {do I keep looking or do we go back to the US?}

Her question caused Ethan to stop pacing and look at the screen. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"What we need right now is information," he answered, "and to get that we stick to the previous plan."

{I don’t advise we continue with the plan of replacing Xu and Jian or even their replacements,} Athena said shaking her head, {after all, there’s a chance that their disappearance was just a trap to bait you out.}

"You’re right," Ethan said, "but that’s exactly why we’ll proceed with the plan because if it is a trap, then I want to see who set it."

What he needed was information and the only way to get it was to directly walk into the apparent trap.

If it turned out to be one, then he’d know exactly who set it, but if it turned out that it wasn’t, then everything would just proceed as planned.

It was a win-win situation for him.

With his thoughts completed, the cube suddenly let out a click as the last two colors finally aligned.

The cube was now completely solved and Ethan calmly placed it back on the table. Before turning to the door, "I’ll meet with the Vigilants to explain the slight change in plans."

{I see,} Athena responded, though she still wasn’t sold on the idea of proceeding with the plan, all her calculations told her that there was an eighty percent chance that this was all a trap.

But there was a nintey percent one that said that even if this was a trap, Ethan would find a way out of it.

Although, this time, it would be hard to tell if he would really find a way.