Witch, Fireball and Steam Evil God

Chapter 353 Dr. Ethan
Despite the apparent kidnapping scenario, Winter and Black Cat seemed incredibly excited, leading Ethan to believe they showed absolutely no respect for the hardworking kidnappers.

Based on Ethan's understanding of the two cats, Winter probably sensed the conspiracy and amusement, while Dark had long been fascinated by the movable boxes coming and going on the street. If Ethan hadn't been there to watch over them, this restless black cat might have staged a Grand Theft Auto-style scene in his dream, stopping a car on the street, dragging the driver out, kicking him hard, and then driving off himself.

This is a bad cat.

As for the three burly men in black suits on the bread, who were suspected to be kidnappers, they were quite professional. After getting into the car, they locked the doors and remained silent throughout.

Ethan didn't talk to them. He leaned against the car window, watching the ever-changing street scene outside. It had been a long time since he had really looked at the city's scenery since he transmigrated. The black cat, meanwhile, was pawing at the car window, its eyes shining.

"Ethan, Ethan, why don't you have such a big box at home?"

The sudden question caused an uproar among the kidnappers in the van. They stared in disbelief at the black cat that had suddenly spoken, but their excellent professional ethics made them restrain their intense curiosity and remain silent.

Ethan facepalmed.

Modern society has no concept of monsters, nor do talking cats exist. When he looks back on his life of the past twenty years, he will know that he lived in a world without superpowers, supernatural phenomena, or mysticism. Almost all rumors about such things are fabricated to deceive people.

As darkness fell, the van drove onto the elevated highway, which led out of the city.

This is a common scene in TV dramas, often appearing in programs like "Case Focus." In a long shot, a white van drives further and further away on the highway, and the black screen that follows will display a line of white text that reads, "Xiaosen disappeared without a trace and was never found again."

This program is used to warn children not to get into strangers' vans.

Ethan still didn't know the three men's identities. This was clearly not something that had happened to him before. In his more than 20 years of life, he had never been kidnapped. But then again, it made sense. An ordinary office worker like him with no savings had no value in being kidnapped. He would never have the worries of a billionaire.

Thinking of this, he glanced at Winter.

However, a stunningly beautiful foreign woman like Lin Dong with white hair and red eyes walking down the street might trigger a kidnapping incident.

If these three dedicated kidnappers came for this reason, Ethan could only sigh at their future fate. In the Empire, the combined bounty of three kidnappers like them wouldn't even amount to a fraction of Winter's bounty.

Leaving the city is a good thing.

By the time the police find the van abandoned deep in the mountains, most of the ice shards scattered on the ground will have melted long ago. They will be left with only an empty van, never knowing where its buyer went or what happened to them.

……

hiss--!
Ethan was startled by his own thoughts. He felt that this respectful and law-abiding young man had probably been corrupted by Winter and Darkness. As he looked at the rising sunset in the distance, he subconsciously began to think about the cleanup work.

He had to clarify that he was not a deranged serial killer.

"Ethan, Ethan, you still haven't answered me!"

The black cat persisted, asking, "Why don't you have a box this big?"

To be honest, it's because of poverty.

Ethan was a little anxious. He was a staunch subway commuter, the kind who would even hesitate to take a taxi to and from work. There was no way he would buy a car worth over 100,000 yuan and then spend another 10,000 yuan a year on parking and maintenance.

"That's it..."

Black Cat withdrew her gaze from the distance, her beautiful heterochromatic eyes turning to the black-suited kidnapper who had "invited" them into the car. Her face darkened, and her voice became much colder. "Ethan is poor; he can't afford such a big box."

Ethan was plunged into darkness.

He always ignored Xiao An's mind-reading ability.

Faced with a cat's approach, the black-suited kidnapper's expression finally softened. He cast a questioning look at the black cat, which made Xiao An frown. She grinned, subtly displaying her fangs, and said, "I said, Ethan is poor. Are you deaf?"

She thought the big man in the black suit was either deaf or stupid.

His indifference only confirmed Xiao An's suspicions. She could only teach this hopelessly stupid big guy step by step, "Hand over all your money, and this big box too!"

The darkness in Ethan's eyes deepened.

The absurd scene he never dreamed of was unfolding before his eyes—the three kidnappers were robbed by the victim on their way to move him. They not only lost their wallets, but also their white van, the tool of the crime.

Ethan thought that if Dark succeeded, it might become one of the city's most ridiculous news stories of the year.

"Xiao An, I told you not to use violence indiscriminately!"

He stepped in and stopped the black cat's robbery, but this time the black cat stood up straight and argued, "Without violence, I had no intention of turning them into ghouls!"

After all, she felt that these three big, deaf, and mute guys were no different from ghouls. "I was using a subtle approach to hope that they would donate some money to us poor people... This is a charity event to show love! It's also for their own health. Weren't the comments on those previous videos all saying 'May good people live in peace'?"

This was indeed a comment under one of his favorite videos, but clearly, the naive Xiao An misunderstood the meaning of the sentence.

"If they don't hand over the money, they might contract a very serious disease, who knows?"

"Don't listen to her nonsense."

Sensing the increasingly tense atmosphere in the carriage, Ethan quickly said to the three of them, "This child is talking nonsense. Look at her, she's just a little kitten. Does she look like she could suddenly attack and hurt someone?"

Ethan was met with another silence. His attempts to negotiate seemed to have failed to ease the tense atmosphere in the carriage, and the two men in the back seat had already placed their hands on the guns at their waists.

But it makes sense, really. A talking black cat appeared on the bus and tried to extort money from them. Anyone would have to be careful if they encountered that.

"Alright, Xiao An, since that's the case, I won't pretend anymore. Actually, I'm very rich. I have a car that's much bigger than this big box, but it's not convenient to take it out normally."

He was referring to the subway.

As long as he desires to take the subway, it will arrive at the designated location to pick him up within three minutes, without fail, all year round. In fact, it's practically the same as him owning the subway. Moreover, he believes that with Xiao An's mind, the bigger and faster the box, the better it will suit her.

Ethan added, "I'll show you around tomorrow." Amidst the conversation between the man and the cat, the van drove up the winding mountain road and finally came to a stop at the top of the mountain. A mansion came into view, located on the mountaintop, complete with an outdoor swimming pool and various party facilities. It seemed that the entire mountain belonged to the mansion's owner.

More men in black appeared.

They were all dressed in the same clothes, black suits with white shirts. The leader was wearing a pair of high-tech sunglasses. After the van door slowly opened, he scanned the three of them back and forth, and the sunglasses made a soft "beep beep beep" sound from time to time. After about 30 seconds, the leader nodded.

This is probably a check to see if they are carrying any deadly weapons such as guns.

Everyone here is armed. In a country where guns are completely banned, this clearly demonstrates that the owners of these mansions are not law-abiding citizens, but rather possess extraordinary status.

This reminded Ethan of the figure that appeared simultaneously in the memory fragments of the Golden King and the Crimson Queen.

—They are all working for the company.

The entire "pioneering plan" was spearheaded by the company owner.

However, considering the relationship between the company owner and Winter...

Should he call the other party "father-in-law"?
The fragments of Crimson's memory reveal that the company boss initially initiated this research to delve into his daughter's mind and find the possibility of awakening her. All signs indicate that the source of the plan, the being regarded as a goddess by the pioneers and worshipped by the guild, is the future Winter.

And now, she stood beside him, following the three expressionless "kidnappers" in black suits into the magnificent hilltop mansion.

Now, his relationship with Winter is progressing very well. Since returning from the abnormal plane "Canopy", Winter has been greatly inspired and has recently begun to study the science of laying and incubating eggs. Ethan is cautious about this and is also very uneasy. He doesn't know whether his father-in-law will be overjoyed to hear that his daughter found a boyfriend while she was in a coma and has even progressed to the stage of laying and incubating eggs, or will he mobilize all the security personnel in this mansion to kick him out?
The behind-the-scenes owner of Pioneer Corporation, and the driving force behind this groundbreaking technology.

In reality, Ethan didn't have much of an impression of this behind-the-scenes figure in his memory. Before he transmigrated, he might have just been a project manager under the other party, and according to his rank, he didn't have the qualifications to directly face the company owner. Or perhaps all his impressions of the other party had disappeared along with those memories.

Regardless, he met the big boss behind the scenes.

Unlike the well-dressed security personnel at the villa, his attire was quite casual. He wore a white shirt with gold trim only on the collar, and a pair of casual trousers. When we met, he was facing the wall-mounted LCD TV in the living room, but instead of a TV show or movie, it was playing curves that he couldn't understand.

"Mr. Ethan."

He picked up the champagne glass on the table and came forward. "It's great to finally meet you. And who is this?"

The man glanced at Winter with a puzzled look.

In front of the "stranger," Winter appeared poised and confident. She affectionately took Ethan's arm, a happy smile on her face, and said, "Family member."

The man gave a polite smile. "You met your girlfriend 'over there,' right? Best wishes to you both."

The awkward situation Ethan had anticipated did not occur. In fact, neither the man nor Winter recognized the other, and they acted as if they were meeting for the first time.

"Please don't blame me for my approach. I heard from HR that you missed today's interview. I really don't want to miss the opportunity to work with someone as talented as you."

A glass filled with clear, transparent liquid was handed to Ethan. Before he drank it, the black cat in Winter's arms straightened up, dipped its paw into the glass, licked some of the bubbling liquid, and then put it in its mouth.

"Don't worry, it's not poisonous. It's sweet and tastes pretty good."

"That's what the black cat commented."

Seeing the boss's surprised look, Ethan quickly explained, "This is the latest AI-powered simulated cat. It looks exactly like a regular house cat, except that it can communicate with humans in real time."

"No wonder he's a top student from Mochi Science and Technology."

The man's eyes lit up. "I must apologize again, but I think the HR department can't express how much I value you. It would be best if we could talk face-to-face."

Mochi Engineering, a top student?

Ethan couldn't understand how these two incongruous titles had been bestowed upon him. In his memory, his best achievement in high school was only in the top five of his grade, and before he could even settle into that position, he was quickly overtaken by the top scorers in his class and grade in the next monthly exam.

His college entrance exam results were solid; he wasn't a dark horse, but they weren't enough to cause him to miss out on the universities he applied to.

How could someone like him possibly be associated with a prestigious university like Mochi Polytechnic?
Seeing Ethan's astonishment, the man immediately explained, "Mr. Ethan, although you've kept a low profile since returning home, someone as talented as you will shine anywhere. You graduated with a degree in theoretical physics from Moss Tech University and even earned a PhD in philosophy while still in school. I've read your paper, 'Observing Einstein-Podolix-Rosen Entanglement in Super-Quantum Structures through the Phenomenon of Extremely Long Wavelength Pulses from a Source Queue of Locked Modes via Nonlinear Transuranic Crystals,' which coincides perfectly with the project our company is currently researching!"

Things are getting more and more outrageous.

He admired the man for reciting a series of titles that he himself found difficult to repeat, without batting an eye; these were actually the titles of his doctoral dissertation.

So here's the question: Did he really pursue a PhD in theoretical physics?

Ethan was skeptical, but this seemed to inadvertently explain the name "Ethan," since the big boss of Pioneer Technology seemed to treat him as a returning PhD.

“Mr. Ethan, I have read your paper carefully, and sometimes we need to go a step further on the existing theoretical foundation.”

The man straightened his expression; these were clearly the words he had prepared.

Ethan only then belatedly realized what was being shown on the LCD TV.

Those unknown function graphs might just be the content of his doctoral dissertation.

"I want to ask you a question."

The man said, "Do you believe in the existence of the multiverse? That is, besides the world we live in and are familiar with, there are places we don't know about, where there are also intelligent life forms, and civilizations that are no less advanced than ours!"

That's a very pertinent question.

In fact, they came from a plane that was still in the Victorian era but had a thriving mysticism.

The man explained his purpose and extended an olive branch, "Mr. Ethan, I hope you can continue the theory proposed in your graduation thesis. In the meantime, our company will provide you with comprehensive assistance."

(End of this chapter)