Miguel stared at the dossier spread across the digital map. Manila glowed red with corruption, but one family stood out above the rest: the Montemayor Clan of Cavite.
For three decades, the Montemayors ruled with iron hands masked in silk gloves. Ports, trucking, smuggling, even private armies — all under their payroll. They had funded Salcedo, the disgraced senator. They had sent killers after Cruz, Alcantara, and Santos.
The Ghost Army could no longer just shield reformists. It was time to crush a dynasty.
[New Task: Dismantle a Political Dynasty.]
[Objective: Destroy the Montemayor Clan's political, financial, and military structure.]
[Reward: Shadow Influence Protocols — covert leverage over local governments.]
Miguel briefed his commanders.
"Dynasties survive on three pillars: money, fear, and votes. Break one, they stumble. Break two, they bleed. Break all three, they die."
Money: The Montemayors laundered millions through Cavite's port. Ghost hackers traced the shell firms.
Fear: Their private army — five hundred men with rifles and RPGs — guarded warehouses and extorted businesses.
Votes: Their barangay captains controlled ballot boxes with payoffs and intimidation.
The Ghost Army would hit all three at once.
A nighttime raid on the Cavite docks began the assault. Bravo Squad infiltrated warehouses stacked with crates. Ghost hackers froze accounts mid-operation, while explosives quietly detonated the clan's stored cash bundles.
Millions of pesos burned overnight. The Montemayors woke up broke, their laundered fortunes trapped offshore.
Two nights later, the Montemayor private army gathered to "discipline" a factory owner refusing to pay. They expected obedience. Instead, they met silence — then shadows moving in from all sides.
Suppressors hissed. Ghost drones buzzed overhead. By dawn, thirty men lay dead, weapons seized. The survivors fled into the hills, leaving their employers without enforcers.
Fear shifted. For the first time, the Montemayors were the hunted.
Election machinery was next. The Ghost Army leaked recordings of Montemayor bribes to barangay captains. Videos surfaced of vote-buying, ballot box tampering, payoffs stacked on tables.
Miguel's new media network made sure it trended within hours. By evening, Cavite's residents were whispering: "The dynasty cheats. We've been robbed for years."
Even loyal barangay captains began to distance themselves, fearing exposure.
On the fifth night, Miguel left the Montemayor patriarch one last gift.
A convoy of SUVs returning from a private resort was intercepted on the expressway. The drivers found themselves surrounded by masked men with night-vision goggles.
No one fired. Instead, Miguel himself stepped forward from the dark. His voice was cold steel:
"Your era is over. You will not harm Villanueva. You will not harm Cruz. You will not harm anyone we protect. Stay in your mansion, enjoy what's left. Interfere again, and the Ghost will erase your name from history."
The patriarch — once the feared lord of Cavite — sat frozen, sweat pouring, unable to answer.
The convoy was allowed to drive away. But the Montemayors never recovered.
The System pulsed:
[Task Complete: Dismantle the Montemayor Clan.]
[Reward Unlocked: Shadow Influence Protocols.]
[You may now influence local governments through covert leverage. Barangay, city, and provincial decisions can be nudged silently.]
On Miguel's map, Cavite shifted from deep red to neutral grey. A dynasty had fallen — not with votes, not with courts, but with shadows
The network of reformists noticed.
Vergara received anonymous reports showing the Montemayor empire collapsing. Alcantara heard whispers from businessmen thanking "invisible allies" for freeing Cavite from extortion. Cruz's approval rating surged in Iloilo, as voters believed she had allies beyond politics.
One by one, they began to connect dots.
Someone was reshaping the Philippines.
They still didn't know who. But they knew one thing: they weren't alone.
And Miguel — watching from his hidden war room — knew the Ghost Army had stepped into a new phase.
This wasn't defense anymore.
This was war for the soul of the nation.