The following night, Lucas heard the sound of engines. He didn't get a wink of sleep the previous day as his mind was occupied with confusing thoughts. He had a strong urge to break through these doors to see who had arrived.
But he didn't have to.
"Seize him!"
Lucas recognized this voice - it was the man with the clown mask. There was a ruckus on the deck.
"What the heck? Here's the money!"
He was ascertained of the next voice he heard. It belonged to his eldest brother, Hubert Yang. His heart sank. Was Hubert really the mastermind?
"Oh yeah, you think I did this for the money?"
"You just want more money, right? I can top it up. Let me go, stick to the plan."
"Stick to the plan? Sure! Bring out that kid!"
"No! What are you doing?"
Lucas was bewildered by the unexpected turn of events. The next thing he knew, the doors opened and he was brought to the deck of the yacht. Everything was happening a little too fast.
It was the first time he saw the world outside the room. They were really in the middle of fucking nowhere. The dark sea surrounding them look like it was ready to engulf them anytime. He was greeted by the familiar clown mask and the face of the man he had known for 21 years.
Hubert Yang, the "crowned prince" of his family, wasn't displaying his usual demeanor. He was seized by two men. His face was as white as a sheet when he saw Lucas. They were at a loss for words as they glanced at each other. Lucas was overwhelmed with emotions. Part of him raging with fire, he wanted to beat the hell out of Hubert and demand the reason for his actions. Another part of him was dejected. He didn't want to believe Hubert had a role in this and he was still puzzled at his motives for kidnapping him. Was it for money? Why didn't he just asked their father?
"Hubert…what the heck is going on?" Lucas spoke for the first time in days. Hubert turned his gaze away from Lucas and questioned the kidnapper, "What do you want? This wasn't the original plan."
"Dear Lucas, you're too naive. You definitely need to learn how to judge the people around you…"
Those words sent shivers down his spine. The clown-masked kidnapper was using a different voice to speak to him. A voice he had heard a million times before. He removed some sort of voice-changing device that he was wearing around his neck.
When the kidnapper lifted off his mask, another missing piece of the puzzle was revealed. He had thought this clown-faced dude was just a crazy outlaw but the face beneath the mask brought a shattering revelation.
"Hello, Lucas. Oh wait, should I call you 'kid'?" he tried to mimic the tone he had been using previously. That man was Janson, the only friend Lucas had until now.
"There's more than meets the eye, my clan leader. Outside of the gaming world, you're really quite useless."
Lucas never imagined Jason to be the leader of the kidnappers. Just what in the world is going on?
"I was a spy planted by your lovely brother. He wanted to make sure you weren't bearing any secret intentions of taking over the family business so he paid me to be your 'friend' at school. He wanted to make sure you were just a useless gamer. I bet he did the same thing to Mike Yang.
You weren't aware of his obsession for power, were you?"
"I'm sick and tired of you rich kids. Here you have the perfect leader in the eyes of everybody, the flawless Hubert Yang who hid his intentions so well. No one knew he had greed deeper than being the CEO of Majestic Technologies. He was secretly trying to build an empire but it didn't work out well…so poof! His personal ventures failed and he's owing a huge debt."
Janson was acting as if he was delivering a monologue. Lucas had never seen this side of him before.
"If he had just asked his father for money, things wouldn't be so complicated. But in order to preserve his flawless image, he staged this little act to 'extort' money from his family to pay his debts. And he chose to kidnap his youngest brother because he was the easiest one." Janson continued.
"Did you know what your brother said when he asked me to kidnap you? He said this was probably your only worth."
This was the truth Lucas had been seeking, the reason why Hubert wouldn't dare look him in the eye. This was all happening because the "crowned prince" cannot be flawed. Not in front of their father. He knew his brother to be a high achiever but he had no idea he would go to such extremes. But what tore him apart was knowing for the first time what Hubert thought about him all along - worthless. And Janson, the buddy he trusted, was merely working for his brother. Some truths are hard to swallow.
"And then we have Lucas Yang, a good-for-nothing wastrel who thinks he's some big shot in a game. Stupid is the only word I have to say about him. In fact, both of you are equally foolish to fall into my trap."
Hubert and Lucas were puzzled.
"If you want money, just say it. Let us go and we can pretend this whole thing never happened, okay?" Hubert was running out of patience.
"Pretend this whole thing never happened?" Janson repeated those words in a menacing voice. "What you did to my brother when you were fifteen, did you just pretend it never happened?"
Hubert had no idea what he was talking about. He's 27. Who'd remember anything that happened years ago?
"Of course, you must be too busy to remember a boy by the name of Branson Loh."
Hubert's face grew paler on hearing that name.
"You got the wrong guy to be a spy, Hubert. You thought I was some poor fellow trying to work for you and get on your good side. Like one of your sidekicks. Yeah, thanks for paying me but I wasn't just hungry for the money. I want revenge for my brother, the kid who always came first in Math so you had to settle for second. He'd have a bright future if he was still alive."
Lucas recalled that there was this one time that he felt his brother was behaving weirdly. Hubert was around 15 years old then. One day, he returned home smeared in mud all over. He claimed that he had gone hiking with friends and fell. He locked himself up in his room for a few days, saying he needed rest.
The following week, the news reported a student from his school was found dead in the forest. Investigations revealed he had fallen down a slope and lay there unconscious for days. If he had been discovered earlier, he might had a chance of surviving.
Connecting the dots, Lucas figured Hubert had something to do with Branson's death and Janson knew the truth.
"Yes, his death was an accident. But you and your friends were the ones responsible for it. If it wasn't for your brilliant idea to prank him by stealing all his belongings and hiding them in some abandoned house in the forest, he wouldn't have gone there. You guys were watching him from a distance, laughing at how silly he was. You witnessed him fall and just pretended nothing happened. You could have saved him but your pride was more important. You don't want anybody to know he went there because of you. Maybe you even wanted my brother to die so no one would compete with you. You were a scaredy cat, just like now."
Hubert was shivering. Lucas had never seen him like this before. This could only mean one thing, that Janson was telling the truth.
"It took me some time to piece everything together but I never stopped seeking the truth. You thought I was helping to spy on Lucas? No, I was just waiting for a chance. Any sort of chance to bring your pathetic family down!"
Lucas thought of Xue Ying and Lu Shen in the Dungeon he just conquered. A similar fate seemed to be happening to him. He was a chess piece that could be manipulated by anyone and he was worse than Xue Ying who at least had 359 disciples willing to fight it out with him.
"What do you want from me, asshole?" Hubert knew he was losing his game.
"A confession. Or I'll throw your brother to the sharks and let you watch him die. I'll see if you can pretend nothing has happened."
"What confession? No one would believe you."
Janson signaled the other guys who still had their masks on to grab Lucas. He tried to struggle but he was no match against them.
"You're not Ash Knight now, you won't make it out of here," Janson jeered. "It all depends if your brother wants to save you."
He gave the orders for one of his guys to record everything with his smartphone.
"Tell the camera how you tricked my brother into the forest and how you walked away after seeing him fall down the slope, you murderer."
Lucas watched Hubert who just stood there, refusing to make a move. His prideful brother wouldn't do something like this to leave a stain on his perfect life. He thought he saw Hubert open his mouth but no words came out of it.
"I guess it's goodbye, Lucas. A life for a life, fair and square." the men dragged Lucas towards the railings, they were ready to throw him in anytime.
"Hubert…" despite hating this world and hating his life, Lucas wasn't ready to die. He shouldn't be paying for the crimes of his brother.
"Saying something, Hubert. I'm your brother…"
"I…" Hubert muttered, then paused.
Lucas didn't know what his brother was thinking. Indeed, his life was worthless. Hubert would rather hold on to his pride than save him.
"Lucas, I…"
Not all hope was lost. Perhaps Hubert had come around.
"I'm sorry," those were Hubert's last words before he delivered punches to the two men who were seizing him and knocked them out. Oh right, his athletic brother had a black belt in karate, Lucas thought. Hubert leaped and jumped into the sea, swimming towards the motorboat he arrived in and sped off. Janson and his men were taken by surprise. They scrambled to give chase but Hubert was no longer in insight.
"COWARD!!!!" Janson slammed the table. His perfect plan to ruin the Yang family had gone haywire.
"Hey, the kid's gone, where did he go!"
Janson looked around, Lucas was nowhere to be found. He had seized the chance to escape when the men attempted to chase Hubert. Thanks to the drunkard who left beer bottles lying around, Lucas managed to break one of them and used the shards to cut himself free of the ropes.
"Look around, he must be hiding somewhere."
Lucas had escaped into the control room which was left unlocked. He knew it was just a matter of time before anyone found him. If he could figure out the controls and try to contact someone or trigger some emergency alert, he might get help. He locked the door behind him to buy himself some time.
"Lucas Yang, you're not useless. Figure out these controls!" A voice inside his mind chided him.
He tried several buttons but nothing was working. Footsteps were marching outside the room, someone was trying to open the door.
"Hey, this door's locked!"
The men were forcing open the door. Lucas had no time to lose, he pressed every button on the control panel frantically, hoping for one miracle. In the midst of chaos, he heard a sound. A static noise. He had triggered some sort of connection! The system seemed to be linking up…
But Lucas never had the chance to find out where it was connecting to. The door behind him flew open and he felt a heavy blow at the back of his head. His world was spinning, his vision was blurring…he sensed someone lifting him.
The cold wind brushed against his face as the men carried him back to the deck. He fought hard to keep the last bit of consciousness that remained in him.
"Let's play a game." Janson's voice rang in his ears. "I'll watch you fall and pretend nothing happened at all. Like what your brother did to my brother. And we'll see if you survive."
Lucas felt that his body didn't belong to him. His mind was telling his body to use every remaining strength he had to fight back but he was like a malfunctioned robot that wouldn't connect to its system.
"Don't worry. The rest of your family will join you soon."
The last thing he remembered seeing as he was being hurled into the dark waters was Janson's wicked smile.