As Roy and Taylor crossed the threshold of Roy's Industries, a familiar face caught Roy's eye:
A 70-year-old man with a meticulously groomed countenance, donned in a brown suit, leaning on a cane. He ushered Roy into his office.
"Ah, welcome, Roy. Or should I say, son of my best friend, Reyman Keaton."
Roy's voice thundered through the room,
"You traitor! How dare you call my father your best friend, James!"
Roy's body convulsed as he coughed up blood, unable to contain his fury and the sudden surge of it.
"So, the rumors are true. You are dying. A tragic finale for the son of the legendary Reyman, the creator and pioneer."
"Shut up, James. Taylor, why did you bring me here? Tell me."
Roy spun around, his gaze locked onto Taylor, his voice seething with rage. His body was on the brink of collapse from the shock.
Taylor's laughter echoed in the room as he sauntered towards the imposing chair at the center and settled into it, a smug expression playing on his face.
"Why are you here? Well, to get a tour of my empire, of course. You idiot."
'What is going on?'
Roy was left reeling, trying to make sense of the unfolding events, while Taylor and James reveled in their amusement.
Taylor's smirk widened, his tone dripping with arrogance,
"You see, I'm not someone you found coincidentally and then recruited for your revenge mission. My real name is not Taylor Dustan. It's Taylor Millner, James Millner's son."
James beamed, spreading his arms wide in a victorious gesture, and confessed,
"Roy, I knew you would come up with a plan to take down Roy Industries after your father died, so I planted my son as your friend."
"You bastards!"
Roy was shell-shocked, his anger reaching a boiling point. He lunged at Taylor, intent on throttling him.
As Roy closed in on Taylor, guards swiftly intercepted him and forced him into a chair opposite Taylor before he could react.
Roy was immobilized, his coughing fit intensifying, his energy reserves depleted after his outburst.
"Roy, don't die on me before I complete my epic tale – how my family totally manipulated and destroyed your family. How is this title?"
James feigned sympathy for Roy, but his grin betrayed his delight at Roy's predicament. He added,
"Your father was a great man. He created a game that revolutionized not only the gaming industry but the entire tech industry. You must have noticed, upon your arrival, that everything from cars, bridges, trains, to even clothing, were created based on your father's automation technology."
Roy, his voice barely a whisper, blood trickling from his mouth, managed to say,
"So, that's why you betrayed him, out of jealousy."
"No, no. I betrayed him because he told me he wanted to give his technologies to the public and other industries for free to create a future for everyone."
James's expression hardened as he declared,
"Once I and the shareholders heard that, we were shocked. What kind of idiot would do something like that? Don't you agree?"
Roy's face contorted with rage, his teeth grinding together. His eyes darted around, searching for something to use against his enemies. His gaze landed on a snow globe on Taylor's desk in front of him. He seized it and hurled it at James.
However, Roy's feeble throw allowed James to effortlessly catch it. He taunted,
"Look at you. Don't do stunts like this; you might crack your arm while throwing."
Taylor and James continued to ridicule Roy, savoring every moment of their long-awaited victory.
In the midst of their laughter, a sudden thought struck Taylor. He announced,
"Oh, I forgot to show you something when we were coming here. Wait a minute, I will display it here."
With a swift click of a hidden button beneath the desk, the room plunged into darkness. A brilliant light then projected behind Taylor, illuminating a towering statue in the heart of the city. Inscribed at the base were the words, "Reyman Keaton, The Father of Future."
Roy was left reeling, his mind spinning as he struggled to comprehend the sight. A single question echoed in his mind,
'Why, why, why?'
Seeing Roy's state of shock, Taylor, his grin widening, declared,
"Yes, that is your father's statue, in honor of changing the future forever for everyone."
Roy was thrown into a whirlwind of panic and confusion. His body trembled, sweat trickling down his face. His breathing became ragged. He was lost in the chaos of the moment.
As Taylor flicked the lights back on, he approached Roy, offering a comforting pat on his back. His concern was not for Roy's wellbeing, but rather to ensure that Roy would live to hear the rest of their tale.
"Roy, calm down. Don't die on me, okay? You need to hear the full story."
To deepen Roy's despair, James chimed in,
"Twenty-seven years ago, before my father injected his malware virus into the main server, he backed up all the data related to every creation your father had developed."
Roy was still in a daze. James, eager to twist the knife further, raised his right hand in a grand gesture, capturing Roy's attention, and boasted,
"Once the real 'Thief's Paradise' game started, everything came under my hands. Your father's demise began, and he tried to put it together, but we, the stockholders, made him the scapegoat and forced him out of his own company. Subsequently, I established a new business empire after your father's work was destroyed, mostly thanks to you."
Taylor, a sinister smile playing on his lips, stepped forward, shedding light on their nefarious scheme,
"My father thought everything was over after your father's death, and he believed he won everything, but I knew you, Roy. My family always watched your family in the shadows. You would not back down easily, possibly try to destroy your entire Roy Industries. Just as I suspected, you soon began your plan, so I laid several baits to recruit me into your mission. Now here I am, standing as the CEO of Roy Industries."
Despite the revelations, one question gnawed at Roy's mind. He managed to ask, his voice barely above a whisper, his hands stained with blood from his relentless coughing,
"Why is my father's statue in the middle of the city?"
"Seriously, that's your biggest doubt from what we revealed that could become a hit anime. I commend you for your simpleton thinking."
Taylor clapped sarcastically and addressed Roy's question,
"The reason is simple. We convinced everyone that your father was innocent all along. The malware injected 27 years ago? That was your doing. To protect you, Reyman took all the blame, but in the end, you killed him to hide the truth. Even though you were only 14 at the time of the malware incident, people believed the story. Eventually, they forgave him, but you became humanity's main antagonist."
As Taylor and James laid bare their machinations, Roy's mind went blank, not from rage, but from a sense of relief that washed over him at Taylor's words. He murmured unconsciously,
'At last, my father's name has been cleared.'
"Roy, are you here? Roy, come to earth; the story isn't over yet. Roy!"
Taylor gently jostled Roy's shoulder to bring him back to reality.
As Roy turned to look at Taylor, his eyes reddened from tears of relief that his father was no longer to blame, Taylor misinterpreted his tears as a reaction to their revelations.
"Roy, now you understand. Everything that happened in your life until now, just like my father manipulated and destroyed your father, you got manipulated and destroyed by me. As they say, like father, like son."
However, Roy remained silent, lost in thought,
'I no longer need to worry about clearing my father's name. I can now die in peace.'
James, eager to shatter Roy's fleeting moment of relief and make him understand their true intentions, rose from his chair and slowly approached Roy. He whispered in Roy's ear,
"You think you are dying because of your poor health? No, you are dying because we slowly infected your prison cell with tuberculosis-filled air. We didn't kill you right away, because you can live long enough to see what kind of empire my family has built on your family's grave."