"No more games! Damn it—I'm going to bed!"
Jiang Hai slammed his cards into the pile in front of him. Once again, as the lord, he'd lost five points of health. His luck tonight was beyond miserable.
Earlier, they'd decided to spend the night playing Three Kingdoms, and Jiang Hai had eagerly joined in. But from the moment the game started, everything had gone downhill. When he played as Zhang Fei, he didn't draw a single attack card. As Guan Yu, he got no red cards. He finally drew Zhen Ji—then all the cards turned out red. He tried Huang Yueying, but couldn't draw Jinxiang. Even when he played Da Qiao, he had no cube. Now, as Sun Quan—the lord—he tried using the Balance card every round but didn't even have a single Dodge in hand.
Meanwhile, Bernice, sitting next to him, played Huang Zhong and equipped herself with a Lian** and a -1 horse. There was no point continuing—within two rounds, Jiang Hai was wiped out.
"Jiang, you're playing horribly," said Darlene, shaking her head. She'd drawn the loyalist role this round and could only watch helplessly as Jiang Hai's bad luck dragged her down too.
"It's the cards! You wouldn't understand. Whatever, I'm going to bed..." Jiang Hai muttered as he stared at the pile of discarded cards. He licked his lips and sighed. Why is my luck so awful tonight?
They say if you're unlucky in games, you might be lucky in other areas. Perhaps his misfortune at the table signaled a turn for the better elsewhere...
Unbeknownst to Jiang Hai, trouble was already brewing—in an upscale apartment in Boston.
Peter Walter sat stiffly across from Faraday Kirk, his face dark with barely suppressed fury. The man in front of him had taken his money but done absolutely nothing in return. Even with his current disheveled appearance, Faraday's excuses weren't going to save him.
"Mr. Walter, I swear I've done everything I could. If there was any way to deal with Jiang Hai or Winthrop, I would've done it. But I really don't have any other options. Right now, the entire state is practically waiting on the taxes he'll pay next year. There's no way I can touch him under these circumstances..." Faraday pleaded, looking utterly desperate. He hadn't realized just how powerful Jiang Hai had become.
"You've misunderstood something, Mr. Kirk," Peter Walter replied coldly, tapping the armrest of his chair. "I'm not here to listen to excuses. I want results."
"I really have no other choice," Faraday insisted. "I'll return your money—double. Sue me if you want. Sure, I took bribes, but you're not clean either. And aren't you running for the presidency of Celanese Corporation? If any scandal comes out now, it won't look good for you, will it?"
Faraday had reached the end of his rope. If Peter Walter wanted to play hardball, he could play too.
"Oh? Trying to threaten me now?" Peter's eyes narrowed. He wanted to strangle this man on the spot—but this was the rich district of Boston, not some back alley. With great effort, he suppressed his rage.
"Fine. Return the money tenfold. Miss even a single penny, and I'll make sure you suffer consequences far worse than jail."
Faraday's face twisted. He had taken $200,000 in bribes—ten times that meant two million dollars. That was more than he'd earned in his entire life. He'd have to sell the house just to cover it. But if he didn't pay, jail might be the least of his worries. Peter wasn't bluffing.
Peter left without waiting for an answer.
Since being sanctioned in Winthrop, Peter and his group had relocated to Boston. The townspeople there had made their stance clear—Augustine and his followers had lost public support, and anyone associated with Celanese was persona non grata. They couldn't buy cigarettes, groceries, or even a lighter. If not for Azarina's watchful presence, Jiang Hai wouldn't have even let them stay in his seaside villa.
With few options, Peter moved everyone to Boston. That night, after returning to his hotel, the staff heard shouting from his room. Around 9 p.m., he left with another man, heading toward the South District. By 10, their group had grown to ten men. They rented a boat from Boston Harbor and set out for Jiang Hai's estate by sea.
"Boss... are we really doing this?" one young man asked hesitantly, glancing at the middle-aged man beside him.
"What, scared?" the man sneered.
"It's not that. It's just... it's Jiang Hai. Even a guy like Billy got taken down by him. I heard all those families were wiped out."
"There's no proof Jiang Hai did that," another man chimed in. "Billy pissed off a lot of people—probably just rival gangs cleaning house."
The first man still looked uneasy. "But can we even pull this off? I heard Jiang Hai's estate is heavily guarded."
"That's why we're going by sea. We're not idiots." Their employer—sitting quietly at the front—finally spoke.
He turned to address the group. "Listen closely. No killing. No kidnapping Jiang Hai himself. Just the women close to him. Two girls—Darlene and Marian. They're supposedly his adopted daughters. Mistresses, maybe. Either way, they're his soft spots. We need at least one of them. Got it?"
Everyone nodded. A kidnapping job was one thing; murder was another entirely.
"Good. Let's move."
Masks on, they restarted the boat's engine and headed for Jiang Hai's private waters.
What they didn't realize was that as soon as they entered those waters, a pair of eyes opened in the deep sea. A burst of sound, undetectable to humans, rippled outward. Seconds later, shadows stirred beneath the waves—massive fish beginning to shift toward the intruders.
Time: 3:20 a.m.
They were now only thirty minutes from the dock. The manor's lights were visible in the distance. But instead of heading to the pier, they veered toward the forested shoreline.
Suddenly, the boat shuddered violently. The propeller sputtered and stopped. The entire vessel drifted to a halt.
"What the hell—?" the employer barked.
"I don't know! The propeller's jammed. Damn it, they gave us faulty gear!" one man cursed as he inspected it. Others quickly joined the complaining chorus.
"Fix it. Fast. We're running out of time," the leader snapped. If they didn't act before sunrise, this entire operation would be a bust.
They worked quickly to lift the propeller from the water. One man succeeded—but as it rose, his eyes widened in horror.
Wrapped tightly around the propeller was a massive tentacle.
"What the hell is that?" he gasped.
Before anyone could respond, more tentacles burst from the water. They coiled around the boat, thrashing it violently.
"It's a giant squid!" the middle-aged leader shouted. "Find a way out—fast!"
A crew member pulled out a handgun and fired at one of the tentacles. Blue blood splattered everywhere, but it did nothing.
The creature turned its attention to him.
In an instant, the tentacle snapped forward, pierced through his clothes with barbed suckers, and dragged him—chair and all—off the boat and into the sea. His scream was cut short by the crashing waves.
"Clay!" someone yelled. The rest rushed to help, but the boat shook so violently that they were thrown back.
"Abandon ship!" the leader shouted. He and the employer locked eyes, both realizing the vessel wouldn't hold much longer.
Everyone scrambled for gear, then leapt into the sea.
But the water wasn't safety—it was worse.
They swam frantically toward shore, unaware of the dark shapes rising beneath them. Huge shadows passed just under the surface. Then—suddenly—one burst upward.
A monstrous black form lunged from below, grabbed a man by the waist, and snapped him in half mid-air before crashing back into the sea.
The others froze, horrified.
"What is this...?" someone whispered, unable to comprehend the scene. Blood spread across the waves.
They had come to kidnap Jiang Hai's family.
They didn't realize they were swimming straight into his domain.
(To be continued...)