Chapter 203: So What Happened?

"So, what is it that you want from me?" Kaisen asked, strolling to the balcony and leaning down to take in the Golden City in all its glittering glory.

"Straight to the point, huh? What, don't you want to ask me how I've been? Don't you want to know how I built an empire? How I bled Authority's heart?"

Kayden replied, joining him by the railing, looking out over the city like a king surveying his kingdom.

"Well, fine. Say it. The shorter version. I don't have all day, alright."

Kaisen dismissed Kayden with a hand gesture that practically screamed, "Spare me the TED Talk and get to the boring stuff already."

Hearing that, Kayden smiled—a smile that, to anyone else, might have looked genuine, like the kind of smile you see on a doting older brother.

To an outsider, Kaisen might have seemed like the rude, impatient younger sibling, while Kayden played the role of the benevolent older brother, happy to see his little bro. But that was a load of crap, and Kaisen knew it better than anyone.

He'd been watching this guy's act for two decades now.

This was just Kayden doing what he did best—bragging. That's all.

Humble bragging,

if he dared to call it that. Though "humble" was about as fitting for Kayden as a tuxedo on a gorilla.

"Fine. The shorter version it is, then!"

Kayden clapped his hands, and for a moment, Kaisen thought it was just out of excitement. But it wasn't only that. The second his hands came together, a drone swooped in from somewhere like a hawk on a mission.

Kaisen didn't see it coming at all. It wasn't one of those spider drones he'd seen before—this one was something else entirely.

It was a restaurant waiter drone.

Yep, just as the name suggests, these little flying guys were used in high-end restaurants as waiters. The kind of places where the menu has no prices, and you have to remortgage your house just to pay for the appetizers.

"Half of them vanished, and the other motherfuckers went into a frenzy. And that's when I swooped in."

Kayden said, his face twisting into that mad smile Kaisen wore when he was reliving one of his more questionable decisions. It was the kind of smile that said,

Yeah, I did it, and I'd do it again.

"Remember how we both had that crazy dream about looting an Authority station?" Kayden continued, his eyes gleaming with mischief.

"No, you did not!"

Kaisen blurted out, genuinely shocked. Not because the idea of looting an empty station was particularly wild, but because both of them had once fantasized about robbing an Authority station just to stick it to the suits in charge.

And it seemed Kayden had beaten him to it.

"Yes, baby. I did it. Albeit an empty one, but I did it. It wasn't the big one, but the small station in our city. The Murderbots were deactivated since there wasn't anyone to power them on or charge them. And since these dumb bots could only kill and not think, they didn't bother to get charged, making them as useless as a pebble."

'So that's where the Murderbots came from, huh?'

Kaisen mused, thinking about the cold-blooded killers he'd seen on the steps. A shiver ran down his spine just recalling them. Those things didn't know the meaning of hesitation. If this were the game world, Kaisen would've folded those dumb motherfuckers like yesterday's laundry.

But alas, one can only dream.

'Wait a minute... if there are no developers here, then how the hell am I supposed to get back to my world?'

Kaisen's mind raced, his eyes suddenly widening as a new thought hit him like a freight train. He looked at his brother with a mixture of shock and realization.

'Hold up! If this guy saved me, brought me to his secret base, and wants something from me... then he must know a way to send me back!'

It wasn't an absurd thought. In fact, it was the most logical one he'd had all day. Kayden knew something. Kayden knew a way to send him back—that had to be the truth.

The pieces of the puzzle were starting to fall into place, and for the first time in a while, Kaisen felt a flicker of hope. Well, hope mixed with a healthy dose of suspicion. With Kayden, there was always a catch, and Kaisen wasn't about to let his guard down now.