Chapter 158: Maren’s Past And His Resolve!
Maren was a CEO in his original world.
He had inherited the massive corporation from his father after years of brutal family warfare. Well, almost inherited. His siblings had all fought tooth and nail for control of the company and the family properties. There had been so much bloodshed. So much betrayal. So much darkness.
It was almost similar to things that happened in movies and drama.
Their father had never left a will. He believed his children would be mature enough to split the properties amongst themselves without fighting. He believed in them. He trusted them.
He was wrong.
After he fell into a coma from his illness, his children stopped pretending. They stopped being civilized. They showed their true nature.
Each of his siblings wanted the entire company for themselves. None of them wanted to share. They didn’t want to split fairly. They wanted it all. Every single penny. Every building. Every asset. Everything.
And Maren wanted it too. After all, he was just as selfish as his siblings. There was no way he was acting like the righteous one when every single one of them were trash.
If he has acted like that, he would be treated as the weakling that he was. Since he was the last child, he went through a lot.
He had been through hell. He had escaped accidents that were clearly assassination attempts. He had been attacked by hired assassins sent by his brothers and sisters. He had dodged every trap they could think of. He had survived every attack they could orchestrate.
But it was exhausting. It was draining. It was maddening.
He never wanted to attack them back. Violence was not in his nature. He was a businessman. He solved problems with strategy and intellect, not with weapons and brutality.
But for some reason, every single one of his siblings started attacking him as if they saw him as the biggest threat. As if Maren was the one who had declared war first. As if Maren was the one being aggressive.
Maren was the one who looked after their father the most when he was sick. So they thought maybe Maren was going to be against them. Sure, Maren was against them taking the properties for themselves.
He wanted their father’s last wish to be fulfilled, which is for them to split it among themselves.
When Maren could not handle it anymore, when he was at his breaking point, he made a decision.
He invited all of his siblings to his birthday party. A grand celebration. He made sure every one of them came. He personally called each of them and invited them. He promised it would be a memorable night.
They thought Maren was planning something. They knew he was up to something. They just could not figure out what.
The party went on like a normal party. His siblings danced. They talked. They celebrated. Even though they had don’t everything half heartedly.
And none of Maren’s siblings touched a single drink or piece of food. They were paranoid. They were suspicious. They believed that Maren had poisoned everything.
But there was no poison. There was no trap. There was no attack.
When the party reached its peak, someone came to whisper to Maren about something urgent. They had thought it was something that required his immediate attention, maybe something important.
Maren excused himself from his siblings and went to have the full conversation in private.
But there was nothing urgent. It was a setup. A simple distraction.
Maren just returned to his car and slammed the door closed.
"Burn it all," he said to his men, his voice cold and emotionless.
He turned the car around and left.
By the time he got home, the news broke. All of his siblings had died in the fire that consumed the party venue. The building had burned completely. Everyone inside had perished. It was a tragedy. An accident which no one knew how it had started.
Maren felt guilty when he first heard the news.
But he was also relieved.
Since they all tried to kill him, since they all saw him as an enemy, since they all wanted him dead, it was only fair that he returned the favor. It was his payback. It was justice served cold.
He was excited about becoming the CEO. Excited about taking over the company. Excited about finally achieving his goal.
He was too excited. So excited that he felt something in his chest.
THUMP!
He groaned and grabbed his chest as he fell to one knee. His entire body was trembling. He gritted his teeth so hard that they started to ache in his mouth.
"What the hell is that?" he asked himself, furrowing his brows in confusion and fear. "Why is my heart...?"
THUMP!
He felt it again and groaned louder as his second knee hit the floor. Was it a heart attack? At his young age? Was it because he was too excited? Was it the stress catching up with him? Was it divine punishment for orchestrating his siblings’ deaths?
He did not know. He could not tell. His whole body crashed to the floor. His vision became blurry. His eyes slowly closed.
That was how he lost his life. Slowly and alone in his penthouse office.
And then he heard a voice in his head. Multiple voices actually.
The system.
That mysterious force that was neither human nor entirely artificial. That entity that existed between worlds and dimensions.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself in a completely different world.
He had become a shark beastman. His body was different. His form was different. His entire existence had been transformed.
Thanks to the system, he was able to understand this world gradually. He was able to piece together information about where he was. He learned that he was now an outcast. He learned that he was living in a territory controlled by sharks and snakes.
Apart from the snake tribe and a few scattered individuals, he had not been able to see any other tribes. The world was isolated. Fractured. Divided into territories and regions.
It took him two months to figure out this world. Two months to understand the rules and the politics and the dangers. Two months to know where he stood in the hierarchy.
His first mission was to get his mother treated. His mother had been sick for a decade and no one could cure her. Maybe the real Maren had died trying to help his mother. Who knows? Nobody.
The system told him that if he could find a cure, he would be rewarded.
His second mission was to make sure war did not break out between the outcasts and the other tribes. He had to prevent conflict. He had to maintain peace.
But how was he going to do that when Zyreth was constantly asking for war? When the snake king was obsessed with revenge against Vaelthorn and the other tribes?
He did not know what to do first. He did not know which mission to prioritize.
Until Neve appeared.
When Maren saw him in that cave, he noticed immediately how different he was from the other beastmen. He looked different. He sounded different. Everything about him was different from the way other beastmen in this world behaved.
And his clothes. A shirt and shorts? That was not standard attire for any beastman tribe.
Maren was already suspecting that Neve was from another world. Just like him. Just like the mysterious system that had transported him here. But Maren did not have proof. He could not be certain.
.
.
After throwing Neve to Zyreth, Maren swam back to his underwater cave.
He grabbed his own hair and pulled hard, expressing his frustration and regret.
"He was here and I failed to ask him," Maren said to himself, his voice filled with anger and disappointment. "Of course, he was asleep, so I could not ask him anything. What if I’m wrong and he sees me as a fool? What if he’s not from another world and I expose myself for nothing?"
He released his hair with a heavy sigh.
"How long do I have to keep up playing the villain?" Maren mumbled, his voice becoming quieter and more desperate. "I have to find a way to get out of this world and go back to my body. I have to figure out how to return to my original world."
He clenched his fist hard. His nails dug deep into his palm, drawing blood. The pain was real. The determination was absolute.
He promised himself in that moment. He promised himself that he would find a way out. He promised himself that he would not be trapped in this world forever.
"And if Neve is also from another world, I’ll help him return to his world," he said and then rubbed his chin. "Just how many people from our original world is here in this world? What is the reason for sending us here? Fuck!"