Prologue (1) Just A Family Man

"Good morning father, the task has been completed."

I looked up at my son who stared back at me with hopeful eyes. He had grown to be quite the handsome man I must say, definitely took after myself. My grandchild, Samuel, was also beside me, a young boy of seventeen.

One could say I was an accomplished family man, and although my wife had passed away, I still managed to raise them well.

"Very good Damian," I replied. "I hope you followed everything to the letter."

Damian smiled, squinting his brown eyes a little, "Yes father, there were no issues. It was your plan after all."

He stopped speaking there, his expression receding into one of slight worry

"It's just…won't this spark a war and ultimately ruin a lot of things?"

I stared long and hard at him. For a moment, there was a sudden silence in the room. Damian was my most brilliant son but sometimes he could be quite stupid. I know the main problem here. He was having doubts and it seemed like his conscience was beginning to hunt him.

"Damian," I finally replied. "What is the motto of our family?"

"What's yours belongs to us and what's ours also belongs to us. There is no such thing as too much wealth," he answered.

I nodded, this was the basic foundation upon which I built this family.

"Your problem is, sometimes you can't look at the bigger picture," I crossed my legs and tapped my fingers on the armrest. "Tell me Damian, which is more important? The country or the family?"

"The family," he answered immediately.

"So, don't you see that war is just another avenue for profits to be made?" I asked as my eyes pinned on his figure. "Do you think that a mere war would shake the very foundations of this family?"

"I'm aware of this bu —"

"I know what you're thinking. Perhaps you're concerned about the potential casualties or feel that maybe we should draw a line in certain areas. However, if I had such thoughts in my younger days, then this family wouldn't be where it is today

"You have to know that these things happen. All we should concern ourselves with is power. How we achieve it makes no difference as long as it's in our hands."

He was quiet but I studied him carefully. He couldn't even meet my gaze properly, subtly avoiding them from time to time. Seeing this made me sigh in disappointment a little. He wasn't like this before. The root cause of this is his wife. Her influence was becoming too much on him.

"Damian," I said softly as I stood up and approached him. "The future of the family always comes first before anything

I put my hands on his shoulder and smiled at him, "I am proud of what you've done so far but." I pointed at Sammy. "Would you want to see your son suffer? Or your grandchildren? Don't you want a bright future for them?"

He nodded and I continued, "Which is why the family must always be strong. We cannot and must not bend our ideals to accommodate sympathy. It only brings downfall. Why should we care about what happens to others as long as it's in our favour?"

"You need to understand that this family was built on certain principles and it is paramount to remember that once those principles are broken, everything will fall apart."

I stopped there. He was a smart man and this was enough for him to mull over. Although I said that, principles meant nothing in the face of benefits. But I already did all the hard work, so all he needed to do was just maintain and improve upon it.

After a few seconds of contemplation, his eyes bore into mine. He didn't shy away from my gaze and just kept staring with a smile.

"I understand, father. I apologise for my previous statement."

Looking at him, I relaxed a little. That's more like the Damian I know. That was the sort of confident expression I needed from someone who would take over and lead this family forward.

In truth, we were quite a simple family. We were "takers". Now, those who knew of our existence often thought of us as nothing more than thieves. Although they weren't completely wrong, our understanding of that word differed slightly from theirs. We weren't the petty thieves or robbers that stole chump change, no, we thrived in our art.

We believed that everything existed to be taken. Whether it was governments, wealth, ammunitions, politics or technologies. Anything that was considered viable to be plundered, we got our hands on them.

As long as it existed, then there wasn't any reason for us not to have it.

I started on this journey alone, witnessing the second world war and the cold war. Honestly, that wasn't the prettiest of times, and as an orphan, I was playing life on hard mode basically.

Still, I survived. Stealing and selling became the source of my livelihood. At first it was simple pickpocketing, which then gradually evolved into arms dealing — if you would call it that. I humbly took huge firearms from their respective owners and sold them to others for triple the price.

It was a dangerous job but I had the talent for it. It was as if I was born to take from others. Everything shaped my mentality as a man and I realised early in life that the world operated on the basis of depriving others.

I kept on using every means possible to steal. Eventually, I met my wife who shared in my ambition, my Bonnie if you must say. But, it wasn't all sunshines and roses. There were difficulties in my path as numerous challenges assaulted me from every corner but I rose above them.

As a man, I would be an absolute failure if I didn't have a clear goal and the tenacity to push forward to achieve it.

Yes, sacrifices were made but they were necessary sacrifices. Morality had no say in the grand scheme of things. Nature didn't operate on morality but rather apathy so I had no reason to have a moral code. They were only hindrances.

Contrary to popular belief, there was neither good nor evil. People were only driven by their selfish desires.

Since the inception of man, we have conquered and killed. Wars have been fought. Genocides have been committed. Dynasties have been toppled. Empires have risen and fallen in the sands of time.

This was the basic history of the world. The blood of countless men, women and children laid underneath the surface of nations. To get to the top, you had to get your hands dirty. You had to deprive others of something to bestow it upon yourself.

A simple addition and subtraction.

Even religion played by this rule. Megachurches were a proof of this. Pastors using the word of faith to swindle their hopeless congregation. The rich only got richer while the poor wallowed in their poverty and self pity.

The truth was something that was plain for those who were willing to see the world for what it truly was at its very core.

A dog eats dog world.

This was how man had always operated. When we wanted something, we took it. Either by force or by deceit and I embodied this very primal principle. This is what led me to where I am today.

Competition? Of course I had those. Life itself is full of competitions. After all, people out there would always seek what you have and also what you want. The most important thing was if one was willing to do what was necessary to stay ahead.

This was the difference between the predator and the prey. Between those who succeeded and those who failed.

The report right now concerned something which I had been planning for quite a few years now. Even with my old age, I had to see it through. It was a record breaker and something I was determined to accomplish before my death — stealing nuclear weapons. Even with all my wealth and connections, it was an almost impossible feat to achieve…almost.

Although I didn't participate in it considering my old age, my children were more than capable. I taught them most of what I knew after all. Nevertheless, for this "Nuclear Takeover" like I coined it, I devised the plan personally. It took more than a decade of planning but it was worth it.

The outcome? A complete success. We gave a whole new meaning to the term; Nuclear Family right now.

"Pfft," a chuckle escaped my lips which gradually escalated into a cacophonous laughter. I didn't care for my current demeanor. I had done what others deemed impossible. A sense of pride welled up inside of me. Truly, anything could be taken; it was just a matter of how bad you wanted it.

But to my rather unpleasant health, I ran into a fit of bloody coughs. Seeing my state, Damian and Sammy hurried to my side in panic.

"Father!" Damian shouted, taking out a handkerchief and wiping my mouth. "Father, are you alright? Please don't move too much. Consider your health."

"Yes gramps, dad is right. You need to calm down and just relax," Samuel chimed in.

I coughed again for sometime before regaining my speech, "I'm alright. You both shouldn't look at me with those eyes…Look." I did a show of flexing my rather slim muscles. "I'm still stronger than the both of you."

Damian just rolled his eyes at my silly remark while Samuel laughed.

"Father, I have some things to take care of so I'll be leaving you with Samuel. I will also tell Melody, Jake and April to come check on you."

I waved my hand at him, "No need, little Sammy is enough. By the way, I want you all to gather together at the conference room tonight, I have something to say."

Damian looked at me, trying to read between the lines and study my expression. His eyes flickered in a strange glint before he nodded and departed, leaving just me and Sammy alone. Quite frankly, I was impressed, Damian did remind me of my younger self.

I turned and looked at my grandson, Sammy. I had quite a lot of grandchildren, I think over twenty right now. This was all thanks to my eight children, the youngest being just in her thirties. Out of all my grandchildren, Sammy loved hanging with me the most.

I had to thank him, he did introduce me to some rather good contents that I quite enjoyed. Although he didn't know this, I was battling with stage four cancer and didn't have much time to live so it was a good pastime.

Animes, Wuxias and Xianxias. I had a lot of fun watching and reading them. It was a good way to lose myself in a fantasy, something that was possible only with imagination.

Right now, we were watching an anime named Overlord. I had read the novel and decided to watch the animated version. I had all the free time in the world after all.

Even though I was aware that this was just a fantasy and a way for me to escape the reality that was death, I didn't care.

After all, what more could I do? I was old and diagnosed with cancer. Death was already my bride at the altar, holding my hand and staring at me straight in the eye.

It couldn't be prevented. So I might as well enjoy my last moments in this world, look death back in the eye and say "I do".

This particular anime was about a young man who happened to get transported to another world as his game character. To be frank he was one of the better characters out there, only in comparison to most of the other useless anime protagonists however.

These animes were just another way to pander and deceive their naive audiences. Well, to be fair to them, every media outlet was like this. Afterall I also employed such tactics numerous times.

Their morals and preachings in a certain way reminded me of my wife. I thought we were cut from the same cloth but unfortunately, she decided to have a heart as she called it when we had Damian.

Maybe it was her motherly instincts that kicked in. She wanted no part in the business of depriving others anymore. Even going as far as to question some of my actions. It cemented her as a burden to me and she knew too much. She became a loose end.

I couldn't allow that and so I prepared an "elaborate accident'' to get her killed. Bombing an airline filled with over two hundred passengers just to kill one person may have seemed over the top but it was necessary.

In this line of work, no one was going to jeopardize all I had built. Not even my child or grandchild. They were all replaceable.

Take children for example, all it took was for a semen to be planted into a woman. A very easy and straightforward concept. They truly weren't as special as the world proclaimed them to be.

The same went for women, I certainly wasn't going to let a single woman destroy all I had worked for. As a man, as long as you had power, women would naturally flock to your side.

It was the law of nature, men sought out wealth and strength, women sought out protection. However, some would argue that this was false — The epitome of naivety.

The Nuclear warheads completed my dream. This family was now truly a world power. Coupled with our various submarines, fleets of ships and military personnel scattered throughout the globe, this family had no reason to fear anyone or anything.

My gaze was drawn back to the screen again, watching the ruse between the main character and his servant called Demiurge. I shifted my sights to little Sammy who was watching with great interest as well before I glued my eyes to the screen once more.

We stayed there in silence and watched for some time. Tonight would be the official handover, it was time for Damian to be the head in earnest. I was already too old for all this.

However, I would have to get rid of Damian's wife. She is a problem.