Tsunami Was a Lie? So Why Are You Crying Now?

The dull grinding of mechanical gears roared in my ears.

Seven half-meter-thick lead-alloy blast doors descended before me one by one.

"Cain, you have to survive!"

Outside the blast-proof glass, my younger brother pressed both hands against the hatch, his eyes rimmed red.

My father stood behind him, somberly wiping the tears from the corners of his eyes.

"Cain, you are the hope of the Winston family. Remember—do not, under any circumstances, open this door until you hear the all-clear signal."

I nodded firmly, waving to them through the glass.

To protect me, their eldest son, my family had given me the only nuclear-grade reinforced shelter in the "Eternal" hold.

They said the deep-sea volcanic chain was about to erupt in full force.

A super tsunami would swallow the land, and only this place could withstand the impact of the apocalypse.

The final lead door slammed shut.

My vision was completely cut off; silence closed in from all sides.

Only the dim emergency light above cast a sickly green glow.

I leaned back against the cold metal door and let out a long breath.

My hand instinctively reached into my pocket.

There lay a custom communicator.

My mother had pressed it into my hand before I boarded, tears streaming, saying it was a keepsake for our farewell.

My fingertip traced the communicator's edge, and I accidentally triggered a hidden switch on the back.

The screen flickered twice.

The image jumped and automatically connected to the Winston Mansion's private surveillance network.

I had set up this security backdoor myself as the family business's executive officer.

The image on the screen grew clear.

No panic of the apocalypse. No grief of parting.

In the opulent estate living room, crystal chandeliers cast a warm amber glow.

My mother sat on the velvet sofa, leisurely raising a glass of Romanée-Conti.

"Finally got that jinx locked away."

She gently swirled the goblet, her voice dripping with relief.

The sound struck my eardrums like an ice pick.

My grip on the communicator tightened.

My knuckles went white from the strain.

The image shifted. The adopted son approached with a plate of cut fruit.

He smiled as he picked up a cherry and offered it to my mother.

"Don't upset yourself. From now on, it's just you and me and my little brother keeping you company."

"So thoughtful," my mother said, patting the back of his hand with a smile.

Light footsteps came from the foyer.

My younger brother—the same one who'd been red-eyed at the door moments ago—strode into the living room.

He casually yanked off his tie and tossed it onto the expensive Persian rug.

"Mom and Dad never have to look at him and feel annoyed again."

A mocking smirk curled at the corner of my brother's mouth.

"The welding program for the hold has been activated. He's never getting out of there."

My father strolled out of the study and lit a cigar.

"The Winston family's assets cannot fall into the hands of a talentless waste."

He exhaled a ring of smoke. "That ship is the fate he deserves."

The air in my chest was drained in an instant.

I stared at the faces on the screen—every one of them a mask of hypocrisy.

No undersea volcanic eruption.

No super tsunami.

It was all an elaborate, carefully woven lie.

They feared my legitimate claim as the firstborn heir.

To avoid any criticism, they staged this act together.

To trap me, their own flesh and blood, legally and "reasonably" inside this floating steel tomb.

Twenty years of family bonds shattered in that moment like a blade through the heart.

I looked around.

The cramped hold was barely a dozen square meters.

The air circulation system hummed weakly.

This was no shelter.

It was an execution chamber built just for me.

Rage surged through my veins like molten lava.

I raised my fist and slammed it against the hard lead-alloy door.

My knuckles split; blood trickled down the cold metal grain.

Drip—

The instant the blood seeped into the metal seam, a flat, mechanical voice exploded inside my head.

[Abnormal host vital signs detected. Deep-Sea Fortress System binding initiated.]

I jolted, spinning around.

The empty hold held only the sound of my own breathing.

[Global marine geological scan complete.]

[Warning: Severe fault rupture detected in the Mariana Trench crustal layer.]

[Undersea volcanic chain activity has exceeded critical threshold.]

[Super Tsunami Generating. Countdown: 5 days.]

A string of glaring red digits flickered wildly across my retina.

I stared in disbelief.

The tsunami... was real?

The family who had schemed and lied to seize my inheritance had banished me with an absurd lie.

And by sheer chance, that lie had foretold the actual end of the world?

They thought they'd locked me in a death trap.

They had no idea that this hold on the "Eternal" was about to become the only gateway to survival.

[Newbie Gift Pack has been delivered.]

[Bottom-layer spatial expansion program: 100x, now initiating.]

The moment the mechanical voice faded, the steel floor beneath my feet began to tremble violently.

The supposedly impenetrable lead-alloy wall before me rippled like water.

The cramped dozen-square-meter space expanded wildly, defying the laws of physics.

The steel dome rose higher and higher.

Partition walls retreated rapidly to both sides.

Ten meters. A hundred meters. A thousand meters!

Countless hidden modules lit up in sequence through blue light.

Vast material storage areas. Massive water circulation hubs. Even an inactive ecological farming zone.

In a matter of seconds, a deep-sea fortress as vast as an underground city now stretched before me.

I stood in the center of the vast stronghold.

I looked down at the communicator in my hand—still playing the surveillance feed.

On the screen, my brother raised a champagne glass and clinked it crisply with the adopted son.

They were celebrating their complete freedom from me.

I wiped the blood from my knuckles, a cold smile curling at the corner of my mouth.

In five days, when hundred-meter-high waves tore through that lavish estate,

I couldn't wait to see the looks on their faces.