They say your last name means everything in this world. I had mine but stripped before I could even walk. I'm Kai. Twenty-five years old, officially nothing to my name.
Unofficially? Grandson to Bernard Albrecht, the billionaire who practically owned half the East Coast. He had hotels, shipping lines, private islands, and even a seat at political tables too expensive for common men to even whisper about. But to me, he was just a name in the news. I'd never seen him in person, never got so much as a birthday card. Why? Because I was born from the wrong womb.
My father, Bernard's only son, had an affair with the maid, my mother. For the entire family, my mom was a mistake and I was the unwanted bastard child. The stain to their perfect rich reputation.
I grew up in a back alley apartment with cracked ceilings and rats as neighbors. Mom died when I was ten. I've been clawing through the dirt ever since.
These days, I live in a tin-roof hut on the edge of a no-name town. When I say poor, I mean real poor. I tried to get a job but no one really wanted to hire me. Austin's wife Vanessa had made sure no one ever dared to hire me. And so here I am, barely eating three times a day. The kind of poor where even instant noodles are a luxury, and some days, water is the only thing on the menu. You learn how to stretch hunger until it becomes a part of you. Like a coat you never take off.
Then she came.
The knock on my door startled me. No one ever came here. Not unless they were lost or looking for trouble. A tall woman in a dark blazer stood there, clean and sharp in a way that didn't belong to this place.
"Kai Albrecht?" she asked.
I blinked. No one ever used that name and I learned to hate that damn last name.
"Who's asking?"
"My name is Evelyn Hart. I'm an attorney of the late Bernard Albrecht."
The words slammed into me like a truck. I laughed, a sharp, ugly sound.
"I think you've got the wrong bastard."
"I don't," she said calmly, opening a leather satchel. "Your name is Kai, Austin's son? Your grandfather passed away two months ago. He left something for you."
She handed me a thick envelope. Inside was a yellowed piece of paper with my name scrawled in cursive, a faded map with coordinates I couldn't recognize, and a stamped deed.
I took it all out and saw I inherited a whole island.
"A whole island?" I choked out, flipping through the documents like they were fake.
"Yes," she replied. "It's remote. Largely undeveloped. Covered in dense forest. No roads. No power. But it's legally yours."
I stared at the deed, trying to breathe. An island. From a man I never met.
Why now?
And more importantly, what the hell was on that island? I stared at the papers in my hands until my fingers went numb. An island. Not a house. Not a check. Not even a crust of inheritance to help me survive the week, no, Bernard Albrecht had left me a goddamn island. I didn't know whether to scream or laugh.
But maybe this was it. My last card.
I didn't have anything left anyway, except Daisy, grandpa's cow who he gave to me after he passed away. My cow. She'd been with me through too many nights when I had no food, only milk, and no heat, only her breath. Selling her felt like burying the only friend I had, but when the buyer handed over the wrinkled cash, I didn't hesitate.
That same night, I packed what little I had and bought the cheapest passage I could find—two connecting buses, a ride on the back of a banana truck, and finally, a rusted old fishing boat willing to take me across the sea to nowhere. The map had a name scribbled on it in faded ink: Isla de Fortuna.
It didn't exist on Google Maps. No flags. No details. Just a green smear of land surrounded by endless blue.
The trip took three days. The boat captain dropped me off a few meters from shore, muttering something about "bad energy" and "no cell towers," then left before the tide turned.
The sand was damp, the air humid and thick with the scent of salt and moss. Thick trees loomed ahead, and beyond them, silence, deep, ancient silence. I took one step forward and…
DING.
The sound was sharp and clear, like a bell inside my skull. I froze. Then something impossible happened.
A faint shimmer flickered in the air before me, like heat waves on asphalt. Then, with a blink of light, a translucent screen materialized floating in front of my eyes, like a hologram out of some sci-fi movie.
The letters appeared in glowing gold:
"Welcome, Kai.
You now have access to the Island of Treasure."
I stumbled back, blinking hard.
"What the—?"
The screen remained, hovering in front of me like it was glued to my mind. My heartbeat crashed in my ears.
And then the words faded, replaced by something new:
Initializing System…
Scanning bloodline…
Verifying inheritance…
ACCESS GRANTED.
I looked around wildly—no drones, no tech, no sign of power. Just trees, rocks, and the ghost of a billion-dollar secret humming in the air around me.
What the hell had I just walked into?
The glowing screen flickered, then shifted again. A moment later, a new message appeared, this time, with a name at the top.
Bernard Albrecht — Personal Message
For: Kai Albrecht
Date Recorded: 3 months Ago
I stared, mouth slightly open. Three months ago? Bernard was still alive at that time.
The screen pulsed once, then came to life. A grainy video emerged: a man in his seventies, silver hair neatly combed, sharp eyes full of weight. He looked nothing like the cold photos I'd seen online of my grandfather shaking hands with presidents and CEOs. Here, he looked… human.
He leaned closer to the camera.
"If you're seeing this, then you're not just my blood. You're the only one who still has the guts to come here."
I swallowed hard.
"Kai... I know you. And I doubt you know me, either. I wasn't a good man. I made enemies, chased wealth, and buried truths. But what I'm about to tell you is the real reason I became rich. And it has nothing to do with my business and connections."
He paused, eyes narrowing like he was remembering something deep.
"When I was nineteen, I was a fisherman's son, poor, hungrier than the sea was wide. One night, a storm pulled me far from shore. I thought I was dead. But I washed up here, on this island. And that's when I found it..."
He waved his hand, and the screen rippled.
"A system. Something old. Something that shouldn't exist. It's built into the island itself, like a living mind, an ancient force wrapped in technology. I don't know who made it. But it saw my bloodline, accepted me, and taught me how to create wealth. Not fake wealth but real. Opportunities. Secrets the rest of the world would kill to understand."
I felt my throat tighten.
A system… that creates wealth?
"I kept it a secret. Always. My children? I tried to share it. None of them listened. They were too stubborn, too spoiled. Too drunk on the fortune it had already made me."
Bernard's face darkened, his voice more serious now.
"But then your father. Austin. He had a son with my maid. You. The family cast you aside but I watched. From a distance. You lived in the dirt. You survived. You became something no money could buy."
My fists clenched.
"And so I made my decision. The island is yours. The system is yours. Everything starts again with you."
The video glitched slightly, then resumed.
"There are rules. Challenges. The system won't give you anything for free. You'll have to build. Trade. Explore. Some of it will scare you. Some of it will test what kind of man you really are. But if you pass... you'll control the kind of wealth that governments bow to."
His eyes locked onto mine across the years, cold and blazing.
"Don't waste this. You get one shot."
And then the screen dimmed, replaced with one final line:
"System access unlocked. Welcome, Kai Albrecht, to the Island of Treasure."
And just like that, my world changed.