A Black Market LitRPG - Chapter 174: Duel

In a bustling modern city where ancient secrets and mysterious powers collide with everyday life, 22-year-old Ethan Cross seems like your average college student. Behind his unassuming demeanor lies a man shrouded in secrets—a masked vigilante known only as “Virtuoso,” feared by criminals and sought after by powerful organizations.Ethan is overpowered, sarcastic, and ridiculously skilled at everything he does. But there's one thing he’s terrible at: romance. When the enigmatic and fiercely independent Mia Harper stumbles into his life, she unknowingly becomes the key to unraveling a conspiracy that ties Ethan's past to an ancient prophecy.Between laugh-out-loud moments, explosive action, and unexpected twists, Ethan navigates his double life while trying to protect Mia, keep his identity hidden, and maybe—just maybe—figure out how to confess his feelings without being a complete disaster.

The Reticent Blade is, first and foremost, a wuxia novel, meaning that the world and its character’s powers and abilities are more grounded. Instead of cultivators who can soar through the heavens and shatter planets, you will find martial artists who can still perform superhuman feats but not so fantastical as to tear through space or achieve immortality.The world of The Reticent Blade is one of medieval China, loosely based upon the time period of the Ming Dynasty. It is a time of chaos and strife, where war and death are rampant. We follow the intertwining story of several protagonists and antagonists as they navigate the chaotic times, unraveling the threads that connect the past, the present, and the future of the world.The Reticent Blade is a story of heroism, love, revenge, and cruelty.The Reticent Blade is a story of both the righteousness and vileness of the jianghu.

Bai Yanliang, male, 23 years old, unmarried.Condition improving, good personality shaping, has met the discharge criteria.Today, discharged.

“Ah, him? He’s just Daeyeong’s acquaintance.” He hated those words. Choi Seolwoo is trying to leave behind his teens and twenties, which he spent as Won Daeyeong’s shadow. Won Daeyeong (gong), the national team captain who became the first Korean track and field athlete to qualify for the Olympics in the 400m, and Choi Seolwoo (soo), a newly qualified Certified Public Accountant, are childhood friends of over a decade. Choi Seolwoo, weary of the pain of his obsessive unrequited love for Won Daeyeong, impulsively enters into a contractual relationship with a sub-seme and declares a break-up with Won Daeyeong, intending to completely remove him from his life and start anew. Won Daeyeong is displeased with Choi Seolwoo trying to end their friendship over a relationship. Just how much attention had he demanded since they were young? Even he himself acknowledged how incredibly well he’d treated him. It wasn’t as if he had expected anything in return for looking after him, but still, this is absurd. To take him for granted and push him aside like this. Won Daeyeong proposes that if Choi Seolwoo appears on five episodes of a segment called “An Acquaintance” on his Xtube channel, which has 1.1 million subscribers, he will agree to the break-up. The filming of a variety show exposing every detail of Won Daeyeong’s life begins. Unexpectedly, the view count explodes due to the spicy and entertaining talk with frequent bleeps, the genuine bromance chemistry and realistically fierce fights, and Choi Seolwoo’s idol-like visuals. Choi Seolwoo, the “break-up guy,” ends up advertising himself to the entire nation as Won Daeyeong’s best friend. Wait, somehow this… seems to be moving further away from a break-up…?