Ashes Of Deep Sea - Chapter 287 - 291: Seeing Through

From infancy to maturity, what Ye Zhou dislikes the most was “two”.

The reasons were: he was ranked second at home, he had been forever ranked second at school, no matter how diligently he worked and tried, he couldn’t shake off that “second” curse. What was more exasperating was that, at University, not only was he ranked second, but even his appearance that he was proud of had to be classified as second best!

Why can’t I obtain the first place!

The eternal second will rise!

Then, Ye Zhou, after his vigorous efforts finally rises and the result was… the first became his boyfriend.

This is the story of a man who has been forced to be “second” and how he became the first, most popular.

- Description from Novelupdates

[Warning: Mature Content and a ruthless, villainous, badass mc!]Kael Draven was once the feared leader of an underground mafia empire. A shadow ruler who pulled the strings behind the scenes.But power comes at a price. Kael learned that the hard way when a bullet pierced his ear, and his trusted ally betrayed him, bringing his life to an end.Bang!As his empire crumbled and his body hit the cold floor, all he could think was, ‘What a pathetic way to go.’Instead of hell, Kael woke up in a far more dangerous world, with a body stronger than ever—youthful, shredded, with muscles for days and an ego that could crush mountains.His title? Master of the Crimson Maw.He now led a bandit group that had angered a mysterious force and been wiped out—except for one survivor: a strong, silent gladiatrix who wanted nothing to do with him.To make things even more interesting, his body bore a glowing tattoo that whispered in his mind: “Bond. Through body. Through soul.”But Kael wasn’t one to back down. He didn’t like losing.So what if his base was a dilapidated shack? So what if his army was just one extremely voluptuous warrior?Kael wasn’t here to play small. He was going to turn this ragtag bandit group into a force feared by all, with a harem of deadly beauties who would bow to no one but him!Welcome to the Crimson Maw. Where the training is brutal, the beauties are overpowered, and the only thing more dangerous than an enemy is the bandit king himself.Let the grind begin!

“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…?

Rex was an ordinary salaryman, resigned to a dull life of monotony in a towering megacity. But his world shatters when he’s conscripted by Nexum Dynamics, a ruthless megacorporation, and thrust into a brutal war for a barren, alien world. The planet holds unimaginable riches, but it’s also swarming with the Krhyssari, an insectoid race that dominates the surface with their hive-mind precision and relentless aggression. Amid the carnage, Rex had an extraordinary encounter with Cleo, an ancient AI, a survivor of a long-extinct civilization. Cleo isn’t just an artificial intelligence; she’s a consciousness imbued with memories of her people’s interstellar empire and equipped with advanced bio-nanotechnology. Offering Rex a new purpose and unmatched power, she transforms his fragile human body into a hybrid of living metal and flesh, making him the ultimate weapon. But Cleo is more than a tool of war. As she journeys alongside Rex, her cold, logical algorithms evolve, shaped by his humanity. Together, they form a bond that transcends the boundaries of man and machine, discovering love in the midst of chaos. As Rex and Cleo fight for survival, they uncover a shared ambition, to rise as intergalactic overlords, uniting or conquering the galaxy.