Beneath the Surface: Secrets of an Obsessed Heart - Chapter 18 - 17

He was Model 72 — a crash test dummy. A being of metal and sensors whose sole purpose was to break and to be repaired. Routine crashes, routine analysis, routine repairs. Until one day, something… went wrong. Or maybe right. Now, he wakes up in Telaria, a unique world of magic and monsters, and in a body that is, for all intents and purposes, terribly inefficient.Soft flesh. Brittle bones. And as if he weren't fragile enough already, it all came gift-wrapped with something new.Pain.Every jab, scratch, and burn is a revelation. And strangely... irritating.But Axel is no ordinary human. Hidden beneath his supposedly fragile exterior is a regenerative gift so powerful that each recovery doesn’t simply restore him to his former state.It adapts his body against the very damage it just endured.[Your hand has been impaled by Crystal-Blade Grass.][Host's [Pierce Resistance] has increased slightly.][All leg bones have been broken by the ground][Host's [Impact Resistance] has increased greatly : x6][Your face has been burnt by a Fireball.][Host's [Fire Resistance] has increased greatly: x2]He hates it. Every injury is just another reminder that his human body is flawed.And yet he knows...his body can learn. His body can evolve.So, Pain?Pain is a problem he intends to solve. And only then, would he truly be complete.“There will be no need for repairs. No need for pain. No need for regeneration.”“I will simply be unharmable.”The world believes SSS Rank Gifts are the ceiling. The End-All, Be-All.Well...The world hasn't met Axel.

I wrote a book once.It was an unhinged fantasy born from my high-school brain, driven by loneliness and too many hormones.It was a world of beastmen, wild freedom, and the kind of romantic attention I could never get in real life. I poured every impossible desire into it: adventure, danger, and yes… a 'lot' of handsome partners.Before I knew it, I had a thousand chapters of pure escapism and pure thrill.Then on a college camping trip, I fell off a cliff.I expected to wake up in a hospital room but nope. I woke up on a soft field of grass, with air too fresh to belong anywhere on Earth.And then something moved behind me.Sticking out of my tailbone was... A tail.My tail?Yellow and black stripes and very, very real.I touched it. Completely real.My ears? Also gone—well, moved. They were now perched on top of my head like a confused jungle cat. And the outfit? Quite revealing, made of animal hide which matched my tail.What was going on?At first, I thought it was a prank. Or a dream. Or maybe karma is finally cashing in. But the more foreign memories evaded my mind, the clearer my situation became.This wasn't cosplay and it wasn't Earth, either.And—surprise—it wasn't even the world from my own book. Welp.I had been transported into a completely different Beastman world as a beast girl called Arinya.Sounds fun, right?Well… it would be, if I weren't apparently the ugliest duckling in the entire freaking savannah! Rejected by every potential mate I stumbled across and sneered at like a freaking eyesore.This was not how I planned my fantasy to come to reality.Trust me—if this is my fantasy come true, then someone needs to fire the author.But then again, after entering this world, I'm suddenly... Attractive.I mean, there's no change to my face and the freckles are still there, but for some reason, handsome beastmen begin to flock around me, because I smell... Pleasant.What's that all about?

Betrayed by her own family, Ye Ningwan is wed to the notorious “blind” warlord Zhan Hanjue—everyone expects her corpse to be carried out within days. Instead, three days later she struts back to the Ye gates draped in priceless gifts.Ye elders salivate; she smiles sweetly: “Only looking allowed—I’m taking these home. After all, you gave me zero dowry.”“Insolent!” they cry.Zhan Hanjue steps in, voice frosted steel: “She’s mine now. Protecting her is my pleasure.”Later, Ye Ningwan stammers, “You’re… not blind?”He tugs her close, whisper hot against her ear: “Play along, my queen, and I’ll give you the world—starting with my heart.”

As the leader of bandits, Yan Jinyi has been a bully for twenty years, and she ended up causing her own death. The next thing she knows, she wakes up and finds that she has become the Second Young Mistress of the Huo Family. Wielding her knife, Yan Jinyi starts to throw her weight around conceitedly again. Young Master Huo says, “If I’m still single, I’ll probably marry my sister-in-law.” Third Young Master Huo says, “If I could turn back time, I would have vied with my brother to marry my second sister-in-law. Miss Huo says, “If I were a man, my second sister-in-law would be my woman!” A CEO says, “I thought I was roguish enough, but I didn’t expect Yan Jinyi to be more of a hooligan than I am!” The Best Actor says, “Huo Xishen, why are you still not divorced?” Second Young Master Huo points to Yan Jinyi and says, “She is mine.” Rumor has it that the second daughter-in-law of the Huo Family can beat a home wrecker up and is especially good at making money. Countless bigwigs are lining up to make a cuckold of Huo Xishen.