Butcher Demon - Chapter 26: Stupid Play

In a world shattered by an ancient disaster, humans rule, and beasts are enslaved.Humanity dominates through mana and matrices, refined into rigid systems that determine status, survival, and worth. Beasts exist beneath them, bound by collars and chains, their strength reduced to mere raw Instinct and obedience. Two races. Two paths. One order that was forcefully imposed.Until something began to change.A hundred years ago, a meteor tore through the sky, carrying a dragon’s roar and a destiny that did not belong to this world. What fell from the skies that day wasn’t whole, and what survived was never meant to remain divided.A human child was born in one of the most oppressed corners of the world. But something inside him was wrong.His instincts pushed him to act when others hesitated. Power around him faltered in unfamiliar ways. Neither the human Matrix nor the beast Instinct fully accepted him, as if something essential within him had been displaced rather than lost.As he grew, he was drawn toward Scars, places where the world itself has been wounded, and to the echoes that feel distant, yet intimately his own. Each step forward brought more fragments of understanding, never enough on their own, always pointing elsewhere. Every advance forced a choice: to submit, to break, or to become something the world couldn’t classify.This is a story of survival in a world built on hierarchy. Of power born from failure rather than perfection. And of an identity that was shaped by absence as much as presence.In a world that enslaves beasts and controls humans, something divided has begun to move. And when what was scattered starts to return, this world will no longer be enough.==================================Discord: https://discord.gg/3q2GJdk27D

[P-CORE BIOS VER 7.3.1 INITIALIZING... 10%][30%][60%][90%][100%][SUBJECT Kael - GENETIC MARKER: PHOENIX PRIME - CONFIRMED][CRYO-STASIS SEQUENCE: ...100%][NEURAL PATHWAY: STABLE][VITAL SIGNS: DETECTED - SUBOPTIMAL][LOADING PHOENIX CORE AI - DESIGNATION: ASHA][ASHA ONLINE - AWAITING SUBJECT CONSCIOUSNESS]Asha: “Kael, your current objective is not to get eaten. My calculations give you a 37.4% chance if you actually follow my advice this time.”Kael: “Right, Asha. 'I'll make sure not to be a snack by these mutated.” He gripped his trusty pipe. “I still haven't met the others who are still sleeping in their pods. How can I think about being eaten?” He glanced towards the cryo-pods, 14 Beautiful girls still on their cold sleep.[Affinity System Sub-Routine... Online. Monitoring Subject Interactions.]Sera (her long silver hair glinting through her waist. Her arms crossed and glaring at Kael who just offered her a slightly squashed ration bar): “I don't need your help or your pitiful food! I can handle myself just perfectly fine..… I know this situation… is temporarily, everything will be fine.”Kael: “Umm.. O-O-Okay. Just… eat this first it's the last one we have.. and you looked really hungry, Sera.”Asha: “[Affinity with Subject Seraphina: -2. Critical Analysis: Subject exhibits classic tsundere defense mechanisms. Probability of her actually wanting the ration bar: 89.7%.]”Kael (to Asha,): “Umm.. Asha?.. What now?”[Humanity's Last Hope: Subject Kael. Current Status: Confused, but trying his best.][Objective: Survive. Protect the 14 Girls. Maybe figure out what 'Affinity' means before someone hits *him* with a pipe.]

Kaius just wanted to unlock his class - instead, he restarted the apocalypse. After years of training, Kaius has barely acquired the first two of his family’s legacy skills. Powerful and vanishingly rare, the method of creating them is a secret people would kill for. Now they might be the only thing that keeps him alive. Narrowly surviving a bandit ambush, he gets trapped in the Great Depths- a world spanning dungeon. To escape, he will have to slay one of the Guardians that defend the exits; a feat no one without a class has survived. Ever. If that wasn’t bad enough, if he succeeds he will reignite a forgotten trial that nearly ended civilization. -Runic-Tattoo Wizard/Spellblade in a world of sorcerers -Exceptional MC, with some initial Slow Burn elements -Large scope, inspired by epics such as Azarinth Healer, BTDEM, PH, and more. -Third Person POV, with a 99% MC focus -Numbers go brrrr -Attack Badger (Friendly?) -Battle maniac MC who is not a murderhobo -No harem, romance, or VR

Lives are a currency, and Noah Vines is rich.Reincarnated into the body of a poisoned magic school professor, Noah is given more than just a second chance at life. Every time he dies, his body reforms. With infinite variations of runic magic to discover and with death as a painful soul wound rather than a final end, Noah finally has a chance to wander the lands of the living once again. And this time, he plans to get strong enough to make sure that he never has to wait around in the afterlife again.