Depthless Hunger - Chapter 9: A Different Kind of Test

It's simple. A vengeful wildfire of a woman. A tyrant who begs to be burned.When Aria crashes into Kael’s empire, hellbent on making him pay for taking her job away, she’s met not with defiance—but a dare. “You want revenge?” he taunts, voice dripping with dark invitation.“Then ruin me. Take your pound of flesh exactly where it hurts.” His proposition is a trap laced with sin: As expected he calls the shots in his bed, her contempt is his twisted aphrodisiac.“Hate me until your hands shake,” he growls. “But do it on top of me, where I can watch you savor every cut.”Their arrangement is a collision of dominance and delirium. Aria wields her fury like a blade, determined to break him. Kael? He thrives under her wrath, goading her darker, deeper, hungrier.But vengeance turns slippery when every command she hisses ignites his obedience, and every cold glare melts into bruising kisses. Soon, the bed becomes a battleground—her nails carving victory into his skin, his whispers a serpent’s promise: “Chain me with your rage, darling. I’ll still come back for more.”The rules are simple: No mercy. No surrender. But as their games spiral into something ravenous, who’s destroying whom? And when hatred burns this hot, what’s left when the ashes cool?

On just another normal Monday, the world changed. The universe had reached a threshold humanity didn’t even know existed, and it was time to finally be integrated into the vast multiverse. A world where power is the only thing that one can truly rely on.

Jake, a seemingly average office worker, finds himself thrust into this new world. Into a tutorial filled with dangers and opportunities. In a world that should breed fear and concern, an environment that makes his fellow coworkers falter, Jake instead finds himself thriving.

Perhaps… Jake was born for this kind of world, to begin with.

***

Author Note: Tags and content warnings are mainly to give me creative freedom later on. This is my first novel ever, and English isn’t my native language, so go easy on me chaps.

Qin Hao crossed into a parallel world and unexpectedly inherited the position of the current Celestial Master of the Qingyun Mountain Celestial Master's Mansion.Draped in purple robes, holding the authority of the Xuanmen sect.Bound to the Super Celestial Master System, he could earn different rewards every day by completing designated tasks.Organizing Taoist scriptures, he received the reward [Taiping Qi Technique]!Cleaning the main hall, he received the reward [Innate Golden Light Curse]!Sweeping the mountain gate, he received the reward [Soaring Immortal Step]!Pruning flowers and plants, he received the reward [Innate Yimu Qi Capture Technique]!Wiping the statues of the Three Pure Ones, he received the reward [Righteous Thunder Law]!...He thought he could live peacefully without trouble, but unexpectedly, a photo that went viral online pushed him into the spotlight.A self-proclaimed fighting champion and male live streamer entered Qingyun Mountain, claiming to seek a man in purple robes for a challenge.A match of martial arts.The live stream was filled with over a million enthusiastic viewers.They supported the male live streamer in exposing a fraud, wondering whether the rumored Celestial Master in purple was truly as powerful as said.Under the watchful eyes of the public, Qin Hao reluctantly accepted the challenge.Qin Hao asked, 'Fellow practitioner, what shall we compare?'The male live streamer smiled confidently: 'I've heard the Celestial Master in purple is unmatched in martial arts; I have practiced free combat since I was young and have specifically come to learn something from you!'Qin Hao shook his head: 'Martial arts, I do not know.''What do you know then?' the male live streamer asked.Qin Hao unleashed a palm strike into the air, condensing the five thunders within his palm, and with a mighty slash.Golden thunder transformed into a blade of qi, slicing directly at the challenger. The thunder left in its wake split the 'Challenge the Celestial Master' plaque that the male live streamer had brought, right in front of the mountain gate, into two halves.Qin Hao said with a smile: 'I know thunder spell!!'

The Earth of the future is united under a single government, but not all things are well. The shape of the playing field may be changed, but the powerful still rule the weak.And those who do not conform with the rest of society are exiled to another world. A world that not even the technology of the future managed to tame.It should have been humanity's New World but ended up as nothing more than a penal colony. A place where the exiled are sent to die.Motivated by revenge, Magnus sets out on a quest to bring his own justice to his enemies. For that purpose, he is willing to go further than most others.But then he learns that if he truly wishes to change things, he can only find his answers beyond the gate.Having lived most of her life as an exile, Astra is a woman of few interests aside from survival and climbing the ranks of her clan.To achieve those goals, she certainly won't be squeamish when a chance literally falls into her lap, or will she?———————————————————————————————I am trying to go with a survival/“no modern tech” setting in this one. People from a technologically advanced society are thrown into a world where they can't maintain their tech. They are forced to rely on what the world provides where they have to make do with the limited resources they have and what little of their old technology is still working. Their gene manipulation allows them to have something akin to superpowers, but that doesn't help much against the monsters of their new world. Not sure yet whether sufficiently advanced technology will be discovered later on to count as magic.It turns more political between the various clans later on.