From Today, I'm a Player - Chapter 145: The Beginning of the Cataclysm

The year was 2026, and the world wasn't what it used to be. Ever since the Abyss Gates cracked open three years ago, spilling monsters and dungeons across the planet, life had turned into a chaotic mess. Cities were half-ruined, half-rebuilt, and people clung to whatever normalcy they could find. Hunters—those brave or crazy enough to fight the monsters—became the new heroes. Everyone else? Well, they just tried to survive.Fin wasn't a Hunter. He wasn't a hero either.He was just… Fin. A lanky 19-year-old with messy brown hair, a chipped front tooth from a dumb skateboard accident, and a power that everyone called useless. Absorption. Sounds cool, right? Like he could suck up energy or steal someone's strength. Nope. All it did was let him “feel” things he touched a little more than normal. He could tell you the exact texture of a brick wall or how warm a coffee mug was—big whoop. No fireballs, no super strength, no flashy moves. Just a glorified touchy-feely trick.“Fin, you gonna eat that sandwich or just stare at it like it's gonna confess its life story?” Meg's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.He blinked and looked across the rickety table at his best friend. Meg was short, loud, and had a wild mop of dyed purple hair that she swore made her look “intimidating.” It didn't.

Li Jing passed through, into a modern world where all the people cultivated immortals.

Everything here has to rely on the aura of self-cultivation to motivate.

With no relatives, no money in his pocket, and no understanding of how to practice, life is struggling.

Until Li Jing walked into a chicken shop and found that he could see the blood bars of the chickens…

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- Description from novelbuddy

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.

He Miao transmigrated into a book, becoming the ugly, foolish female supporting character who behaved crudely, no thanks to being raised in a village. She kept hovering around the male lead and eventually provoked the female lead, who had a System, and was cheated into losing her company shares. Her own father married her off to a violent, abusive husband, and she ended her life as cannon fodder due to one of his violent fits. To avoid that tragic end, He Miao made two choices. The first was to escape the He family as soon as possible, while the second was…

Asking the male lead out for a meeting, she told him, “I don’t love you anymore. Let’s annul our engagement.” Jing Yan, who was still racking his brains on how he could get away from her annoying presence, exclaimed, “Are you serious?”Seeing that he was distrustful, He Miao took out the engagement gifts and stuffed them into his hands, ignoring his scornful reaction as she turned to leave. The annulled engagement meant half of her previous tragic fate was avoided, which improved her mood considerably. Hugging the little dog she adopted, she peppered it with kisses in her cheerful spirit, ignoring the fact that it stiffened in her arms…

Still, it started to act weird recently as it would run circles around her in the morning while throwing a fuss at night and trying to run outside, even succeeding a few times. He Miao consulted many veterinarians and experts on the matter, but she did not know that the dog’s rebellious attitude was because Jing Yan’s soul had transmigrated into it! Everyone knows that Jing Yan’s fiancee is an ugly, stupid, annoying village bumpkin who bugged him every day.

But she was at least tactful enough to annul their engagement. And yet, the same Jing Yan who had always acted high and mighty knelt in front of a fairy-like girl to help her put on her shoes as he asked unhappily, “It’s already been so long… Can we get engaged again already?”Everyone stared blankly, dumbstruck. Wasn’t his fiancee supposed to be ugly and stupid? She’s clearly enchantingly beautiful! Who spread those rumors in the first place?!