Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord - Chapter 170: The Anchor, Disappeared

On a sunny afternoon, Kyle finally received the long-awaited acceptance letter to Hogwarts, the prestigious thousand-year-old wizarding school.At Hogwarts, Kyle led a fulfilling life. Besides attending classes, he spent his free time cultivating magical vegetables, tending to enchanting flowers, or venturing into the dark, forgotten chambers of the castle to provide emotional support to a small creature abandoned for centuries.Dumbledore: “Kyle is a courageous, kind, and sincere young wizard.”Professor McGonagall: “The Headmaster is absolutely right. Kyle never breaks the school rules.”Snape: “Ah, yes… indeed...”Professor Quirrell had thought the same—until one day, he opened a trapdoor and stumbled into a room full of Chomping Cabbages.

How does it feel to lose your parents at the tender age of four?Imagine the trauma, the psychological scars. Now, take it a step further—what if they died right in front of you?That was Kael’s reality. As a young boy, he watched his parents perish while desperately protecting a golden coin.At the time, Kael had no idea of its significance. He only knew that their deaths were tied to it.Fleeing from his father’s murderers, he was forced to survive on the unforgiving streets, learning to fight, steal, and endure.Twelve years later, he had transformed into one of the deadliest assassins the world had ever known.He had no official title. No known employer. No traceable identity. Just a calling card.They called him The Coin Flipper.Not because he left his mark, but because after every kill—just as the body hit the ground, as the last breath escaped—he would flip a coin.No one knew why. Some believed it was mockery, a cruel reminder that fate had turned against them. Others thought it was ritual.But what they didn’t know was that each coin held power—literal currency of the Core System embedded in Kael’s soul.Every kill earned him millions. Digital fortunes funneled into off-grid accounts with each confirmed target. Blood turned into bounty, pain into profit.And one thing was certain: if you saw the glint of a coin spinning through the air, death had already found you.

A story about a history teacher gaming-addict with familial trauma, and a peculiar woman seemingly stuck out of time and beyond out of touch.The two have been thrust into the weird and whimsical world of Altros, a planet with divides born of very real superhuman strength cursory of an odd ranking system, and, naturally, species differences.Not exactly the best of news for our resident Scottish history teacher whose ears have changed into fox ones alongside his nine new fluffy tails.First though, Darren, or Lone, or whatever else the weird system claims he's called, has to figure out how to live with his new companion Sofia, for seemingly forever while also just barely managing to survive being stranded on a monster-infested island with a self-proclaimed former-immortal who can see despite being blind, can freely teleport, and who also, of course, seems prone to experience bouts of extreme depression.Not an ideal situation when he himself hasn't been in a great headspace for over a decade now. But hey, at least there's an incredibly expansive litRPG system to keep the both of them entertained, right? That'll fight off the fear of death, surely.

On that day, the fog blocked everything.

On that day, he became the captain of a ghost ship.

On that day, he stepped through the thick fog and confronted a completely subverted and fragmented world—the old order had vanished, strange phenomonoms dominated the endless seas beyond civilized society, and isolated island city-states and fleets of ships challenged the sea that had become the last ember of lights for the civilized world. All of this while the shadows of the old days were still stirring in the deep sea, waiting to to devour this world that was about to die.

But for the new captain of the ghost ship Vanished, there was only one question he had to consider first— Who knows how to drive this ship?!

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