Martial Artist Lee Gwak - Chapter 23: Where the Sun Shines, the Shadows Fall (2)

Humanity achieved dominion over the galaxy long ago.Once that was accomplished, they turned their ingenuity inwards. With their prowess over biological engineering, they transformed themselves into deific beings now called the Gene Tyrants. For centuries, the Gene Tyrants terrorized the galaxy, designing and abusing their genetically engineered servants and serfs as their whims took them.No tyranny can last forever, though, and the Gene Tyrants were eventually overthrown. The rebels discovered a strange light of the mind called Aether, which gave them the strange and fantastical powers they needed to eradicate their creators. Once that was done, however, that by no means meant peace.In the thousand years since, the face of the galaxy has changed. The most powerful human civilization is called the Supremacy, the homeland of 'might makes right'. In the Supremacy, a crime committed by the strong is no crime at all. With their military strength and mastery of Aether, the Supremacy has spread across the galaxy -- with the other powers able to do little but stall their advance. This struggle has developed into a cold war, and that cold war has frozen over for years now.Dragan Hadrien, a low-level administrator in the Supremacy, cares nothing for any of this. Dragan's primary concern is getting himself a promotion and taking it easy for the rest of his days. When a mysterious prisoner is brought aboard his ship, he thinks he has found the means to do just that.How naive of him.

[You have transmigrated, named Gu Sheng, and are a farm boy.][This is a dynasty in chaos, where demons and monsters lurk and bandits run rampant; as someone at the bottom, you face hellish survival difficulties.][You decide to lay low.][You awaken a mastery panel.][You breathe a sigh of relief, you can start grinding.][You grind Chopping Wood to Perfect, chopping bones and breaking tendons with ease.][You grind archery to Perfect, becoming a godlike archer who can hit a louse at a hundred paces.][You learn the Iron Stone Fist, set foot on the path of a Martial Artist, and grind it to Perfect, with punches as heavy as a million pounds.]……[You learn the Longevity Eternal Youth True Art, greatly extending your lifespan, giving you more time to grind, and greater hope to lay low.]……[You grind to the limit, steadily laying low, and one day you suddenly realize, you are invincible.]

For Cain, the promised land of opportunity in the Pokémon World was not the paradise he imagined. Instead, he fell into the hands of the sinister Team Rocket, a prisoner on an island where darkness devours hope.However, even in the most desperate moments, fate did not abandon him entirely. A strange twist brings him back to the beginning of it all, to the place where his dreams were buried under the shadows.Now, with the knowledge and scars of his previous life, Cain has the chance to correct the course of his destiny.Free from the chains of the past, he must forge his own path in a world full of mysteries and dangers. With new allies and old enemies, the battle for his freedom will not be easy, but Cain has decided that this time he will not fail. Neither against the Pokémon nor the humans who stand in his way.

After being torn from the only life she knew, 16-year-old Margo is forced into a new home with strangers who call themselves her parents. Haunted by memories of her past and consumed by feelings of isolation, she struggles to adapt to her unfamiliar surroundings. School offers little relief—until she meets Lucien, a mysterious boy who appears just when she needs a friend the most.Gabriel is everything Margo needs: kind, attentive, and always ready to whisk her away from her troubles. Each night, he invites her to secret places—an abandoned playground, a fog-choked garden, a crumbling train station at the edge of town—each more unsettling than the last. Yet with every chilling rendezvous, Margo feels more alive... more seen.But something isn’t right. Gabriel never comes to school during the day. Her adoptive parents never see him. And when they catch her talking to thin air, their concern deepens into fear. They say Gabriel isn't real—that he’s a figment of her imagination. Margo wants to believe them, but Gabriel feels real. More real than anything else in her life.As the nights grow colder and more twisted, Gabriel’s true nature begins to surface. Shadows move where they shouldn’t. Time warps in his presence. And the places they visit seem to echo with whispers from another world. Margo is forced to ask herself: Who—or what—is Gabriel? Why does he only want her? And what will happen on the final night he asks her to come with him?As the line between reality and delusion begins to crumble, Margo must make an impossible choice: stay in a world where she feels loved, or return to one that barely feels real.But one thing is certain—some friendships never let go.