Solo Leveling: Monarch of Knowledge - Chapter 20 - : New threat

Jack Somnus was a mid-wealth professor of economics and a trading advisor for the powerful Johnson family. But after years of working for the Johnsons, he was abandoned without a word. He was laid off without as much as a severence package. Jack’s life got worse when he lost his wife. Depressed and alone, he got into an unfortunate accident. Instead of dying, he travels back in time to his teenage years. Now, Jack has a second chance to live the life he always wanted. He wants to be the one who controls, not the one being controlled. But his time travel hides a deeper secret, one that might throw him for a loop. [WARNING: CONTAINS EXPLICIT EROTIC SCENES]

In the year 2090, technology has advanced to the point where Simulation Boxes, (Sim Box for short) are common place, allowing for the user to link up their brain's neural network to a full dive Simulation. While initially used for educational purposes, recently a large gaming company, Averon, released a fully fledged immersive MMORPG simulation where users can become anyone they desire, level up, choose their class, and become a hero or a villain. The name of this simulation is The Shattered World Online.

Eli Winters had no interest in playing it. His father, a jobless bum who spent his entire life playing games in the hope of becoming a famous player or streamer, was able to use the release of The Shattered World Online to gain wealth and fame, quickly becoming the number one player and a household name as the game took the world by storm. He immediately abandoned Eli and his mother in favor of being with someone from his guild, despite his mother having worked two jobs to support them and raise Eli by herself. Eli had nothing but spite for his father and the game.

When Eli's best friend convinces him to try out the game, his father's fame begins to interfere, culminating in him being singled out and shunned by his peers, and his father offering to pay for his university tuition in return for Eli hiding their relationship and quitting the game. Instead of complying with his father's wishes, Eli decides to prove to everyone how useless a guy his father is by challenging him that if Eli is able to surpass him in the game world he must delete his account and quit his streaming career. His father accepts the challenge believing his son to be useless at games - but Eli will soon show him just how ambitious a spiteful person can be.

[DING! Congratulations to the Host for obtaining SSS-Rank Dark Dimensional Reality Talent][Attribute: Darkness]Freed from nuclear war terrors, all humans now have to face the new reality of their fate.Humans are given a power that allows them to have different talents according to their abilities and luck, including obtaining the power of past heroes.Aaron Lewis, an 18-year-old young man, must bear the devastating reality that his mother was killed by an unknown group. The turmoil of uncontrollable rage in his heart makes his talent affected.[WARNING!][System detected Darkness attribute energy increase][Initiates talent rank evolution][Adjusting talents with attributes ][Evolution Completed]Just as Aaron opened his eyes, he saw he was floating in a void dimension with thousands of caged ancestral souls waiting to be freed or summoned. They are the souls of heroes from all over the world.[Main Talent: Dark Dimensional Reality][Rank: SSS-Rank]With his flexibility to explore dimensions beyond ordinary human sight, Aaron gathered thousands of ancestral souls and turned them into his army.To his surprise, Aaron found a way to free his mother's soul and bring her back to life, which was to become a Great Ruler.“There is no other choice. I will become a Ruler.”

DESTINY GAMES. It has been 85 years since Earth-11 became aligned with Yggdrasil and 73 years since Icon became the first demigod from Earth. Icon, as the first demigod, was privileged to weave the thread of fate for everyone. He was supposed to cut off Yggdrasil and free Earth-11 from the grasps of the other Earths and their god kings. That’s why everyone helped him climb the tower of Destiny. But instead of ridding earth of Yggdrasil, he turned the destiny of mankind into seven rings of immortality. The first ring was for the immortality of power. The second was for the immortality of the knowledge. The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth were for the immortality of the mind, energy, body, and soul. The last ring, the ring of the paragon, was made to rule them all. Icon kept the ring of the paragon for himself and became a dictator. He ruled with an iron fist for many years. His was a reign of terror. But he was eventually vanquished by the collective effort of the world. It has been 62 years since then. Icon is no more, but the damage he had done still remains. Earth-11 is still connected to Yggdrasil. The deadly games of the Tower of Destiny still remain, and the fight for the seven rings of immortality still continues. Kelvin Thorn has just awakened his ability. It came at a good time too since he is running for his life. The ability he awakened saved him, but it came with a cost. He must climb the tower of destiny under the witness of the whole world and accumulate destiny, or he will die. His situation is not unique. Everyone that awakens, which is mostly everyone, must climb the tower of destiny. It is one of the curses that Icon left behind before he died. But Thorn is different because the seventh ring found him. The tower of destiny is where everyone granted power by destiny, be they humans, non-humans, or otherworlders, must fight in games of might, skill, and knowledge to gather the power of destiny. They will either die or eventually overcome death. Kelvin will be one of the latest in the line of billions of others in this struggle.