Standing Next To You - Chapter 425: Hard Decision

Initially I am just another ordinary gamer. I often wondered how my novice skills compare with real masters, the professional gamers.

Then one day, two stunning beauties asked me, “Are you willing to be a professional gamer, and conquer the world?”

I replied: “Yes, I am willing”

After that, bit by bit, I unknowingly become a professional gamer, and conquered the world!

This is my story.

- Description from Novelupdates

When the enigmatic and overpowered Kieran Drayke awakens in a foreign magical world after a sudden transmigration, he brings along a system unlike any this realm has ever known. The “Sovereign Architect System” doesn’t just make him invincible—it gives him the tools to build something far greater.But Kieran isn’t interested in world domination. At least, not in the usual way.Disillusioned by the world's surface-level glimmer and the rot beneath it, Kieran sets his sights on the forsaken—those discarded by society, lost in the shadows of nobility and corruption. From slums, war zones, and forgotten ruins, he gathers orphan girls of various races—elves, beastkin, humans, and more—each with untapped potential and pain behind their eyes.He trains them in secret. Guides them. Empowers them. Not as soldiers, but as a family. A hidden organization that operates behind the curtains, shaping the world while appearing as ordinary students at the prestigious Aetherion Magic Academy.Kieran himself? Just a carefree, slightly lazy transfer student with a penchant for sweets, sarcasm, and sneaking naps between classes—on the surface, at least.With a slow-burning plot that weaves magical worldbuilding, deep friendships, training arcs, casual comedy, and a cast of unforgettable girls who grow into queens of the unseen, Chronicles of the Hidden Crown explores what happens when an OP MC doesn’t conquer the world with brute force…But builds a legacy from its forgotten pieces.No betrayal. No forced drama. Just the steady rise of a secret kingdom in the shadows of a crumbling empire.

Living on the streets of Orchard's Reach, Sen never dreamed about becoming a cultivator. He barely even knew what cultivation was, let alone wanted to do it. When fate intervenes, though, he finds himself the disciple of a cultivator. Like all who find themselves on the path to defying the heavens, Sen will have to decide what kind of person he wants to be and what kind of mark he wants to leave on the world.

Frascoia Continent… Various races like Celestials, Demons, Humans, Monsters, Elves, Dwarves, and so on occupied this continent.

Humans and the other races lived on the mainland of the continent while the Celestials and Demons lived in Heaven and Purgatory, respectively.

Within the Demons, a prodigy named Azaroth rose quickly, even by demons' standards, to the point of being dubbed a Demon God. There was only one person above him within the demons: The Great Demon Venerable, the Demons' Supreme Godfather.

Azaroth's extraordinary talent never had the chance to blossom to its full potential; a terrible calamity struck him down and he died soon after. But was this calamity just misfortune or was it hiding an opportunity for him?

Near his deathbed, he prepared for his future ascent to achieve his lofty goal.

Millions of years had passed after Demon God Azaroth's demise and now a young aristocrat called Edwin Rhodes came across a mysterious cave.