The Mech Touch (Web Novel) - Chapter 14: Fiddling

Set in the Shadow Slave world...a time before Sunny was born...this story follows a simple soldier who must survive in a dystopian, apocalyptic landscape where magic and gun warfare collide.In a far-off Quadrant known as North America, a young soldier named Hope is 16 years old when he gets infected by the Nightmare Spell. He passed! But...he feels a bit scammed...?A flaw that makes him fade from people's memories...A cursed attribute that makes him remember everything endlessly in eternal wakefulness...It's as if the Spell is twisting his future and existence into an almost improbable one.All he has ever known his purpose to be was to serve as a simple soldier. Not too powerful. But not so weak either. And maybe, just maybe like some others, become an Awakened. Although he never dreamt of being one.Now that his whole life is compromised after his First Nightmare, his first objective is to survive on his own. But as he tries to escape his fate, his actions seem to lead him further from his goal.He struggles against obstacles that slowly grow bigger and out of proportion.Maybe the Dream Realm and the Real World aren't so different than one may think.Hope's journey involves uncovering secrets and gaining knowledge about his true nature and his new role in the world.Is he fit to be a hero?Could he redefine it?***Please read the READER DISCLAIMER in Volume 0.This is my spin-off novel of “Shadow Slave” by Guiltythree.But please don't expect the same writing style, setting, and characters, especially the main character.This story reveals more about how people/cities/governments operate after the Spell’s arrival. I always find it interesting how maybe one country handles it fairly, but how others handle it with desperation to the point that you question humanity.There will be easter eggs pointing to the original novel either intentional for the plot or unrelated to it, but all for fun.I am a new author so props to all who bear with me and helps me improve my writing. If it is not for you, please don't leave outright hate comments. Eat wassabi instead if you want pain. Critique and advice would be great too.

A decade ago, the first dungeon gates appeared, but some vanished before they were ever conquered. The MC, a low-rank hunter, awakens the Lost Gate System, granting him access to these forgotten dungeons where legendary monsters and artifacts are trapped. Each completed lost gate grants him absurd power, but also reveals terrifying truths—these dungeons are prisons for ancient beings who want revenge.

Yun Ran, the successor of Qingfeng View, accidentally got transmigrated into a book due to a blunder.Even more speechlessly, she ended up as a character destined to die early.As the heiress of a wealthy family, not only was her luck and destiny stolen, despised by the heavens, but she was also backstabbed by her own mother, who is the female protagonist, becoming a stepping stone for the male and female leads' happily ever after - absolutely used as a tool.Faced with a disastrous start: No panic, she could simply revert to her old job, setting up a stall for fortune-telling - first three fortunes free, don't miss out as you pass by~Facing injustice and evil: Little ones, take this, descend heavenly thunder! Open the gates of hell! No petty person shall overpower me, all retreat!!!Facing random strikes of heavenly thunder: Hehe, can’t touch me; ancestors, someone is bullying me, come save me~~~Merely running a fortune-telling stall, casually saving people, occasionally undertaking tasks for some hard-earned money, she caused evil cultivators to flee, broke her peers’ defenses, and made wealthy families wary.Everyone heard that Yun Ran had a backing, the Xie family's notorious young master who 'kills people and is short-lived'.Some resentful and envious people kept waiting and waiting, not only did they fail to see Yun Ran meet her demise, nor the young master Xie pass away, but they witnessed Yun Ran amassing boundless merits, firmly sitting on the throne as the number one person in the mystic sect.And that Mr. Xie, unknowingly picked up the habit of making fortune bursts, remarkably living a long life through sheer spending.

They whisper my name in fear. Justin Black. The guy who sits in the back of the class, always in black, always untouchable. The one everyone watches but no one dares to approach.They don’t know me. Not really.Because if they did, they’d stay the hell away.I don’t do friends. I don’t do relationships. I don’t do attachments.But then there’s her.June Matthews—cheer captain, golden girl, a walking distraction. She’s everything I hate… and yet, she’s in my way. Assigned to me. Forced into my space. Testing my patience.She thinks she can handle me.She’s dead wrong.Because I have a secret. A place where I go to release the darkness inside me. Where names don’t exist, where pleasure and pain are one and the same. A world where people fulfill their deepest, most twisted fantasies.June doesn’t belong in my world.But the longer she stays, the more I want to pull her under.And once I do… I’m not sure I’ll ever let her go.