The Monstrous Hero - Chapter 19 - 18: Where… Am I?

The nuclear holocaust which caused the collapse of the Old Times on Earth should have wiped out all human life on the planet. Yes, the gods set up their beautiful Elysiums to provide sanctuaries for their chosen, but by all rights everyone outside the elysian lands should’ve perished long ago. Yet somehow, human life still managed to persist, even in the deadly, mutant-infested wastelands.

Cloudhawk was a young scavenger who dreamed of being as free as the hawks in the skies, yet seemed destined to live out his life scrounging for scraps in the wasteland ruins. Fate, however, is ever-fickle. A chance meeting with a ragtag group of mercenaries changed the trajectory of his life, bringing him into a world with mutants and metahumans, demonhunters and godslayers, and even gods and demons. Cloudhawk would find his own place in a world that was far greater than he had imagined, find his own path between the zealous light of Sumeru and the whispering darkness of the Abyss… and one day, he would find that even gods may fall.

Married for three years, they appeared to be deeply in love in public, but behind closed doors, he treated her with cold indifference.Having had enough of his neglect, she handed him a divorce agreement and left him.Unexpectedly, the usually aloof Chairman Xu began acting like a rascal post-divorce, visiting daily to mooch food and drink, and even wanting to share her bed?Outsiders all say, “Chairman Xu has deep feelings for his ex-wife, even after divorce he can't forget her and spoils her to no end.”

I wrote a book once.It was an unhinged fantasy born from my high-school brain, driven by loneliness and too many hormones.It was a world of beastmen, wild freedom, and the kind of romantic attention I could never get in real life. I poured every impossible desire into it: adventure, danger, and yes… a 'lot' of handsome partners.Before I knew it, I had a thousand chapters of pure escapism and pure thrill.Then on a college camping trip, I fell off a cliff.I expected to wake up in a hospital room but nope. I woke up on a soft field of grass, with air too fresh to belong anywhere on Earth.And then something moved behind me.Sticking out of my tailbone was... A tail.My tail?Yellow and black stripes and very, very real.I touched it. Completely real.My ears? Also gone—well, moved. They were now perched on top of my head like a confused jungle cat. And the outfit? Quite revealing, made of animal hide which matched my tail.What was going on?At first, I thought it was a prank. Or a dream. Or maybe karma is finally cashing in. But the more foreign memories evaded my mind, the clearer my situation became.This wasn't cosplay and it wasn't Earth, either.And—surprise—it wasn't even the world from my own book. Welp.I had been transported into a completely different Beastman world as a beast girl called Arinya.Sounds fun, right?Well… it would be, if I weren't apparently the ugliest duckling in the entire freaking savannah! Rejected by every potential mate I stumbled across and sneered at like a freaking eyesore.This was not how I planned my fantasy to come to reality.Trust me—if this is my fantasy come true, then someone needs to fire the author.But then again, after entering this world, I'm suddenly... Attractive.I mean, there's no change to my face and the freckles are still there, but for some reason, handsome beastmen begin to flock around me, because I smell... Pleasant.What's that all about?

Xiang Xiaoyuan transmigrated to a book with a male lead, becoming the male lead’s stepmother.

However, being seventeen and in the middle of his adolescent phase, the male lead virtually ignored his stepmother, and while his father was thirty-nine and a gorgeous man carrying maturity and elegance, he was enigmatic, with no one capable of knowing what he’s thinking.

Xiang Xiaoyuan: The first rule of transmigration, value your life and stay away from the male lead! Being self-conscious, Xiang Xiaoyuan decided to focus on making money, and her business was booming… but before her hopes to get rich were fulfilled, she somehow dealt with her husband and stepson?

The male lead said gingerly, “I won’t think of you as my real mother, but don’t worry—I’ll be a good son and you won’t live out your final years tragically.

Xiang Xiaoyuan: “…Thanks.”

Some other day, her husband stood at the doorway, stopping her and growling, “I heard about something you mentioned outside, that men only care more when they’re older? So? Are you complaining that I’m old now?”

Xiang Xiaoyuan said, “…Wait, listen to me!”

Lu Wanggui was a cold person, which led to her ex-wife divorcing him, and he was not particularly close to his son. Later, to give his son a ‘home’ and to avoid his parent’s ramblings, he married another wife—a docile, dutiful wife.

But unbeknownst to him, that docile, dutiful wife had changed, and she even had the guts to scold him now. Pursing his lips in displeasure, Lu Wanggui was about to remind her of their prenuptial agreement when his son suddenly popped up to defend her!

Lu Wanggui: “???”

What’s going on? Weren’t things cold between these two?

The son: “Ahem. Father, Stepmother… isn’t that bad.”