The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary - Chapter 1: Stuck After Running Away

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.

[Infinite Regression Genre] In any fantasy novel, regression is a guaranteed cheat key!What if it’s the ability of [Infinite Regression]?There’d be no need to worry about any bad endings. After all, the protagonist would eventually reach a happy ending.“Cheat key, my foot.”I tried it myself just to find out otherwise.The myths of regressors’ success depicted in all those novels are actually fake…It was all just vile propaganda!“This run is doomed too.”This is not a story of success; it’s a tale on the aftermath of failures.Thus begins the heartfelt documentary of a man with 1183 runs of experience!

This is the 40,000th year that the Empire has ruled the Milky Way. The glory of the Great Crusade has long been lost in the dust of history. Su Yu traveled through time and opened his eyes to see the ruined planet in front of him, with a confused look on his face.

On this planet, there are extremely dilapidated war machines that stretch for thousands of kilometers, alien behemoths whose roars can shatter mountains and rivers, and radiation that can cause further damage to the surrounding environment just by moving. Alien beast——

There is everything here except hope.

Regardless of whether he wanted to or not, Su Yu, who had struggled to survive for three years and was inevitably infected with radiation sickness in the end, seemed to be one of the desperate people.

Until his career panel, which allows for unlimited career changes, was finally opened.

“Ding!”

“It is detected that the host has met the prerequisites. Do you want to take up the occupation [Mechanic]?”

“After completing this profession, you can gain professional experience and improve your professional level from daily maintenance, recycling, and assembly of mechanical creations. With each upgrade, you can gain an increase in physical fitness…”

Looking at the old gun parts piled up in his repair room, Su Yu’s eyes lit up like never before!

Many years later, at the core of the empire, at the highest point of the Terran world, the mechanic from the Ruined Star, the Ghost Shadow Blade of the Dead Wasteland, the restarter of the Titan Weapon Plan, the Governor of the Broken Star Territory, the Lord of Mechanical Ascension, the Supreme Throne of the Forge World, Su Yu looked at the torrent of steel coming from below and waved his hand to give the order!

[Our goal is to make the (second) (crossed out) empire great again! 】

- Description from novelbuddy

Turned into a vampire with no political backing, wealth, or power, Dylan immediately tries to become the strongest there is. Facing numerous dungeon breaks and a coming invasion of unknown origin, Dylan must do everything he can to fight back. In the process, Dylan tries to make the world a better place in his way, by taking control of as much land and women as he can. Watch as Dylan amasses power and influence among monsters and humans and rises to the top in more ways than one.