TORTURED ME, TO AWAKEN AS AN SSS DRAGON
“They should cut your hands off before the next ceremony. Why let trash touch the Awakening Stone?”
Dante Moretti is the disgrace of Saint Lucian Academy.
In a world where power decides status, wealth, and survival, Dante is worse than weak—he is nothing. The Awakening Stone doesn’t glow for him. The examiners laugh behind his back. Students spit insults every time he walks through the halls.
“Even stray dogs have instincts,” Renzo Cavalli sneers. “But you? You were born useless.”
Every day, Dante endures the humiliation in silence. Being shoved into lockers. Having food dumped over his head. Listening as students compare him to worms beneath their shoes.
Because if he quits the academy, his little sister Lucia loses her chance at a future.
Then the sky splits open.
Monsters descend upon the city, slaughtering everything in sight. Lucia fights to protect innocent people, but a D-rank Blightbearer tears through her defenses and lunges for her heart.
Without thinking, Dante steps in front of her.
The claw punches through his chest.
Blood spills across the road.
And the world changes.
His blood rises into the air.
A forbidden voice echoes inside his skull—
[Mother System activated.]
When Dante opens his eyes again, they burn gold.
The monsters freeze.
The air trembles.
And the boy everyone called worthless smiles for the first time in years.
“You spent your whole lives looking down on me,” he whispers. “Now learn what it feels like to kneel.”
Three D-rank monsters disappear from existence in a storm of crimson light.
Now the same academy that mocked him fears him.
The same elites who treated him like dirt suddenly want his loyalty.
But Dante hasn’t forgotten the laughter.
And this time…
the weakest boy in the world is no longer asking for acceptance.
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Chapter: Chapter 160: The Weight of MortalityThe Empress died in her sleep, advisors and researchers who'd worked with her for decades standing quiet around the bed.A hundred years ruling the Eltonaro Empire. The woman who'd seen the potential for dimensional cooperation when everyone else saw only threat.At the succession ceremony, Celestina moved through the formal proceedings with the efficiency of someone who'd prepared for this her entire life.A council member named Varis waited until after the oath was taken, then stood to speak."The Empress built this empire over a century," he said. "Now we hand it to someone young enough to be her granddaughter and hope for the best. Seems like a gamble."Celestina turned toward him, cold and unbothered."My experience is documented and tested," she said. "Your concern is noise. Which one do you think matters to actual governance.""I'm only pointing out-""That you're uncomfortable," Celestina said. "That you preferred dealing with someone old enough that you could dismiss her as l
Last Updated: 2026-08-19
Chapter: Chapter 159: What Dimensional Civilization NeedsThe report came through at dawn. The barrier between Dante's world and the Celestial Domain was degrading.Not quickly. Not yet. But degrading.The panic started before anyone understood the actual numbers.At the emergency council meeting, a barrier specialist named Voss stood to present his findings, and before he could finish the first sentence, a council member named Rothers interrupted him."So Dante's world is about to become a direct corridor to the Celestial Domain," Rothers said. "And the great dimensional guardian is just now noticing.""The degradation was gradual," Voss said."Of course it was," Rothers said. "Slow enough that Dante could pretend he had everything under control while the barrier rotted around him. Convenient."Dante looked at him across the chamber."The barrier's been in place for millennia," Dante said. "Nothing lasts forever. Not barriers. Not council members who think they're clever when they're just loud.""I'm raising a legitimate concern-""You're r
Last Updated: 2026-08-19
Chapter: Chapter 158: The Middle PathSeventy years after the network began, Dante was barely involved in anything anymore.Decisions got made at the branch level or in the council. He showed up when someone actually needed to see all forty three dimensions at once. The rest of the time, he was just present.At a council gathering, a new member named Cartridge, young and sharp and convinced he mattered more than he did, leaned back in his chair with a smile."So you're the great Dante," he said. "Reduced to giving advice nobody has to listen to. Must feel good, finally having an excuse for irrelevance."The room went quiet."I'm sorry," Dante said, voice even. "Do you have a question, or are you just speaking out loud to hear yourself.""I'm saying it's convenient," Cartridge said. "You stepped back when the work was mostly finished. Now you get to seem wise and untouchable while other people actually run things."Lucia, sitting two seats over, didn't move."The convenient move," she said, not looking at him, "is what you
Last Updated: 2026-08-19
Chapter: Chapter 157: The Historian's AnswerMarco retired at seventy five, handing his company to successors he'd trained himself, and told anyone who asked he was done building things other people demanded."I spent forty years building infrastructure," he said. "I want to spend whatever's left just existing in it."One of his younger mentees, a man named Hendrick who'd been waiting for Marco to step back so he could take credit for existing designs, said it different."Running away before anyone notices the real innovation shifted to the next generation," Hendrick said. "Convenient. Gets you out with your reputation intact."Marco didn't even look up from his notes."You'll notice the innovation when it shows up with my name attached and your name nowhere on it," Marco said. "I've forgotten more about dimensional mechanics than you've ever known. Me leaving doesn't change that.""Just saying retirement looks a lot like giving up.""Giving up," Marco repeated. "Is that what you call it when someone builds forty years of workin
Last Updated: 2026-08-18
Chapter: Chapter 156: Reasons Bigger Than YourselfSixty years after the network began, Lucia decided she was finished. Eighty now, and tired in a way that had nothing to do with weakness.She wanted her remaining years with her family, not with operations reports.At her final handover meeting, she recommended Eleonora, a woman she'd trained herself, sharp and steady under pressure.A council member named Dashel raised an eyebrow. "Handing the network's security to your own protege. Convenient. Almost looks like you built yourself a little dynasty.""I built a successor who can actually do the job," Lucia said. "Something you wouldn't recognize if it walked past you twice.""I'm only asking whether nepotism factored in," Dashel pressed."The only thing that factored in was competence," Lucia said. "Eleonora survived three barrier collapses while men like you were still debating whether the reports were serious. She earned this. You couldn't earn a parking spot."Dashel's smile thinned into something bitter. He didn't answer.Eleonora
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Chapter: Chapter 155: What He Helped CreateThe council accepted his proposal without much debate. Barrier maintenance. Threat assessment. Technical coordination. Nothing more.The change left him disoriented in a way he hadn't expected.For the first time in decades, Dante had nothing urgent demanding his attention. It felt less like freedom and more like standing in a room after the furniture's been removed.Marco noticed it first, watching him sit through an entire dinner without once mentioning barrier mechanics."You look lost," Marco said."I have less to do," Dante said. "I don't know what to do with that.""Go see what you built," Marco said. "You've spent thirty years coordinating dimensions you've never actually walked through. Go look at them.""I've seen the reports.""Reports aren't the same as standing in a market somebody's kid runs now because his grandparents survived a collapsing dimension," Marco said. "Go look, Dante. Actually look."He took the suggestion seriously, manifesting into a physical body for week
Last Updated: 2026-08-18
The Prisoner Son Returns as the Medical Saint
“Sign it, Edward.”
Edward Cole stared at the divorce papers in his wife's trembling hand.
Three years ago, he took the fall for her brother's crime. Three years ago, he walked into Hell Prison so her family could stay free. Three years ago, he sacrificed everything—his freedom, his reputation, and his future—for the woman he loved.
Now she looked at him with disgust.
“You're an ex-convict,” she said coldly. “You don't deserve to stand beside me anymore.”
Her words shattered what remained of his heart.
While he suffered in prison, she became a business queen. What she never knew was that every contract, every opportunity, and every miracle that built her empire came from him. From the shadows, he protected her, loved her, and gave her everything.
Yet when he finally returned, all he received was betrayal.
Her family mocked him.
Society despised him.
Everyone believed Edward Cole was nothing but worthless trash.
Until one phone call changed everything.
“Lord Zeus, shall we reveal your identity?”
The world's most powerful billionaires bowed their heads.
Kings waited for his orders.
Entire nations trembled at his name.
The man they abandoned was Zeus—the hidden ruler of Apex of the Stars.
And now, those who broke his heart would learn the price of betrayal.
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Chapter: chapter 116: part-2"You protected my assets.""Some of them. Not all. I did not have access to everything, and the ones I could reach, I had to move carefully, one at a time, over the course of months, without triggering any of the monitoring systems they had placed on your network.""Why." Edward leaned forward. "Why would you do that if you were working with the people who put me in prison.""Because I was not working with them when they put you in prison." John's voice cracked on the last three words, not dramatically, just a single fracture running through the surface of something that had been holding together for too long. "That came later.""Explain."John pressed both hands flat on the table. "After you disappeared, a man approached me. He knew everything. My connection to you, my connection to the Old Master, my financial history, my family. Everything." He paused. "He made me an offer. Cooperate and receive controlling interest in four major businesses that would set my family up for three gen
Last Updated: 2026-08-19
Chapter: Chapter 116: The Photograph part-1The tracking markers worked exactly as Edward had designed them.Within six hours, David Chen had mapped the movement of every document the armed men had carried out of the vault. Three went to a warehouse on the industrial side of the city. Two went to an address registered under a name that did not exist. The remaining three went to a single location that made Edward sit very still in his chair for a long time.John Santon's private financial office.Not his home. Not a hidden property. His actual office, the one with his name on the door, the one listed in public directories, the one where clients walked in during business hours and shook his hand and trusted him with their money.John had not tried to hide.Edward stared at the address on David's screen and turned that fact over in his mind. A guilty man hides. A desperate man runs. A man who lets stolen documents arrive at his own registered office is doing something else entirely.He was inviting Edward to come find them.Edward
Last Updated: 2026-08-19
Chapter: chapter 115: part-2Edward looked at the man who had fired, then at Richard's body on the floor, then back at the shooter. Something clicked into place behind his eyes."He was going to talk," Edward said calmly. "That is why you killed him. Not because he failed. Because he was about to become a problem."The shooter said nothing.Edward turned to the masked leader. "Richard was never important. He was a tool. A set of hands you needed to open a door, and the moment the door was open, the hands became disposable."The leader tilted his head slightly. "You are smarter than they told me you would be.""Who told you."No answer.Vivien moved forward. Her voice came out sharp and controlled, every word placed with the precision of someone who does not waste syllables. "Who sent you here. I want a name."The leader looked at her. "You are standing in a room full of documents you believe are valuable, Miss Holden. But the truth is that the original agreement, the real one, was removed from this vault years ag
Last Updated: 2026-08-19
Chapter: Chapter 115: Abort part-1The first thing that happened after the vault doors locked was silence. The kind that fills a sealed room the way pressure fills a diving bell, heavy and total and pressing against the eardrums.Then panic.One of the masked men grabbed the vault door and pulled. The steel did not move. He pulled again, harder, the muscles in his neck straining, his boots scraping against the polished floor."It is sealed," he said, turning to the others. His voice cracked on the second word. "The whole system is sealed.""Blow it open," another one said, reaching for his belt."With what. We are inside. Any charge strong enough to breach that door will kill everyone in this room, including us."The eight men looked at each other. Their training held their bodies still but their eyes were moving fast, scanning the walls, the ceiling, the cameras they had not noticed until the lights came on. The realization settled across them one face at a time, like dominoes falling.They had walked into a box and t
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Chapter: chapter 114: Part -2"That sounds like something a person says when they have something to hide, John."Silence on the other end. A long, heavy silence."I am trying to protect you," John said finally, his voice quieter."From what.""From the consequences of knowing everything."Edward let the silence sit for three full seconds. "I appreciate the warning. But the vault opens tomorrow night."John said nothing more. The call ended.The following night, the Holden estate was lit from every window. Security teams lined the perimeter. Cars arrived carrying the family elders, each one escorted inside with the careful ceremony of people who understood that tonight carried weight.Vivien stood at the entrance to the vault level, her hands folded, her face a mask of cold authority. The elders filed past her one by one, descending the staircase into the reinforced corridor that led to the vault doors.Edward was not among them.He was in a security room on the floor above, watching four screens that showed every
Last Updated: 2026-08-18
Chapter: Chapter 114: The Trap part-1Edward spent thirty six hours preparing the vault and told no one what he had done inside it.He left every original document in place. Every record, every agreement, every piece of evidence that the enemy had spent years trying to destroy. He did not remove a single page.That was the bait.The trap was the room itself. He rewired the vault's locking mechanism to operate on a secondary circuit that only he controlled. He installed three cameras in positions that covered every angle of the interior. And he programmed the main doors to seal automatically the moment a specific signal was sent from his phone.When he was finished, he stood in the center of the vault and looked at the walls and the shelves and the decades of secrets stored inside them.Then he walked out and locked the door behind him.Vivien returned to Holden headquarters on a Tuesday morning. She walked through the lobby in the same dark coat she had been wearing the night she disappeared, her face carrying the cold co
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