The girl on the screen smiled.It was not a wide smile, nor the stiff kind people learned to ignore during corporate announcements. This one felt personal. Almost playful. She tilted her head slightly, silver hair sliding past her shoulders, her bright eyes fixed straight on the camera as if she could see every single person watching.“Dear players,” she said, her voice soft and pleasant.“Good evening. I am Demon GM007.”She did not rush her words. She never needed to. Silence was part of the performance.“October tenth, 2025,” she continued after a pause,“will become a date that every Demon player remembers.”On the official Demon website, a massive countdown glowed in red.00:00:1000:00:0900:00:08Across the world, millions of players stared at their screens. Some leaned forward in their chairs. Others forgot to blink. Fingers hovered uselessly above keyboards, mice, and controllers.“Tonight,” the GM said, her smile growing slightly,“will be filled with excitement. With passio

Nolan King lay still on the narrow bed, barely breathing. His chest rose and fell in shallow movements, slow and controlled, as if even drawing too much air might cause something inside him to break. From the outside, he looked peaceful. Fragile, perhaps. Like someone resting after a long illness.He was not asleep.Inside his mind, chaos reigned.Thoughts clashed and overlapped, loud and relentless, crashing against one another like waves striking jagged stone. He had replayed everything again and again, tracing the same memories, asking the same questions.Still nothing.No clear answer.No certainty.Maybe it all started with the lightning.That moment from his previous life refused to fade. The blinding flash. The searing pain. The instant when death tore his consciousness apart and scattered it into darkness. Something had gone wrong at that exact moment. Something unnatural.The power bound to his soul, the strange game that had followed him for years, had broken. Not gently. No

Dawn arrived without ceremony.There was no sudden brightness, no dramatic shift from night to day. Just a thin stream of pale light slipping through the lattice window, quietly finding its way across Nolan King’s face.It was gentle enough that it did not wake him.What did wake him was something else entirely.A sharp, familiar sensation stirred deep within his body. It felt intrusive, persistent, like someone tapping insistently on the inside of his skull. Not painful, but impossible to ignore.“Ah… ya… ya…”The sound was weak and faint, barely more than a whisper. It reminded Nolan of the cries of a newborn child, small and pitiful, yet demanding attention simply by existing.The source of the sound lay buried deep within his body, lodged in a vital inner point near his core. There, tangled in a mass of dark green, corrupted blood, the strange spirit plant he now carried trembled violently. Its budding surface pulsed as if alive, a thin opening quivering in slow rhythm, almost lik

A soft fragrance lingered in the air. It was sweet, warm, and faintly playful, the kind that did not announce itself but slowly wrapped around the senses. It felt intentional, as if the scent itself was alive and moving. Beneath the muted orange glow of a bedside lamp, shadows drifted lazily across the walls. They swayed in rhythm with the low music playing in the background, slow and steady, like breathing.The woman danced.She did not rush. She did not exaggerate her movements. She simply moved, confident and unhurried, as if the room belonged to her alone. Her figure was full yet elegant, every motion smooth and deliberate. Her slender waist twisted in gentle arcs, fluid and natural, like water following its own path. A thin layer of pink gauze clung lightly to her body, hiding just enough to stir curiosity. With each step, her outline softened and sharpened again, blurring for a moment before returning, like a dream that refused to fully settle.The music softened further. It slo

Nolan King sensed it almost immediately.Something was off.Ravena had not absorbed all the medicinal energy.Not even close.A large portion of it still drifted within the little creature, moving slowly through its body like fading sparks that refused to disappear. At best, that leftover power would last until the next day before finally breaking apart and vanishing on its own.Ravena, however, looked more energetic than ever.The small plant-like being seemed stuffed to the brim, its body practically glowing with vitality. Thin leaves swayed back and forth, trembling with excitement as if it were urging Nolan to continue training. It almost looked impatient.Nolan did not even look at it.He sat cross-legged on the cold stone floor, back straight, breath calm and measured. Between his fingers, a set of golden needles rotated smoothly, guided by muscle memory refined through countless repetitions. As the needles moved, faint streams of inner energy were drawn from deep within his bod