Underdog Rise

"You think you can stop me, Aiden? You're nothing but a pawn in this game." Malrik's voice echoed through the cold, sterile darkness of the virtual world, laced with malice. "In The Abyss, I am the ruler. And you will fall, just like everyone else." Aiden Cross never wanted to return to The Abyss. But when his sister’s mysterious death resurfaces in the form of a cryptic message, he’s pulled back into the deadly virtual world he tried to escape. Now, he must navigate shifting alliances, face dangerous enemies, and confront a hidden AI that holds the key to everything. But with every step, the line between reality and illusion blurs—each move he makes seems to play into the hands of the malevolent forces that control it all. In the fight to uncover the truth and save humanity, Aiden will have to decide: is he a hero, or is he just another pawn in a game he doesn’t understand? But when the virtual world begins to merge with reality... Will Aiden be able to stop Malrik before it’s too late? Or will the game consume him entirely? The countdown has begun. The question is... who will survive the game?

Roland Mac Donald built an empire from nothing then lost everything to the two people he trusted most. Poisoned slowly, broken mentally, and discarded off a cliff like a forgotten relic, his death was supposed to be the end of his story. But death rejected him. When Roland awakens, he is no longer powerless. A mysterious SYSTEM binds itself to his existence, granting him skills, intelligence upgrades, financial mastery, and combat abilities far beyond human limits. With it, he begins climbing back from the ashes…not just to survive, but to reclaim everything that was stolen from him. As his influence grows, Roland infiltrates elite business circles, takes control of hidden military forces, and uncovers a deeper conspiracy behind his betrayal one that reaches far beyond his brother James and fiancée Naomi. Every mission pulls him closer to dangerous zones, deadly illusions, and truths that confuse the line between reality and manipulation. But the deeper he goes, the clearer one thing becomes, his betrayal was only the beginning. Because someone else has been watching him rise… and the SYSTEM was never meant to belong to him alone. And when the final notification appears, there is no option to refuse. Only one message remains: “WELCOME BACK, HOST… OR SHOULD WE SAY, EXPERIMENT NUMBER SEVEN?”

Kevin Carson was nothing more than a poor assistant truck driver, a house husband who sacrificed his own ambitions to support his wife Ivy and their two children. For five years, he endured humiliation from Ivy's mother Bianca, ridicule from her friends, and cold indifference from the woman he loved. And when Ivy suddenly rose to become Chief Auditor of the State, she decided Kevin was no longer worthy of her. She produced an estranged paternity result, divorced him publicly, and left him for Alan, a wealthy heir and baby daddy. What Ivy never knew was that Alan was Kevin's own younger brother, and his seduction of Ivy was a calculated move to destroy Kevin's chance of inheriting the multi-billion dollar Carson Group from their grandfather. Left with nothing, Kevin almost gave up until fate brought him to Camilla Harry, the governor's daughter and a powerful fashion mogul. He saved her from drowning, revived her father when elite doctors failed, and unknowingly won her heart. With Camilla's support and his grandfather's final approval, Kevin reclaimed his birthright as CEO of the Carson Group. But becoming CEO was only the beginning. Old enemies circled. New rivals emerged. A secret alliance between his vengeful brother, a jealous royal, and a foreign corporate predator threatened to destroy everything Kevin built. Now, Kevin must fight not only for revenge but for survival, his love, and the empire he was always destined to lead.

Once a rising star in modern medicine, Rick Franklin was framed by his master and cast out to die. But when lightning fuses an ancient power into his blood, he awakens the Ancient Medical Rising System, a divine force that heals, destroys, and resurrects. Now, in a world ruled by corrupt healers and hidden sects, Rick walks the line between doctor and avenger. Every wound he mends feeds his legend. Every life he saves brings him closer to the truth. And when the master who damned him returns as the Plague God, the final battle for the soul of humanity begins.

This is a story of a young football player hoping to make a name in the world, his name is George Wenton. His dream seems quite difficult to achieve, or impossible due to his ineligibility to feature in his only gateway to play for his dream club, Alla Madrid, one of the best clubs in the world. As all hope seems lost, his best friend, Imikah Donn comes up with an alternative which is playing for the English National Team, the English Champions. On his debut, he performs so badly, people label him a failure. He has decided to die but just at that moment, a system appears claiming to be the only solution to his problem. Will he trust this strange system which promises to level-up his skills and him as a footballer? Even if he does, will Wenton be able to perform all the tasks assigned daily to him by the system, penalty of non-performance which is death? DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction, names similar to real life characters are pure coincidence.

Declan spent his whole life being treated like he didn’t belong. Adopted into the Reyes family, he worked hard, stayed loyal, and gave everything to the people who never saw him as one of their own. The night he planned to surprise his girlfriend, he found her in the arms of his younger brother. He tried to confront them, but they reminded him that he was just a piece of shit. He walked out on them a broken man. Just when he thought his life was over, a stranger called and told him the truth. Declan was not an orphan. He was the missing heir of the powerful Steele family, one of the richest families in the country. Overnight, he went from a rejected son to a man worth billions. Now Declan is back in a world that once crushed him. The people who mocked him will face the man they never saw coming. He has the money, the name, and the power to take everything back—and make them all pay.

Johnny Burns, a lowly, homeless commoner whose girlfriend had been cheating on him with a hotshot, was unprepared to be nearly killed on the way to deliver a package. Luckily, the Divine Power System awakened in his body, making him one of the rare people with superpowers. Now part of the elite, he discovered that he's the long lost heir to the Burns family, known for their fire power, but what they don't know is that he can do more than just use fire. With his unlimited power, he was going to take the world by storm. Mega Writing Prompt #002/MWP#002

Silence. Like a nice bucket of shhhhhhhhh. Everyone shut the effing fudge UP! That's all I've ever wanted. *Sigh.* But silence comes in different flavors. There's mint - the peaceful kind that wraps around you like a blanket. The kind I chase at 2 AM. I've cried once. Just once. With a bucket beside me, watching heroes with super suits and impossible strength tear each other apart. Somehow that feels less broken than my reality. Then there's the suffocating silence at school. Not an ice cream flavor. This one tastes like metal and shame. High school is my personal hell. Empty wallet, empty lunch tray, empty seat beside me like I'm radioactive. Empty soul on Wednesdays because middles are always the worst. *The usual.* But Emily made the silence bearable. Mint-flavored again. Until she broke something between us. *Snap.* One moment she's whispering secrets with me, the next she's weaponizing them. She scattered my private thoughts, added her own twisted lies. The betrayal burns hotter than the stares drilling into my back. I went from invisible to spectacle. Being a ghost feels like luxury when you're dodging spit balls and "accidental" lunch trays. But somewhere between my third panic attack and contemplating switching schools... *Something shifted.* Like in those games you play, when your character suddenly glows and the screen flashes: "New Skill Unlocked" And it wasn't just in my head. I tested it. Small things at first – a pencil moving across my desk when I focused hard enough. Then books. Then someone's lunch tray right as they walked past Emily. *tap tap tap* I used to think rock bottom was the end. *Well ladies and gentlemen,* it's just a really messed up spawn point. And now? I don't stumble from cliffs anymore. I swim in gravity, and dive head first.

Rian was just a disposable office boy in London until a dying alien's gift turned his right eye into a living supercomputer. Now, he sees what others can't, emotional stats, hidden scandals, and the very weaknesses of the elite. From the shadowy alleys of Shoreditch to the high-stakes boardroom of Sterling Tech, Rian navigates a dangerous world of corporate greed and extraterrestrial threats. As he falls for the cold CEO Victoria Sterling, he must decide, will he remain the master of the system, or will the system consume his humanity?

Congratulations, Karion Kross, you have fully acquired the Billionaire System. Host: Karion Kross. Balance: Half a trillion dollars. Task: Spend thirty million dollars in seventy-two hours, or suffer the system’s punishment! ~*~ On the day I was supposed to propose to my girlfriend, I, Karion Kross, a financially struggling entrepreneur, caught her in bed with my childhood best friend. Betrayed and heartbroken by the two people I trusted most in this cruel world on the day I thought would be special, I believed things couldn't get any worse until my so-called best friend ordered his guards to beat me up and leave me for dead so he can steal my company’s idea and girlfriend. However, on the brink of death, something extraordinary happened. A blue screen appeared out of thin air—a system promising wealth, power, and the chance to rewrite everything under one condition—I got revenge on those who have wronged me, slap faces them, spend like a trillionaire and… build a harem along the way?! The Rise Of Karion Kross starts now, and all who have wronged him, their ultimate downfall begins—now!