Faking It With Damien Black

To save his grievously ill mother, broke college student Alex takes a shady deal to test black market software for a mysterious hacker. He must install the illegal update in his favorite virtual reality game, Elysium Quest. But Alex quickly realizes the hacked program triggers consequences reaching far beyond just getting his gaming account banned. Soon he's battling ruthless gamers determined to exploit the technology at all costs, evading escalating legal investigations, and making dangerous choices that push his moral limits. In a world where virtual and reality intertwine, Alex will risk everything to acquire the funds for a miracle cure. Along with help from his quick-witted childhood friend Emma, Alex is thrust into a high-stakes adventure full of combat, intrigue, and life-altering twists. As he masters new abilities, uncovers hidden truths, and fights for more than just survival, he learns what power and integrity mean when your back's against the wall.

Micheal, an orphan who lost his parents early faces a difficult childhood with his adopted poor family, his father an abusive man and a drunkard leads Micheal to become a school dropout, his mother having had enough commits suicide, leaving him and his brother with a ruthless father, things became challenging as the adopted dies leaving them in a mountain of debt. Micheal left with no choice, along with a group of accomplices plans to rob a jewel store belong to the Ashford family, in their surprise, the store has an advanced scanning technology protecting a room filled with priceless diamonds but the heist takes an unexpected turn as one of Micheal's accomplice triggers an alarm, leading to his arrest. Placed in a holding cell contemplates the choices that brought him to this point, as he faces the possibility of a long prison sentence just as micheal expects a lengthy prison term. He is unexplainably released, confused and disoriented. he walks out of the station seeing a black limo with several SUVs waiting for him, as it is revealed that his true identity is actually the heir to the Ashford family.

Ethan Black died a forgotten man. After sacrificing everything — his dreams, savings, and dignity — for the woman he loved and her ruthless family, they discarded him like trash at her engagement party to a richer man. One final "favour" later, bullets ended his pain… or so he thought. Reborn as Vesper Kane, the tyrannical villain of the novel his late father gifted him, Ethan wakes up with a System and a death sentence: 365 days until his fated execution. With a survival probability of just 0.01%, the entire world — the Hero, Heroines, King, and even his own family — wants him dead. The story itself fights to restore the original tragic ending. Armed with future knowledge and a sharp, sarcastic System, Ethan must rewrite destiny itself. Every deviation makes him stronger… but the world pushes back harder. From hunted fugitive to shadow emperor, this is the story of a discarded man who refuses to die on schedule. The countdown has begun. Will he break the system… or will the system break him?

In a civilization ruled entirely by Beast Tamers, social status, political authority, wealth, and survival are all determined by the spirit beast one awakens during the sacred Day of Summoning. Weak beasts condemn people to lives of humiliation. Legendary beasts create kings. Divine beasts shape empires. Jesse Fletcher, a poor orphan from the slums of Ashveil City, dreams of escaping the misery that has suffocated his life for years. But on the Day of Summoning, his awakening becomes the greatest humiliation in the city's history. While noble heirs summon terrifying elemental dragons, celestial wolves, and ancient war beasts, Jesse awakens a dying creature rejected by the system itself—a malformed black beast covered in broken golden chains. The elite call it a defect. The priests declare it cursed. The academy brands it worthless. They force Jesse to either destroy it or live forever as the city's shame. But Jesse refuses. Unknown to the world, the creature is not a defect. It is a sealed primordial entity erased from history after the Ancient Beast Wars. A forbidden existence capable of devouring evolution itself.

Thorne Black died a nobody, just a desperate grave robber trying to reclaim dignity for his family after the Holy Kingdom of Solace destroyed their graves to build its shining cathedrals. But death was not the end. Reborn as an undead bound to the Necro Overlord System, he awakens with one terrifying power: to harvest souls and raise an army from the dead. As Thorne’s power grows, so does his ambition. Villages fall, outposts crumble, and battlefields rise again under his command as he builds a relentless undead legion to tear Solace apart. But standing in his path is Sister Elara, a death priestess sworn to guide souls to rest. Unlike the others, she sees something unsettling in Thorne, not just a monster, but a man shaped by injustice. As their paths collide, faith begins to crack, and the line between justice and vengeance blurs. If the kingdom that claims to protect the living is built on the bones of the forgotten, then who is the true villain, and when the dead rise to reclaim what was stolen, will Thorne become the savior of the fallen… or the very tyrant he set out to destroy?

Ryan Volde has just lost his job when a mysterious black letter appears on his door. Minutes later, he wakes inside Blackthorn Arcane Academy—a hidden school where magic is real, and failure can cost far more than a bad grade. There is only one problem. Ryan's evaluation is terrible. Low Strength. Low Agility. Almost nonexistent Arcane ability. According to Blackthorn itself, even an angry farm chicken poses a greater threat than he does. Among all the new candidates, Ryan seems to be the weakest. But the Mirror of Appraisal fails to uncover one thing. Hidden within Ryan is an SS-Rank Talent called Universal Prodigy, a mysterious ability that allows him to learn twice as fast and temporarily copy certain abilities from others. While the geniuses of Blackthorn compete to prove their worth, Ryan decides to keep his true Talent hidden. Because being the weakest student may be humiliating. But making everyone believe he is weak might become his greatest advantage.

Blake is as useless as a one-leg chair. A leech, who feasts off his wife's family wealth. That is exactly how everyone sees him. To his wife– he's just the ordinary husband she married out of love, clinging to the hope that he's going to become someone better but things seem to be getting worse. Maybe Blake is really a bad luck as they claim, a paper umbrella in a hurricane and they keep ringing it in her ear to divorce him. Jemina faces daily humiliations from her family and she's always reminded of how Blade has caused her career to plummet into the mud. On Patriarch Walter's birthday, Blade interrupted the mood, asking for $20,000 to save his grandmother but he was casted aside and told only if he'll divorce Jemina which he won't do. Jemina secretly gave him the money but on his way to the hospital, he was attacked and beaten to the point of death. Before he black out– DING! CASHFLOW SYSTEM ACTIVATED.

Everyone called Jared Lin trash — the good-for-nothing son-in-law of the powerful Bai family. Insulted by his cold wife, mocked by his in-laws, and humiliated by society, Jared lived at the very bottom of the food chain. But everything changed the day the world ended. When the skies turned black and monstrous creatures tore the world apart, Jared died protecting the very people who looked down on him. Just when he thought it was over, he woke up ten years in the past—on the morning of his wedding. This time, he’s not just a useless son-in-law. He’s the chosen host of the Apocalypse Preparation System. Armed with future knowledge, hidden upgrades, and an unbreakable will, Jared begins building his underground empire while pretending to be weak. Real estate, pharmaceutical power, weapons deals—he’s preparing for the fall of mankind. The world may laugh at him now. But when the apocalypse returns… They’ll all beg at his feet. This is the story of a man who went from worthless to world ruler, from ridiculed to revered. A second chance to rewrite fate — and this time, Jared Lin is taking no prisoners.

David is a man who sucks. His name is only David, does not have a family name. Discarded, wasted. Not strong and not rich. A husband of Lily and an unwanted son-in-law. Every day he always gets insults from his mother-in-law, and the surrounding people, even his own wife, no longer respect him because of his very poor condition. David couldn’t make his wife and mother-in-law happy, so they thought he deserved the humiliation. David was so helpless. He could only accept his bad luck. His job, which only works as someone who provides cleaning services from house to house, does not work as he wants. He rarely gets a call for his services. But then, suddenly some men in black come to him to give him a salute and then called him a boss. What happens? Why did they call him to come back and offer him a lot of money and power? What will happen to David? Will he take the offer and become the great man? Or does he rejects it and keeps his poor life?

Dying a tragic death after being betrayed and used as a mere tool, the young man swore that he would never live for anyone else again if he were ever given a second chance. Yet, fate threw his soul into the body of Aldric—an illegitimate son of a king, who had been slaughtered at the bottom of the Forbidden Forest's ravine by his very own biological father. On the brink of death for the umpteenth time, a mechanical voice suddenly echoed inside his head: [Egoist System Activated]. This mysterious system did not require a holy hero. Instead, his power points surged drastically every time he made a selfish and ruthless decision. Forged by the darkness of the cursed forest, he began to crawl his way back up with a black sword in hand, preparing to tear down the royal throne built upon demonic sacrificial rituals. He did not return to become a savior for this rotten world. He came to seize the highest throne, and to become a monster far more terrifying than the rulers before him. "For the deepest wounds never give birth to a hero."