Fantôme

I don’t even know where to begin. The vampire or the deadly twins, Desire and Despair. But they all have their motives in my life. A part to play. On one hand the vampires carry what I need. The ring of the damned. On the other hand the twins might be the only people to help me know who I’m. What I’m. But I need to play it well, if I have even the slightest chance of surviving what they have planned for me.

My wife ended our marriage with a smile and a disconnected oxygen tube. Her rich lover and my own family watched me die. They celebrated when it was over. I was the husband nobody wanted, sick, poor, and in the way. So they removed me. Permanently. But some graves are not as deep as they seem. And some silences are just the calm before the storm. I’m coming back. And this time, I won’t be begging for my life. I’ll be collecting theirs.

"You're a dirty poor orphan, who doesn't belong here in this University!" Mason Williams is a 21-year-old college student who is constantly reminded that he is irreverent and wretched by society, but everything changes when death slaps him into the life of a celestial billionaire heir. "My name is Mason William the Second, son of Grace William the First, heir to the Williams empire, host of the celestial system, and the master of the celestial assassins. With this, I pray heaven will help those who trespass me!"

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.

"Name's Andrew Lapis, bud. Just your run-of-the-mill guy coasting through a mundane existence. My family? As average as they come, all huddled under the drab roof of a cookie-cutter house. University? Yep, I'm there too, pulling down grades that'd make any 'ordinary' student proud. Except for Logic Reasoning. Turns out, I've got a knack for that—extraordinarily good, if you ask me. My nightly routine? Well, it's a real nail-biter. Me and my buddy, we hit up the same old coffee shop, play the same old card games. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm no slouch when it comes to those cards. You could say I've got some pretty extraordinary skills up my sleeve. But here's the kicker—life was as dull as dishwater, or at least it used to be. That was until I stumbled upon certain people that turned my world from yawn-inducing ordinary to a whirlwind of the extraordinary. My reality? It flipped like a pancake on a hot griddle. Gone were the days of ordinary, replaced by a high-stakes world of dirty dealings and opulent casinos. So yeah, you could say my life went from poker nights to playing dirty, but in the swankiest casinos you ever did see."

"Who do you want to go with? Mommy or Daddy?" Weston watches his girlfriend ask their four year old daughter. "I want to live with the two of you," the kid answers. "You can't, girl, you have to choose between coming with me or staying with daddy." "But..." The little girl's voice chokes with tears, "my teacher says family is to live together." "Not all families live together; we are one of those families who would never live together." "I'll stay with daddy." "Daddy is poor and won't be able to take care of you, just come with me, I will find you a better and wealthy Daddy who will buy you whatever you want, take you on vacation to Paris and Dubai..." *** It all started ten years back... Weston fled from his family like the prodigal son, started dating Ivy, got a child and squandered all his money. Now that he is poor, his girlfriend doesn't want to have anything to do with him because...who the hell wants to remain stuck with a man who can't even afford three square meals for his family? But then...what Weston's girlfriend didn't know was that her boyfriend was a multibillionaire...  

Alex Verlaine was a walking, talking blood-bag who only existed to donate plasma to his ailing brother-in-law. His selfless love for his wife is repaid by betrayal and his sacrifices mocked and ridiculed by his mother-in-law. But when Alex discovers his wife never loved him and is already in the arms of another man, he casts his veil aside and reveals his true identity as the Legendary Miracle Maker. They treated him like a servant, now he is back to make them kneel like slaves. They called him a penniless loser, only to discover that he was the wealthiest man in Alexandria. "Just who are you really?" Felicia asked in a trembling voice, her face rapidly losing color. Alex looked into her hazel eyes and breathed like a man possessed, "I am the God you will kneel to from tonight, or watch your whole world burn to ash. I am Alexandria's beating heart, and the only one who can save your dying brother." Felicia clasped her hands, falling to her knees in submission. "Please forgive me. I was wrong to insult you. My family needs you. Please give me another chance!" Alex grabbed her face, squeezing her flushed cheeks, and whispered in a husky voice, "Then beg me like you mean it!"

Three months to live. Zero mana. One desperate lie. **That's how I became the most wanted man in Neo-Tokyo.** I told an assassin my body was "overflowing with Yang Energy." She blushed instead of shooting. I told an S-Rank Hunter her sword technique was "stiff because she's sexually repressed." She destroyed a mountain and swore eternal loyalty. I told a Succubus Queen I was "too powerful to be charmed." She became my maid. Now the is forcing me to maintain this ridiculous persona: **EXTERNAL:** "Kneel. You're not worthy of my touch." **INTERNAL:** *Oh god, if she squeezes my hand she'll break my wrist.* Every woman who desires me generates Desire Points. Lose their faith? I die. The Detective thinks I'm a criminal mastermind. The Heiress thinks I'm a caged god. My Disciple thinks my trembling is "restrained divine power." **They're all wrong. I'm just a dying scammer who weaponized charisma.** But here's the twist: The more they believe the lie... the more real it becomes. **[Warning: Contains Comedy, Face-Slapping, Steamy Mana Transfer, and a Protagonist Who Refuses to Break Character Even When Terrified]**

I woke up to find myself a weakling vampire with only 10 health points, and the Holy Light Knight Order was right outside to purify me! In my despair, the 【Proficiency System】activated—so long as I live, everything is grindable! To survive, I did anything! While other vampires were hunting maidens, I was slaughtering a hundred thousand rats in the sewer, my 【Bite】skill maxed out, awakening the talent 【Life Drain】! Holy Light burns painfully? I treated myself like the Monkey King's flesh and braved the Holy Light, my 【Holy Light Resistance】maxed out, awakening the talent 【Holy Light Affinity MAX】, and directly took a Holy Light bath in the church! They thought I was an elegant noble, but what I was actually thinking was, "This sword strike will probably only take 0.001% of my health—too risky, I must kill him instantly!" They called me the "Nighttime Scourge" because I targeted only the most heinous scoundrels, after all, the proficiency points from "Sinful Blood" were simply too generous! Years later, the Abyssal Demon God descended, and the gods fell. In the despair of the entire world, I brushed off the dust from my tailcoat and looked at my blood bar that had grown to an uncountable length. "You... can break my defense?"

My name is Alanna, I believe. I have lost myself in the depths of an island. I don't know where I'm from, or what my real name is, I just know that a pack of wolves has rescued me. I will have to fight against the Alpha and the Beta of the pack, but something dark blooms in me, something I did not know, a mythological being that lived inside me. A mermaid, yes, I am one of the most beautiful mermaids in the world.