Strange

To save his family, he had to stop being human. Twenty-four-year-old Jid has spent his life in the dirt, breathing the rust of the Bulwark slums. As the sole guardian of his younger sister, Sommy, his world is measured in scraps of bread and the hours of backbreaking labor he sells to the powerful guilds. He doesn’t dream of glory; he dreams of a roof that doesn't leak and a meal that doesn't taste like ash. But the world outside the walls is changing. The "Infected" are evolving, and the shadows are growing teeth. When a high-stakes raid into the forbidden zones turns into a bloody execution, Jid is the one left behind. Betrayed and gutted by the monsters in the dark, he should have died in the mud. Instead, something ancient and hungry found him first. Jid wakes up to a world he no longer recognizes. The pain is gone, replaced by a cold, mechanical pulse in his mind and a shimmering gold light in his eyes. A strange, haunting interface now dictates his every move, granting him powers that defy the laws of time and biology—powers that the ruling corporations would kill to own. But the "System" isn't a gift. It’s a tether to an outer-world threat that views humanity as nothing more than ink on a page, ready to be erased. Now, Jid must return to the city that abandoned him, hiding the monster he is becoming while using his new abilities to protect the only person he has left. He survived the death of his old life, but as the hunger grows and the "System" begins to rewrite his soul, Jid realizes the hardest part isn't surviving the dead—it’s surviving the thing he’s turning into. And whatever is coming for him.

Kai Gibson has always been ordinary—too ordinary for a city like Harborview, where power, influence, and fear rule every street corner. After losing his father under mysterious circumstances and struggling under crushing debt, Kai is pushed to the edge of survival. But everything changes the night he’s ambushed behind an abandoned mall and a strange surge of energy awakens inside him. With the rare ability known as Tactical Insight, Kai begins to see the world differently—patterns, threats, weaknesses, pathways to victory even when the odds are against him. Suddenly, the once-weak young man becomes a rising force in Harborview’s underworld. But Kai’s evolution comes with a price. Every step forward drags him deeper into a web of enemies: street gangs, corrupt elites, hidden organizations, and people he once trusted. Betrayals strike from unexpected places, and Kai learns that the attack that awakened his power wasn’t random at all—it was planned. Now trapped between shadowy forces that want to control him and others who want him dead, Kai must level up faster than his enemies expect. Each chapter pushes him through higher stakes: • deadly ambushes • shocking betrayals • growing supernatural abilities • strategic face-slapping comebacks • climbing from the lowest rung of society to a position of unstoppable strength As Kai climbs, he uncovers the truth behind his father’s death, the origins of his new power, and a hidden war brewing beneath the city’s neon lights. To survive, he must rise. To win, he must become more than human. And to uncover the truth, he must be willing to face the darkness inside—and the monsters hiding in plain sight. Harborview will remember the name Kai Gibson… whether it wants to or not.