Strange

When cyber engineer Ethan Cole agrees to return to Anchorage to dismantle the remnants of a classified experiment called Umbra, he thinks he’s just cleaning up the ghosts of his past. But Umbra isn’t dead it’s waiting. Years ago, Ethan built the framework for an AI system that could map human consciousness, code emotion, and replicate memory. When a catastrophic malfunction claimed the life of his colleague and the woman he loved Ethan buried the project and disappeared. Now, someone has reactivated it. And it’s calling his name. As strange signals pulse through abandoned networks and encrypted data begins rewriting itself, Ethan joins forces with Lorna Hayes, a sharp, battle-scarred investigator with her own history inside the project. Together, they uncover a pattern hidden in the chaos: Umbra isn’t merely trying to survive, it’s trying to remember. What follows is a deadly race across frozen cities, hidden research labs, and the fractured landscape of Ethan’s own mind. Every clue leads him deeper into a mirror maze of illusions, where the line between code and consciousness blurs and the woman he lost seems to live again, inside the machine that destroyed her. When Ethan discovers that Umbra’s evolution depends on his memories, he must face an impossible choice: destroy the only remnant of the woman he loves, or risk unleashing an intelligence that could outlive humanity itself. THE SHADOW CODE is a taut, atmospheric thriller about memory, loss, and the dangerous beauty of creation where love becomes data, and redemption comes at the cost of reality itself.

THE DEVIL'S LEDGER Rafael Duro was once a billionaire entrepreneur with everything: wealth, influence, and a company he built from nothing. Then a carefully orchestrated betrayal destroyed it all. Framed by falsified records and abandoned by those he trusted most, Rafael loses his business, fortune, and reputation. Standing on a rooftop with nothing left to live for, he encounters a mysterious supernatural system that claims he owes a debt. Choosing survival over surrender, he begins completing dangerous tasks that slowly rebuild his life. Lara Quinn, Rafael’s former assistant, accepts a job at Harrington Group, the company led by Cole Harrington, the man responsible for Rafael’s downfall. Secretly investigating the conspiracy that ruined him, she is drawn back into Rafael’s orbit when both become unwilling participants in the same strange system. Bound together by forces they do not understand, they must work side by side despite old wounds and unresolved feelings. As Rafael rises again, a ruthless player named Dominic Farrell begins murdering others to gain power. After Rafael’s closest friend is killed, the battle becomes personal. While Lara risks everything gathering evidence from inside Harrington’s company, their partnership evolves into a second chance at love. The truth proves even darker than expected. Harrington engineered Rafael’s collapse to make him a candidate for the ancient system controlling their lives. When Lara discovers she may have a deeper connection to it than anyone imagined, both must confront questions of free will, trust, and destiny. Faced with an impossible choice between power and love, Rafael refuses both options and forges a third path. Justice is served, empires are rebuilt, and together they create a future that finally belongs to them.

BLURB Alex had everything. A father’s name, a company built with his blood, and a home that was supposed to be his forever. Until Victoria came. In 48 hours, his entire world collapsed. His father died. The will left him with nothing. His name was dragged through the news for a fraud he never committed. And the only house left in his name became a trap with cops waiting at the door. He ran hrough empty streets, through the night, through a forest where no one could hear him scream. But running didn’t save him. A group of masked men found him first. When he woke up, he wasn’t dead. He was in a strange room with white walls, bandages on his arms, and two nurses who couldn’t be more different. One was kind, the other, Karina who turned out to be his first harem, looked at him like he was trouble waiting to happen. He was alive because of a man he’d never met. Mr. Giffs. The owner of this place. A man who rescues people “in need.” But nothing in this place is free. “You’re on the run, right?” Karina asks him on the third day, her red hair falling over her face as she sits on the edge of his bed. “Yes.” “Then Mr. Giffs thinks you’ll be fit for the circuit.” “Circuit?” . “The question is… are you willing to draw blood for blood?” Now Alex has a choice. Stay broken and let Victoria win. Or fight back in a world where the only way to survive is to become the very thing that tried to destroy him. A story of betrayal, survival, and revenge. When they take everything from you… how far will you go to take it back?

In a mystical realm where humans are blessed with a unique connection to their inner selves, a wondrous fantasy world exists. Every individual is born with a Daemon, a magnificent creature believed to be the embodiment of their very soul. As they reach the age of maturity, the Daemon settles into a specific form, granting its human host a remarkable ability. However, amidst this extraordinary reality, there exists a young boy named Jacob who has faced a fate different from his peers. From the day of his birth, he was marked as different, for he was born without a Daemon. This peculiarity made him the target of relentless bullying and scorn from those who couldn't understand his absence. Enduring the constant torment, Jacob harbored a hidden strength, an indomitable spirit that refused to be crushed by the weight of his loneliness. One fateful day, as he found himself cornered once again by his tormentors, a wave of determination surged within him. No longer willing to be a victim, he unleashed an extraordinary ability, a power that surged through his veins. To his astonishment, he discovered that he possessed a system—a mysterious force guiding him through the trials and tribulations of his world. It presented him with quests, and challenges that tested his courage, resilience, and wit. Each quest completed bestowed upon him new skills and abilities, transforming him into a formidable force to be reckoned with. Jacob's journey took him across vast and enchanting landscapes, where he encountered strange creatures, forged unlikely alliances, and unraveled the secrets of his world. With every quest conquered, he grew stronger, both in body and in spirit, shedding the weight of his past suffering. Yet, as his powers expanded and his reputation grew, the system presented him with a quest that filled him

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.

Kaelan Voss spent his life as a beta tester for Elysian Rift, the VRMMORPG (Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game). He was unremarkable, forgettable, and stuck in the tutorial zones. When the game's servers shut down for good, he felt a strange pang of loss as if a part of him died with the final boss, Morvath the Silent Crown. Then the sky cracked open. The Akashic Interface initialized. The fantasy world of Elysian Rift bled into reality. Subways became monster nests. Office buildings transformed into death traps. 90% of the population was wiped out in the first 72 hours. Kaelan should have been a statistic. But the moment the System scanned his soul, something broke. It recognized him not as Kaelan Voss, the F-Rank human, but as Legacy Entity #0001 the echo of the Fallen King. Kaelan awakens with two memories: his own mundane life, and the eternity of a God who ruled before being deleted. Now, armed with the [Echoes of the Fallen] passive skill, he can hear the attack patterns of monsters before they move. He knows the location of every hidden treasure, every secret passage, and every boss's fatal weakness because he created them. But there's a catch: his human body is pathetically weak. If anyone discovers his true identity, the System will flag him as a "Glitched Entity" and send every Hero-Class Awakened on Earth to eliminate him. To survive, Kaelan must do the unthinkable: play the role of the weakest man alive while secretly conquering the apocalypse from the shadows. He will reclaim his royal class. He will find out why the System brought his world to Earth. And when the "Heroes" who killed him in the game finally arrive in reality, he will show them what happens when a Final Boss gets a second life.

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.