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.

Rhys, a live in son in law of the Roberts family is unable to make it to the birthday celebration of his grandmother-in-law. Why? He had a very strange accident; He was supposed to try and get a gift under the pouring rain under the request of his wife, one minute he was crossing the road, the next, he saw a blue orb flash before his eyes before a car rams into him. He passes out by the side of the road, when he wakes up, he assumed that years had passed before his eyes, meanwhile it was just an hour. He returned to the birthday celebration with a broken present earning the wrath of his mother in law, wife and all that were present in the party. Leaving just a few words, he returns home under the pouring rain. When he got home, he discovered a blue orb brand on his left wrist. As he touched it to investigate, he appeared in a interdimensional space where a golden book was floating. Curiosity made him touch it, a searing pain overwhelmed his mind, causing him to pass out. As he woke up, he noticed that he had awakened the memories of a medicine god and a martial artist, returning to the interdimensional space; it was no longer empty but filled with rare herbs, books and weapon that would change the life of an ordinary man. A few days later, he had a completely different identity, he was no longer a live in son in law but also the young master of one of the most prominent families in the country. … follow Rhys as he trains himself and uses his enemies as his stepping stone to success.

Eighteen-year-old Yukio Yoshino never stood out much. He was quiet, ordinary, the kind of kid people overlooked. But on one reckless whim, everything changed. On New Year’s Eve, he sat down at a casino table for the very first time and walked away with a fortune big enough to pull his struggling family out of poverty. With a grin and a lighter heart than he’d ever known, Yukio sent the winnings home and stepped into the crowded streets, thinking his luck had finally turned. It had, but not in the way he expected. A freak accident ended his life in an instant. When he opened his eyes again, Yukio found himself in a calm, endless white void. Waiting for him was Michibiki and Lord Fukui, the childish and maddeningly carefree God of Fortune. With a sheepish laugh, Fukui admitted the truth: Yukio only won because of borrowed divine luck… and the god had yanked it back by mistake, killing him in the process. Instead of an apology, Fukui offered Yukio a choice, fade away into a dull afterlife, or take a gamble on a second chance in Gaelora, a world of magic and monsters locked in a centuries-long war against demons. Yukio didn’t hesitate. Reborn in Gaelora with mastery over all six elements of magic and a strange, unpredictable skill of his own making, Yukio sets out to play the hand fate has dealt him. With Michibiki, an angelic guide who’s equal parts mentor and babysitter, he steps into a realm where every fight, every choice, and every spin of fortune could mean glory or ruin. For the first time in his life, Yukio isn’t just gambling for money. He’s gambling for the fate of a world and the odds have never been higher.

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.