Fractured Hearts - Chapter 9: Whispers of Longing

Riven was a young man with dreams as vast as the horizon, but life demanded sacrifice. To support his struggling family, he gave up his education and ambitions, shouldering endless work to keep them afloat. Yet, his loyalty was met with the ultimate betrayal by his own father.As his life slipped away, Riven awoke in an unfamiliar world brimming with magic, reincarnated by a mysterious system. Gifted with a peculiar mana heart that pulses with untold power, Riven is thrust into a realm of mages, monsters, and ancient secrets.Determined to rise above his tragic past, Riven vows to become the strongest mage in this new world, uncovering the mysteries of his strange mana heart and the enigmatic system that guides him.

Where does the game end? Where does reality start?

When one very anticipated VRMMORPG was about to be launched, and Jake was one of the first players to have a chance to access it, he had a weird dream of himself fighting massive beasts and then seeing a world being destroyed.

Without knowing any better, Jake assumes that it was just a weird dream, but then he begins to have those weird dreams again and again until they become even more vivid, and much to his surprise, whenever the dream changes, he obtains a new power inside the game.

It doesn't take long for Jake to realize that he isn't the only one who has those dreams, and soon enough, Jake realizes that the game and reality are a lot more connected than he thought.

“She was a demon to begin with, how could she possibly be corrupted by encountering me, a human? Critics always talk about ludicrous things.”In 1798, during an interview with the press, Cardinal Bishop Lanci was asked about his past with the exiled last princess of the Demon Race, as well as recent signs of the resurrection of the demons. He stated:“I have made too many efforts to defend world peace, I am quite sure, there is absolutely no possibility for the Demon Race to revive under her leadership.”......In the winter of 1802, the revival of the Demon Race succeeded.[Based on the above information, please indicate who is the main culprit leading to the revival of the Demon Race, and explain why it is Lanci. (10 points)]—— excerpt from “Classic Examination Questions in Empire History.”

When Isaac opens his eyes, he finds neither eternal rest nor peaceful reincarnation... but a descent into hell. He wakes up in a world identical to his own, except for one terrifying detail: portals filled with monsters are popping up everywhere, and if no one stops them within three days, the apocalypse is upon us. Here, only enlightened hunters - graded from F to SS - have the power to confront these nightmarish creatures. The problem? Isaac is an F-rank, an orphan with no future, condemned to survive in the shadows of the strongest.But one night, everything changes. His spirit is torn from this world and plunged into another, a veritable hell where humanity is no more than a herd of slaves under the yoke of dragons. Tortured and broken, Isaac soon understands one thing: this other world isn't just a nightmare... it's a warning.As he fights for his life, a miracle occurs: an enigmatic system enables him to steal the power of the monsters he slays.[*Ding* Would you like to absorb the physical stats?]Weak yesterday, predator today, he has but one goal: to unravel the mysteries of both realities and crush those who would see him fail.With a katana in hand and a secret burning in his soul, Isaac refuses to be a victim. If he wants to survive, he has only one option: become the ultimate hunter... before history repeats itself.