Global Catastrophe: I Begin to Evolve from an Ancient Tree - Chapter 323: Nine Tolling Bells

[Read up to chapter 5, you won't regret it.]Haru Mizuki died the lamest death possible: alone in his room, playing a hentai VRMMO. No heroic sacrifice. No tragic accident. Just... pathetic.But instead of oblivion, he wakes up in Aethelgard.Cursed by Chronia, Goddess of Time, Haru gains an ability no one else has: he can't stay dead. Every time he dies, he loops back to his last checkpoint. What seems like a curse becomes his greatest weapon, infinite retries mean infinite opportunities to learn, train, and seduce.And seduce he must. Because Haru's cheat ability, Touch of the Goddess, lets him steal powers from anyone he touches... but it works best through intimate contact.Armed with death loops, a hacker-class system that lets him sabotage rival players, Haru begins building the ultimate multi-species harem. But he's not the only player in this game, and they all want the same thing: absolute domination.

Book I: Lost ThingsTristan Abrascal is a thief, one of many making their living under the perpetual twilight of the greatest city in all of Vesper. Quick wit and a contract with a capricious goddess have always kept him one step ahead, until one night he crosses a line by accident that burns all the bridges he had left. But not all is lost, as his mentor offers a way out of peril that turns out to be more than a simple escape.It is also an opportunity to get even with the infanzones, the nobles he’s lived under all his life, and it so happens that Tristan has a full ledger’s worth of scores to settle with them.Lady Angharad Tredegar has fled halfway across the world, leaving behind a ruin of a life: her family butchered by a ruthless enemy, their estate torched and their nobility revoked. Yet no matter how far she flees the blades of assassins follow, and she finds herself growing desperate for any protection. She has one relative left to call on, her estranged uncle, but she finds that the safety he offers comes at a cost.Angharad has sworn revenge, however, and her honour will allow for no compromise. She will do what she must to survive so that one day bloody vengeance can be visited upon her enemies.The paths of the two take them to the doorstep of the Watch, but for desperate souls like them enrolment is a lost cause. They will have to do it the hard way instead, by surviving the trials on the isle known as the Dominion of Lost Things.Where every year many go, and few return.Book II: Good TreasonsThe trials of the Dominion are over.The four survivors have become students of Scholomance, enrolling together as a cabal, yet even on those infamous grounds they soon learn none are beyond the reach of their pasts.Angharad Tredegar is returned to a semblance of the world she left behind, but finds her honor sorely tested by bargains offered - every bit as tempting as in the stories and even deadlier.Tristan Abrascal needs answers. Mysterious enemies keep trying to abduct him, his classroom does not exist and he’s now had several conversations with dead people. Worst of all, his carrots keep dying.Maryam Khaimov is going mad, which would worry her less if it were happening on schedule. More frightening yet is the possibility that she is not, and there truly is someone else going around wearing her face.Song Ren must forge the others into a functional unit, all the while fending off enemies on all sides: rival cabals, vengeful countrymen and the deluge of implacable foes her companions simply cannot seem to stop attracting.Failure is not an option, for Song must bring back honor to her family’s name whatever the cost: it is the only way to keep their disgrace from literally eating them all alive.And as the four chase shadows in Scholomance, in the distance looms the greater test awaiting them in the Asphodel Rectorate. Asphodel is a faded power, the rotten carcass of what it once was, but under that rot looms darker things - of which monsters might just be the least dangerous.Besides, is treason really such an evil when you have the best of reasons for it?

Would you play the universally disliked character in a romance reality show for a million? Xu Qingyan's answer is: Hesitating for even a second is disrespectful to money.Being cursed and trending online, Xu Qingyan says it doesn't matter; after all, you can't abandon money for the sake of saving face, right?Director: “Don't feel any psychological burden.”Xu Qingyan: “Director, I feel this line isn't mean enough.”Director: “Don't worry, just let loose and act.”Xu Qingyan: “No problem, Director. I'll act naturally, and show you what devotion means.”.......Xu Qingyan: You all see me messing around every day, but you don’t see my hardworking lifestyle, my late-night studies, or the way I kindly interact with others.You can't see it! Because I've never done it.Netizen: “What a satisfying read, time to be discharged from the hospital.”.......The rising pop princess, Lin Wanzhou, had a gap in her heart, a sorrowful little secret about an unrequited love. In the blink of an eye, the object of her affection was on a romance show, getting ambiguous with a rival she had once defeated.The washed-up pop princess, Mu Chan, initially wanted to just frustrate Lin Wanzhou, but didn't expect to get caught up...In the twenty-sixth spring of her life, she fell for someone, and could never let go since.May you be well, with a bright future ahead.

Arthur Blackwynd didn’t expect to survive the strange and terrifying event that happened at sea. Even less did he expect to wake up in the DC Universe a world he’d only ever read about in comics.Armed with the Shadow Monarch System,the ability that grants him control over shadows and an undead army, Arthur is both awed by his new reality. As a lifelong comic geek, he knows the heroes and villains like the back of his hand Haunted by questions of why he’s here, Arthur struggles to find his purpose. Will he embrace the darker side of his newfound powers and become a villain, or will his sense of justice lead him down a different, unpredictable path?“why the likes of Raven seems to be watching my every move?” In a world full of gods, monsters, and legends, Arthur must decide who he will become and what role he’ll play in shaping the fate of the DC Universe.