MTL - American Warehouse Taobao King - Chapter 49 [Enter Fighting Expert Josh Smith]

Facing extinction, humanity seeks salvation in the Astral Verge, a dangerous dimension accessed via portals that threatened to wipe out the entire planet.Few years later, aspiring recruit Daniel Vance enters the Verge for his final assessment, hoping to Awaken a Talent and secure his future. While others gain common abilities, Daniel secretly Awakens the mythical SSS-Grade Talent: [Soul Assimilation]. This allows him to absorb essence, enhancing gear, gaining stats and EXP from slain creatures, and crucially, absorbing attributes and skills from fallen Awakened.Witnessing the swift death of the arrogant Jaxon Rex, Daniel makes a grim choice: he assimilates Jaxon, gaining his first skill, [Kinetic Pulse]. This sets his path: scavenging the aftermath of others’ battles. He enhances gear and, after achieving his first kill on an injured beast, waits patiently to assimilate two more fallen recruits, acquiring [Quick Step] and the invaluable passive [Aura Sense].Starting as average, Daniel rapidly gains power in secret, enhanced gear, multiple skills, and boosted stats , far exceeding his peers while remaining outwardly unremarkable. He navigates the lethal Verge alone, using its inherent dangers to fuel his growth, wrestling with the moral cost of his unique, overwhelming power.

Kōdo Ikusei Senior High School, a leading prestigious school with state-of-the-art facilities where nearly 100% of students go on to university or find employment. The students there have the freedom to wear any hairstyle and bring any personal effects they desire. Kōdo Ikusei is a paradise-like school, but the truth is that only the most superior of students receive favorable treatment.

The protagonist Kiyotaka Ayanokōji is a student of D-class, which is where the school dumps its “inferior” students in order to ridicule them. For a certain reason, Kiyotaka was careless on his entrance examination, and was put in D-class. After meeting Suzune Horikita and Kikyō Kushida, two other students in his class, Kiyotaka’s situation begins to change.

This story is about a rookie researcher, who was forcefully dragged away from his restful life, compelled into facing various killers and zombies, always having to risk his life at the brink of death, and finally becoming an advanced researcher that is acclaimed by all. And throughout his adventure, he met an alluring(?) killing machine, who he started to have fantasies on after they had an accidental kiss…

Xiao Yan: Did I fall for him? But he’s a man!

Maya: Who knows…. maybe it’s the other way round?

- Description from Novelupdates

He defied the heavens once, he returns to do it again.In a past life, he was Xie Wuchen, the heretic god of cultivation. A rebel who shattered divine law, betrayed the celestial order, and vanished in a blaze of infamy.Now, he is Lan—a crippled prince in a world ruled by mana and noble bloodlines. His mana core is broken. His name is a joke. His existence, forgotten.Until the rain falls.And something awakens:[Forbidden Arts Synchronization: Complete][Elapsed Time: 16 years, 10 months, 15 days][Memory Restoration in Progress…]The soul of Heaven’s greatest traitor has returned with a hunger far greater than revenge.And he plans to do more than ascend the magical hierarchy. He will annihilate it.This time, he will forge an empire—not of nobles or spellcasters, but something this new world have never known—Cultivators, trained in arts banned by gods and feared by men.Those who mocked him will kneel.Those who ruled by birthright will burn.And the heavens, once again, will tremble.Magic rules this world.But cultivation will conquer it.