MTL - Start a Core Pod - Chapter 1 sequence

Winner of the 2017 Joara Novel of The Year Contest-

In a world plagued by Morgellons, a deadly disease that turns humans into non-human creatures, people have chosen to abandon their humanity in order to fight against the bloodthirsty corpses. In the end, there will be no humans left on Earth.

But that harsh world is, in fact, a world fabricated merely for entertainment. A world for humans to live in exists neither inside nor outside.

This is the story of a boy who, while living a miserable life, stares at the stars as he desperately tries to keep his humanity.

This is the 40,000th year that the Empire has ruled the Milky Way. The glory of the Great Crusade has long been lost in the dust of history. Su Yu traveled through time and opened his eyes to see the ruined planet in front of him, with a confused look on his face.

On this planet, there are extremely dilapidated war machines that stretch for thousands of kilometers, alien behemoths whose roars can shatter mountains and rivers, and radiation that can cause further damage to the surrounding environment just by moving. Alien beast——

There is everything here except hope.

Regardless of whether he wanted to or not, Su Yu, who had struggled to survive for three years and was inevitably infected with radiation sickness in the end, seemed to be one of the desperate people.

Until his career panel, which allows for unlimited career changes, was finally opened.

“Ding!”

“It is detected that the host has met the prerequisites. Do you want to take up the occupation [Mechanic]?”

“After completing this profession, you can gain professional experience and improve your professional level from daily maintenance, recycling, and assembly of mechanical creations. With each upgrade, you can gain an increase in physical fitness…”

Looking at the old gun parts piled up in his repair room, Su Yu’s eyes lit up like never before!

Many years later, at the core of the empire, at the highest point of the Terran world, the mechanic from the Ruined Star, the Ghost Shadow Blade of the Dead Wasteland, the restarter of the Titan Weapon Plan, the Governor of the Broken Star Territory, the Lord of Mechanical Ascension, the Supreme Throne of the Forge World, Su Yu looked at the torrent of steel coming from below and waved his hand to give the order!

[Our goal is to make the (second) (crossed out) empire great again! 】

- Description from novelbuddy

Great Cultivator Chen Fan had failed his Tribulation period, but after a dream, he had returned to Earth, when he was young, five hundred years ago.

“In my past life, I reached the peak in the universe. I looked down upon the myriad of worlds, but with no one accompanying me. In this life, I wish for both.”

- Description from novelupdates

Marcus was a rising star in finance, until his boss's petty revenge left him fired, and near broke. The woman he loved was gone. His future was a joke, his life adrift, and with nothing left to loseHis only way out was Dominion, the world's first true VRMMO, a game that promises to become humanity's second world, where in-game gold translates to real-world wealth. For Marcus, it wasn't a game; it was a desperate last chance to rebuild his life and support his sister.But on the day of character creation, the system glitched.While other players were assigned random stats, Marcus was given the impossible: Maxed-Out Base Attributes and a legendary, unchangeable Luck stat of 20.The system tried to fix him. It failed.Now, Marcus doesn't play the game. He exploits it. Armed with a broken skill that reveals every secret and a drop rate that makes him instantly rich, he is the statistical anomaly the developers never accounted for.