Song of Adolescence - Chapter 36: Garuda Realm

[Your shadow is alive.][Feed your shadow, devour souls, level up, gain skills, complete quests, and grow stronger.][Do you wish to view your current stats?]In the magical world of Aetherus, Damon Grey is the weakest student at Aether Academy, relentlessly bullied and ridiculed for his lack of power and defiant personality. Yet, he endures the torment, clinging to his scholarship—the only thing providing him with the funds to keep his sick sister alive.After a brutal attack leaves him near death, Damon encounters a dark viscous entity in the forest that fuses with his shadow, awakening the Living Shadow System. This strange power grants him unimaginable abilities but comes with a grim cost—a relentless hunger for souls and flesh to feed his shadow.Now, with his shadow alive and insatiable, Damon faces a terrible choice: feed it to grow stronger or starve it and die with it.In a world ruled by ruthless nobles, deadly monsters, and power-hungry demons, Damon must decide if his newfound power is a curse or the only way to survive. With the Living Shadow System, his fate is clear: devour or be devoured.

Zhong Yuntong was a dog raised by Zhong Jin in her previous life, quite literally a dog.She was a Celestial Cloud Demon Dog, and her father was the villainous Demon Lord from a novel, known for his ruthlessness and cunning, someone everyone wanted to eliminate.Little Tongtong, the puppy, was unaware of the turmoil outside, living a life of luxury with her villainous father, spoiled to the point of being unruly.When the demon clan was destroyed, Zhong Yuntong transformed into the form of a human child. Using her powerful sense of smell, she found her father, who was still as wise and formidable as ever, instilling fear in everyone.However, now everyone referred to him not as “Lord” but as “Director.”* * *A little child, around three or four years old, arrived at the An District Police Station. She was exquisitely beautiful, dressed in a fragrant cloud silk jacket and embroidered tiger-head shoes, clearly a well-cared-for child from a wealthy family.The child tiptoed, clinging to the edge of the inquiry desk, and loudly asked, “Excuse me, is my father here?”The female police officer smiled, “Little friend, who is your father?”“Zhong Jin.”Director Zhong Jin heard about this and was indifferent, thinking, “Just a child talking nonsense, we should find her parents quickly.”Two days later, Officer Wang handed the child over to the director, saying, “She’s your biological child.”Director Zhong, “……”Zhong Yuntong tugged at her father’s pant leg and said, “I want to eat crispy-skinned chicken.”Director Zhong, “……? Crispy… fried chicken?”Officer Wang, who understood this, confirmed, “There’s no doubt she’s your biological child.”A paternity test sent Director Zhong down the irreversible path of parenting, and after two months of chaotic child-rearing, the station received a report of a missing child, with a description that matched Zhong Yuntong perfectly.Zhong Jin remarked, “A scam call to the police station? What a genius.”The next day, the scammer arrived at the station.Zhong Jin, “……” The scam genius turned out to be his ex-wife.

#Married #Office RomanceJerica Evans, a devoted wife and clerk at City Hall, feels her world slowly unraveling as the cracks in her once-loving marriage deepen. Her husband, Jared, a high-powered lawyer with a fierce courtroom reputation known as “The Siberian Beast,” has grown distant, and his cold demeanor leaves Jerica questioning everything. Once the pillar of her life, Jared now feels like a stranger, more lighthouse than man—steady but unreachable, leaving Jerica adrift in loneliness and suspicion.When she catches him leaving work early with a mysterious woman in a red dress, her world shatters. As she balances her growing suspicion with the suspicious arrival of Harold Braddock, Jerica's former flame, the lines between loyalty, betrayal, and her own desires blur. Her once steady life spirals as her husband’s frosty demeanor and her own emotional wounds collide.As the emotional distance between her and Jared widens, Jerica must decide whether to fight for a love that seems to have slipped away—or walk away from the man who once completed her.What will she decide? What is Jared's secret? Was their marriage truly over? Has she truly stopped loving him?This is a heartstring-pulling journey of love, pride, and the devastating cost of hidden truths and unspoken desires, where one woman must decide if she’ll fight for the man she married or leave him behind to save herself.Please support the book by voting. Leave reviews and tell me what you feel in the comments.

Ten Years after the Descent to Earth of a Radical And All-Knowing System Called Arkadia, Life has changed in ways we could only surmise given we lived in a comic book. People with superpowers, Monsters, Heroes and Villains, Hell, there were even Other races coming out of the woodwork like Elves and such. Still, it wasn’t until The Extraterrestrials Invaded that things went from bad to worse.Yet, as if hope truly existed, 5000 of us Earthlings were given the opportunity to Head back into the past, only we didn’t know at the time there was a cost for doing so. By sending us back, the Descent Clock began, as Arkadia was pushed 10000 years into the Future, and it was up to us Returners to get things set back on course by changing the past to mold the Future.And I, being a boogieman of a Villian in what I dubbed the Origin Timeline, have come up with thousands of potential ways to affect my new life, like stealing popular franchises to earn some long-term funds or….hunting down notorious Serial Kills and Solving long-standing Cold cases I had been curious about since I was a teenager.