Swallowed Star - Chapter 20 — Dark, Golden Ball

Have you ever stared directly at the moon?A hundred years ago, the Blood Moon emerged.Mythical creatures descended from the lunar surface, bringing unimaginable slaughter upon humanity.In the brink of extinction, seven human legendary warriors awakened SSS-level talents, leading mankind in a desperate counterattack.The tide of war began to turn.The invaders from the moon were driven back, inch by inch.Now, in the final stage of this long war, victory is within humanity’s grasp.And you—A boy born on the eve of triumph—Are about to awaken your very own talent.But on the day of your awakening,you receive a mysterious notebook.Scrawled across its cover in bold letters:“Humanity will be completely wiped out in 10 years.”[Ding! Congratulations, host! You’ve obtained a UR-grade talent—Gain the talent of your killer upon death!]…UR-grade talent? What even is that?[Ding! Congratulations, host! You’ve obtained an SSS talent—Infinite Resurrection After Death!]You clench the notebook tightly in your hand.You know—

Cairn is a prince who is already tired of ruling. Faced with an imminent coronation and an overbearing father, he wants nothing more than to drown his responsibilities in cheap liquor and poor decisions. With the help of his sister, he hatches a plan to escape the clutches of the throne once and for all. It all goes terribly wrong, and Cairn finds his priorities shifting in the face of unimaginable tragedy. The change of heart comes too late, however, and Cairn dies. He reawakens to find himself transported ten years in the past. He immediately begins to plan for the future, only to discover his killer has somehow followed him. To succeed, Cairn must unite the kingdom and discover the motivation of his killer, using as many tries as it takes. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++I exhausted pretty much every time loop story ever written and decided to write my own. You'll see a few similarities here between this story and some existing stories, at least initially. There's a lot of inspiration drawn from both MoL and Re:Zero, though in terms of pathos and darkness, this story leans more towards the latter. Be warned, it is something of a slow burn. The main character will grow and become powerful, but a theme of this story is that power comes slowly and often at great cost.

Four years ago, the first-ever Armageddon Class Anima appeared on Earth, destroying everything that it touched and threatening the lives of the entire world's population! But along with it came Superhumans that had the blessing of mana. They rose up to fight against the Armageddon, and leading them was the strongest Superhuman, KING.After two days and three nights of nonstop battle, KING gave his life to stop the Armageddon and give the Superhumans a fighting chance against the invading Anima, and everyone in the world remembers his good deeds and sacrifice!...Mark was just an average Superhuman living in City A. His daily routine was skipping classes and hanging out with his only two friends while hunting for Anima in secret whenever he could. But this easy life was not going to last for long as the hidden power he sacrificed a long time ago began to awaken once more![Initializing Superhuman System...][Recognizing Host... Host Recognized.][Parsing Constitution. Host Fully Healed. No Traces Of Residual Damage.]“Hello once again, Mark Vanitas. Has it already been four years?”

Ever wonder how it would feel to live life from the beginning all over again?

When Earth falls to ruin and humanity’s survival is at stake, all of mankind is forced to enter the fantasy universe of the world’s hottest VRMMORPG, Xianxia Online. To uphold law and order, past players’ profiles were erased and forced to start anew, while law enforcers and authority figures such as government officials were granted powerful positions right off the start. After all, this was a world where dog eats dog, and the weak are cruelly left behind.

Xuan, alias Zero, had been the top player and a legendary figure on the leaderboards of the game when the news struck. He had been mere inches away from being the first player cultivator to ever enter Godhood, but now, everything he had once possessed—divine weapons, legendary artifacts, and mythical beasts for pets—was gone, along with his thousands of years of cultivation. Having always been a lone wolf and remained anonymous, this reset hit him harder than most players, who could comfortably rely on others for help when needed.

But no matter. The path of cultivation was riddled with challenges and hardships—since when did he let something as trivial as this stop him? He may have lost all of his riches, but he still had the most powerful weapons of all by his side—knowledge and experience. Combine that with the various secret treasure stashes he had around the world of Xianxia Online, and his climb back to the pinnacle of strength would be inevitable. Very soon, he will rise to the top again, and crush those who dared to try and tie him down.

This game was mankind's world now. And he... was the apex predator.

Witness as Xuan climbs his way back to the peak of cultivation and dominates everyone else in existence!