The Young Master in the Shadows - Chapter 1: Reborn

Seratus tahun yang lalu, Ordo Cahaya mengalahkan Raja Kegelapan dan mendirikan pemerintahan yang mereka sebut era perdamaian.Namun, di balik senyum para penguasa Cahaya, tersimpan sistem yang menindas. Orang-orang yang dianggap “kotor” atau “berbeda” dimusnahkan atas nama kemurnian. Siapa pun yang mempertanyakan Ordo dituduh sebagai pemuja kegelapan dan dihukum mati.Namun, ada rumor yang mengatakan bahwa sisa-sisa kekuatan kegelapan perlahan-lahan bangkit. Seorang pemuda misterius bernama Kaelen, yang memiliki darah gelap, mulai mengumpulkan pengikut untuk menumbangkan tirani Cahaya. Mereka tidak bertarung untuk menghancurkan dunia, tetapi untuk mengembalikan keseimbangan dan mengungkap kebohongan Cahaya.

“Ah, him? He’s just Daeyeong’s acquaintance.” He hated those words. Choi Seolwoo is trying to leave behind his teens and twenties, which he spent as Won Daeyeong’s shadow. Won Daeyeong (gong), the national team captain who became the first Korean track and field athlete to qualify for the Olympics in the 400m, and Choi Seolwoo (soo), a newly qualified Certified Public Accountant, are childhood friends of over a decade. Choi Seolwoo, weary of the pain of his obsessive unrequited love for Won Daeyeong, impulsively enters into a contractual relationship with a sub-seme and declares a break-up with Won Daeyeong, intending to completely remove him from his life and start anew. Won Daeyeong is displeased with Choi Seolwoo trying to end their friendship over a relationship. Just how much attention had he demanded since they were young? Even he himself acknowledged how incredibly well he’d treated him. It wasn’t as if he had expected anything in return for looking after him, but still, this is absurd. To take him for granted and push him aside like this. Won Daeyeong proposes that if Choi Seolwoo appears on five episodes of a segment called “An Acquaintance” on his Xtube channel, which has 1.1 million subscribers, he will agree to the break-up. The filming of a variety show exposing every detail of Won Daeyeong’s life begins. Unexpectedly, the view count explodes due to the spicy and entertaining talk with frequent bleeps, the genuine bromance chemistry and realistically fierce fights, and Choi Seolwoo’s idol-like visuals. Choi Seolwoo, the “break-up guy,” ends up advertising himself to the entire nation as Won Daeyeong’s best friend. Wait, somehow this… seems to be moving further away from a break-up…?

With the Heavenly Medical Skills and Peerless Martial Arts under his belt, his master had made him descend the mountain to become a live-in son-in-law, all to temper his character! And his wife was an ice queen, who wouldn't even let him touch her, always wearing a cold expression and even expecting him to fetch water for her footbaths!Now, three years had gone by, and the agreed period had come to an end. Surprisingly, the ice queen of a wife decisively asked for a divorce. But the moment he stepped out of the civil affairs office, he found six stunning beauties standing at the door, whose loveliness made even her feel inferior!The ice queen of a wife, “President Su! You, why are you here?”His senior sister, Su Yumei, “I'm here to pick up my little junior brother! Your former husband!”

Nagi Travers, a 20-year-old shut-in and former gaming champion, lives a miserable and isolated existence after being tormented by bullies throughout his life. Fired from his last job and grieving the loss of his parents, Nagi now survives by playing video games and barely ventures outside. His world spirals further into despair when he encounters Jake and Mary, his former high school bullies, who humiliate him and steal his money.Broken by the return of his tormentors and the weight of his past, Nagi contemplates suicide as his only escape. Just as he’s about to take his life, a small girl’s ball rolls into the street, with a speeding truck barreling towards her. In a moment of selflessness, Nagi rushes out and saves the girl, sacrificing himself in the process. Fatally injured, he reflects on the idea that it's better to die doing good than bad.Nagi awakens in a surreal, white world, where he is greeted by an angelic figure who offers him two choices: remain in eternal peace, free from suffering, or be reborn in a different world where he could seek redemption and a second chance at life. Nagi faces a life-altering decision—rest forever or attempt to find meaning and fulfillment in another world.