"Irena is my employer."
"She is my most trusted partner. We are no longer just in a simple employer-employee relationship."
"We’ve faced life and death together, crossed dangerous territories, and survived landslides blocking our path."
"We’ve forced our way across raging rivers when bridges collapsed."
"We’ve even been ambushed by assassins sent by dark forces, narrowly escaping death."
Ye Chuan spoke slowly, his eyes carrying a mix of nostalgia, sorrow, and stubbornness.
"How could I take you there if I suspected you were a danger?"
"So?" Kaiaolen wasn’t sure what Ye Chuan was getting at.
"You’ll have to add more gold coins." Ye Chuan raised his head.
Kaiaolen: "…"
"You… I… you… sigh." Kaiaolen raised a finger, struggling to find words before finally exhaling in resignation.
"Fine. I’ll pay."
"As a lord, you wouldn’t be stingy, right?" Ye Chuan added.
"You!"
After receiving a hefty bag of coins, Ye Chuan weighed it in his hand with satisfaction—probably around a thousand or so?
"Ten thousand succubus summons. Not bad."
"Succubus?" Kaiaolen looked at Ye Chuan in confusion.
"Never mind."
Kaiaolen felt a surge of frustration in his chest. Truthfully, as a lord, he kept taxes low to ensure his people could live in peace, so he wasn’t particularly wealthy.
Seeing Ye Chuan’s money-grubbing attitude only made him angrier.
He barely had any personal funds left—most of the treasury went into developing the territory.
"Then, after you, Dragonborn." Now that he had the money, Ye Chuan upgraded Kaiaolen’s title from "little dragonborn" to "Dragonborn."
With that, he summoned a portal and placed it on the ground with a soft click.
"A door? Teleportation magic?" Kaiaolen’s eyes widened in realization. "Is this how the princess was taken?"
"You could say that."
The portal was quite handy—if not for the fact that recharging its uses required gold, Ye Chuan wouldn’t have to be so frugal with it.
Ye Chuan pulled the door open, revealing a dark forest on the other side, faintly illuminated by moonlight.
Kaiaolen was astonished. Despite living for centuries, he had never seen such a seamless method of spatial travel. He’d encountered spatial magic before, but nothing this effortless, requiring no incantations at all.
Stepping through, he found himself in a mountain range outside the city of Milar. He could even see his own city in the distance—without even feeling the usual spatial distortion.
"Your rank may not be high, but your spatial magic is extraordinary. More impressive than any archmage I’ve met." Kaiaolen couldn’t help but praise.
"Thanks. Oh, by the way, this teleportation service is also chargeable."
Kaiaolen: "…"
He immediately regretted his compliment. "Young man, you’re pushing it."
"Just kidding. You already paid earlier." Ye Chuan grinned at Kaiaolen’s unamused expression.
"Why aren’t you laughing?"
Kaiaolen remained stone-faced.
He wasn’t just not laughing—he wanted to punch Ye Chuan and remind him of the might of a dragonborn’s fangs.
Kaiaolen glanced around and noticed a flicker of firelight uphill, so he strode toward it.
…
Meanwhile, on the other side, Irena sat on a rock, lost in thought. Since the armored figure beside her didn’t speak, she had no choice but to wait in silence.
The night was dark, and the forest felt eerie, with occasional growls from beasts or monsters lurking nearby.
When Ye Chuan left, a few monsters had indeed appeared, but Della crushed them all with a single swing of her hammer.
"I appreciate your protection, but it’d be nice if you could clean up the corpses too." Irena forced a smile as she eyed the massive monster carcasses nearby.
The stench of dead monsters would only attract more.
More corpses meant more monsters. If not for her worry that Ye Chuan wouldn’t find her, Irena would’ve left already.
Della remained silent, clutching her hammer.
She had no soul—her power resided in the armor, and Ye Chuan’s orders were simply to protect Irena.
Just then, a rustling sound caught Irena’s attention.
"Miss Della, someone’s coming," Irena whispered urgently.
But Della seemed to sense something and vanished in a streak of black light.
"Miss Della?!" Irena froze. "D-Did the summoning time run out?"
The footsteps grew closer, sending chills down her spine. She stumbled back, raising her hands to cast a spell.
As a first-tier nature mage, her abilities leaned more toward support—combat was not her strength.
A shadow emerged from the bushes.
Irena’s arms faltered mid-motion. "Lord Kaiaolen?"
Her face paled. Had she been found?
Then she noticed Ye Chuan standing beside him.
"Sir Ye? Why are you two together?"
"Oh, he paid me, so I brought him to you." Ye Chuan smirked.
Irena was stunned. Had she been sold out for money?
Just as she was about to spiral into panic, Kaiaolen spoke. "Princess, it’s been years. You’ve grown so much."
Hearing his tone, Irena blinked in surprise before her expression brightened.
"Lord Kaiaolen… you believe I’m not a monster now?"
"He always believed you," Ye Chuan cut in. "He just had monsters around him, so he had to play along."
"Really?!" Irena’s tension dissolved instantly. "Thank goodness…"
Seeing her relief, Kaiaolen seemed remorseful. "Your Highness, tell me everything you know first."
Irena recounted everything—how she witnessed her father consuming people, how the royal family had turned into monsters.
"This is worse than I imagined." Kaiaolen’s frown deepened.
An entire empire’s king and most of the royal family, all parasitized by monsters—with no way to identify them.
Kaiaolen felt a headache coming on.
"Lord Kaiaolen, what should we do?"
Kaiaolen studied Irena’s worried face, reminded of how she used to cling to his cloak as a child. A faint smile tugged at his lips.
"There’s only one solution."
"What is it?"
"Raise an army. March on the capital."
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
villain is the number one simp for the book's leading female protagonist, Shen Wan'er. As expected, he later becomes a tool for the main character to show off and slap faces, ultimately meeting a tragic end with his family ruined and his life in shambles. Fortunately, he awakens the [Universal Pure Love System], which allows him to earn points by performing acts of pure love. To change his fate, Gu Yan makes a decisive choice to seek warmth and companionship with the book's biggest villain—Cold Qingqiu. ........... My name is Leng Qingqiu. To find the murderer who killed my parents years ago, I deliberately blinded myself so that everyone would lower their guard around me. Just as I was secretly accumulating power and capital according to my initial plan, a man walked into my world. "Lengleng, Qingqing, Qiuqiu, which nickname do you prefer?" I don't like any of them. You'd better leave quickly! "Why aren't you saying anything? How about I call you my baby wife?" Leng Qingqiu thinks to herself, this man is truly annoying! (Stubborn pure love warrior + single female lead + true pure love + 1v1)
