A Stepmother's Marchen - Chapter 17

Birth rates are decreasing. Hope is vanishing. The world has gone gray.Humanity, drifting in quiet collapse, receives an email.Every person on Earth. Simultaneously.The Aegis Mandate.Disguised as a cosmic aptitude test, it triggers The Incident of Separation—a global psychic cataclysm that erases identities, wipes memories, and divides all survivors into three factions: Law, Neutral, and Chaos. Overnight, cities become battlegrounds. Apartments become dungeons. Ordinary people become monsters—or the ones who hunt them.Ragnar Vhagar was just a loner university student. Now, thanks to a system he didn’t ask for, he’s a newly minted Demon King, locked in a crumbling apartment with goblins under his sofa and a glowing soul crystal next to his frozen peas. His new job? Build a deadly domain, defend it from invading “Heroes,” and somehow level up fast enough to not die.Alongside him is Isabelle Thorne, a razor-sharp warrior of few words and one very sharp sword. Their reluctant alliance, born in blood and snark, evolves into trust—and maybe something dangerously close to affection—as they rise together through the layers of the game-like world they’re trapped in.With each conquered domain and defeated boss, Ragnar realizes the truth: the dungeons aren’t meant to crown a winner. They’re meant to break the players. The Law faction wants control. The Chaos faction craves destruction. But Ragnar? He wants something they’re all too afraid to say out loud:Freedom.In the ruins of Kanta’s ogre stronghold, Ragnar and his misfit warband take their biggest step yet—claiming a kingdom, unifying a fractured system, and preparing for what comes next. The Heroes are watching. The gods are stirring. The world is watching a war.And somewhere deep beneath it all... Ragnar is rewriting the rules.

“Infinite Abilities Academy”On his first day at Infinite Abilities Academy, Class F freshman Su Bei awakened a new ability. It was only then that he realized their world was actually a manga. And the protagonist of this manga was his classmate Jiang Tianming.But that’s not the main point. The main point is that in the next chapter of the manga, he, Su Bei, is destined to die tragically in the restroom! This event would kick off the protagonist’s first challenge at the ability academy.Su Bei: …The only good news is that this chapter of the manga hasn’t been published yet. He can alter the course of the story and save himself from a cannon fodder’s fate through his actions.As everyone knows, becoming friends with the protagonist doesn’t guarantee escape from plot-induced death, but becoming the protagonist’s enemy will certainly result in defeat at the protagonist’s hands.Under the blazing sunlight, the golden-haired boy smiled recklessly, yet there was a hint of solemnity in his purple eyes: “Saluting you on behalf of fate, the unluckiest of the unlucky in this generation~”

Although born in a wealthy, powerful family, Shangguan Ning is motherless and loveless. Throughout her growing years, people use her for their own interests.

Gods and Myths rule over the lands on Earth. They give their citizens food, security, abundance, and most of all…Immortality.In exchange, humans went over the 4th Dimension and killed Canzers, the monsters that threaten the sanctity of the God's dimension. They are called Saviors.At 18yrs old, Atlan finally gained a chance to become a Savior. But…he inadvertently gained the powers of the God of Death.Was it useful in a world of immortality?Yes. Nobody knew that when Atlan overthrew the Grim Reaper, an apocalypse would doom the world.Humanity lost its immortality. Ordinary people, Saviors, and even Gods could die now.[You have witnessed the extinction of Angels][10-star rarity Angelic Genus acquired!][Your Bloodline has evolved to Angelic Reaper of Gods][You have reaped the deaths of 10,000 Angels][You have gained 1,000,000 Upgrade Points][You have gained 10,000 experience][Lightspeed Angel Wings body mutation acquired!][You have reaped the death of the First Savior][10x Level Booster trait acquired!][SSS class Apocalyptic Hellfire acquired]