Beers and Beards - Chapter 17: Charcoal

The world ends in a single moment.When the Mass Outbreak Event shatters reality, portals tear open across the globe, unleashing monsters that drive civilization to collapse. As cities burn and order crumbles, a game-like System activates across humanity, granting survivors levels, skills, and abilities, and forcing the world into a brutal new set of rules.Eighteen-year-old Jagger Ashton is dragged into this new reality where monsters are only part of the danger. Humans, twisted by power, fear, and desperation, prove just as deadly. Every encounter pushes Jagger closer to the edge, testing his sanity and the fragile line between control and corruption.Jagger begins to uncover a terrifying truth.The Outbreak was not just an invasion. It was a selection process.The System is preparing the world for something far worse.And whatever is coming… it wants strong survivors.To survive what lies ahead, Jagger must confront the power festering inside him and choose whether to master it or surrender to it entirely.

Liu Sanniang was reborn. When she remembered her lonely end, she decided to get married in this life no matter what.

She only wanted to marry an average scholar, but who knew that the tall and striking future general, Chu Yan, took an interest in her.

The first time they met, she was too shy to look up at him.

The second time they met, he sandwiched her against the wall and said, “Are you afraid of me?”

The third time they met, he squatted down and said, “Come on, I’ll carry you.”

***

After meeting a few more times, he came to ask for her hand.

However, he was at least two meters tall and muscular. She feared that he might squash her to death!

Once they got married, Chu Yan strode over to her and ‘forcefully’ grabbed her hand, ready to pass his life savings to her. Yet, his delicate and beautiful bride fainted out of shock…

Liu Sanniang then realized that being with her ‘scary’ husband meant living peaceful and leisurely days, so her eyes narrowed as she grinned.

The eminent Jincheng Jiang Family adopted two sisters, the younger sister Jiang Fanyue was sensible and gracious, talented and beautiful, while the elder sister Jiang Zhe was ignorant, unaccomplished in anything.When their destitute biological family came knocking, the Jiang Family couldn't wait to pack Jiang Zhe off and keep Jiang Fanyue; the family wealth, reputation, the status of being the heiress, the fiancé—all henceforth had nothing to do with Jiang Zhe.Jiang Zhe stepped into her own family's home, her eyes full of skepticism. Could the precious Tang Dynasty painting on the wall be authentic? Were the bowls used for serving vegetables and soup made from the unique material of gilded cloisonné?What happened to the so-called impoverished family?What, there's also a top-tier fiancé from a leading Beijing family?Can she call off the engagement?The magnate cornered her against the wall, pulling her into his embrace, “What do you think, Madam?”“I'm so poor in studies I fail everything, I don't deserve to join an affluent family.”The magnate pulled out her perfect-score college entrance exam paper.“I'm good for nothing, incapable of everything.”The magnate lifted the veil off her identities as a Divine Doctor, designer, hacker, composer... and so on.He tenderly quipped, “I'll work hard, to prove myself worthy of you, Madam.”【Since my childhood, I have been without desires or demands, but the moment I laid eyes on you, for that brief second, I prayed to the gods and Buddhas—I yearned for you—Qin Jingchen.】

Crimson Vale Academy—where reputation is currency, and failure is a stain you wear on your sleeve.Behind gothic walls and spotless uniforms, students aren't just educated—they're measured, ranked, and pitted against each other in a brutal meritocracy. Privileges are earned, not given. The strong rise. The weak vanish.Enter Kairon Vale, a transfer student marked Rank D—the bottom of the bottom. No badge. Just a stitched black fang, branding him as “Obsidian”—a warning to others.In a system where points dictate your value, Obsidian-ranked students claw for every opportunity to ascend into the prestigious Golden or Platinum ranks—where comfort, power, and influence await. But for most, it’s a losing battle.Yet Kairon isn’t here to fit in, impress, or play by their rules. Cold, calculating, and impossible to read, he watches the system… and waits. Because while the academy judges worth by numbers and names—he understands something deeper:Everyone wears a mask. And every mask can be cracked.Let the games begin.