Handler XX: Stock Maestro - Chapter 42: Shark Hunting

In the era of steam and mystery, becoming a correspondence student at the Thaumatology Academy was something Shad never thought of.

A whispering voice rang in my ears, who was reciting the poems of foreigners——

The old gods and aliens,

When the brassy rings of fate turn,

The golden runes are flickering.

steam surge,

the fire flickers,

Relic echoes,

The old gods revived.

The outstretched hand after the thick fog,

Pull back the hazy curtain of the crazy age.

Guests from afar explore the lands of the Old Continent,

Striking the melody of the next era.

Came here through the gate of time,

Shad put down his suitcase,

Look at the silvery moonlight overhead.

- Description from novelbuddy

They stole his future. Now, he’s rewriting reality.Ryan was at the top—champion of the world’s biggest VRMMO, but one wish changed everything.“I wish I could start over.”The Orb of Wishes granted it. Literally. Time snapped backward. The world unraveled. And Ryan woke up years in the past, holding his younger sisters close in a rotting apartment, broke and desperate.This time, he’s not starting from scratch.He remembers it all. Every hidden boss. Every bugged quest. Every game-breaking secret. While the world waits for the launch of Kingdom Forge, Ryan prepares to tear through it like a storm.But when he logs in, something glitches.His old character is locked. His class is reset. His power? Supposedly gone.Then the system flashes something strange:[Access Granted: Legacy Bank Synced][Warning: You were never meant to exist.]Ryan grins. He doesn’t need a strong class. He doesn’t need fair odds. He has what nobody else does—endgame knowledge in a beginner’s world, and an account holding gear, gold, and exploits that broke the game once before.He’s done being a pawn.This time, he’ll become the glitch the system can’t contain.

Several hundred thousand players are trapped in a gritty zombie apocalypse survival game just after game launch. There are hints that deaths in the game might be serving some other terrible purpose in the background of reality…

Esther, a guardian of the Earth, awakens after centuries of slumber to a world transformed. The energy of the planet, once in sync, feels fractured and wrong, making him to embark on a journey to uncover the source of this imbalance.Lazy but impossibly sharp, handsome, and undeniably powerful, Esther is an immortal being who has always existed beyond the concerns of mortal life.On his journey, he meets Hina, an ambitious and fiery woman determined to become the next queen of her country, a goal that intrigues Esther and pulls him into the complexities of human ambition, politics, and relationships.Along the way, Esther will meet multiple characters who will teach him lessons about life, love, and the human spirit—things he had long ignored in his centuries of existence.A story of self-discovery, growth, and breathtaking action, *The Descendant of Sloth* is a fantastical tale that explores what it means to truly live.