Hard Enough - Chapter 226: Family down time debriefs

When struggling actor Liam Cross is gunned down during a bar robbery, he expects the lights to fade for good.Instead, he opens his eyes in a throne room surrounded by demons – standing inside a summoning circle meant to call forth an ancient Demon God.Only, the god never came.Just him.With no magic, no divinity, and no clue how he got there, Liam is mistaken for Azrakul, the Primordial Demon: a being of infinite power the Demon Queen desperately sought to save her crumbling empire.But when a mysterious System awakens, Liam learns the truth:He’s not a god… yet.[Designation: “Infernal Sovereign” — Activated.][Requirement: Subjugate the Realm of Demons.][Power Source: Fear. Faith. Belief.]The System doesn’t just grant strength.Instead, it feeds on the belief of others – turning fear, faith, and lies into real, tangible power.And as an actor who’s spent his whole life pretending to be something greater, Liam finally finds the role he was born to play.Now trapped among ancient monsters and scheming demon nobles, he must perform the part of a god convincingly enough to survive.Because if the demons ever discover he’s a fraud…He’ll die as the man he’s always been—or ascend as the monster he pretended to be.

Lives are a currency, and Noah Vines is rich.Reincarnated into the body of a poisoned magic school professor, Noah is given more than just a second chance at life. Every time he dies, his body reforms. With infinite variations of runic magic to discover and with death as a painful soul wound rather than a final end, Noah finally has a chance to wander the lands of the living once again. And this time, he plans to get strong enough to make sure that he never has to wait around in the afterlife again.

Humanity's end came without warning when a crimson fog swallowed the sky. Zhao, an ordinary man, watched in horror as a celestial voice declared their fate: their Planet had reached its limit, and its people would now atone for their sins. An otherworldly force crushed resistance, and in an instant, every human was teleported to the Central Land, a vast and hostile realm.The voice from the heavens promised trials that would shatter their wills, but also power beyond imagination for the fortunate. Only those blessed by luck would awaken unique Lord Talents, granting them the means to survive and dominate:In a world where strength lies supreme Zhao will do whatever it takes to get stronger.Zhao awoke in an isolated area near a forest. As despair set in, a voice echoed in his mind:Ding… Million Times Multiplier System has been activated.Just as the rest of the players had known of the world Zhou's subjects were clearing out every resource.When others were building their base he had built a kingdom.And by the time they knew of his threat, HE HAD ALRDY BECOME GOD!

In the God Domain, Cultivators were far and few between, but each of them wielded power that would make them known as gods.

How did they come to have such power? They comprehended the laws between heaven and earth and became those very laws.

But something occurred, a youth that hadn’t gained the acknowledgment of the heavens to become a cultivator chance upon Qi. Determined to reverse the bad hand faith had dealt him he started researching it and came to a shocking conclusion. The very laws that the heavens prevented him from comprehending were swirling around in this strange energy!

The youth thought to himself that if he could somehow control it, then he could defy the heavens and become a cultivator. Without any hesitation he began researching more and found out that the only way to control this newfound energy was to absorb it within his body.

After many years of preparations, he did exactly that.

However, he promptly died from the finger size strand he absorbed.

Ten years after his death a cultivator found his research journal and decided to further study this fascinating idea.

Skip forward to an unknown period in the future and a baby was born into a powerful royal family as the second prince. Upon his birth this child had the laws of heaven and earth swirling around him. This immediately sent the royal court into a stir as they thought the heavens themselves had blessed the Emperor’s second son.

But as that was happening, the baby that had just been born saw the midwife use a spell to turn Qi into water to clean him.

Upon seeing this, the baby’s eyes widen into saucers as a voice screamed hysterically in his head, “W-WHO THE FUCK STOLE MY IDEA?!”