Mercenary System: I can increase innate potential ! - Chapter 81: The beer contest

Koi Niles has always been alone. Quiet halls and empty lunchtimes are his familiar companions. Grades matter to him; they’re his way out.Ashley Miller owns the school corridors. Captain of the ice hockey team, confident smile, and a name everyone knows. When a class project pairs them together, Connor sees a chance. But Ashley disappears, leaving Connor to carry the weight.Days later, under the harsh lights of Connor’s part-time job, Ashley returns. This time, it’s different. He stands up for Connor, turns the tide against the bullies. A simple act of kindness that feels new and warm.They share moments—short walks, brief talks, the understanding of two worlds colliding. Friendship grows where none was before.But Ashley holds a secret behind those bright eyes. One evening, worry leads Connor to Ashley’s door. What he discovers there changes everything he thought he knew.

“Whose child is it?” Winston and Yu-jin were once passionately in love, but due to a misunderstanding, they separated. Even now, Winston believes Yu-jin was involved in an affair with his father. After being cruelly abandoned, Yu-jin struggled to survive alone while raising his daughter, never expecting to cross paths with Winston again. Then one day, a fire forces Yu-jin out of his apartment, leaving him and his daughter homeless. At his lowest point, he learns that Winston’s father, Harold Campbell, left him an inheritance in his will. Desperate for any help, he decides to visit the Campbell estate. When they meet again, Winston still despises him, while Yu-jin only wishes to collect his inheritance and leave. To his surprise, Harold has left him far more than expected—but with one condition: he must marry Winston and bear another child within a year. Yu-jin tries to refuse, but reality is harsh. Fueled by resentment over Winston’s continued cruelty, he agrees to the marriage out of spite. Winston, on the other hand, makes it clear that their union is nothing more than a formality to fulfill the will. Yet, despite their intentions, an undeniable pull keeps drawing them back to each other. Both insist it’s nothing but lust, desperately ignoring the emotions that refuse to fade…

Ask, under the starry sky there was a beauty, her black hair like eternal night, bright eyes sparkling like stars, her powerful magic made the world tremble, her supreme beauty made all creatures submit, who was this beauty? “That’s right, it’s me, the Witch King, Dorothy!” ‍

“Nine Heavens cast down the Undying Tree, from the tomb the Immortal's bones were fetched;Taoist Venerable tut-tutted as they drank blood plasma, Old Buddha relished in the chew of meat;Beasts and livestock rang the Dharma Drum, city foxes and hole-dwelling rats boiled in the pot;In the Immortality Wine, the resentful spirits were fishy, at the Killing Banquet, the Dao Fruit was bitter!”In this world where Daoist Skill manifested, countless Sect Cultivators, Side Door Magicians, princes and scholars, officials of high rank and nobles all coveted immortality!Owl God Tomb, stealing heavenly secrets, Pearl Gathering Skill, Holy Infant Pill, bone effigies, Yin God Shrine, human-transformed monsters, Undying Elixir, Red Line Poison, Blood Immortal insects, Mermaid Meat, gold-threaded robes, Five Poisons Primordial Spirit, Seven Star Life Extension...They killed and harmed life only to steal the “Killing Dao Fruit” borne upon that Undying Tree!Until... a sly “Fishing Man” came to this world.Wang Yuan, born with the Small Book of Life and Death, had but a simple and unadorned dream:Amid bustling strings and smoky vistas, on a night bathed in moonlight, in peace and quiet did I lean on the rail, savoring the wind, toasting to the stars.With his “Bride in bridal clothes,” watching the sunrise at Taishan in the morning, admiring Qionghua in Luoyang at noon, and drinking under the aurora by the North Sea in the evening.“But you all smell so incredibly fragrant!No more, none shall escape, for today I shall crowdfund Cultivating Immortality! Please... my treasure, turn around!”The blood-red veil of the Bride abruptly fluttered to the ground.