MTL - I Built An Empire And You’re Telling Me That I Wasn’t Transmigrated? - ~ God, is this magic?

A 21st-century tech manager, accidentally thrust into the body of Emperor Commodus—yes, the infamous villain played by Joaquin Phoenix—has one goal: not to die like him.Armed with his wits and a hyper-intelligent AI on a solar-powered laptop, he must navigate the treacherous politics of ancient Rome. Everyone, including his own sister, expects the arrogant, decadent tyrant. Instead, they find a calculating reformer. But as he tries to avert the fall of the empire, he discovers that being a “good” emperor might be even more dangerous than being the monster everyone is waiting for.

This is a story about the protagonist getting the system, going crazy in the biochemical apocalypse, producing aircraft and tanks, destroying zombies, saving good people and killing bad people.

- Description from novelbuddy

One day, after five years of living in the shadow of the popular actor—Mo Boyuan, Dr. Jiang suddenly decided that she had enough!

Long ago a great calamity struck the earth, destroying much of it and merging what remained with pieces of other worlds.

With these worlds came Aether, a new form of energy that can allow one to transcend the bounds of normal mortality and human limitations.

In a world where humans absorb the essence of aether beasts to gain power, Aiden Hawke joins the class of humans known as arcanists, people who defeat aether beasts and absorb their essence into cores they forge within themselves, and who infuse themselves with the aether that permeates the world around them to increase the power of their body and mind.

However, unlike most, Aiden will find that he holds a unique gift and that his journey as an arcanist will not be so simple.