MTL - Monster Factory - Chapter 23 : Underwater welding

Born into an abusive, unstable family and crippled from a young age, Harley grew up with pain as his only constant. Happiness was something he learned about through books—fantasy novels, forgotten histories, and imagined worlds where suffering had meaning.Then he died, and death wasn't the end of his suffering.Reincarnated into the world of the last novel he read, where humanity survives an apocalypse through supernatural “Awakened” warriors battling creatures from beyond reality, Harley should have been given a second chance at a good life.Instead, he was discarded.Thrown out of the noble household he was born into, Harley lived as a slave in the mines, a circus clown mocked for survival, all to eat.So when fate finally offered him the chance to awaken—to gain power like the others—Harley broke once again.Because after surviving a horrific trial, the power he awakened—although powerful—had a fatal condition that he could never accept....Author's note: This novel is dark, and the few chapters portrays the MC's mindset from being an ordinary man to getting chosen by the Harvest.Everything he does is for his own benefit. There would be a female lead, but you guys would hate her... I think. I personally liked the way I designed her.Anyways, see y'all at chapter 100.Additional tags: No-Harem.

[From the Author of Author's POV...]

Emotions are like a drug to us.

The more we experience them, the more we become addicted.

The hardest part is not letting them consume us.

But it's already too late for me.

I've already been swallowed whole.

***

I had no knowledge of the game.

I was meant to have died.

And yet, I found myself in this situation.

A game I had never played before. A character I was unfamiliar with, and... A world that seemed to want to swallow me whole with every move I made.

What the hell is going on?

...and who am I?

……………………………………………………………

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In a world shattered by an ancient disaster, humans rule, and beasts are enslaved.Humanity dominates through mana and matrices, refined into rigid systems that determine status, survival, and worth. Beasts exist beneath them, bound by collars and chains, their strength reduced to mere raw Instinct and obedience. Two races. Two paths. One order that was forcefully imposed.Until something began to change.A hundred years ago, a meteor tore through the sky, carrying a dragon’s roar and a destiny that did not belong to this world. What fell from the skies that day wasn’t whole, and what survived was never meant to remain divided.A human child was born in one of the most oppressed corners of the world. But something inside him was wrong.His instincts pushed him to act when others hesitated. Power around him faltered in unfamiliar ways. Neither the human Matrix nor the beast Instinct fully accepted him, as if something essential within him had been displaced rather than lost.As he grew, he was drawn toward Scars, places where the world itself has been wounded, and to the echoes that feel distant, yet intimately his own. Each step forward brought more fragments of understanding, never enough on their own, always pointing elsewhere. Every advance forced a choice: to submit, to break, or to become something the world couldn’t classify.This is a story of survival in a world built on hierarchy. Of power born from failure rather than perfection. And of an identity that was shaped by absence as much as presence.In a world that enslaves beasts and controls humans, something divided has begun to move. And when what was scattered starts to return, this world will no longer be enough.==================================Discord: https://discord.gg/3q2GJdk27D

Arthur Blackwynd didn’t expect to survive the strange and terrifying event that happened at sea. Even less did he expect to wake up in the DC Universe a world he’d only ever read about in comics.Armed with the Shadow Monarch System,the ability that grants him control over shadows and an undead army, Arthur is both awed by his new reality. As a lifelong comic geek, he knows the heroes and villains like the back of his hand Haunted by questions of why he’s here, Arthur struggles to find his purpose. Will he embrace the darker side of his newfound powers and become a villain, or will his sense of justice lead him down a different, unpredictable path?“why the likes of Raven seems to be watching my every move?” In a world full of gods, monsters, and legends, Arthur must decide who he will become and what role he’ll play in shaping the fate of the DC Universe.