Once Bitten, Twice Shy - Chapter 9

Crimson Vale Academy—where reputation is currency, and failure is a stain you wear on your sleeve.Behind gothic walls and spotless uniforms, students aren't just educated—they're measured, ranked, and pitted against each other in a brutal meritocracy. Privileges are earned, not given. The strong rise. The weak vanish.Enter Kairon Vale, a transfer student marked Rank D—the bottom of the bottom. No badge. Just a stitched black fang, branding him as “Obsidian”—a warning to others.In a system where points dictate your value, Obsidian-ranked students claw for every opportunity to ascend into the prestigious Golden or Platinum ranks—where comfort, power, and influence await. But for most, it’s a losing battle.Yet Kairon isn’t here to fit in, impress, or play by their rules. Cold, calculating, and impossible to read, he watches the system… and waits. Because while the academy judges worth by numbers and names—he understands something deeper:Everyone wears a mask. And every mask can be cracked.Let the games begin.

Cairn is a prince who is already tired of ruling. Faced with an imminent coronation and an overbearing father, he wants nothing more than to drown his responsibilities in cheap liquor and poor decisions. With the help of his sister, he hatches a plan to escape the clutches of the throne once and for all. It all goes terribly wrong, and Cairn finds his priorities shifting in the face of unimaginable tragedy. The change of heart comes too late, however, and Cairn dies. He reawakens to find himself transported ten years in the past. He immediately begins to plan for the future, only to discover his killer has somehow followed him. To succeed, Cairn must unite the kingdom and discover the motivation of his killer, using as many tries as it takes. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++I exhausted pretty much every time loop story ever written and decided to write my own. You'll see a few similarities here between this story and some existing stories, at least initially. There's a lot of inspiration drawn from both MoL and Re:Zero, though in terms of pathos and darkness, this story leans more towards the latter. Be warned, it is something of a slow burn. The main character will grow and become powerful, but a theme of this story is that power comes slowly and often at great cost.

A human from Earth is thrust into the [Hunter x Hunter] world, becoming the Zoldyck family’s defiant, red-eyed prodigy. They call me a genius and the rightful heir, but I say that’s Killua’s burden to bear.Armed with crimson eyes, and a subtle yet powerful system, I’ll rewrite destiny, upend the world, and embrace the chaos with a wicked grin.

The strongest doesn’t need cheats.Haruka, a high schooler who spends his life as a “loner,” is suddenly summoned to another world with his classmates.Noticing the god in front of him, Haruka was going to get cheat abilities by picking what he wanted from the skill list so that he could live in the other world――or so he thought, but the skills were first come, first serve.All the cheat skills were taken by my classmates?!After not being able to get any amazing skills, Haruka’s “loner” skill made him unable to join any parties. Even in another world, he’ll adventure in solitude.Haruka, recognizing the crisis of his classmates, decided to secretly help them out while not relying on cheats. He’ll surpass cheats as he walks the path of the strongest――.Let the curtains raise for the tale about the strongest loner’s attack on the different world!