The Systems Challenge - Chapter 424: Confronting Elwin

Ming Luo is a wasted daughter of the Duke Yi’s household. Her father forced her to study medicine but it was not a wise choice since she was of no use. Her sister from a different mother uses underhanded schemes to get rid of her. Out of guilt and frustration, she tries to commit suicide. Everyone thought she was going to die but she miraculously woke up.

The year he was fifteen, Ling Ke realized he was gay, and that he fell in love with a hot guy the same gender he was! Ling Ke spied on the other’s online friend group, payed attention to that person’s every move, and privately, started his fanatical fanboying actions. Unfortunately, the hot guy he liked was someone who changed girlfriends like he changed clothes, a pretentious and straight male.

A few years later, Ling Ke and the hot guy he was secretly in love with got into the same university and became good friends. In order to prevent his beloved from hating him, Ling Ke repressed his true feelings and forced himself to pretend to be a 24k, pure gold straight guy.
……

Having high-spec looks, Qi Feng was a networking expert, but in order to preserve his all-around shining and popular hearthrob image, he always hid his true sexuality, that he was gay. He got himself (fake) girlfriends all throughout school, literally playing himself into being branded as a skirt-chaser.

Until one day, he met his true love. The other looked delicate and gentle, cold and out-of-reach, as if the ideal lover he’d dreamed of in his heart.

Except, there was just one thing. That guy also looked completely straight……

In short, this is the love story of two scared, in-the-closet gay guys pretending to be straight while mutually trying to feel the other out.

- Description from Novelupdates

He became Arthur. He lived his life as Arthur and claimed Excalibur.Now, he has returned with a purpose.Beneath the surface of the world lies a twisted world known as the veil—an dimension where monsters are born from corrupted human emotions and desire. The deeper you go, the more terrifying they become.Each Layer is sealed. Each hides a god-like being, waiting to rise to the surface.Now, Sylas bears the responsibility of keeping the gate between both worlds from breaking.[Keys are passed down through generations.No one knows where they came from, but those keys can open doors to another world — a world filled with deadly trials. If you complete the trial, you return with blessings from gods, mythical beasts, and ancient warriors. The amount of blessings you earn depends on how well you perform.But if you fail, the door shatters… and you are gone forever.If you survive, you are given a permanent rank — a rank that decides your place in society for the rest of your life.]

I thought I had seen bad endings before—but nothing prepared me for the garbage conclusion of The Hero’s Path.Years of investment, countless struggles, and for what? The protagonist failed. The villain won. Everyone else? Dead. Furious, I sent a message to the author, only to get a chilling response:[Do you think you could do better?]Before I could even blink, my phone exploded in a blinding light, and the next thing I knew—I was waking up in a completely different body.Now, I’m Merlin Everhart, a fourteen-year-old with a 12-star talent, the kind of gift only the strongest should have.But here’s the problem: I have no idea who I am supposed to be.With nothing but a system and a first-day-of-school alarm ringing in my ears, I’m thrown into the world of The Hero’s Path.Am I just another side character in a world that already ended once?…Either way, I refuse to let this story beat me too.