Chef in the Apocalypse - Chapter 18: Scars aren’t always visible

In his last life, he was a superstar that dominated the entertainment circle. In this life, he is a rebellious second generation wastrel.

Five years ago, humanity’s strongest Tower Climber was betrayed at the peak of his conquest.Rael Arden, known only by his codename Phantom, was the silent genius who cleared impossible floors, crushed monsters with forbidden magic, and shaped the rules of Tower exploration. No one had ever seen his real face—yet his legend was feared across the world.But at the Tower’s summit, the teammates he carried to glory stabbed him in the back. For power. For godhood. For fear of what he might become.They thought he died.They were wrong.Reincarnated in secret, Rael awakens in a modern world that’s on the edge of collapse. Dungeons bleed into cities. Monsters evolve. The Tower is no longer just a gate—it’s infecting the world. And the very ones who betrayed him now rule from the shadows, hiding behind titles, guilds, and lies.But Rael isn’t alone. His soul split across hidden clone bodies, each designed to infiltrate, gather information, and prepare for war. As each clone reawakens, his power grows—and so does his rage.With him are three women tied to his fate:Selene, the shadow rogue who never betrayed him.Lyra, a curious researcher drawn to the legend of the Phantom.Aeris, the sword saint who still mourns his death… and may not be as loyal to the enemy as she seems.Now, Rael hunts the seven betrayers who destroyed his past.One by one, they will fall.But revenge is just the beginning.Because deep within the Tower, something else is waking—an ancient force that even Rael feared. And this time, the world may not survive unless the Phantom reigns again.

In Victorian England, occult practitioners and the Nightmen Police, who hunted occult practitioners, were at odds and engaged in a fight to the death. Legend has it that one of the occult practitioners was a mysterious merchant who ran the world’s largest underground black market in the occult arts, offering a variety of rare treasures. Word says that the Nightmen have a newly appointed young detective whose decisive actions have solved many cases, and occult practitioners are terror-stricken hearing his name.

Duan FeiZhou: Good, both are me.

He transmigrated to this era because he accidentally clicked on an email titled “Congratulations on your million dollar inheritance” and confusingly agreed to join the Nightmen’s side to fight against the occult practitioners.

Who knew that the next day he would inherit a mysterious inheritance from his uncle – the owner of the world’s most prominent black market of secret arts underground trading… This was a bit awkward.

Duan FeiZhou decided to stay away from the strife to avoid falling off the horse and became a salted fish.

On the one hand, crazy black market customers hope that the black market will close down as soon as possible. On the other hand, the Nightmen are negatively idle, hoping that he is quickly fired. However, the more he rushed customers, the more the business of the black market became red hot. The more negativity, the more he was promoted in the Nightmen.

Seeing that the double-sided was becoming a bigger hassle, he was afraid his mask would fall off..

The Scotland Yard’s NIghtmen Leader, code name Z, has white hair, blind eyes, mechanical prosthetics, metal spine, all from war damage; his hobby is hand-rolling cigars, and if he can not save the hostages, he will shoot them together with the criminals. His highest ideal in life is to exterminate all the occult practitioners in the world.

He thought he had a heart of gold with a painful past, but step by step, he was impressed and conquered by the new young Nightman… He also reformed him.

Until one day, he learned that the young man who tugged at his heartstrings was his lifelong enemy – the owner of the world’s largest underground black market for secret arts.

Z: Oh well.

- Description from Novelupdates

As the number one pill alchemist of the immortal world, Mu Chen had always believed that it was because he had single-mindedly focused on concocting pills that led to him to neglect disciplining his disciple. Which in turn, caused his disciple to be led astray by the seduction of devil cultivation, leading to the three realms to fall to disaster. After his rebirth, Mu Chen resolved to properly teach his disciple, give him the very best resources, earnestly love him, carry him close to his heart, teach him by way of example, and didn’t let him grow corrupt.

Sure enough, his disciple became more and more “intimate”. Every day his disciple even crawled into his bed, rubbing against his chest and clinging to his thigh. It was just that his expression isn’t exactly quite right……

- Description from novelupdates