Embers Ad Infinitum - Chapter 13: A Sense of Ritual

--WSA 2025 ENTRY--Neraxis saved the people and wiped out the monsters, but instead of cheers, he faced silence and a glowing blue text:[Task Failed Successfully!][Rating Generated: SSS-Rank]“The hell does that even mean?” he muttered, finding the situation a bit strange.Before he could process, the so-called heroes—who had hidden while he fought—emerged. He waited for gratitude, only to feel a dagger pierce his back.The only girl he loved stood behind him.She betrayed him.The crowd and heroes? They were staring at him with disdain and contempt.“You...” he groaned as a spear and sword headed for him, ending his life.But instead of dying, he was sent back to the past—specifically, to the first day of the academy, year 2367, 8 years before his death.However, many things had changed. One of the most significant was the sudden appearance of a Tower, a mysterious structure that had appeared across all the continents, granting power to those brave enough to contest its challenges.“Not again... With this chance I will end you all” Neraxis vowed to himself, embarking on his path of revenge, while also trying to give his life new meaning.

In the tenth year after the new era, the world finally came to an end. Zhang Mu truefully waited for his death, but unexpectedly found that he had returned to ten years ago. With his memory about the future, he swore that he would change the calamitous history, saving the earth from being destroyed! Walking dead, zergs, evolvers, and various mutated animals… nothing can stop him! The first step is to retrieve his identity as an era merchant , then find all the treasures he can remember to enhance himself!

- Description from Novelupdates

Shion, the ‘Hero of Darkness’. He was said to be the strongest hero ever. He believed one thing, and that was his current party members.

“I’ll defeat the Demon Lord with this party!”

That is what he swore to do, but a tragedy occurs. He was painfully betrayed by the girls that he trusted.

He barely held onto his life, but the incident left a deep scar in his heart.

He gave up on living, and while he was wandering around in a forest, looking for a way to die, a single monster appeared in front of him.

“Will you kill me, please?”

The monster asked Shion, who was still strong, despite losing his powers.

What Shion, who wanted to die as well, did was―

“They Call Guys Like Me a Simp.”(Meanwhile, I’m out here living what their favorite MC only dreams about.)You ever notice how stories glorify the ones who feel nothing?The MC who never laughs.Never feels.Who plays women like chess pieces and calls it intelligence.He manipulates a girl? “He’s strategic.”He never opens up? “He’s mysterious.”He never flinches, never laughs, never lives —And you call that strength?Funny.Because to me?That’s just a prison in disguise.You see an “alpha.”I see a boy too scared to feel anything real.While they spend ten chapters monologuing about logic and sacrifice,I’m already making the Saintess scream,drenched in sin,halo cracked,legs trembling from truths her prayers never taught her.And I didn’t get there with cold eyes or control.I got there with laughter and chill. With warmth. With a grin and a hand on her thigh.I didn’t need to dominate her mind —I freed her heart.But that scares people, doesn’t it?Because readers trust the ones who suffer.Who stay quiet.Who kill without blinking and love without showing it.But me?I flirt.I laugh.I take hits and smile back, bloody and defiant, as if too weak to get angry.I don’t need to pretend emotions are weakness.I weaponize mine.Pleasure. Connection. Laughter.That’s my arsenal.And while your favorite MC is still calculating his next five moves,Trying to outwit death and romance like both are math problems,I’m already balls deep in the jade fairy — her sacred yin furnace clenching like it’s worshipping my shaft, her Dao Echo shattered into breathless moans, and her so-called cultivation path leaking down her thighs while she begs me to break her meridians again.You call that luck?Nah.That’s mastery of the three worlds.Because in a world that respects coldness,I came in hot.Where others manipulate, I connect.Where they posture, I play.Where they sacrifice, I seduce.So go ahead.Call me a simp.But while your genius MC is busy monologuing about destiny,I’m the one making goddesses question theirs —with a smirk, a touch, and no regrets.I’m not the hero.Not the villain.I’m just a simp… the kind who leaves your cold, emotionless MC’s woman dripping, ruined, and too stretched to go back to him.