Machina Arcanis: Two Worlds Collided - Chapter 27: Dining II

In her former life, she was robbed of her status, her looks, and her reputation.

Veyne came from the life of sewer rats.The world saw him as a failure. He called it belief. Others called it stupidity. Either way, it was the only thing he had left.Even at rock bottom, Veyne never stopped believing in himself.Betrayed by his lover and brother, treated as a burden, and forced to slave endlessly in the game to chase his dream—he endured it all.Though late, his obsession was finally rewarded with an opportunity. But the sewer rat in him was too weak to hold onto it. He had fought the world and lost.Actions have consequences. And when he failed in the game, those consequences caught up to him, leading to his death.But the universe wasn’t done with him yet.Given a second chance, he returned to a time when the game had already been out for two years. This time, he rushed to obtain the Template Wilder class—the very class that led to his downfall.One of the game’s rarest hidden classes, the Wilder class, allowed him to switch into different forms based on the monster templates he possessed. An overpowered ability—but it came with a fatal catch.A hidden template forced him into the form of an ancient baby creature, one so cursed that players, monsters, and even NPCs would hunt him down. If he died in that form, his character would be permanently deleted.In his past life, he underestimated the class’s dangers. And the world tore him apart for it.This time, it wouldn’t be just hollow belief.This time, he’s not here to survive—he’s here to dominate.No emotional ties.No second chances.The entire game is his enemy, and he will crush anyone who stands in his way.He failed once. He suffered. He died. He was erased.Not this time.This is the beginning of his legend. The era of Veyne Draven.

In a world where Lycans and werewolves are sworn enemies, Eve Valmont is a werewolf cursed by a prophecy and framed. Betrayed by her own pack and imprisoned for years, her fate takes a darker twist when she is offered to the Lycan King, Hades Stavros—a ruler feared for his ruthless conquests and deadly prowess. Bound by an ancient prophecy and haunted by the ghosts of her past, Eve is now at the mercy of the one being she should hate and fear the most—The Hand of Death himself.Hades, a king carved from blood and his own soul's decay, determined to avenge his family's slaughter and rid his people of the werewolves. He believes Eve is the key to his victory. To him, she is nothing but weapon foretold by prophecy, a tool he will wield to destroy the opposing forces threatening his pack. Yet, he finds himself craving this powerful yet broken woman. Leaving him questioning if she is truly his weapon or the one destined to unravel his carefully laid plans.***He stalked toward me, a predator closing in on its prey, his eyes dark and unreadable. “So, you laugh?” His voice was low, dangerously soft, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.I swallowed hard, suddenly aware of how difficult it had become to breathe. “Hades, I—”“But you only laugh at other men's jokes,” he interrupted, his gaze piercing, devoid of any humor. “Not your husband's.” The accusation in his tone was sharp, slicing through the air between us.A nervous chuckle escaped me. “You can't be serious... He’s your beta, for Goddess’ sake.”In an instant, he closed the distance between us, so fast it left me breathless. His hands gripped my waist, pulling me flush against his body, the heat of him making my skin tingle. I gasped, but before I could say a word, his lips crashed onto mine, claiming my mouth with a force that sent shockwaves through me. The kiss was punishing, hungry—I couldn't breathe, couldn't think.When he finally pulled back, I was trembling, my chest heaving as I struggled to regain my breath. His eyes, dark and stormy, searched mine with a possessive intensity. “You can’t laugh at my jokes...” he whispered, his voice a dangerous rasp as his fingers trailed lower, sending a shiver down my spine, “but you’ll come with my fingers.”I shivered, heat pooling low in my belly at his words, his touch. The world around us blurred, fading into nothing as his hand slipped lower, drawing a ragged gasp from my lips. The look in his eyes told me he knew exactly what he was doing to me, and there was no denying the primal connection between us in that moment.“I don’t need your laughter,” he murmured against my skin, his breath hot on my neck. “I’ll have every other part of you instead.”

While playing the online game “Convergence of Ten Thousand Realms,” Yan Luoyue suddenly found herself transmigrated into the body of a newly hatched baby turtle in the cultivation world of the turtle clan.Fortunately, her system account had come along with her, and the skill books and equipment in her inventory were still intact.However, there was a bug in her account information.Year after year, Yan Luoyue watched as her health bar grew infinitely longer.Every year on her birthday, an extra zero was added to her health bar.In the first year after her transmigration, Yan Luoyue used all her divine artifacts to ensure her fragile self wouldn’t choke to death on her own saliva.By the tenth year, she removed all her equipment and casually strolled through the forbidden grounds of her clan.The sealed demons and monsters surrounded her, hacking away for three days and three nights, until they collapsed, foaming at the mouth.A hundred years after her transmigration, Yan Luoyue looked up and realized her health bar now spanned the entire continent.Someone once asked Demon Venerable Yan, “Does being invincible make you lonely?”Yan Luoyue kindly replied, “Silly child, how could being invincible be lonely? It’s absolutely amazing.”Synopsis Two:Wu Manshuang was covered in poison, the last of the Teng Serpent (celestial serpent) lineage in the world.The closer anyone got to him, the deeper the poison would affect them.So, Wu Manshuang wrapped himself up tightly. He hid in a pitch-black cloak, avoiding all living beings. He thought his life would pass in solitude, until—A young girl’s slender, warm hand touched his cheek.“Your health-draining debuff is pretty strong, huh?”Wu Manshuang quickly pushed her hand away. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”“Relax,” the girl said with a carefree smile. “I’m way stronger than you.”From then on, the little serpent gently coiled around the turtle’s shell.And then…The world gained the divine beast Xuanwu.Reading Tips:1. This is my take on cultivation with personal world-building, possibly a lot of it.2. A long, slow-burn progression story with a gradual narrative style.3. A cultivation story with an ensemble cast.