MTL - Basketball: Start with the Neuroknife - Chapter 256 The finals of the fight for power

Catching arrows, running up walls, crushing boulders and bending metal, these are but petty parlour tricks in the eyes of martial artists. But where can a genuine martial artist stand in an era where martial artists are nothing more than a myth?

I, a mere con artist, was unjustly imprisoned in Tantalus, the Abyssal Prison meant for the most nefarious of criminals, where I met a regressor.

But when I used my ability to read her mind, I found out that I was fated to die in a year…

and that the world would end 10 years later.

[Mature Content: NO RAPE]Let’s make a deal!“Two months, if we can survive each other in the period of two months, I will marry you without objection!”…Twenty-two-year-old Evelyn Darkwood never imagined that going to her late father’s will-reading would have resulted in a rivalry between her and her siblings. That they would become a danger to her—one who sought after her life. She never thought that her life would take such a twisted turn so quickly. And what’s worse, she comes to find out that she’d been betrothed to a man she didn’t know and had never met. Zayne Mancini.The wealthiest man. A man whose power and fame were no joke. A man who possibly could be the only one capable of protecting her. Strong, cold, frightening, all this he was and despite the danger written all over him, Evelyn felt a strange connection, hot and burning. Zayne Mancini wanted her—his betrothed (a human who was his mate) and he was going to make her his, no matter how stubborn she wanted to be about it. Fascinating, thrilling, all this she was to him—like a spark to ignite his boring life. Evelyn Darkwood was a whole package that he was slowly going to bring undone. A woman he wouldn’t think twice of burning the world for. A woman he would give his whole being to. All she had to say was,“I do”

Kai’s life was small—coffee-stained mornings, cracked recipes, and a system in his head that tweaked toasters and dough like it was nothing. Then the sky shattered. Aliens—Skraiths, jagged and brutal—invaded, tearing his city apart with green-glowing weapons and relentless claws. Superhumans rose to fight back, fire and lightning blazing through the chaos, but Kai’s world crumbled with them.Hiding in his apartment, Kai stumbles on blood—human and alien, smeared on his wall after a superhuman battle. His system, once just a tinker’s tool, awakens, offering him a choice: mimic their powers, temporary and wild, through the blood itself. Desperate, he takes it—stealing pyrokinesis, then electrokinesis, then kinetic energy, each power burning through him, fading fast. But it’s not enough. Armed with a humming Skraith weapon and a body tougher from alien blood, Kai joins a ragtag crew of enhanced fighters—Liv, Rylan, Jace, and Tucker—scraping to survive in a warzone where every shadow hides death.As Skraiths swarm and the city burns, Kai’s system pushes him deeper, analyzing, integrating, crafting minor enhancements—durability, strength, sparks of power that could make him a target or a savior. Government factions, rogue scientists, and the aliens themselves start sniffing around, drawn to his strange tech and blood-stolen abilities. By the time Kai crafts his first super-powered enhancement—an artificial strength boost—he’s no longer just a tinkerer. He’s on the edge of something bigger, something dangerous, where blood and sparks could forge a hero—or break him entirely.In a world unraveling, Kai’s fight for survival becomes a desperate race to master his system, outrun the Skraiths, and confront the truth: the power he’s chasing might destroy him—or remake the world.