ROSES HAVE THORNS - Chapter 2 - Pain And Confusion

I lived for you in the last lifetime, everything I did was for you, yet you wanted me to die; so, this time, life is mine to live! This world lied to me, betrayed me, and humiliated me, and I am back to change everything!

- Description from Novelupdates

In 2026, the world froze over in an apocalyptic ice age.Dean Winters, a man struggling to survive, is betrayed by his lover, his best friend, and the very group he kept alive. Left to die alone in the frozen wasteland, his life came to a bitter end.But death does not claim him. Instead, it hurls him back to a time before the apocalypse began, with every memory intact and a mysterious superpower known as Tyrant’s Ledger. The first of its kind to awaken among humanity, it allows him to perceive numerical values that reveal whether a person is hostile or friendly, and whether an object, location, or resource is spoiled, corrupted, or lethally dangerous.This time, with his newfound power, Dean won’t just survive. He will crush anyone who stands in his way, gather the powerful under his banner, take revenge on those who betrayed him, and rise from the snow as a true Winter Tyrant.

The name Zhao Tie Zhu (lit. Zhao Steel Pillar) sounded pretty unrefined. But, when it came to his nickname, Phantom, it could be said that everyone in the assassin societies around the world know it. Nowadays, the world was too peaceful, and because of that, the assassination business wasn’t going well. Hearing real estate could earn you good money, Zhao Tie Zhu bought a huge villa, and became the legendary landlord.

He only rented his villa to single women. Zhao Tie Zhu posted renting advertisements on a well-known social website, and with that, women all came one after the other to his villa. The prettiest in schools, the prettiest in police teams, and all sorts of beauties came into his surroundings.

Proclaiming himself as hegemon of campuses, unifying the underworld. All so that the tenants would live in even more content.

I am a very responsible landlord — Said the Zhao Tie Zhu who was stepping on countless skeletons of the enemy.

- Description from Novelupdates

“Is Fate the excuse of the forsaken, is Free Will the delusion of the chosen?”Such was a question that Xavier, the Demon King, never had the chance to ask himself. As he lay defeated, awaiting his death, he wondered about the wretched life he lived.'The hero who killed me, the one who held the same ambitions as me. We both wanted good for the people, for the world. We are both two sides of the same coin, yet, fate decided that he will be the one the light will shine on.Perhaps it was me too, perhaps it was my karma for flowing the rivers of blood with my sword. But still... It was fate that squashed the humanity in me first!Damn fate, if I had one more chance, I would've lived for myself more, I wouldn't have taken this arbitrary role of being a necessary evil... This world, this game of destiny... It can burn to ashes for all I care.'As he sunk into the cold embrace of death, a certain [REDACTED] heard his dying wish with amusement and cast their die, reversing the wheel of time one last time and going all in on him on a risky gamble with the stakes of their world.