The Genius System - Chapter 18: Between Shadow and Light

'Confucius spoke not of the bizarre, the valiant, the rebellious, nor of spirits and demons.'This is the story of Mok Gyeongwoon, AKA the First Heavenly Demon - Cheon Ma, the forefather of the main character of the popular novel and manwha Nano Machine. This story is the prequel to Nano Machine, taking place 800 years earlier.

RATED 18+|

Tinsley Rutherford's life turns upside down when her rich parents are killed in a tragic car accident. To make things worse, her fiance suddenly breaks off their billion-dollar contract marriage engagement.

Sad and lost, Tinsley goes out one night to drown her sorrows in alcohol and meets the mysterious and handsome Kian Wilson at a bar. To her shock, she wakes up the following morning in this handsome stranger's arms. In her panic, she flees his house and leaves him to search for his mystery princess.

What happens when these two fated strangers meet again? Will they get a second chance this time, or will Tinsley make a run for it again?

Bubbles…Soft, fragile, and fleeting. They drift without purpose, bursting at the slightest touch.They aren’t weapons. They aren’t threats. Just harmless playthings, forgotten the moment they vanish.But what if bubbles weren’t so innocent?What if, in a world of Hunters—where magic shatters mountains and fists split seas—someone awakened a Skill based entirely on bubbles?A joke. A death sentence.Goblins would laugh.The weak would pity him. The strong wouldn’t even bother to look twice.But powers can hide secrets. And some truths are buried in plain sight.When a nameless F-Rank awakens the “Bubble Skill,” no one expects him to survive.Let alone rise.However, the indomitable spirit of River Faelan refused to die.Step by step, he climbed to the top—shattering every limit placed on a “mere” Bubble Mage.He proved them all wrong.And he’ll do it again,Even if it means starting from the very bottom… for one more time.

Lao Chen was just an old, underpaid security guard in a rundown apartment complex, living a miserable life under a stingy, ungrateful boss.His wife left him, his daughter wanted nothing to do with him, and poverty was his only constant companion.In the end, death came in the form of a drunk driver, leaving him broken and forgotten on the cold pavement.But fate wasn’t done with him. In his final moments, he prayed—desperate, pleading to any deity who would listen.And someone did.The God of Wealth and Love took pity on his wasted life and granted him a second chance.Wake up again as Zhao Yiming, a 25-year-old gambler and alcoholic drowning in debt with nothing but a good face and a strong body to his name, he was given the Affinity Money Maker System—a mysterious power that let him gain wealth and influence by forming relationships, whether as lovers, friends, or even enemies.Before he knew it, he had stumbled his way into unimaginable riches.But things never go as planned. One moment of recklessness—one affair with the wrong woman—led to an unexpected murder.Now, the system has thrown him onto a new path: The Villain Route. With a negative perk that keeps the police off his trail but tightens the noose around his future, Zhao Yiming is faced with an impossible choice.Will he claw his way to the top and become the billionaire he was meant to be? Or will his second life end behind bars, just as tragic as his first?