The Strangers - Across the Silent Heartbeat - Chapter 10: The Competition and the Unexpected

[Warning: Mature Content]Chuck was a 20-year-old professional body pillow reviewer who spent his days testing anime waifu pillows for online stores. His life was pathetic, lonely, and consisted mainly of rating the softness of fictional girlfriends.Then truck-kun struck.One evening while walking home from another humiliating day of pillow fondling, Chuck got obliterated by a speeding delivery truck. Instead of meeting his maker, he woke up as a newborn in a parallel world... a very different one from the one he knew. A second chance awaited, and he looks to make good use of it.However, he runs into the impossible; Chuck finds himself thrust into a society of proud lioness princesses, fierce wolf ladies, and noble panther heiresses, daughters of warlords.In hindsight, all those years of pathetic pillow fondling had been preparing him for this moment—a world where his wildest harem dreams weren't just possible, they were inevitable.

Lanz Kuroda failed his Awakening Test in the most spectacular way possible, he didn’t just rank low, his ass got slapped with an FFF. He was locked out of the system entirely, and sent home like the rejected tutorial character that he is.But when a cracked relic crystal he bought from a sketchy street vendor activates, it boots up something the world shouldn’t even know exists, a hidden system that logs him into an old, forgotten alt account, one with no level cap, restrictions, and absolutely zero oversight.By day, Lanz is still the same guy that no one aspires to be.But at night? In the dungeons?He becomes Zero, an anonymous hunter operating outside the system, clearing high-tier raids solo, and slowly building a legend no one can trace.The world thinks he’s a joke.He’s about to become its biggest problem.

The once revered Alchemy Emperor returns to his fifteenth year. In this lifetime, he not only seeks to rectify all past regrets but also aims to achieve the pinnacle of martial arts!Compared to cultivation techniques? My lackeys have divine-level technique in hands.Compared to elixirs? My top-tier elixirs are fit only for feeding dogs.Talents? Any genius who encounters me will find their fate crushed!Prosper under my lead, oppose me and meet your demise!

Noah Carter wasn't special. A broke programmer working from his cluttered studio apartment, he spent his days applying for jobs, getting rejected, and scraping by with low-paying freelance gigs.One ordinary Tuesday, while debugging code at 3 AM surrounded by energy drink cans and ramen cups, Noah accidentally broke reality.He didn't mean to... it just sort of... happened.A system message appeared, floating in his vision. The Idle Tycoon System had chosen him. His first shop: a small bakery in a Magical Medieval world where demons, dragons and half-humans exist.Every sale generated automatic income, day after day. Every new world unlocked new opportunities.Noah brought it all back to Earth, selling what he could, keeping what he couldn't. One shop became two. Two became a hundred. A network spanning dimensions, time periods, and realities—all generating income while he slept.Countless years later, Noah raised his head from his pillow and realized something unexpected. The broke programmer who couldn't land an interview had become the richest man in the universe!