Zenith Online: Rebirth of the Strongest Player - Chapter 3: Scar

The Empire stands triumphant.

For twenty years the Dread Empress has ruled over the lands that were once the Kingdom of Callow, but behind the scenes of this dawning golden age threats to the crown are rising. The nobles of the Wasteland, denied the power they crave, weave their plots behind pleasant smiles. In the north the Forever King eyes the ever-expanding borders of the Empire and ponders war. The greatest danger lies to the west, where the First Prince of Procer has finally claimed her throne: her people sundered, she wonders if a crusade might not be the way to secure her reign. Yet none of this matters, for in the heart of the conquered lands the most dangerous man alive sat across an orphan girl and offered her a knife.

Her name is Catherine Foundling, and she has a plan.

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A Practical Guide to Evil is a fantasy series about a young girl named Catherine Foundling making her way through the world – though, in a departure from the norm, not on the side of the heroes. Is there such a thing as doing bad things for good reasons, or is she just rationalizing her desire for control? Good and Evil are tricky concepts, and the more power you get the blurrier the lines between them become.

Running from her past, Nivritti joins a new job in South Korea as a Script Coordinator in K&Q Media Company. She works for a successful K-pop boyband. On her first day, she is kissed by the leader of that boy band. The problem is, she is five years older than him. Will that kiss grow into a relationship or will be forgotten by both of them?

*****

She tried to pull her wrists, but she failed. She looked at him and again tried to pull her hands but in vain.

“Yes, you do. You have been licking your lips since you started talking. I think it’s an unconscious gesture that you don’t know about,” informed Kyung-Soo.

“Will you please let go of my hands?” she pulled again but Kyung-Soo tightened his grip.

Without hearing her he continued, “and by distracting, I mean that I really want to hear what you have to say but because of your lips all I can think of is this…

He pulled her wrists pulling her close to him, moved one of his hands on her waist and another one on the back of her neck and softly placed his lips on hers and kissed her.

Lost in the vast expanse of space, trapped in the icy confines of a metal spacecraft, I was forced to face a horrifying truth.That I had transformed into a ruthless alien predator in a space survival game.

“Hey, Yoshi-kun. I think you’re——”

Hearing that voice for the first time stopped me in my tracks. On my way home from school. On the playing field of our junior high, and at the bookshop in front of the station. And then in the empty lot where the white cat slept. Shiina Yuki, the strange girl who somehow knew all about me, always approached me like that.

We laughed, cried, got angry, held hands. Again and again, we repeated those disappearing memories and ephemeral promises. That’s why I never knew. I never knew the value of Yuki’s smiles or the meaning of her tears. Nor even the singular sentiment behind her many ‘Nice to meet you’s.

This is a captivating, heartrending tale of meetings and partings.