New Times, New Hell - Chapter 15 - Capturing a Ghost With Bare Hands

Qin Ran just wanted to cultivate immortality, refine pills, and live a carefree life as an immortal world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life…

One scam package,That's all it took to drag the 17-year-old Cail into the world of the void....He thought he had ordered a limited-edition sneakers. But what came was a shady-looking package on his front gate. It smelled like rotten egg and sulfur. Inside the package was a strange box.It's filled with eccentric junk. They looked very intricate and mysterious. He thought, “I probably got someone else's package, a package from someone that was very interested in mysticism.”An old coin, a cracked compass, a ring with an ugly center stone, and some other weird looking trinkets.So he did what any broke student would do:He sold it. He figured someone might want them for cosplay or something. Well, except the gold-rimmed glasses that seemed to fit him very well.“Damn, I paid 7,000 nu for that sneaker; I better get something out from this scam package.”Then all hell broke loose. Strange people started approaching him.People brought that junk. Very strange people wearing suspicious get up trying to buy those stuff in the sketchiest manner possible.As he kept selling, he realized that the box was refilling, it seemed to have an endless supply of those strange stuff. Those people called it 'artifacts'.Then one day he woke up with a strange tattoo on his arm; inside the tattoo was an independent space containing the box. It is basically inseparable from him.“I didn't ask for any of this to happen. But now, strange people come to me with desperate offers. Money, memories, and even soul.”He's just trying to survive high school while earning some money!He had no idea what was going on, but apparently, this thing that he got? It's not just an artifact. It's a contract.As Cail navagates school life, part-time jobs, and otherworldly clients, he starts asking the real question:When did I become an artifact dealer?!By day, he is just an ordinary student, a NPC character.And by night? He is The Dealer. Selling ancient items and dealing with people that he probably shouldn't be talking to.“Since I'm already in this mess, might as well profit off of it.”

On the dawn of a fresh New Year, an ominous figure emerged, shrouded in a guise of an angel but harboring the malevolence of a devil. With a chilling voice, it proclaimed, [Every month, you humans will be thrust into a perilous quest. Your survival hinges on overcoming 20 grueling rounds.]Suddenly, I found myself ensnared in this dangerous survival game, a grotesque merry-go-round where every turn carried the stench of death. Yet, I was not without any defenses. I possessed an unusual power: the power to regress 100 times, a chance to rewrite my fate.I stand on the precipice of my final regression, and I swear, ‘This time, I will conquer it. I will emerge victorious.’I’m no longer the insignificant shuttle that I once was. Today, I shed my former self, the one who had reached the pinnacle of power. Today, I am reborn for the last time as Black Scythe, a rookie player, a novice that once again will be become the Grim Reaper!

[Sexual Content and lemons warning]This novel has smut but is not smut focused.It has Plot and story, developing relationships. Though it may feel a bit slow in the beginning it will pace up soon.No NTR.18+-----------------------------With her sitting on me, I could feel her thighs, so soft and I didn't want her off of me but this was not the time for that.“I wouldn't betray you like this Jennifer, you know this” I said, shifting my gaze from her thighs to her eyes.“You were with Renn all along.” She said as she drew a blade to my neck. “You can't tell me you don't have a hand in this”At that moment, there was nothing I could say to please the beast who had me in chokehold. I just laid there and prayed for a miracle.—-------------------------In a world where every player controls five versatile avatars, Contrario Williams is cursed with just one avatar.Mocked, outclassed, and labelled “One-slot player,” Contrario enters Irish Valley, a faction known for chewing up the weak. But when his last avatar, named Stray, really bonds with him, everything begins to change. What starts as a desperate struggle to survive quickly grows into a chaotic rise through ranked raids, underground brawls, and deadly bounty missions.With 290 days until a tournament that will shake the game world, Contrario is thrown into brutal training simulations, tangled love interests, and savage battles with elite bounty hunters and mercenaries like the infamous Kyra and Axel. Killer twins who fight for who can pay them the most, and who just might hold the key to Contrario's haunted past.But in a world built on stats, politics, and power, what happens when the most underestimated player becomes the most unpredictable? How would Contrario handle opening up to people who later betray him?And how far will Contrario go to prove that one slot is all he needs?