The Detective is Already Dead - Chapter 14: One day, one year ago

In a world of countless enemies, the right talent is all it takes to thrive. Freddy Stern, a twenty-one-year-old cashier, has lived a plain, albeit harsh life. Having been orphaned—twice—he’s spent the last ten years working and staying out of trouble. His only aspiration is to save enough money to become an archhuman. His dream gets the jump on him when he barely survives a near-death encounter and finds himself with 1% Lifesteal, a bizarre talent with numerous contradictions and just as many uses. With every dead enemy, he becomes a bit stronger, a little wiser, and a lot more ruthless. And no matter how much damage he takes, he can always put himself back together. Physically, at least. But on his path to power, after having to look at the rotting guts of archhuman society again and again, can his talent keep his mind and soul as pristine as his body? Or will that part of him simply remain broken?

It always starts with an accident.That’s how all these stories go. One moment, you’re minding your own business, and the next, you wake up in someone else’s body. For Caspian, his accident started earlier than he even knew.Maybe it began when his sister got him into romance novels? Or when he started really sympathizing with the villains at the ends of books? He’d never know. It was too late to worry about it now.For now, he had to find a way to fix this nightmare, or rehabilitate his image, all while trying to free himself from the fate set out for him. All because of the damn “gods” who he'd cut a deal with.These were the only two options he had available, and he wasn’t sure he could succeed at either. The man he had taken over for had been…a true piece of work. And the secret villain of the book he had been reading before he passed.It had been a harem novel. A reverse harem novel.He was trapped in a huge ass CASTLE with a bunch of men who hated him because he was taking affection and time away from their shared wife. All Cass wanted to do was be a good person, not mess around with this poor woman and her far too handsome husbands.But why would no one leave him alone? Was he too suspicious? And why, after going out of his way to avoid them like they had asked, did they keep pestering him?And where did the heroine go?How was he going to manage three, handsome men without the heroine?

On that day, the fog blocked everything.

On that day, he became the captain of a ghost ship.

On that day, he stepped through the thick fog and confronted a completely subverted and fragmented world—the old order had vanished, strange phenomonoms dominated the endless seas beyond civilized society, and isolated island city-states and fleets of ships challenged the sea that had become the last ember of lights for the civilized world. All of this while the shadows of the old days were still stirring in the deep sea, waiting to to devour this world that was about to die.

But for the new captain of the ghost ship Vanished, there was only one question he had to consider first— Who knows how to drive this ship?!

Ethan Carter never thought much about heroism—until the night he pushed a girl out of the way of a speeding truck and felt cold steel and shattering bones instead of pavement. He expected to die. Instead, he woke up in a hospital, completely healed, with a strange blue screen floating in front of him.[System Activated.][Welcome, User. Your journey begins now.]At first, he thinks he's hallucinating. But when his body starts changing—his strength skyrocketing, his reflexes sharpening—Ethan realizes this is real. The System grants him quests, skills, and rewards, pushing him to break human limits. And yet, there’s more. Locked away in his interface is something called *World Travel*—but it remains inaccessible, its conditions unknown.As he grows stronger, Ethan catches the attention of powerful forces—some eager to recruit him, others determined to stop him. And amidst the chaos, women drawn to his power and charisma begin to enter his life, each with their own mysteries.But one question haunts him: *Why was I chosen?*The answer lies beyond this world. And when the time comes, Ethan won’t just step into new worlds—he’ll conquer them.