The Phantom's Gambit - Chapter 34: Lessons and whispers

The days where adventurers would roam the land and grow strong are long gone. More than 99.9% of the world's population is level 1, and in fact, leveling just isn't something people think about anymore, as almost every spawn point on the planet has been gone for close to a thousand years. Only the elites, the super rich, or the super lucky have access to spawn points, and because of this, they are like Gods among men: like superheroes. For people like Zach, life is a mundane, ordinary experience of getting up, going to school, working, and then going back to bed. But that's all about to change when he stumbles upon one of the only unknown spawn points in existence. And in doing so, his life is about to descend into a wild chaos he never could have expected. (Lit RPG, fantasy, action, slow burn)

Laviore Bailey—the ‘fake saintess’ who banished the innocent princess and stirred up bad blood to wage war.

She’s the villainess with a façade of a saintess.

“I love you. So just shut your mouth and die. Okay?”

But the moment her trusted lover chose her as a sacrifice to the demon, and she realized her father was behind the plan, she killed herself by swallowing poison.

It hurt. It was so painful that she could not even scream. But it was fine. Because she knew this was not the end.

“I will save you this time.”

Then, she came back for her second life. She was determined to rescue those who were unlucky because of her and restored her life back.

“You do whatever you want for the man in your dream.”

Demian said with a rough smile.

“I’ll also protect you the way I want to.”

Markus spent his life piecing together fragments of his past life on Earth, flickers of faces, half-remembered streets, the ghost of a world that no longer existed.Slowly, gradually, he’d finally found his footing in this new world of monstrous beings. He felt grounded, as if his fractured memories could finally settle into something resembling a family.But it all went downhill from there.A lingering touch, a promise, an obsession. As if fate itself was playing a cruel joke, his life begins to spiral down. Gradually tumbling down like a crescendo of madness, dragging him deeper into something inescapable.Every attempt to claw his way back only pulls him further down, like a bottomless pit with no end in sight.How much can a person endure before they break? And when they do, can they ever truly piece themselves back together?

Hunter Cha Eui-jae, who was dispatched to seal a rift that appeared over the West Sea, was flung out as soon as he closed the rift. When he came to his senses, he was lying in a garbage dump.Starving, he was drawn like a zombie is to blood to a hangover soup restaurant, where he realized that he had fallen into South Korea, eight years in the future.In this era, disaster alerts notify people of rift openings in advance, ASMR videos of slimes gathered from dungeons were trending, and idle hunters livestream unboxings of A-rank longswords.Unlike the past, where people trembled in fear of an impending apocalypse, the future was surprisingly peaceful, leaving Cha Eui-jae feeling empty. Since things had turned out this way, why not start a second chapter of life as a part-timer at the hangover soup restaurant, rather than being a hunter?“That’s strange.”“…”“Have we met somewhere before?”Cha Eui-jae’s plan to quietly spend his remaining days as the only part-time worker at the decades-old hangover soup restaurant goes awry when he encounters a mysterious, gas-masked individual…DISCLAIMER: The story isn't mine