Captured Hearts: The Substitute Bride's Gambit - Chapter 233 - It Really Is Her

Exile Ren?

The start is hell mode?

Fortunately, there are crossing benefits, and it is still a stitched monster sandbox game system!

Liver Emperor Ren? Hamster Ryan? Isn’t this basic operation?

- Description from novelbuddy

Ceres, a magic swordman who has been treated as a burden in the party, is finally dismissed by Zect, the hero and leader of the party. He realized that all of his childhood friends belonged to Zect and there was nowhere for him to stay, so he decided to go off on his own…

However, he’s actually a reincarnated person and used to be much older, so he didn’t really bear it that much when he was expelled.

And he was… well, from here on out, you’ll have to read on to find out.

In less than an instant the world as we knew it was at its end.

That’s right. The Apocalypse. In a single blink Zombies appeared and mutated monsters began to rampage all throughout the world. Now it was the human species turn to fight for survival and planetary dominance!

On the same day that the world descends into chaos we meet Yue Zhong. Initially only hoping to get to his friends and escape to a refugee camp our protagonist sets out, inadvertently building a team along the way. After a series of fortuitous events and a few serious hunches our hero decides it’s time to do more than just survive!

Yue Zhong begins to form the foundations of an enormous survival plan… before he suddenly discovers that he has only gotten over the first hurdle…. Unbeknownst to Yue Zhong and company, the world outside of China is mostly a wasteland! Country sized swathes of nuclear radiation and an extreme shortage of supplies in the world after the nuclear explosions was quickly becoming the “norm”. Mutants, Evolved animals and what’s worse, intelligent out of control dinosaurs had quickly appeared and claimed their own sections of the planet. There were several innately powerful Evolved races which appeared that were more than 10 times stronger than humans, nearly all of them possessing bodies impenetrable by normal bullets. The fabled orcs’ were another of these Evolved races, the leader of which had in fact enslaved many of the remaining human beings.

Unceremoniously exposed to such a cold and heartless new world, Yue Zhong is faced with a choice: Find a deep dark hole and hope it goes back to “normal”? Or overcome all obstacles and struggle towards Evolution!!!

- Description from Novelupdates

In the world of cultivation, countless tales follow righteous protagonists, fated heroes blessed by destiny, or those chosen by heaven to walk the path of immortality.But what of those who stand in their way?What of the villains? The so-called obstacles to the hero’s journey—do they not bleed, dream, and struggle as well?Xiao Ning was never meant to succeed.From the very beginning, the Grand Dao wove him as a stepping stone—a necessary sacrifice to elevate another. His path, like that of all designated ‘villains,’ was doomed to failure by design.But what happens when that design is defied?After death, Xiao Ning awakens—not in the cycle of reincarnation, but in the cold silence beyond it. There, he is offered the Eternal Paradox Codex—a forbidden artifact containing the hidden truths of the Grand Dao System itself.Rules. Loopholes. Vulnerabilities.Knowledge not meant for those like him.With this power, Xiao Ning is granted a single, impossible choice: accept oblivion, or step outside the Grand Dao entirely—to abandon fate, sever karma, and cultivate a path unbound by heaven or law.It is Xiao Ning’s journey, from ashes to something beyond comprehension.Not to become an Immortal among men.But something even the heavens dare not bind.If fate is a chain…Then let him forge his own path in the void beyond.Welcome to this humble tale.The cultivation world is vast and unkind.Let us begin again—on our terms.