Rise of the Living Forge - Chapter 37: Arwin and Lillia

Elara’s first life crashed hard. Cruel tricks ruined her name, broke her dreams, and turned the whole entertainment world against her. Friends betrayed her. Lovers sold her out. Everyone she trusted stabbed her in the back. The pain piled up until she felt trapped with no way out. One night, she couldn’t take it anymore. She walked to the river and ended it all in the cold, quiet water.Later, proof came out. Messages. Recordings. Everything showed she had been framed. People posted apologies online. But it was too late. She was already gone.The universe, though, clearly has a twisted sense of humor.Because somehow, Elara came back. She woke up in her own past, every awful memory still sharp in her head. Right then she made a promise she would never break: protect her gentle grandfather no matter what, and never let anyone push her to that dark place again.This time she steps into the entertainment world with her head high. She trains harder, sings better, fights smarter. The same people who once crushed her? Now they get to feel the pressure.Love? Not happening. Her heart is locked tight. But why is it that as she rises and shines brighter, handsome, powerful men start circling her—guys who never even glanced at her in her previous life were now hovering around her.The actor smiled at her during a press interview, leaned closer, and said softly, “We should have dinner sometime.”The footballer sent flowers so big they blocked her room door.The surgeon she met at a charity event checked her pulse and then forgot to let go of her wrist.The singer she collaborated with kept calling her name during rehearsals, as if the mic could not hear him well enough.Elara stared at the ceiling that night and sighed.She only wanted to sing. Why did everyone look like they wanted to adopt her, date her, or both?But the worst one came after the concert.The lights had just gone off. Her ears were still ringing. Sweat clung to her neck. She had barely stepped backstage when a shadow blocked her path.She looked up.The CEO of the greatest company in Aurelia stood there. The same man who once said her voice was “not worth investing in.” The same man who did not even know her name before rebirth.Now he held her wrist lightly, but firmly.“Let’s talk,” he said.Elara blinked. “About… sponsorship?”“No,” he replied calmly. “About marriage.”Her brain froze.“…What?”“I will give you everything,” he continued, as if asking for a glass of water. “Resources. Protection. Freedom to sing. Become my wife.”Elara stared at him, her mouth open, her thoughts running in circles.This was not how it was supposed to be.Why was the world now skipping steps?NB:This story takes place in a fictional world. Aurelia is a country. Solmere, Veston, and Starfall City are the three capital cities of Aurelia. Other cities, such as Lorien and Crelou, are smaller cities.

Su Wan is a Realm Destroyer. She shuttles to different time-spaces using the identity of the “Cannon Fodder Ex-Girlfriend”, dedicated to plotting how to happily tear apart the male protagonist and the female protagonist. –There’s no such thing as protagonists who can’t be torn apart, only Ex-Girlfriends who don’t work hard enough~

“You want me to go on an impossible journey, sacrifice everything, and risk my own life for a mere 1,000 gold? Hell no!”Lukas never really had anything going in his previous life. When he found himself transmigrated into a new world, he had hoped the soft and gentle touch of a hot milf would mark the beginning of a lavish lifestyle befitting a king.Instead, he quickly learned that he was just some random extra. Worse than that, this extra was only known by everyone as the “Divine Simp,” someone who would do whatever the gods asked.“Divine Simp? Fuck that!”Refusing such a pitiful existence, Lukas decides to take this new life in his own hands. Instead of waiting for some lavish life to fall in his lap, he would create one for himself.How?Well, the gods seem to love him. They shower him with quests, thinking that he will just take them for free. Little do they know... that old extra is dead and gone now.The Divine Simp has become the Divine Extortionist: someone who can obtain the greatest rewards for completing the easiest tasks.

An epic journey of a basketball player's life...“Writing stories is like shooting hoops; you keep scoring and missing, then continue, relentlessly, until you leave the court.”The distant and fervent world of basketball across the sea became the stage on which the young men released their energy and let their imaginations soar during the monotony and uncertainty of adolescence.He hopes that children who love playing basketball can have real basketball to play...