Small upgrade system - Chapter 19 19 - New Techniques

“Why didn’t you tell me?”“Tell you what, Richard? What would you have done?”“I don’t know. Apologized sooner? Bought you a burger to make up for it?”Her eyes lit up with fire, “You think what you did to me… you think a burger can make up for it?” her eyes twinkled like she was fighting tears. Did I hurt her that badly? I was just a foolish teenager.“Nita, I am sorry. I was young, I was stupid. I wish I could take it all back and tell you how I feel instead of being a constant jerk to gain your attention.”“How did you feel that would justify what you did to me?”I paused for a minute, finding the words. “I had a huge crush on you at the time. And I didn’t know how to express myself. I was full of myself, I was the school’s ladies' man and the one girl I had eyes for didn’t even care if I existed,” “And that justified what you did to me? Richard, you broke me. I can forgive you for ‘accidentally’ spilling your ice cream on me, or throwing my due assignment in the toilet, or the gum in my hair, or the glue in my chair but tell me how can I forgive you for what you did that night? Tell me!”“What night? Nita, what are you talking about?”“Remember when you asked me if I knew who sexually assaulted me?”I nodded, but what does that have to do with anything? The more we spoke, the more confused I became.“You did and I cannot believe that you would stand there and pretend like it didn’t happen!”Nita has spent years trying to forget the torment she endured at the hands of Richard. When her family’s financial ruin forces her into an arranged marriage, she is horrified to find out the groom himself was her bully.Richard, a charming and successful businessman meets the first woman to be repulsed by him. Intrigued, he proposes a deal of a one year marriage of convenience.Navigating life as a couple, old wounds reopen, buried memories surface. As Richard learns more about his wife, he finds that he has enemies that followed him from his past to continuously cloud his wife’s judgement.Will Nita believe the truth and bury old wounds or will the pain of the past prove too strong to heal?

Deep below the earth's surface, a mystifying subterranean seascape lurks, an archipelago bathed in inky blackness where suspense and horror hold court. Here lie strange islands and even stranger monsters, far beyond the realms of human imagination. In this domain, mankind is far from dominant; instead, madness and death rule supreme.

Pleading for mercy from the unknown creatures of the deep only leads to a slow, tortured existence. The trapped survivors gradually distort, losing what made them human, both physically and mentally, to the gloom as they remain trapped in this eternal obscurity. Their only hope? A perilous expedition into uncharted sea territories.

Fueled by determination, Charles embark on this daunting voyage aboard his steamship, aiming to reclaim humanity's past glory. Together with his crew, they sought a way out of this hidden sea world, a path back to the sunlit world above, where humans once stood tall.

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I read a few comments from Chinese readers that compared this novel with Lord of Mysteries because of similar elements: Lovecraftian, western fantasy, first industrial revolution, and steampunk. However, I have yet to finish reading Lord of Mysteries to do any actual comparison, but I do think those who have enjoyed that novel would enjoy this as well. Also, the author of LotM, Cuttlefish That Loves Diving, also did a shout-out for this novel, so I guess he approves of it too?

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Valerie, the daughter of the murdered Alpha of the Yellow Stone Pack, could never lead the pack because she had a Luna wolf. Her mate, Tristan, was made the Alpha in her stead. After assuming the title of Alpha, Valerie was set up and brutally rejected, not only by Tristan but also her whole pack, and her kid sister, Scarlet, with whom Tristan had secret affairs.“I reject Luna Valerie as my mate. She was caught in bed with a stranger, meaning that she would sell the pack out. The punishment for treachery is death,” Alpha Tristan announced heartlessly.The chants from the pack members and visiting Alphas who had come for the Alphas' conference attracted them to the judgment. No one thought that Alpha Denzel, whose name caused the hairs on their skin to stand straight due to his ruthlessness, would make it to the conference.Valerie found hope when she realized that Alpha Denzel was her second chance mate, but painstakingly, she was rejected once again. The double rejection caused her to lose her wolf, and she was condemned to die by all the Alphas present.She thought her fate was sealed when Alpha Denzel left and a warrior was ready to execute her. Everyone was shocked when Alpha Denzel suddenly turned around.“Stop! The treacherous daughter of a late Alpha should not be killed. More suffering awaits her,” he declared.Valerie’s heart dropped when she saw his dark look, which was like a bottomless pit, as she blacked out from exhaustion.A few months down the line, there was a war among the Alphas as they began to lay claim to the two-times-rejected Luna. With her wolf dead, will the moon goddess be gracious to give her another wolf? And which Alpha would be able to melt her now cold heart?

After a car accident, Cen Pan lost every loved one aside from her younger brother, who was lying in the ICU. Feeling that she was on the verge of suffocating from the burden of medical fees right after graduation, she was visited by her grandmother in her dream. “Darling, I had a friend who really loves the clothes you design. Would you burn one of them for him? He will pay you handsomely.”

Cen Pan simply found it surreal, but did so anyway so that she could be at ease.

The next night, her grandmother gave her an address and a password in her dream. “Here, this is the password of the safe, and his payment is in there.”

Skeptical, Cen Pan looked for the safe at the address, and found a diamond worth a hundred grand in the safe!

After that, her deceased family members kept appearing in her dreams.

“Darling, it’s going to rain tomorrow—so bring an umbrella.”

“Darling, I met a hacker who had been dead for a hundred years, and he’s asking if you want to inherit his lost art.”

“Darling, do you have a boyfriend? I just made a friend who really wants you to marry his grandson!”

Marry? Cen Pan immediately shook her head, but was stunned when her grandfather showed the grandson’s photo.

Why did he resemble her new boss so much?!