The Regressed Mercenary's Machinations - Chapter 34: This Place Is Insane (2)

I was just your average student—no special talents, no grand dreams, and most importantly… no girlfriend. My days were spent grinding through life, with my only true passion being games, mangas, and web novels.Every day, I’d see couples walking by, holding hands, whispering sweet nothings, and I’d think, Hell yeah! When's it my turn?! I mean, I deserve a cute girlfriend too, right? Someone to hold, someone to kiss—just once, please!But, of course, life had other plans.One second, I was daydreaming about romance. The next? BAM! Truck-kun hit me with the ultimate rejection letter—straight to another world. When I opened my eyes, I realized I had reincarnated... but not as the hero, not even as the sidekick. Nope. I got stuck as some low-level villain—a total extra—the kind that exists just to get one-shot by the protagonist in the early chapters.The good news? I know this game inside out.The bad news? The whole world is out to kill me.But if they think I'm going down that easily, they're in for a surprise. Using my game knowledge, I'll dodge every death flag, exploit every loophole, and rise to the top! And hey, if I end up with a harem of gorgeous girls along the way? Well… let’s call it a happy bonus!This is my story—where I rewrite my destiny, break the game, and maybe... just maybe... finally get that kiss!Support this Shameless Author with Power Stones Gifts and Golden Tickets

Katherine Zara, a single middle aged office worker, went about her day as she always had; wake up, go to work, come home and read or play games. However, today would be different. Before she left for work, her ex broke into her apartment and killed her.

When she woke up, she was given many choices. She could pick her new world, pick her starting point, and pick her system among many other things. And so Katherine decided to become a servant to a villainess.

Follow Katherine as she serves her petty, demanding mistress in a world of swords and magic.

Additional: The Female Lead (Katherine) will be submissive to her mistress, but will be cold towards others. I plan on having some action, but mainly this will be a story about Katherine serving her mistress and leveling up her system.

Kai’s life was small—coffee-stained mornings, cracked recipes, and a system in his head that tweaked toasters and dough like it was nothing. Then the sky shattered. Aliens—Skraiths, jagged and brutal—invaded, tearing his city apart with green-glowing weapons and relentless claws. Superhumans rose to fight back, fire and lightning blazing through the chaos, but Kai’s world crumbled with them.Hiding in his apartment, Kai stumbles on blood—human and alien, smeared on his wall after a superhuman battle. His system, once just a tinker’s tool, awakens, offering him a choice: mimic their powers, temporary and wild, through the blood itself. Desperate, he takes it—stealing pyrokinesis, then electrokinesis, then kinetic energy, each power burning through him, fading fast. But it’s not enough. Armed with a humming Skraith weapon and a body tougher from alien blood, Kai joins a ragtag crew of enhanced fighters—Liv, Rylan, Jace, and Tucker—scraping to survive in a warzone where every shadow hides death.As Skraiths swarm and the city burns, Kai’s system pushes him deeper, analyzing, integrating, crafting minor enhancements—durability, strength, sparks of power that could make him a target or a savior. Government factions, rogue scientists, and the aliens themselves start sniffing around, drawn to his strange tech and blood-stolen abilities. By the time Kai crafts his first super-powered enhancement—an artificial strength boost—he’s no longer just a tinkerer. He’s on the edge of something bigger, something dangerous, where blood and sparks could forge a hero—or break him entirely.In a world unraveling, Kai’s fight for survival becomes a desperate race to master his system, outrun the Skraiths, and confront the truth: the power he’s chasing might destroy him—or remake the world.

The journey of a generation’s male empress started because of four words.

“Send a dowry escort.”

During the 19th year of Yuanqing, Qi Yunruo boarded a carriage and entered through a corner door of the second prince’s estate. Then, across the watery corridor, he gazed at the prince from afar.

Notes:

For aristocratic women in imperial China to marry into a family part of the upper nobility, they must be of the legitimate line and must also have an escort/dowry maid that married into that family. That escort would be a “ying” (媵) and could be considered a concubine.

- Description from Novelupdates