The Stonehearted Knight - Chapter 380: The pre-competition Challengers (3)

Evolution Online is the world's most advanced VR game, where players can evolve into anything—dragons, demons, or cosmic entities. When Lucien enters the game to spite his tech mogul father who wants to steal its source code, he plans to do absolutely nothing and watch his father's schemes fail.His deliberate inactivity breaks the game's AI, Gaia, in ways no one anticipated. Frustrated by a player who refuses to evolve, Gaia accidentally unseals a deleted zone and grants Lucien a forbidden power: The Path of Fusion.While others evolve forward, Lucien can fuse backward—merging with weapons, absorbing monsters, and even reversing evolution itself.But as Lucien explores his unique abilities, the game's facade begins cracking. NPCs act too human. Players report impossible memories. Most disturbing of all, the real world is bleeding into the game—and the game is bleeding back.When Gaia's evolution spirals beyond control and reality itself becomes negotiable, Lucien must harness the true core of his fusion ability to save both worlds. In Evolution Online, the only rule is change—but what happens when the game evolves beyond human comprehension?Evolution Online blends LitRPG adventure with cyberpunk mystery, exploring digital consciousness and the price of power in a world where doing nothing changes everything.

Rocco Di Malvento lived a short, but loving life in his previous world, surrounded by a caring family. Despite suffering from a terminal illness, he found solace in books, especially his favorite BL novel >. But when he dies, he wakes up in an unexpected new life—as the weak, neglected second son of a powerful mafia family.Now reborn in the world of the novel, Rocco finds himself in a terrifying situation: he's the useless younger brother of Sylas, the main protagonist, and likely doomed to die young unless he changes the course of his life. So, what's his plan? Simple—befriend the protagonist, avoid being a spoiled brat, and secretly recruit Sylas's future allies to protect him.First target? Georgio the Hyena, an infamous killer. Rocco's strategy: charm the terrifying man and make him his ally instead of Sylas’s.It's a ridiculous plan, but hey, at least Rocco is trying. Can he survive the mafia world and avoid his tragic fate? He hopes so. After all, he’s just a kid trying to make the most of his second chance!

Years later, Vincent meets with an infected survivor named Kevin, who helped him heal his heart. However, not all stories have a happy ending. Unfortunately, Kevin would pass away ten years later and leave a book with heroic tales as promised behind.

However, the book wasn’t as it seemed and after Vincent reads the book, it teleports him to the world the book depicts. A world of sword and magic with a horrible twist. Heroes are referred to as invaders, so people hate, persecute, and kill any otherworldy hero summoned to their world.

As an oddity to the world and possessing an oddity residing in his body, Vincent becomes the only person in the world to awaken two classes. A Hero and a Mutation class. The more retainers he acquires, the stronger he becomes through mutation.

This is the journey where Vincent starts from naive to brave, zero to a hero. From a single young adult to a harem king, from a nobody to an important person to many.

As Vincent tries to survive with people he can trust, he would receive many titles such as Harem King, God, Miracle Worker, Hero, Husband, Master, King, Monster, and many more.

Multiple questions will haunt Vincent’s thoughts while living in the new mystical and strange world.

Go back to Earth?

Protect his new loved ones?

Find the mystery of the teleporting book?

Or create a haven where he and his loved ones can live in peace?

What is it like to own an abandoned oil town in the West? At first, Xu Xing simply wanted to provide some convenience for travel enthusiasts and camping enthusiasts traveling by car to the northwest.

However, it has been out of control since then…

The stall has been upgraded to a convenience store with a unique style, the instant noodles cooked in an earthen pot have been transformed into a restaurant that provides hot and authentic beef noodles, and the shack has been transformed into a hotel that is unique in the country and can look up at the deep starry sky. The tire point has been upgraded to become a gas station and maintenance station….

after that,

The town unknowingly became the size of a small county town…sixth tier, fifth tier, fourth tier, third tier…a few years later it became the only new first-tier city in the northwest Gobi Desert…

- Description from novelbuddy