Basketball System: Rebound of the Underdog - Chapter 8: Hidden Laughter of Children

Ding—Congratulations on unlocking the hidden profession “Teacher”.Ding—Congratulations on acquiring three SSS talents:“Divine Library”: As a teacher, your being harbors a Divine Library, granting you the ability to see the unseen about individuals and objects alike, be it strengths or weaknesses. Furthermore, you have the capability to amend these shortcomings.“Get 1st student”: As a teacher, you're entitled to mentor x number of apprentices (x increases as you level up), establishing a bond that allows you to monitor their loyalty.“Pass on the Torch”: Your role as a teacher entails not only imparting knowledge but nurturing souls. Sharing skills or bestowing gifts upon your apprentices could lead to unexpected rewards, courtesy of a probabilistic system return....The world as we know it has been thrown into chaos, with the lines between game and reality blurring.Mankind has stepped into the age of career transformation.With monsters on the loose, the emergence of dungeons, hidden realms, and instances marks an era of both peril and potential.Survival dictates that humans embrace this new calling, striving for power and progression.Upon his arrival at the age of eighteen, Alex Watson is gifted with the extraordinary “Divine Library System”!Thus begins the meteoric rise of Alex Watson!He sets out to teach, to mentor, to elevate the elite, and to share his wisdom with the world.

When Ares wakes up, he finds himself in a familiar world but in an unfamiliar body. It was a world he'd read about in a novel he discovered among the belongings of his late girlfriend.

But when he ended up in a novel that he had just finished reading before dying, his life changed for the better or the worse.

Why are all women crazy about me? Why are they pursuing me while ignoring the main character?

Join Ares on his journey through the novel to solve the mystery of his death and learn the truth about the world he ended up in.

The call of the nightmare realm cannot be denied, the woven fate is inevitable.

His ability to travel to the nightmare realm granted him immortality but also pit him with an unfamiliar world, curses and magics unseen before in the real world.

Monsters of unknown origin, macabre beasts and horrors beyond the ken of man have taken the place of old inhabitants of a once glorious civilization.

Now under the light of the Clairvoyant Moon the nightmare realm is on the verge of destruction. Here you will find dishonorable knights, mad sorcerers, twisted alchemist, the malformed Lost Ones and the vestiges of old gods all converging in a dead world.

But there are also those who seek to undo the curse, to restore the world. There are scavengers that only want to survive, the seekers of truth that seek the secrets of old.

And then there’s Aldrich who plans to exploit the resources and powers of the nightmare realm to achieve his own goals.

The epic tale of struggle against impossible odds and enemies bigger than life.

What Aldrich will find outside his little village will not just test the limits of his will, but also his sanity.

****

Aldrich, is a fifteen year old boy, living in a small village called Wakefield, he dreams of being a Crestmaster.

On the day Aldrich awakens his Crest, Wakefield is attacked and burned.

He is the only survivor, barely making it out with a mysterious gift, a heavy mission and dire warnings to never turn back.

He is then told to forget about what he saw and the innocent villagers that died, to never ask questions. All things Aldrich could never do.

One day he will uncover the forces behind the massacre and take his revenge. But for now he will lower his head and pretend that nothing has happened.

For now.

Vampire Slave Number 43, or the self-named, Azriel Ruinous, learned about the history between the humans and the Vampires and it filled him with rage and hatred.

Nonetheless, he was helpless to do anything.

After years and years of suppression, the Vampires have become the weakest race in the world.

However, lady luck seemed to be on his side as Azriel found an ancient jar filled with mysterious blood that will not only change his, but his race's destiny as well.

This, will be the story about the rise of the self-named, Azriel Ruinous, and the Return of the Forgotten Blood Empire.

...

“Have you heard about the rumour?”

“What rumour?”

“They say that there's a Vampire on the loose, he's out there killing humans mercilessly”

“Hahahaha! That's the funniest joke I ever heard! Vampires? Those Slaves? Hahaha!”

“Yeah, I feel the same! I think someone just started this rumour as a joke! Hahaha! How can those weaklings kill us, humans?”

“True True…”

In a bar, two middle-aged men talked and laughed as they discussed the recent rumour they heard.

Seeing those two, a drunk old man shook his head as he sighed.

“Ignorance is bliss indeed…”

“These younglings do not know what the real fear is…

The vampires may have fallen… but my old bones still remember the days when they were in their prime…”

The old man sobered up in an instant and his body shuddered in fear as the memories of the long-forgotten horror appeared in his mind.

He then took a deep breath as he patted his trembling body and muttered.

“I just hope that they are not back…”