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ROOT: Awakening

Akakaze22
Cyrus Moore was just an ordinary eighteen-year-old stuck in the endless cycle of classes, dull conversations, and the growing feeling that life had nothing more to offer. Bored with the monotony of everyday existence, he never imagined that a random accident would one day change everything. But when he's struck by a car and somehow survives, he awakens to a reality far stranger than anything he could have ever imagined. After the accident, Cyrus discovers that he's changed. Mysterious powers begin to emerge, reality starts to crack at the edges, and he is thrust into a hidden world where magic exists beneath the surface of modern life. As secrets unravel, he learns that monsters, mystical forces, and powerful organizations have been hiding in plain sight all along. Caught between the ordinary world and the magical one, Cyrus joins a group of others who are just as gifted, confused, and overwhelmed as he is. Together, they must navigate deadly threats, uncover dangerous truths, and survive in a world where fantasy is not only real but far more perilous than anyone could imagine. The awakening has begun, and reality will never be the same.
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I Was Marked By The System's Arbiter

Lin Yue has never been afraid of being alone. At twenty-four, he has already lived through more than most people ever will—not in grand, tragic ways, but in quiet, suffocating ones. Growing up as an orphan passed between cold institutions and indifferent guardians, he learned early that attachment leads to pain. By adulthood, he lives a detached, monotonous life, working night shifts and avoiding unnecessary human connections. To him, living is simply continuing. Everything changes on a rain-soaked night when he returns to his apartment. The hallway feels wrong—too long, too silent. Then, a voice calls his name from behind. Calmly, without hesitation, Lin Yue ignores it and keeps walking. That single decision triggers something unseen. When he reaches his door, the number has changed to “404.” The moment he steps inside, reality fractures. Lin Yue is pulled into a game called the Flow, a system of endless horror instances where players must survive deadly scenarios governed by obscure and shifting rules. Failure means erasure. Survival means being dragged into the next nightmare. Unlike other players, Lin Yue adapts quickly, relying on observation, emotional detachment, and his ability to remain calm under pressure. But something is wrong. Despite breaking rules and defying logic, Lin Yue is never punished by the System. Instead, he is marked—singled out by an unknown force. His actions begin to distort the behavior of instances, as if the world itself cannot fully process him. That is when he notices him. Gu Yanchen, known as the Arbiter, is a being feared by all players—an enforcer of the System who exists to maintain order and eliminate anomalies. Cold, precise, and seemingly inhuman, he should have killed Lin Yue the moment he deviated from the rules. Yet he doesn’t. Instead, Gu Yanchen watches. As their paths intertwine, Lin Yue is forced to confront something more terrifying than death—connection. Gu Yanchen, who should be nothing more than a mechanism of judgment, begins to act with intention, even obsession. Faced with this impossible choice, the Arbiter hesitates—for the first time. That hesitation fractures the system itself. Rules collapse, instances distort, and the Flow begins to unravel. In a world where everything is designed to erase humanity… What happens when two people refuse to let go? “The System wants me dead. But its Arbiter won’t allow it.”
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