mystery

No teammates. No resources. No sanctuary. Surrounded by a world rotting in its own decadence and misery, Tony Stark has nothing left... except the one thing they can't take away: He is still Iron Man

Harry never believed in love the way stories described it. To him, love was a cage—beautiful from a distance, suffocating from within. Trapped in a toxic relationship with Avni, he learns to survive affection that feels more like control than comfort. But everything begins to change the day he collides with Anna—a girl who doesn’t try to impress him, doesn’t try to own him… but somehow understands him. Through books, silence, and unspoken thoughts, she reads him in ways no one ever has. Just when Harry begins to question everything he thought he knew about love, a new fear enters his life. Avni claims she’s being stalked. At first, it feels like paranoia. Then coincidence. Then something far more dangerous. Because the deeper Harry looks into it, the more he realizes—this isn’t about Avni. It’s about him. Someone is watching. Someone is waiting. And someone is willing to destroy everything just to be close to him. In a world where love turns into obsession, truth hides behind performance, and people wear emotions like masks, Harry must uncover one terrifying question— Is he protecting someone from a stalker… or walking straight into the arms of one?

In the village of Oakhaven, you held your heart with your hands. Everyone carries a flickering candle, a tiny, glowing heartbeat held in a glass lantern. Eira’s light is steady, a cheerful lemon-yellow flame that matches her quiet, uncomplicated life. But at the edge of the village, was a raging river that never froze in winter. To the rest of the village, it was the place where the lights went out. However to Eira, it was the only place in the world where she thought she would feel free. The river wasn't the only one the village kept at a distance. There was a boy named Soren, whose presence felt like a draft in a sealed room. People whispered that his wick was black because his heart is charred. While other children boasted about their flames of vibrant scarlet and gold, Soren's lantern held a cold, violet light that looked like it would go out in an instant. Yet, as Eira uncovers the pieces of Soren's past, she realizes his fire isn't dying because he is bad. It’s dying because he’s been left out alone in the rain for too long.

A blindfolded woman. A captor who speaks calmly to the camera. And a video the whole world can’t stop watching. Late one night, a disturbing clip goes viral—showing a young woman tied up, her captor’s voice echoing in the dark. While the internet debates whether it’s real, her boyfriend reports her missing. The victim is Mitra, a software engineer and small-time social activist… and the key witness in an unresolved kidnapping from two weeks earlier. Trapped and threatened, Mitra refuses to break. Instead, she engages her captor—who calls himself Sashi—in a dangerous psychological battle of truth and lies, probing into his secrets as he digs into hers. As Vishal races against time to find her, Sashi releases more videos to the public. Each one is a twisted interrogation. Each one paints Mitra not as a simple victim—but as a guilty person with a hidden past. The clues lead back twelve years, to a quiet town, a brutal murder, and a past neither Mitra nor Vishal ever escaped. This is not just the story of a kidnapping. It is the unraveling of a chain of murders spanning more than a decade—and an obsession that was waiting to be exposed. When the truth finally surfaces, who will be left standing?

“In an age where knowledge cuts deeper than knives, Victoria is about to learn far more than is safe for any soul to bear.” Victoria and Robert were torn from the gentle dullness of their ordinary century and cast into a realm governed by proto-concepts—those ancient, unblinking truths from which life, death, and divinity themselves are carved. Proclaimed “Heroes” by a world too desperate to question its own choices, they were commanded to rise in strength, confront a Demon Lord, and deliver salvation to a land that had never been theirs. Robert donned the mantle with the fervour of a man stepping into destiny. Victoria… hesitated. And in that hesitation, something old—older than scripture, older than light—turned its gaze toward her. She felt its attention like a draft through a locked room. In a moment poised between terror and terrible understanding, she accepted its offer: a contract sealed in silence, a year of her life exchanged for a thing that should never have been permitted to exist. Not in this world. Not in any. She did not yet grasp that, in straying from the Hero’s ordained path, she had not merely shifted her fate— she had begun to unwrite the very scaffolding of her humanity. Now Victoria walks like a phantom through a world that has marched on without her— one year behind the celebrated Hero, yet burdened with an insight so sharp it threatens to cut her free from mortality itself. She can now trespass upon knowledge forbidden to scholars, sorcerers, or even those who stand at the pinnacle of human mastery. She commits the kind of acts whispered only of beings who have stepped beyond the human threshold… and never returned. And in a world built on primordial, immovable truths, one truth endures: Knowledge is power. But power, when mishandled, becomes a curse that devours its bearer— quietly, inevitably, like rot beneath embroidered silk.

**WARNING** CONTAINS SCENES OF EXTREME PHYSICAL VIOLENCE AND DISTRESSING PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA● The heavy thud of the bridegroom’s footsteps echoed against the polished floorboards of the veranda. The pungent, sharp scent of wine mingled with the cold night air. Dazed and unsteady, he flung open the carved double doors with the reckless haste of a drunkard and stumbled inside. Hàn Yuè (汉月) sat on the edge of the bed, silent and with her head bowed. Her thin, white nightdress stood out in stark contrast to the darkness of the room, which was illuminated only by the flickering candlelight. Her chest rose and fell rapidly with every breath; she knew this union was no marriage, but a blood pact between two powerful clans. The groom cast a heavy, bleary-eyed gaze over her. He slammed the door shut and leaned against it. Hàn Yuè looked up, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. A cruel sneer played on the man’s lips as he rasped: "I still find it hard to believe that… the unattainable daughter of the Lán (嵐) clan has fallen into my hands like this. Well... such was your fate; you had better get used to it. From now on, we are husband and wife, and we have got a long, exciting night ahead of us!" Without a word, Hàn Yuè rose. With a sorrowful expression, her trembling hands reached for the ties of her robe; the soft silk slipped from her shoulders and pooled onto the floor. The groom, his eyes glinting with arrogance, reached to untie his sash when, suddenly… The silence that had engulfed the room was shattered by the horrific sound of splintering wood. The broad blade of a sword pierced through the wooden door with unrestrained violence, passing straight through the groom's spine. The bloodied tip of the blade protruded from his abdomen, stopping directly in front of Hàn Yuè’s terrified eyes. Pinned to the door, the groom’s eyes bulged from their sockets as his body convulsed. A stifled, rattling sound emanated from his throat. Hàn Yuè covered her mouth with trembling hands and staggered back in horror. A moment later, the shadow behind the door pulled the sword out with a swift, ruthless motion. A fountain of blood sprayed from the groom’s mouth, splattering the floorboards and staining the girl’s white skirt. The man’s knees gave way, and he collapsed face-first onto the ground. Hàn Yuè’s long, piercing scream echoed through the cold air of the chamber, whilst dark red droplets of blood had left their mark upon the white silk of her gown. **ABSTRACT** Prince Hēiláng (黑狼), desperately enamoured with the noblewoman Hàn Yuè, finds his path to union thwarted by formidable political constraints. In his quest to claim her, he strikes a perilous bargain—a choice that irrevocably alters the course of their lives and unleashes consequences far more brutal than he had ever conceived.

I was pulled into a world of magic as a "hero"—only to be discarded as a dud. But they made a mistake. In a world saturated with mana, I'm a void. And voids don't just absorb power... they engineer it. Now I'm not just learning magic—I'm rewriting it from the ground up. The Tower thinks I'm weak. Earth thinks I'm lost. They're both wrong. [NEW CHAPTERS: Mon/Wed/Fri] [GAME IN DEVELOPMENT - Follow progress!]

Title: Beauty Chained to the Beast In the brutal shadows of the criminal underworld, monsters are not born—they are made. Joon-hyuk, the heir to a vast and merciless empire, was raised to inherit power, not humanity. His father—an untouchable king of the underworld—built a dark empire so powerful it blurred the line between crime and legitimacy. From childhood, Joon-hyuk was molded into his successor, trained to rule without mercy. At first, he resisted. But the moment he realized the unsettling calm that came with bloodshed, something inside him changed. He became something even more dangerous than his father ever intended—a man feared as The Beast. Then he meets Yeo-jun. Soft, kind, and painfully fragile, Yeo-jun is everything Joon-hyuk is not. Once the son of a powerful politician, his life was shattered after the tragic loss of his mother and years of emotional neglect. But nothing compares to the night that destroyed him completely—when he was abducted, tortured, and left broken for a crime he never committed. Since then, Yeo-jun has lived in silence, consumed by fear, his emotions buried beneath deep trauma. When Joon-hyuk sees him for the first time, he doesn’t just see weakness—he sees something familiar. Something deeply connected to his own buried past. What begins as curiosity soon turns into obsession… and then into something far more dangerous: the need to protect, to possess, and ultimately, to heal. As their worlds intertwine, long-buried secrets begin to surface. Lives that once seemed separate reveal hidden connections, tying past and present together in unexpected ways. Alongside them, two other stories unfold: Min-jae, Joon-hyuk’s most trusted ally, carries the trauma of witnessing his parents’ brutal murder as a child—at the hands of the very empire he now serves. His path crosses with a village boy who arrives in the city chasing dreams, only to be trapped in a cruel system of exploitation. Together, they fight their pasts, finding strength, healing, and love in each other. Meanwhile, a younger brother—once rejected at birth—grows up craving warmth and a sense of belonging. His life begins to change when he meets a disciplined yet compassionate military officer assigned to him. What starts with conflict and resistance slowly turns into trust, companionship, and an unexpected love neither of them was prepared for. In a world shaped by pain, loss, and struggle, each character carries the weight of deep, unhealing scars. Yet, as their stories unfold, they gradually discover a light they never believed in—hope and a chance for a new beginning. Sometimes, even the darkest paths lead to a new turning point. Sometimes, the pain that once seemed unbearable softens in the face of love and understanding. And perhaps… what once seemed destined to destroy them becomes the very reason to live. Genre: BL, Mafia, Dark Romance, Trauma Healing, Psychological, LGBTQ+, Urban Fantasy, Adult Tags: Possessive ML, Hurt/Comfort, Obsession, Mafia Boss, PTSD, Trauma, Depression, Pain, Betrayal, Adult Content, Found Family, Multiple Couples, Redemption Content Warning: This novel includes themes of crime, violence, psychological trauma, and dark romance, with some sensitive and intense scenes. All characters and events are fictional, and any resemblance to real life is coincidental. Intended for mature audiences only. Reader discretion is advised.

Luke, an ordinary young man living a quiet life with his mother, desires nothing more than to remain unremarkable in this new, dangerous world. However, while others receive standard classes and ranks such as "Aura Blasters," Luke's awakening goes drastically off-course. Instead of a common role, he is granted the unique title of "Aura Master." This one-of-a-kind status allows him to see and manipulate the flow of energy in ways no one else can. Fearing the attention and danger that come with being "the only one," Luke attempts to hide his overwhelming power by intentionally setting his public status to a "1-Star Average" rank. Despite his efforts to live an average life, the world's escalating chaos and the emergence of powerful entities force him into a secret double life. He must navigate a society obsessed with power and ranking while hiding the fact that he is the most unique and potentially strongest being on the planet.

A young man living his last day over and over again. A homeless woman who dances and will dance for eternity. Two enemies locked in a never-ending battle. A charismatic, strong, brave, and determined leader who is not willing to lose. They all have something in common: they end up at the Seventh Day Restaurant to enjoy a wonderful experience.

After being homeschooled his entire life in his isolated farm, Alex finally makes his way to a big city where he finds out about a new VR game called Eternal Cultivation. By luck, Alex receives the Inheritance of the Alchemy God as his reward. Using that inheritance and masters that care for him, Alex begins to learn about the new world he has found himself in while pursuing both Alchemy and Cultivation to the pinnacle. - - - - - - Join my discord: https://discord.gg/ru3rgCKFvx

"In the womb, there was only room for one. He tried to eat me to become a God. He failed. Now, the world is my consolation prize." The Heian Era remembers Ryomen Sukuna as the King Of Curses, the four-armed catastrophe that leveled civilizations. But history is written by the survivors, and it conveniently forgot the twin who crawled out of the shadows of the womb, the one Sukuna couldn't finish. While Sukuna became the King of Curses through Cleave and Dismantle, his brother became something far more primal and terrifying: The Devourer. Possessing the Curse Technique: Apex Gluttony: Eternal Feast, he doesn’t just kill sorcerers, he consumes them whole. Their cursed energy is his wine, their unique techniques are his meat. He steals them, perfects them, and elevates them into something far more monstrous. To him, the Golden Age of Sorcery wasn’t a battlefield, it was a buffet. Now, in the modern era, the Second Calamity has awakened. Unsealed by forbidden blood in a Tokyo morgue, Ryomen Taotie rises with twenty Devourer’s Fangs scattered across the world, cursed objects far hungrier than his brother’s twenty fingers. He has only one true goal: collect every last Fang to reclaim his complete form, then force Sukuna to fully rebirth outside the pink-haired boy’s body in Tokyo. Only then will he drag his brother into the open and devour him completely, ending the farce of the so-called King of Curses. He has no interest in Sukuna’s finger hunt or the petty ideals of Jujutsu High. To the brother of the King, Gojo Satoru isn’t a threat, Yuji Itadori isn’t family, and the cursed spirits aren’t allies. They are simply the next course.

They faked my death to save me. But the thing that killed me is still hungry...

Transmigrated into the world of Naruto, he was taken in by the Konoha Orphanage and eventually became a shinobi of the Root—the hidden foundation of the village. To become a powerful shinobi, he is willing to do whatever it takes. Combined with his exceptional talent for cultivation, he has earned the recognition of Danzo Shimura. The leader of the shadows believes he finally has a worthy successor—someone with the resolve to become the next "Darkness of the Shinobi." ______________ Join My Patreon To read Advanced Chapters: Patreon.com/IndifferentVillain +60 advanced chapters monthly.

This story follows Veylen. He’s the Blood Keeper. The human that magical creatures fear and revere. Though a shroud of mystery surrounds him. By day, Veylen runs a mortuary. By night, he commands the blood trade, dealing in magic, secrets, and death. But now something older is rising. And the trail to the truth is riddled with bloodless corpses, whispered names, lifeless shadows and a woman cloaked in charm and menace may be the key to unravelling this increasingly unsettling truth. But if Veylen doesn’t uncover this truth in time, the price won't just be blood... it will be everything he holds dear, which isn't much. Follow this harrowing dark adventure of, blood, violence, magic and DEATH.

I never wished to be one of the Dead. Being one of the Dead isn’t what normal people normally pray for. But that's the problem, I'm not normal. Although, in this context, being Dead doesn’t truly mean you are dead. At least, not entirely. It is a state between life and death. Where your soul lingers, your humanity fades, and something else begins to take its place. And yet… I chose it. No. I was chosen. And now, having accepted this existence, it has become my deepest need to become the most evolved of the Dead. Once, I was nothing more than an orphan, just another forgotten boy surviving in the slums, living inside a rusting, converted bus my uncle once used to cook drugs. I fought to survive, 'cause aside from my not so caring uncle, I had no one. Well, not until Death found me. That was when everything changed. Death exposed me to the true reality hidden beneath the illusion of what I once believed the world to be. I saw monstrous things; demons, fallen warriors, and necromantic beings raised through forbidden magic. Souls dragged back from death and forced into existence once more, but in monstrous forms. I saw creatures; evils and beasts that threatened to devour our entire sphere. Then, I also learned the truth. Earth is not the only sphere that exists. There are countless others, each inhabited by different species and creatures. There is the Elven Sphere; the world of the elves. The Orcanian Sphere, home of the orcs; green-skinned beings shaped like humans, yet far from them. And the Dwarken Spheres; the domain of the dwarves. And then… there is the Forbidden Sphere. The sphere of monstrosities. A realm where demons, abominations, and horrors beyond imagination are born. It is from this sphere that the horrors come. These spheres do not exist in isolation. They connect and at times overlap. They bleed into one another… and into ours. Yes… bleed. It is not many times that you will just suddenly wake up and find out that the friend beside you all this while has been an elf or an orc that entered to explore your world, but was hidden from you all this while because you lacked the sight to see through nature. When I was found by death, that was when I learned all this, when I learned who I was, the power within me, my truth, and my destiny. And now, I must navigate through all these worlds and fight all these monsters and demons in order to keep our sphere and other spheres safe. Because if I don't... Our sphere, and every other will fall.

Before heaven, there was no heaven. Before earth, there was no earth. Before all things, there was Wuji - 無極. This is not a story. This is a record. A record of what existed before form, before name, before distinction. A record of how stillness became movement, how movement became division, and how division became the ten thousand things. Gods. Demons. Judges of hell. Kings of heaven. Creatures of mountain and sea. All are recorded here. Not as legend. Not as interpretation. But as they were written. This text gathers the oldest surviving accounts of ancient Chinese cosmology, mythology, and underworld law - and retells them in the form they were meant to be remembered: Flat. Direct. Unexplained. The way records are meant to be kept. Read it carefully. Because what is recorded here is not separate from you. All things come from Wuji. All things return to Wuji. You are included. This record continues alongside the narrative of Hell Difficulty : The Reincarnation of Yanluo Wang i posted this novel to royalroad too with the same username

When eight billion humans are suddenly transmigrated to a brutal, monster-infested world, survival becomes a desperate, bloody struggle for most. But for Arthur Thorne, a former corporate drone and hardcore gaming completionist, it's just the ultimate farming simulator. Assigned the role of Frontier Lord, Arthur is gifted a small territory protected by a temporary 30-day golden barrier. While other Lords are starving and fighting over rusty swords, Arthur awakens a Transcendent-tier talent: Divine Evolutionary Botanist. With a handful of seeds and a rusty hoe, he doesn't just grow food—he cultivates power. By spending Soul Shards, Arthur can evolve mundane crops into magical marvels. His Obsidian-Hulled Battle Corn grants permanent strength buffs, his Vigilant Vine-Peas act as living sentries, and his Iron-Rind Pumpkins are destined to become hulking siege golems. Using his harvest to monopolize the global trade network and summon powerful citizens to his banner, Arthur must rapidly build his domain from a single patch of dirt into an impenetrable fortress. The monster horde is waiting outside the dome. The first Blood Moon is rising. But the terrifying creatures of the Whispering Wilds are about to learn a harsh lesson: in Lord Arthur's territory, you don't step on the grass. 2 Chapter/ day. 6 days/week.

Every fairy tale has a cost. Hers was everything. ​Blake Anderson was never meant to be a trophy. Born into a life of stifling expectations, she was a prisoner of her parents' ambition long before she ever set foot in the glittering, smoke-filled clubs of the city. But the night she met Elliot, the darkness finally took a face and it was devastatingly beautiful. ​A billionaire prince of a criminal empire, Elliot offered her a world of intoxicating indulgence, whisking her away from her hollow life with the promise of a future paved in wealth. Blinded by the intoxicating pull of first love, Blake willingly walked into his arms, unaware that his affection was merely a tether, and his generosity was a down payment on her life. ​Her transition into his world was swift and suffocating. Behind the heavy, iron-wrought gates of his estate, the luxury turned to lead. Her voice was silenced, her movements tracked, and her agency stripped away until she was nothing more than a ghost haunting her own life. As Elliot’s true nature uncoiled revealing a cruelty as cold as his wealth, Blake found herself trapped in a gilded labyrinth where the exits were bolted shut and the walls were built by the people she once called family. ​Then came the day she was discarded left to wither in the cold, unfeeling dark, a casualty of a power game she never chose to play. But they made a fatal mistake: they left her alive. ​Now, the woman who was once molded into submission has been forged into something much more dangerous. Resurrected from the wreckage of her own life, Blake is no longer the girl who dreamt of models and med school. She is the shadow in the room, the whisper in the night, and the architect of a slow, exquisite retribution. ​The debt is overdue. The players have been set. And as the empire of gold begins to bleed, Blake will ensure that when the dust settles, there is nothing left to bury. ​In this game of vengeance, mercy is a luxury she can no longer afford.

The tapes were never meant to be found. Marta Solak works nights in the depths of a state archive, digitizing decades of forgotten recordings. It's quiet work. Safe work. Until she loads a reel labeled: GÓROWO HOSPITAL. WARD C. SESSION 4B/1986. What she hears should be impossible. A voice she recognizes. A confession that was never meant to survive. And a silence at the end of the tape that sounds exactly like someone listening back. Set in communist-era Poland and the present day, Frequency is a psychological thriller about the things buried in archives, in institutions, and in the human mind — and what happens when they refuse to stay buried. For fans of: Sharp Objects, The Silent Patient, Shutter Island. TW: psychological trauma, institutionalization, gaslighting