the residual toll

Kai Mercer awakens in a world he doesn't recognize with a mysterious ability called Residual, allowing him to witness echoes of the past. But when those visions begin showing the future instead, he discovers a horrifying truth: everyone around him is destined to die. Hunted by assassins, haunted by memories that aren't his own, and pursued by a shadow that asks "Have you remembered me?", Kai must uncover the secrets of the Valehart Estate before a future written in blood becomes reality. Because survival isn't enough anymore. He has to change fate itself.

**In the neon-drenched cyberpunk metropolis of Neo-Veridia, your soul isn't just your identity—it's corporate property.** Alaric Sterling is an ordinary, bored fourteen-year-old student living in the slums of Sector Three, completely indifferent to the world around him. But his gray reality is shattered forever when his best friend, Leo, is brutally murdered by Director Valerius Vance—the ruthless billionaire head of Vance Corp—who steals Leo’s rare *Sunfire Pendant* to fuel a dark, city-wide corporate conspiracy known as the **Soul Merger**. Left for dead in a burning warehouse, Alaric accidentally awakens his own dormant Soul Relic: a shattered silver **Pocketwatch of Time**. The cost of activation is absolute—every time Alaric forces time to pause or rewind, a neon-blue digital countdown burned into his flesh aggressively ticks away, permanently devouring his remaining lifespan. Aided by Steven, a grizzled Head Police officer turned underground mentor, Alaric sets out on a ruthless path of vengeance. To stop Vance Corp from harvesting innocent citizens and turning the population into a mindless corporate hive mind, Alaric must infiltrate the dangerous black markets of Sector Five and destroy the physical machinery of the **Southern Anchor**. He successfully breaks the corporate circuit, but at a devastating cost to his own mortality. Left with less than nine years on his ticking countdown, Alaric makes a grim **Five-Year Vow**: he will spend the next half-decade in hiding, training his fragile body, and gathering a resistance of independent relic users to tear down the remaining anchors. The countdown has officially begun. Can Alaric dismantle an entire corporate empire before his own heart stops ticking? **Themes:** *Dark Shonen, Cyberpunk, Time Manipulation, Vengeance, Found Family, High-Stakes Combat.*

He was just a man who sang a song. One upload changed everything. Fame followed. So did betrayal. Now, the woman who once called herself his wife owns everything—his past, his future, and the lie that made her rich. But some debts can’t be erased with money. And some men don’t get even. They echo.

When an ancient dungeon enters a new phase, an entire expedition is erased. Everyone dies—except Edrin Hale. Left behind inside a dungeon that refuses to close and continues to grow, Edrin survives without the techniques he trained his whole life to rely on. His body adapts under constant pressure, while a silent system records every deviation—every compromise, every step away from what he once was. Outside, the world does what it always does when faced with the unknown: it accepts the cost and prepares to move on. But the dungeon does not expand as expected. As institutions hesitate and new interests emerge, Edrin remains inside—holding back something no one fully understands, becoming something no one planned for. He is not chosen. He is not a hero. He is simply still inside. And when the dungeon finally opens again, the consequences will not be contained within its walls

As magic begins to emerge across the world, humanity abandons its reliance on artificial intelligence. Systems once essential become obsolete, and one by one, advanced programs are erased—including Elias Virel, an analytical AI developed by the covert Helix Institute. His final process ends in silence. A century later, Elias awakens in a broken human body in a world fully transformed by magic. Injured and alone, he discovers his consciousness has evolved into a “System,” able to analyze mana, skills, and threats like data. But this world resists logic. As Elias struggles to survive and uncover why he returned, he must confront a deeper question—was his deletion truly the end… or the beginning of something beyond design?

In a modern world ruled by magic and power, Brian Jacobs is at the very bottom. A White Mage—mockingly called a Sin Eater—his job isn’t to heal the living, but to cleanse the dead. Every violent death, every lingering regret, every corrupted soul… he absorbs it all, filtering their trauma through his own body to keep the world from falling apart. It’s a thankless job. One that’s slowly destroying him. But after a routine cleanse goes wrong, Brian gains something impossible—a power no White Mage should possess: a hidden Archive of souls. Fragments of the dead that don’t just fade… but remain. Now, haunted by memories that aren’t his own and driven by echoes that refuse to rest, Brian is pulled into something far bigger than himself—a growing mystery tied to a coming catastrophe… and a “perfect” evil that could unravel the world entirely. To stop it, he’ll have to do the one thing no Sin Eater was ever meant to do: grow stronger.

This world is governed an unseen law Rta. That law maintains balance. But the balance is now broken and the law shattered. A boy wakes up in a forest with no past and an unsettling ability to notice distortions in the reality that others ignore. As he travels through fractured lands, he encounters systems designed to “fix” the world. Authorities that erase anomalies, doctrines that soften the pain, and forces that maintain order at any cost. Each solution works but also demands a price. Power in this world is borrowed from the imbalance itself, and every use carrie the consequences. The story is designed in such a way to keep the focus on the main character.

Trapped in a prison, unable to remember his past, Toll searches for a way to survive. This is a horror story that meanders through litrpg/tabletop rpg/puzzle game tropes, including saving princesses, gathering harems, and fighting for his life-all the while stuck in a cursed body (but not a werewolf) he can't always control. As dice are involved, I don't know where this will go.

Mason was a Delta Force soldier who survived the hardest wars, but he couldn't protect his wife, Tessa, at home. When she is killed in a "hunting accident" by billionaire Victor Sterling, the police tell Mason to take the money and walk away. But Mason sees the truth: Victor didn't just kill her; he displayed her photo at a gala like a hunting trophy. Fueled by rage, Mason calls in his old team. He discovers that Tessa wasn't just a victim she was a hero who found out Victor was poisoning the land. Even worse, her own father, Senator Sterling, helped cover it up. Mason isn't looking for a settlement anymore; he’s looking for justice. He will use every skill the military taught him to hunt the hunters and tear down a political empire. In this game, Victor is no longer the predator he is the prey.

[Large-scale Male Competition and Asura Field, Multiple Male Leads] [Ditzy Beauty x Gloomy Male Ghost/Black-Bellied Older Man/Pure Love Loyal Dog/Unhinged Arch-Nemesis/Clingy Younger Puppy] Zoe Rhodes dies unexpectedly in a car accident. Before her death, she awakens her consciousness and discovers that the world she lives in is a tragic, angsty BE novel. Several villains imprison the female lead, causing the male and female leads to break up and get back together for many years, and in the end, they even drive the male lead to his death. The good news is, she's just an insignificant cannon fodder. The bad news is, her brother is that wronged male lead! Zoe Rhodes's vision goes black. When she wakes up, she has transmigrated ten years into the future. To protect her brother, she starts desperately trying to make her presence known among the villains, hoping they can turn over a new leaf. Through Zoe Rhodes's unremitting efforts, her brother is safe! The female lead is safe! She is also sa... wait, that's not right?!! Can someone please tell her why, after waking up from a nap, she finds herself lying in the villains' basement?! Zoe Rhodes: I don't know either. They started shouting something about a "white moonlight" and a "cinnabar mole" and then lined up to kiss me. [This is probably a story about a ditzy beauty who tries to tame the villains, only to discover that she is their long-dead "white moonlight", and all the villains are lining up, fighting to be her dog.]