Canon Fodder

During the car crash, my brother didn’t hesitate to save our adopted sister, Chloe Fox, first. Meanwhile, I was crushed beneath the airbag, a searing pain shooting through my left leg. It was definitely broken. My brother’s voice was tense and frantic as he said to me, “Chloe can’t handle pain like you can. Just hold on for a minute!” Before I lost consciousness, I watched him carry Chloe away from the car, leaving me behind as the engine began to smoke. When I finally woke up, I realized I was kidnapped. A masked kidnapper pointed a camera straight at my face and said, “Alright, Mr. Fox. If you don’t want your sister to die, bring me thirty million dollars in cash yourself. She might’ve survived that car crash, but she might not be so lucky with us.” I forced my head up, my vision blurred with dried blood. Through the speaker, I heard Chloe sobbing. “Oh, thank goodness! Jean is still alive! The car blew up, and she still survived… She really is so lucky!” Just like that, the worry in my brother’s voice vanished. “Jean, how long are you going to keep playing these childish games? First a fake car crash, and now a staged kidnapping? You’re unbelievable. If you want to die so badly, go do it somewhere far away where I don’t have to look at you.” Just then, the video call cut off, and the kidnapper became enraged. “If we’re not getting paid, you’re useless to us. Beat her up!” At that exact moment, a robotic voice echoed in my head. [The “cannon fodder-real heiress” mission has been completed, and the “fake heiress’s rags-to-riches tale” progress is at 95 percent. You will exit the storyline upon death. Do you accept?] My sealed memory suddenly resurfaced. As it turned out, my suffering was all just part of a System mission to resurrect my deceased parents. Without a moment of hesitation, I chose yes. The very next second, the System blocked all my pain receptors. As the steel pipes came crashing down on my body, a faint smile formed at the corner of my lips. Whatever I couldn’t take with me, I didn’t want anymore.

I was just a nobody actor, killing time reading a trashy novel where the Omega side-character had my name. His only purpose? To be a disposable prop for the Alpha ML, a walking, talking disaster who gets his life ruined in 50 chapters flat. I hated him. I hated his pathetic weakness. Then I died. And I woke up as him. Now, I'm that cannon fodder. I'm in the body of the fool I despised, on the eve of his public humiliation at the hands of the novel's god-like Alpha, Huo Yan. The worst part? I never finished the book. I know how I'm supposed to die, but I have no idea how this story ends. My only guide is a faint voice in my head, a "Survival System" that gives me one simple, terrifying rule: Don't attract the protagonist. So I have a plan. Be invisible. Be boring. Stay away from Huo Yan. But I messed up. In one desperate moment to save my own skin, I did something unexpected. I showed a spark of talent the original "me" never had. And the Alpha, the man who should be looking at the female lead, is now looking at me. His scent, a predator's frost, hunts me in crowded rooms. His eyes, dark and possessive, follow my every move. He cornered me after a gala, his voice a low growl against my ear. "You are not the Omega from the script," he whispered, his touch branding my skin. "You are a liar. And I will peel back every layer until I find the truth." The plot is broken. The Alpha is obsessed. And my survival system is flashing red. I came here to avoid my death, but now I'm terrified I might just be the reason this story becomes a tragedy.

Orennox is a wizard who has been around since the world was made. As technology progresses, magic tends to wane and Orennox adapts to the trends. Now called Oren Knox, he is mostly known as a gunfighter, a notoriously cheap gunfighter who will use magic to make one bullet do the work of many so he doesn't have to keep buying ammunition. His quest is to locate the last Earth Nodes, the last strongholds of magic, and harness their power with the goal of bringing back his trapped wife. In order to find these Earth Nodes, he must use the services of the female Diabolists (night witches) who can sense the magic from long distances. Only, Diabolists are extremely rare and there is a psychopathic killer out there who wants them all dead. After losing one Diabolist to fate, Oren must protect his new asset from those who would hunt her down and kill her so he can find enough magic to complete his quest. However, he is not the only wizard left looking for Diabolists, Diabolists have minds of their own, and, according to him, everyone Oren comes in contact with is a sidewinding, low down, scoundrel.

"Who said I hated you?" It took me a moment before I could process what this man just said. "What do you mean you don't? Na-" He grabbed my hand suddenly and looked me in the eyes which caught me off guard. "You keep saying her name that it annoys me to the point that I just want to erase her existence." Is this man seriously telling me that he'll kill the female lead?

The year the Rossi famiglia falls, my personal Underboss, Lorenzo Santoro, rises to power—becoming the Don and seizing control of the underworld. Once, I was the untouchable Principessa. He was the Soldato, ready to die for me at a moment's notice. For something as trivial as a paper cut on my finger, he would drop to his knees with red-rimmed eyes, blowing on it for half an hour. Now, to earn a smile from his new flame, Elena Marino, he forces me to sign a contract and makes me his live target. He watches with indifference as I am battered and bloodied under a hail of bullets. During a blast-resistance test, shattered glass slices the corner of my eye, but Lorenzo merely looks on. "The once-delicate Principessa Rossi can't even handle a little pain?" During attack-dog training, I am bitten to the bone, yet he shields a trembling Elena instead. "Animals don't know any better. Why are you holding a grudge against a dog?" Then comes the real kidnapping. To save Elena, who is desperate to become Donna, he personally cuts off my escape. "This is just a drill, Isabella," he scoffs. "Stop acting like it's real." On the surveillance monitors, flames engulf me as I take my final breath. A bloodstained termination contract is delivered to him. "Don Santoro, I return the life I owe you." Only then does the man who believes he rules the world finally lose his mind.

There is a War being fought that stretches beyond eternity. Waging that War are men and angels and demons and creatures and beings beyond time and space. Thrust into this conflict is a foundling boy who knows nothing of this War but is integral to tipping the balance toward whomever can control him. As a child, Hunter’s world is attacked, and, along with a few faithful retainers and allies, his mother escapes with him, while his father, using his own life as forfeit, stays behind to ensure those he loves escape. Mother and child are pursued. Their retainers are killed while protecting them until they are able to get out from under the net thrown by their enemies. Now, far, far away, not knowing the fate of her husband or people and with no way of getting back, she has only herself to raise and protect her son. This is the story of what comes after, of a boy alone, having raised himself, by himself, for half his life. Then the powers that inform and rule that world become aware of him, of his power, his potential. In their ignorance and conceit, they awaken the true nature of the child, and a war, of unimaginable proportions to shake the heavens, comes to their doorstep, and the boy they thought to use, and later kill, is the only thing that can save them.