Critical Overlord Novels & Stories

In the Valenti Family, you're born with a chip. It's fused into the bio-watch on your wrist, its digital face counting down every second you have left to live. Everyone could see the numbers ticking down on my twin sister's watch. And on mine. They all knew she would die on our 18th birthday. So Vivian became the untouchable princess of our brutal world. Every diamond-stitched gown was hers. The rarest jewels were hers. Even our father's last shred of humanity was hers. That single sliver of warmth he showed only after his gun was holstered. I used to pity her. Her time was running out. But God, I envied her. She had everything I never did: our parents' love. Then, the night of her 18th birthday party. My parents worried I'd make a scene. That I'd piss off the Don of an allied Family. So they locked me in the cellar. Damp. Cold. While a deadly fever burned through me. I pounded on the heavy oak door, my voice cracking. "Mamma, please! Let me out! I'm burning up. My head is splitting open…" Outside, my mother's voice was a steel trap. "Enough, Sienna! Today is your sister’s 18th birthday. Her last day alive! Stop the theatrics! Can't you suffer in silence for the Family's honor?" "But I'm really sick..." Her footsteps clicked away, fading into nothing. Then the darkness swallowed me whole. And on my wrist, the bio-watch was flashing a critical alert. CRITICAL ALERT: Vital signs mismatch. Paired chip data incompatible. Please verify user.

On the day I'm due for my labor, Chad Nelson's first love, Lucy Baker, who's diagnosed with depression, barges into the maternity ward. Without warning, she plunges the knife she's holding into my belly. By the time Chad and the medical team arrive at the ward, I'm already lying in a pool of my own blood on the bed. The machine recording my vitals keeps screeching loudly the whole time. But Chad crouches down next to Lucy, who has gotten shoved to the floor by a nurse earlier. It seems that her elbow has suffered from light abrasions. "Dr. Nelson, your spouse is in critical condition. She needs to undergo a surgery immediately!" Chad raises his head to glance at me. His tone is cool and professional. "None of Caitlin's vital organs are hurt by the stab, so she can still endure the pain for now. Lucy, on the other and, has a coagulation disorder. Even though she has only suffered from abrasions, there's a chance that her blood flow can't be staunched at all. This makes her situation more critical than Caitlin's. "Anyway, give the two bags of blood in the blood bank to Lucy." When I get pushed away, I use all of my strength to grip Chad's white coat tightly. He just frowns at me in return. "Lucy didn't do this on purpose. Her depression has gotten triggered, that's all. Since you're a woman of medicine, you should be more empathetic toward the patient." After that, Chad digs out a letter of forgiveness from his pocket that he has already printed out in advance.

The day my husband was away on a business trip, I received a notification for a hotel charge. As I watched the video on my phone of him kissing his secretary on their way to the room, I dialed his number. “Honey, you need to come home right away. Mom was in a serious car accident,” I said. Before I could finish, Xavier Smith cut me off. “It’s just a car accident. We’ll deal with it if she dies.” He hung up without a hint of concern and went back to his cozy time with his secretary in their hotel room. He was completely unaware that the woman in critical condition at the hospital wasn’t my mom. It was his.

My daughter, Nina Camollo, who was badly injured in a car accident, died in the operating room after life-saving measures failed. Before I could recover from the shock of her death, I received the horrifying news that all her organs had been removed. Devastated and desperate, I threw all my energy into uncovering the truth. Only then did I discover that the consent form I had signed—given to me by the lead surgeon Avelina Bianchi—had a voluntary organ donation clause hidden in it. Moreover, Nina hadn't been in critical condition at all. She was still alive when all her organs were harvested. Enraged, I showed my husband, Arturo Camollo, all the evidence and declared that Avelina must suffer. Yet, three months later, I see Arturo holding Avelina's daughter in his arms at the mall with Avelina herself leaning against him affectionately. When I storm over to confront him, I learn that Avelina was Arturo's childhood best friend. Nina's heart had long been transplanted into Avelina's daughter, who suffered from a heart condition. Faced with my accusations, Arturo insists that Nina has always been kind-hearted. He believes that Nina would have agreed to it if she knew that her life could save so many others. Amid my struggle with them, a speeding car runs over me, killing me on the spot. When I open my eyes again, I find myself reborn to the day Avelina hands me the critical condition notice and consent form.

My husband, the hospital director, stole my kidney to save his beloved first love, who suffered from uremia. While I was under anesthesia for heart surgery, he stormed into the operating room without permission and ordered the removal of one of my kidneys. I begged him to stop, explaining that my heart condition was critical and that I could not survive back-to-back major surgeries. He only sneered at me, his voice dripping with disdain. “I knew you’d be jealous of Cece and make pathetic excuses. That’s exactly why I chose this moment.” Ignoring my desperate pleas, he took my kidney and walked away. In the end, I suffered multiple post-surgery complications and died miserably on the operating table.

My esports team is engaged in a practice match at midnight. Suddenly, my coach hands a phone over to me. On the other end of the line, my dad cries hysterically. Amid his sobs, he tells me that my mom is currently unconscious in the hospital, and that the doctor has issued him a critical notice. Apparently, my mom's funeral is being prepared in advance, so my dad wants me home immediately. As I stare at the match-up diagram of the final round of the national-level competition as well as the seven-figure prize money, I reply icily, "I'm not going home. I must participate in the final round tomorrow. During the competition, my phone will be turned off. Don't disturb me no matter what."

Aspen Nicholls and Colin's five-year marriage is held together by her pride and dignity. She thinks they're at least fond of each other, even if he doesn't love her. But one day, she receives two pieces of bad news simultaneously. One is her and Colin's only child's critical illness notice. The other is a headline of Colin spending a fortune for his true love. Well, she doesn't need to pretend to be his wife anymore. That's when he buys over all the paparazzi and falls to his knees before her in the snow. He begs her to return to him. Unfortunately for him, she shows up arm-in-arm with another man. Her new man tells the whole world about their relationship.

Ava Hart, a fiercely independent accountant struggling to save her father from crippling debt, is forced into a contract marriage with enigmatic billionaire Damien Cross. Known as "The Devil in Armani," Damien is a ruthless businessman who leaves a trail of destroyed lives in his wake. He manipulates Ava into marrying him to secure a façade of stability that will appease his board of directors during a critical business merger. While Ava despises Damien's arrogance and cold demeanor, she reluctantly agrees to the marriage, knowing it’s the only way to save her father’s legacy. As they embark on their enemies-to-lovers journey, the tension rose with the arrival of Damien’s seductive ex-fiancée, putting them in a dangerous love triangle, and the revelation of dark secrets that could destroy them both.

“I am not your sub, and I never will be!” Lyla sobbed as she said these words. All she needed was just a little—just a small bit of honesty from Carlo. Carlo, the illegitimate son of a powerful mafia family, never learned how to love. He thought that control and dominance were the same as love. He always disappeared at the critical moments, leaving Lyla to deal with the painful aftermath. Scandals, murders, imprisonment—these events almost dragged Lyla into hell. Yet Carlo always played the role of a god, the one who pulled her back from the edge of the abyss just as she was about to fall. But in the end, Lyla could no longer endure the lies. Pregnant and heartbroken, she chose to run away, while Carlo, driven mad, searched for her across the world…

Yvonne Sunderland married Zach Frank, who had been with her for ten years. In the second year of their marriage, Zach passed away due to a plane accident. But when Yvonne turned forty-three, she met her supposedly dead husband! Before she could even ask any questions, disaster struck. An avalanche suddenly struck. During the critical moment, Zach was buried under the snow in order to protect her and that woman. His final words were, “I’ve repaid you all of your favors with my life. If I can redo my life, I don’t want to marry you and would rather meet her first…” When she opened her eyes again, Yvonne found herself back to the first year she married Zach.