Seduction Games

I wake up one day to find that I've become the power bank of the whole dorm. When the percentage shown above my dorm mates' heads is low, they'll be tired, angry, and ill-tempered. My job is to help them recharge via all sorts of physical contact. If I don't do my part, my grumpy dorm mates will force me to charge them up anyway…

The bedroom was dark, and I was holding my wife's hand, feeling like I wanted to do something a little daring. But as I moved her hand, she suddenly stopped me, her hand trembling slightly. When the movie ended and the lights came on, I was shocked to realize that the person beside me wasn't my wife, but our neighbor, Lesley Mendoza...

I crave excitement in my life. To do that, I send my deskmate a video of me pleasing myself with a toy. Bit by bit, it awakens his desires…

While I was nine months pregnant, the apple of my husband’s eye moved into our house. Whenever she saw me, she would make a sad face. My husband was sure that I was flaunting my pregnancy to make her angry. “Rachel is frail, and she can’t get pregnant, yet you’re walking around making her upset?! Do I seriously have to teach you a lesson?!” He ordered the bodyguards to lock me in the attic that had not been in use for a long time and told them not to give me food. I pleaded for mercy and told him that the ultrasound scan showed that the twin babies were too big. I told him that the doctor had claimed that I had to be hospitalized while I waited for my delivery. But he laughed as if he had heard the world’s greatest joke. When he spoke, his voice was as cold as ice. “You’re still three days away from your delivery date! Enough with the pitiful act! Repent while you’re in the attic! This is what you get for making Rachel upset!” The contractions hurt so much that I clenched my fists to the point that my nails broke, but no one unlocked the door to the attic. My piercing screams echoed in the attic for a long time until my whole body was soaked in blood, and one of my babies was stuck between my bloody legs. Three days later, my husband ate his breakfast that was not up to his taste and said, “Have Jane make breakfast for me, then have her apologize to Rachel with a gift. If she’s sincere enough, I’ll send her to the hospital to deliver the babies.” But no one dared go up to the attic because the blood that flowed down from it had already reached the second step of the stairs.

We had been married for three years, yet my husband, Richard Thornton, who suffered from touch deprivation syndrome, still refused to consummate our marriage. Every time his condition flared up, he would only press his forehead tightly against the curve of my neck. I assumed he was saving himself for his first love, the woman who had left years ago. Then, I overheard him talking to his friends. "Stop teasing her next time. It makes her tense up every time." "Got it, Richard. But if you care about Valeria so much, why won't you touch her? It's been three years. Aren't you worried she'll leave you for someone else?" Richard shook his head. "You don't understand. The longer we're together, the harder it is to control myself around her. She's so delicate. I'm terrified I'll hurt her. As long as she's mine, I wouldn't care even if she slept with someone else first." His friends burst out laughing. "Richard, you're all talk. If you could really handle her being with another man, you wouldn't keep running to the hospital. You think we don't know what you're up to?" The next day, I found Richard's medical records. Visit after visit, he kept asking the same question, "How can I be gentler in bed? I don't want to hurt the woman I love."

Nathaniel Reid had always despised being bound by our engagement. To spite me, he recklessly raced cars and caused trouble, indulging in all sorts of reckless behavior. And every time, I cleaned up his mess. Then, a girl named Joanna Smith appeared in his life. On the night of my birthday banquet, he scoured the entire city for a simple breakfast wrap for her and never even bothered to show up. I had already prepared for this moment. That night, I approached my family and asked to change the engagement. "It didn’t have to be Nathaniel." I thought of the distant, composed man from my dreams—the one who had always hidden his quiet, unwavering love for me. A smile flickered across my lips as I said softly, "Didn’t he still have an uncle?"

On the day of the wedding, my best friend can't bear to part with me, so she threads my wedding shoes with a string and ties them snugly around her slim waist. The groomsmen turn the whole place upside down, and we end up late for the ceremony. She eventually cracks up and tugs at her billowy bridesmaid dress, revealing the outline of the shoes at her waist. "I dare you to come take them. As long as I'm here, she's not getting married!" Miles Lawson shakes his head and chuckles. "You just love tormenting us, don't you?" Miles exchanges a look with the groomsmen, and they charge at her at the same time. She squeals as she falls back onto the bed, squirming under her layers of tulle. "Don't be so rough! I'm ticklish…" The groomsmen flush bright red. Miles' ears turn scarlet as he feels around her waist. She giggles even louder. "How are you going to undo it through all these layers? Use your head!" Then, she gasped. "That tickles!" Her theatrics make my temper flare. I spring to my feet, lift her skirt, and rip the wedding shoes right off her. "If you're that ticklish, smack yourself with a slipper. Drop the act, or I'll yank out the nerves that make you ticklish!"

They called her life’s work trash. Then they fired her from her job. Now, she’ll rewrite the rules of the afterlife itself. Elara Vance, after being fired from her dream job, comes home to find her boyfriend and her sister in a compromising position on her sofa. Fleeing the scene, she runs into traffic and wakes up…not dead, but conscripted. The rules of the Survival Game are simple: as a newly deceased soul, you must provide entertainment, “fancy” deaths for a cosmic audience. The penalty for refusal is true, final obliteration. Elara’s only hope is Cipher, a mysterious man who knows the Game better than anyone. He is also “Aethon”—the revolutionary AI she personally coded and deleted. The creation she abandoned is now her only guide. To survive, this anxiety-ridden horror writer must team up with her greatest regret. To win, they must do more than beat the system. They must tear it down and write a new one.

Akala ni Averill Alarcon, sapat na ang sakit nang ipagpalit siya ng nobyo sa ibang babae. Pero hindi pala roon nagtatapos ang kanyang pagkawasak. Sa isang iglap, itinapon siya ng kumpanyang itinayo niya sa sariling kamay — siniraan, pinagtulungan, at itinaboy na parang walang kwenta. At sa gabi ng kanyang pagbagsak, dumating si Sebastian Dela Vega — ang CEO na kilalang walang puso, brutal sa negosyo, at mas bihasa sa laro ng kapangyarihan. Isang kasunduang kasal ang inalok niya… kapalit ng paghihiganti ni Averill sa mga taong sumira sa kanya. Pero sa likod ng kasunduang iyon, mas malupit pa pala ang kapalit. Dahil si Sebastian—hindi lang siya gagamitin, kundi unti-unting dudurugin… Kasal ba ito para sa kanyang tagumpay? O para tuluyang sirain siya

"This realm is your only chance of coming back to life in the mortal world, and if you attract those consequences, take note that you will die.” “Death?” I ask, mostly to myself. And to the voice, “What do you mean by 'I’m on my way to death'?” ~~~ Nova was having a bad day, and all she wanted was for the day to end already. But the universe seemed to have misunderstood her wish, because not only did her day not end, but she met with an accident that left her in a coma. As if that wasn't bad enough, she became trapped in a dimension between life and death, where she had to face a series of trials that would determine if she wakes... or fades from existence. Enter Zephyr, the spirit assigned to guide her to the light – her recovery. The spirit who never tried to disguise his want for her failure. The spirit she should've never fallen in love with. But in a world where survival is determined by the number of challenges a soul can conquer, the heart still found its way around love. With her complicated feelings in an already complicated world, Nova must decide what she's truly fighting for – her life, or the one being who's capable of ending it. *** In a short time, the remaining one hundred and twelve souls are pushed out. When we’re complete and standing, a voice – different from on the bus – greets us. “Welcome, Souls, to the survival games.”