After his parents died, Alex Roth had one desire: become a wizard. Through hard work, he was accepted into the University of Generasi, the world’s greatest academy of wizardry.... Fate, however, had another plan. On his 18th birthday, he is Marked by prophecy as one of his kingdom’s five Heroes, chosen to fight the Ravener, his land’s great enemy. But his brand is "The Fool". Worst of the marks.

Zac was alone in the middle of the forest when the world changed... The whole planet was introduced to the multiverse by an unfeeling System... or God. A universe where an endless number of races and civilizations fought for power and dominion. Zac finds himself stuck in the wilderness surrounded by deadly beasts, demons, and worse. Alone, lost and without answers, he must find the means to survive and get stronger in this new cut-throat reality.

Somewhere in the toxic Bone Pits, where mechanical nightmares roam, an emaciated and wounded young wolf clings to life. Wracked with pain, driven by instinct, it crawls across the subterranean landscape, avoiding the unnatural horrors that dwell there and seeking sustenance while fending off rats, insects, and other vermin stalking it as prey.

After fulfilling the duty all Arch Necromancers are tasked with, the last thing Sylver Sezari expected was to be reborn. He was usually the one reanimating dead things, after all. How ironic. But reborn he was. And after crawling his way back into the land of the living, he finds himself in a strange land, a strange time, and with a strange floating screen in front of his new face. Either through plan or chance, he’s alive again, and planning to enjoy himself to his heart's content.

Earth was invaded. Earth was conquered. And humanity was summarily subjugated, as 400,000,000 people were culled. The terrifying part was this only took the Peacekeepers a second. There wasn't even a chance for us to fight back. In the blink of an eye, questions like whether or not we're alone in the universe or at the top of the food chain were answered. We were not. Not by a long shot. Despite the mass murder, the Peacekeepers promise they're benevolent. They don't want to rule Earth. They don't want to control humanity. They just want us to stop playing around with AI and genetics.

Alexandra Rousseau, an engineer from the European Federation Star Navy with a past darker than the void between the stars, is unexpectedly launched into hyperspace when an FTL jump goes horribly wrong. She wakes in a world of magic and monsters, encountering a mysterious Order with plans millennia in the making. When the Order makes a catastrophic mistake, transforming Alexandra into a dungeon core, they inadvertently give her the power to bring back technology long since thought lost in this world.

This is it, the day I take over my father’s adventuring shop! Set at the base of Gianskarl mountain, where lies a vast and mysterious dungeon, this is the perfect spot. Many adventurers come to try their hand at the Karl in the hopes of hitting it big. And it’s up to me now to sell them the equipment they’ll need to face the dangers that await them. But where my father was content selling trinkets for a pittance, I want to turn this modest shop into the industry leader.

Leading astrophysicist Liam Jackson is participating in a scientist exchange program in Germany when a curveball of universal proportions is thrown at him. Planes fall from the sky, cars explode, and strange particles rain down from the heavens as monsters appear out of thin air. The laws of physics have changed in the world. The fundamental forces of the universe are behaving differently, and Liam needs to understand them if he wants to survive.

Hiral is the Everfail, the weakest person on the flying island of Fallen Reach. He trains harder than any warrior. Studies longer than any scholar. But all his people are born with magic powered by the sun, flowing through tattoos on their bodies. Despite having enormous energy within, Hiral is the only one who can’t channel it; his hard work is worth nothing. Until it isn’t. In a moment of danger, Hiral unlocks an achievement with a special instruction: Access a Dungeon to receive a Class-Specific Reward.

Newborn Dungeon Cores must choose what entity they help contain, and that choice determines what monsters they are able to summon. After being executed for crimes forgotten in death, Tira is given the chance to make that choice. Tira chose Acekorah, the Primeval Terror, a being so dangerous few cores will risk trying to contain it.

Silas is inducted into the System, becoming the last in a long line of Earth's "forerunners." The rewards are great, but the danger is greater. We are not alone in the universe. The fate of five worlds hangs on how their forerunners perform. Will Silas have what it takes to win Earth a place in the multiverse? Or will Earth become another mining world stripped of all resources and left a barren husk floating in the cosmos?

Nathan's life was defined by labs and lectures until an Archmage yanked him into Davrar and made him a tantalizing offer: master magic in exchange for Earth's scientific secrets. Yet, Nathan can't shake off the feeling that darker truths lurk beneath such promises. The world of Davrar is a dangerous place teeming with dungeons and monsters–ruled by levels, Talents, and a near-infinite progression of power. Nathan will need to rely on himself to survive, forging alliances and taking every advantage he can get against those that seek to control him.

There is no weapon more powerful than the [Psychokinetic] mind. Astrid, a mischievous noble teen, long dreamed of exploring the ancient cities preserved beneath the waves, left behind from a time before the ocean swallowed the world. She's been training all her life to become a magic swordsman capable of doing just that. But when an ancient monster long thought dead assaults humanity's last bastion–a floating ship-city–she awakens her System early.

Ashlock wakes in the courtyard of a demonic sect... as a tree. A tree that eats people. An odd start to a new life. Almost as strange as the humans flying through the skies on flaming swords and challenging the heavens. After all, this is a world where humans could chase the goal of immortality through the art of cultivation. But Ashlock is merely a sapling in a desolate courtyard, left alone with his thoughts and unable to speak to those passing him by. Unless he does something about it.

The decision to start a new life is never an easy one, but for Joe the transition was far from figurative. Becoming a permanent addition to a game world, it doesn't take long to learn that people with his abilities are actively hunted. In fact, if the wrong people gained knowledge of what he was capable of, assassins would appear in droves.

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

Compiled by intrepid journalist Neve Pride, this archive of recordings spans the months after dragons emerged on earth, chronicling the communities that sprang up amid the destruction, the scientists, military leaders, and experts searching for a defense, and those steadfastly seeking the missing. Neve and her young daughter Bex travel among the wreckage speaking to those left behind and surviving, against all odds. Neve records everything for history, and in the hopes of locating a clue as to where the dragons came from and how one might stop them.

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet.

Annie has always had high hopes for her future. But the reality of her life just isn’t measuring up. She loves her fiancé, Greg–doesn’t she? She’s going to get her degree and open her own business–won’t she? Then, a strange old woman shows up outside her house, and she seems to know a lot about Annie. An awful lot. Annie could tell the old woman to get lost. Yet there’s something about her Annie just can’t shake. And what she learns could change her life forever–but is it the life she envisioned?

Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.

After Lucas dies during a freak explosion, divine intervention sees him brought back to life with the power to control a new dungeon. There are just a couple of issues: his old body is bound to his dungeon, and the craziness of what he thought was his final act is only getting weirder. When he sees newbie adventurers entering his dungeon, though, he decides to help them survive and complete their quests. After all, adventuring is a process, and someone needs to guide the rookies.

Parker Wu’s life was cut short after a tragic encounter with a very large truck. But when one existence ended, another far more bizarre one began. Reincarnated and transported to the Continent—a world of swords and sorcery in which an all-powerful being known as the Eternal King reigns supreme—Parker is no longer a corporeal being. It seems the Continent has other plans for the late Earthling . . . As it turns out, Parker is now a System, a non-player entity whose purpose is to help a player succeed.

When Aesca Lampi wakes up in the form of her character from Eldest Fantasy Wars Online, she's annoyed by the historical inaccuracies. (Video-game-style scrolls? Really?) That is, until a building collapses on top of her, revealing she's on a fantastical island centered around the impossibly tall, glowing Tower of Aetherius . . . with an array of dangerous creatures—including jaguar hybrids, velociraptors, and giant, flesh-eating lizards—in the way. (Oh, joy.)

Seventeen-year-old Truth Medici scavenges for scraps to eat; weathers his parents' abuse; and battles derelicts, killer pimps, and demons in the soul-crushing stretch of desperation he calls home. Even the cops steer clear of the toxic Harban slums. But just across the canal live the magical elite, with their wealth, flying carpets, gorgeous mages, and custom spell beasts, all thanks to the patronage of the almighty Starbrite Corporation. Getting there, and taking his three vulnerable siblings with him, is Truth's only dream.

Leo wanted to make something out of himself—and build dams. However, the world doesn't want dams. And it mostly doesn't want civil engineers. It doesn't want men who do any sort of building or fighting or grand design, it seems. So, when Leo finds his current girlfriend and boss being threatened by a brutal loan shark and all three of them get dragged through a portal to another world, it doesn't take long for him to decide this is the place for him. Plus, everyone has magic, and who wouldn't want that?

Luke was your typical nine-to-five office drone when he was killed in a head-on car collision during his morning commute. Instead of going to heaven, Luke's soul is brought to a hellish realm on the verge of total destruction, where two supernatural beings soon engage in brutal combat. Defeating her rival, the victorious Arke prepares to claim her prize, the powerful God Seed. But the ancient artifact has plans of its own, offering to soul-bond with Luke, who accepts and flees to the world of Theos to escape Arke's wrath.

Dhane kicked the bucket in spectacular fashion, every bone crushed, every organ popped against the full force of a 40-ton garbage truck speeding through a red light. The only part of him intact—whole—entirely unaffected by the grisly affair was his soul. Souls are durable things, you see, like kids: they bounce. And bounce he did, into the abyss between worlds, drifting until one excited soul watcher fished him out and found him a new home, a heaven for gamers and nerds and everything in between.

In the Prime Kingdoms, the system dominates everything. It dictates one’s strength, skills, and power. It spawns dungeons and guides the actions of their monsters. But every system has its limits, and it’s about to push four oddball adventurers to theirs.

Bernt might have graduated from the Mage Academy, but not everyone has the money or connections to launch a prestigious career as a mage. Bernt finds himself working in the city sewers as an Underkeeper among the other rejects of Halfbridge's magery. He may spend more time unclogging pipes than fighting monsters, but hey, it's a stable job, and that's what counts. With the help of his unregistered soul-devouring demonic familiar, he'll save enough to launch his career as an adventurer—just as soon as he can afford some proper gear.

April 3rd, 3:46 AM. Planet Earth merges with the magical world of Arcadia, and a system gives humanity a choice: 40 years of indentured servitude, or entering a tutorial as a user to fight against the chaos incursion. Will doesn't hesitate—but the system thanks him for stepping into the fight by throwing him into an impossible tutorial. With little chance of survival, Will has a simple response: “Screw it. Might as well fight fire with fire."

Ryan Rosa has had a run of bad luck, but when he receives a VIP package for the newest and hottest game to come out in years, his luck takes a turn for the better. But his good luck ends when he's stabbed in the back by a guild of players who betray him for a unique weapon he possesses. Ryan contemplates doing the one thing every player hates doing: rerolling his unique character and starting over. But even starting over won't save Ryan in New Realm Online.

Growing up, she was the girl down the street. Even then, I knew she was different. She was tough, rough, and had the strength to stop a speeding car with her bare hands. We were as thick as thieves, sharing every adventure. Then one day she revealed a secret. She wasn't from Earth. She was from a distant place called the Arcadia Multiverse. Her people lived under the rule of a god-like entity known as the System. That System had its gaze fixed on Earth. And it was only a matter of time before it came for us.

The usual result of a human taking a runaway semitruck head-on is a very sudden, very fast track to the pearly gates. But for one newly noncorporeal man, there's another option: become a dungeon. Feeling sorry for the desperate angel assigned to him, the man relents. Heck, if it doesn't work out, he can always chat with Saint Peter about it later. Next thing you know, he's a dungeon. Admittedly, a small run-down, somewhat unimpressive dungeon (more of a house, actually), but you gotta start somewhere, right?

Sen never dreamed of ascension. Such were the aspirations of the rich young nobles, not orphans like him, scraping together a meager living on the streets of Orchard’s Reach. However, when destiny takes an unexpected turn, Sen finds himself thrust into the role of a cultivator’s disciple. Chosen over the nobles who once looked down on him, he is adopted into a makeshift family of three ancient cultivators, each with a lifetime of knowledge and insights. These old monsters will teach Sen everything they can, from the art of the jian and spear to the mysteries of arcane alchemy.

Ashlock wakes in the courtyard of a demonic sect... as a tree. A tree that eats people. An odd start to a new life. Almost as strange as the humans flying through the skies on flaming swords and challenging the heavens. After all, this is a world where humans could chase the goal of immortality through the art of cultivation. But Ashlock is merely a sapling in a desolate courtyard, left alone with his thoughts and unable to speak to those passing him by. Unless he does something about it.