Beloved Empress - Chapter 20

Her uncle indifferent, her fiancé unfaithful, and the very aunt she regarded as her own mother sold her to a merchant to be a concubine for two hundred thousand taels of silver, thoroughly ruining her life.Having been reborn and having survived life and death trials, Lian Yueyao vowed never to let anyone control her destiny again. This time, she would protect her loved ones who cared for her and carve out a splendid future for herself with her own hands.June's readers group: 97058970, everyone is welcome to join.June’s completed novel: “Rebirth: The Soft-hearted.”

I am currently re-writing the first chapters of this story. They are quite rough and bounce around a lot and I can do better. At some point, I will replace these with the better chapters.Sometime in 2024 Aethon Books will publish the first volume of this story on Amazon, KU, and audible. This will mean the story will be stubbed. I will notify people far in advance of that.In the dystopian world of the future, life is rough when you live at the bottom. Jobs are non-existent. Far too many people live in poverty, crammed into huge buildings called Habitats. With no jobs in the real world, many people can only find work online in VR worlds as servants to the very rich. And it's getting worse. The old internet is unusable and hacked to pieces. The new system needs AI to run things, but all but one of them were destroyed. The last sentient AI is ordered to create a new game world so the rich can have a playground, and the corporations that rule the world can have a new global market place. Everyone wants a piece of the new game. The guilds are competing to be the first to find the dungeons and kill the biggest monster. The corporations are claiming land and putting in their online market places. Ozzy and his friends just want a paycheck.Four friends sign five year contracts as virtual serfs in a small village, and can't go adventuring at all to gain money. They don't have many choices. They can work as a blacksmith, barmaid and shepherd for all those years....or they can cheat and find ways to take advantage of the system and carve out a section of the game world for themselves, and earn a fortune in the real world.When they give you a mop and not a sword, you have to find the loopholes and change the rules.

“Was trying to forget my past and live a peaceful life… a mistake?”His twentieth birthday was supposed to be a celebration, not his final moments—bleeding out on a bed, betrayed, and left to die.'Taking the life of a ‘good’ person makes you a murderer, but taking the life of a ‘bad’ one makes you a savior… Why?'As death embraced him, he whispered his final words—“The world’s kindness, right till the end..”…Only to wake up in an unfamiliar body.“Wait… I’m Noir Ravenlock?”A doomed heir, born to rule the world yet bound to a fate engraved with blood.In a world where morality shapes strength, survival demands more than just power—it demands understanding.And Noir, a man or perhaps a demon who once saw the world through twisted eyes, may just see something no one else can.