Chrome Shelled Regios - Volume 16, Chapter 4 — Hermits and Agitators

This is the story of Kir, who has to thwart the will of Heaven, Hell, and his parents in order to survive, protect the people he loves, and achieve happiness.He just has to make it through life at a magical academy, avoid dying, and survive to find his birth mother, the lost Daughter of Heaven. Or be forced to take his place at the side of his father, a Duke of Hell bent on destroying the way things are.It's a lot to handle for a quiet, brooding angel boy.Fortunately, he has company. A succubus, a foxkin girl, and a half-angel boy to start. And Kir has his own secret: this isn't his first go at life.

Ming Liuyi transmigrated into a novel she had read, and to make matters worse, she was placed into the body of the novel’s antagonist who shares the same name. The original Ming Liuyi, bullied into marrying a cripple, decided to abuse the rich male lead, Yao Zizhou, until he went into a vegetative state. Ming Liuyi knew she had three months of safety before Yao Zizhou woke up and took his revenge. But for some reason, she was drawn to him, and when she touched him, her spiritual energy began to stir.

No one suspected that Yao Zizhou would actually still be perfectly aware of his surroundings, though he couldn’t move. He continued his days in great confusion when his arranged wife from hell was suddenly replaced with a sweet, nice girl, who actually cared for him dutifully and spoke to him with gentle words. It aroused his curiosity, but right before he could wake and see her, she fled. Yao Zizhou huffed in annoyance. There was no way he would let her escape his clutches.

Draco had risen to the top of the world through his exploits in the legendary FIVR game, Boundless.

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.