Echoes of the Lost Elf - Chapter 33 - 32 : The Market

Wang Zhong arrived in another world and got caught up in this world’s world war. His cheat ability was an overhead view similar to a real-time strategy game, which allowed him to see the field of vision of his troops! He immediately began micromanaging:“Move the machine gun position five centimeters to the left! Place the anti-tank gun in the woods on the right!”Three years passed like this.Wang Zhong looked at the marshal’s baton in his hand, then at the double-headed eagle flag behind the emperor’s envoy.“There’s an old saying where I come from, ‘Kings and princes, can they be born?’ Do you know this, Envoy?”

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.

Pressured to get married or lose her father's financial support to pay for her mother's medical bills, Joanna Baker, the illegitimate daughter of the Baker family, is devastated when her boyfriend chooses another woman over her on their wedding day.Joanna, feeling distraught, witnesses a man in a wheelchair proposing to his girlfriend at a restaurant. The girlfriend's rejection and subsequent insult for his disability left everyone stunned.Feeling a shared sense of betrayal, she approaches the man with a vengeful proposition.“Excuse me, sir. Your girlfriend dumped you, and my boyfriend chose another woman over me. Let's get married for six months and get revenge on them.”What will Joanna do when she finds out the man she proposed marriage to was none other than Alexander King, the heir of the wealthiest family in NYC? He was also the cold CEO of King Multinational, with a hidden identity, Salvatore Black, whose name caused even presidents shiver? Has she just signed a deal with the devil?

Cao Ju, after transmigrating to the end of the Han Dynasty, became Cao Cao’s eighth son.Starting from the rescue of the dying Han noble, Xun Lingjun, who was given an “empty food box”, he embarked on a path to contend with the other sons of the Cao family and vie for supremacy against the Sun and Liu clans.However, a practical problem lay before Cao Ju:Cao Pi inherited Cao Cao’s cunning!Cao Zhang inherited Cao Cao’s valor!Cao Zhi inherited Cao Cao’s talent!Cao Chong inherited Cao Cao’s wisdom!When it came to him, what could he inherit from Cao Cao?Could it be that he would truly descend to inheriting the remaining hobbies of Cao Cao, actively promoting the martial spirit of Wei, and making contributions far and wide?Daqiao and Xiaoqiao: If the young lord arrives in Jiangdong, we two are willing to form a bond with the young lord and welcome him together!Cao Ju: You all may question the character of my old Cao family, but you absolutely cannot insult the aesthetic sense of the Cao family!Cao Cao: The eighth one like me can indeed carry on the family legacy!