Half-Hearted: Mr. Sinclair, Stop the Act! - Chapter 54: Dreaming of Myself Again

I, Maehara Maki, someone who couldn’t make any acquaintances or friends in high school, finally had someone I can hang out with outside of school. A girl.

Her name was Asanagi-san. The boys in my class called her ‘The class’ second cutest girl’ behind her back.

On Fridays, she would refuse her best friend, Amami, ‘the cutest girl in class’ invitation just to hang out in my house with me.

Together, we played games, watched some movies, read some manga while eating junk foods like pizza and hamburgers, and chugging cola without a care in the world. To others, we may seem sloppy, but it was a precious, secret time together for Asanagi-san and myself.

At sixty, Xu Mu was old and frail, with one foot in the grave, still stuck at the beginning stage of Qi Cultivation!

He had reached a dead end on the path of immortality. Giving in to life’s hardships, he decided to get married and have children, and live out his remaining days.

However, on the day his daughter was born, it was a double celebration. The doors to his cultivation were reopened!

[Congratulations! You have achieved: Blessed with a Daughter!]

[Blessed with a Daughter: Increase your Luck Value by 10 points every day!]

[Luck Value: Can be used to increase skill proficiency, it cannot directly improve cultivation!]

To survive, to live a better life, to reach the pinnacle, and gain longevity, Xu Mu embarked on the journey of marriage and parenthood, achieving milestones along the way!

…

Current achievements: [Blessed with a Son, Perfect Family…]

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[The new book has been released, (I upgraded my storage bag to the cosmos). Respectful seniors, if you have time, please give guidance!]

Sometimes dreams come true, even the impossible ones. Martin never expected to get a summer job as a mechanic at GP2 one day. As if that was not enough, he will work on his idol's car! The racing driver, however, turns out to be different than what the media shows him, as if he had something dark inside him ...With the smell of grease, gasoline and car oil, Martin learns more about life than he could ever expect.All events, characters and organizations are fictional. The resemblance to any real person, organization, or event is purely coincidental.Cover made using AI and my own work.

Ethan is a man nearing forty who has squandered his life behind a screen. Since his teenage years, he has poured everything into online games, chasing digital achievements while real life quietly passed him by. Now, with reality finally weighing on him, he realizes how empty his existence has become.Despite decades of obsession, he has only one thing to show for it: the #1 account in the world’s most popular MMORPG, Lost World Online—a fully immersive virtual game operated through neural-link technology. It is an account powerful enough to guarantee fame, sponsorships, and a second chance at life.But overnight… it vanishes.No warnings… No errors… His account simply ceases to exist.Ethan spends the entire night frantically searching for answers, contacting the developers through official forums, only to be told that nothing can be done. Without the account, even streaming or professional contracts are impossible. Exhausted and hollow, he finally gives up and falls asleep, deciding to forget his regret, half hoping everything would be a dream when he wakes up.When Ethan opens his eyes, he finds himself standing before the character creation screen of Lost World Online.It feels like a dream, yet his mind is clear, his body well responsive, not even like a game. Paying little attention, he goes ahead and creates a character and initiates the game.Then, his vision is swallowed by darkness.A violent rush of wind slams into him, and when his senses return, he is standing inside a bustling town from the game. Before he can question the missing opening cutscene—something that should always play after character creation—his attention is seized by the scene around him.The town was celebrating an Annual Festival. This was a festival that only ever occurred once, a festival that marked the first day Lost World Online was launched.Realizing the impossible, Ethan hurriedly calls up his system interface—only to find that there is no options menu, no settings, no log-out button…“This cannot be real.”