MTL - Great Voyage: The Cartoonist of the Straw Hats - Chapter 133

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.

Ethan Carter was a failed fantasy author who died overworked and bitter. When he wakes up in the world of his own unfinished novel, he finds himself reborn as Darius Wycliffe, a weak and arrogant noble fated to be killed by the protagonist, Lucien Ashford, the Archmage’s Disciple.But Ethan refuses to die so easily. Armed with his knowledge of the world’s secrets and a unique ability to rewrite spells, he dives into the forbidden magic he once created but never fully explored. As he grows stronger, he uncovers terrifying truths about the world he thought he knew.To survive, Ethan must defy destiny, master the deadliest of magics, and challenge the very hero he once wrote to be unbeatable. But what happens when the lines between hero and villain start to blur?

In the beginning, I just wanted to solve life problems.

Then, I didn’t want to admit defeat, I didn’t want to just leave in such a daze.

Next, now that you’ve stood your ground, why not do it better.

Finally, as I have always insisted, when you decide to invest in something, you must do it to the best of your ability!

– One of the greatest actors of the 21st century, Sean Tang

- Description from novelbuddy

Lin Yuan, carrying the “Door to Myriad Worlds,” transmigrated into the Great Universe of the Starry Sea.Here, the mightiest could obliterate star systems with the flick of a finger, and traverse millions of light-years in an instant.As a bottom-dweller, Lin Yuan could only rely on the “Door to Myriad Worlds” and his innate talent, “Against-Heaven’s Understanding,” to travel through countless worlds, silently growing stronger.【Your Against-Heaven’s Understanding allows you to cultivate the Muscle-Tenden Transformation Bible, comprehending the ‘Muscle-Tendon Transformation Blood Tempering Divine Technique’】【Your understanding is Heaven-Against, upon extending your comprehension to the Thunder in the Palm, results in the mastery of the ‘Thunder Creation Opening Technique’】【Your understanding is Heaven-Against, while observing the birth and death of worlds, leads to the insight of the ‘World in the Palm’】【Your understanding is Heaven-Against,, through studying the art of external incarnations, culminates in the ‘Self-Transformation Great Technique’】……In his unending travels, Lin Yuan ceaselessly grew stronger, until… he was unrivaled across all worlds.