MTL - Stepmother - Chapter 3 first time

In 2173, the world’s first Full-World Virtual MMORPG game ‘Astral Online’ went on sale globally, forever changing the blue planet Asteria!

With its revolutionary Digital Capture System, astonishing graphics and ability to scan yourself into the game with up to 20% beautification, countless defenders rallied to play the game.

Fifty million players logged in on launch. There were no queues or lag on launch, leaving countless critics impressed and willing to try the game. Because the game used a 6-hour play limit a day, it allowed even working adults to keep up with young students and the unemployed.

A resounding success, as more people poured onto the game servers, families and friends alike. Astra Online became a household name overnight.

One month later, the game opened its first RMT system, which made earning a living from the game easier... Thus began the Astral rush!

Professional players formed guilds and factions to increase their profits, but nobody could know this prosperity was a mere joke.

One year later, players fused with their avatars, gaining powerful abilities in the real world, which tipped the power and caused chaos.

Two years later, demons and monsters from inside the game invaded the real world.

Three years later, over 90% of humanity perished, leaving the rest to hide like rats, unable to fight back in fear.

Four years later, this world is no longer ours. The demons march on our last bastions, one by one. They exterminated us.

Zell was an average player who liked to collect beasts in the game and evolve them into humanoids, as they were primarily females.

He spent most of his life working two jobs to make ends meet.

Thanks to the excellent healthcare of his country, there were no crippling debts. There was only emptiness.

When the end came, he was powerless and alone. His only companions were his cute pets and Rika, his cherished Flame Rabbit.

She was the only beast he evolved to a humanoid form after his late start to the game.

He died saving the life of a strange girl with white wings and his pet Rika, the sad eyes of Rika and the girl’s sorrow floating through the air as he slowly passed away.

However, instead of dying, he awoke inside an empty white room with a single computer and a strange, game-like screen that allowed him to edit his IRL avatar and persona.

Who offered him this second chance?

For what reason did they help him?

Can he meet Rika again?

Zell could never know; he only knew his second life’s goal.

Survive!

The Wilds relentlessly reclaim all things. Humanity shelters within their ever-dying cities. Mages create the only path forward.Tala had to fight tooth and nail in the Magic Academy to forge a path to power that was her own. She knows it’s her duty to use that power to serve humanity, defending them against the creatures of the untamable wilds. However, she skipped a few steps in her education, like apprenticing to someone who actually knows what they’re doing.Now, Tala has to balance learning as fast as she can with paying off the veritable mountain of debt the Magic Academy dropped on her shoulders for the opportunity; not to mention staying alive.Even though she should only be a Mageling, the world considers her a Mage. Bless the stars she directed most of her magic toward survival.

When the spiritual barrier that has been intact for a hundred years is shattered by a meteor, spiritual energy that had disappeared starts to return.The mystical realm slowly begins its revival—magic, witchcraft, curses, supernatural lifeforms, strange and mysterious legends, monsters and gods from other worlds…The old world order collapses, yet the new order is mystifying and chaotic.Just before the unprecedented reformation is here, Tang Qi awakens and finds himself hung on the cross, having turned into an inferior demon and in great pain and agony…With his special ability to see through the nature of all things from the mystical realm and a sly and crafty mind, follow Tang Qi as he develops new skills and powers—as well as making new friends and allies—to battle and protect himself from never before seen supernatural threats in an unfamiliar world!

"Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen."

Ikaris, a genius student admired, exploited, and hated all his life for his brilliance, suddenly finds himself transmigrated into The Forsaken Lands, a fantasy world of myriad species born with the ability to use magic with imagination as their only limit.

Alas, this gift carries a curse. The more you use it, the closer you are to death.

After thousands of years of decline, the Free Races are fast approaching their demise, their survival threatened by this curse and an enemy that will not rest until it has devoured them all. Literally.

Former allies and enemies, prey and predators are now cornered behind a huge wall, forced to collaborate to resist their invader. But can so much resentment and hatred be washed away so easily? Can predators and prey really overcome their instincts in the face of a common foe?

Follow him on his journey from an ordinary human to a shining existence that will overturn the order established since the dawn of time. From an innocent soul to a merciless demon. From a human to something else.