Otherworldly Evil Monarch - Chapter 13: Who is plotting against me?

An ordinary office clerk was accidentally reborn into a vast and mysterious world of Xianxia, becoming a member of a small cultivation clan.The story begins in an endless sea of sand, in an oasis called the Yuquan Lake Oasis.

The Coinbound System lets him buy spells, skills, and stat boosts like a magical vending machine...But nothing comes free.Every fireball costs gold.Every body enhancement? Taxed.Even getting a suggestion comes with a convenience fee.While nobles train for years to master a single flame spell, he can just buy it off the System. From summoning spirit beasts to crafting forbidden runes, his power grows with every coin he scrapes together… and every unnecessary expense he dodges.But in a world where magic is passed down through noble bloodlines and ancient family grimoires, a broke outsider with a price tag on every spell has no business rising through the ranks.Still, he’s surviving. Thriving, even.So long as he tracks every copper and refuses to overspend on fireballs, he just might make it out alive.They call him cheap.They call him stingy.But one day… they’ll all remember the name:The Frugal Mage.

A pill, a tiny capsule encased in a biologically harmless water-soluble shell; A shell whose very existence is a result of a century of research and technological advancement. A manmade synthesis of Chemicals and product of complex processes.

And in the end, a means to an end.

A way to deliver a concoction of other Chemicals for an agenda; Vitamins for nutrition, medication for treatment, or… perhaps more.

We trust that what we eat won’t do us harm, and trust that those who are responsible for its creation had the best of intentions. But in the end, it is difficult or perhaps impossible to truly tell what lies within a pill.

That is until one day I entered a research institution as a test subject. All I did was swallow a pill I was told to be a health supplement.

Kai is a broke streamer with nothing left to lose, except his dying sister.When Ascension Online, the most realistic VR game ever created, launches, he dives in to survive. Views mean money. Money means treatment. Treatment means hope.But during his very first broadcast, something impossible happens.A system awakens.Not part of the game.Not part of the code.A system that rewards influence, impact… and domination.> [Milestone Achieved: First Viral Stream][Reward Granted: SSS-Ranked Skill]The stronger his legend grows online, the stronger he becomes in-game.Then the changes begin to follow him offline.And Kai realizes the terrifying truth,Ascension Online was never just a game.It was a selection.