A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing - Chapter 552 - A moral quandary

Gu Qingli, a modern-day doctor and poisoner, was killed by her best friend. She was reborn as a weak peasant girl who could easily be bullied. Not long after she returned home, her wedding was called off. Everyone in the village started speaking poorly about her. A greedy matchmaker showed up and tried to convince Qingli to marry an older man! The matchmaker had barely been gone for a few seconds before returning once again. It seemed that Xiao Laosan, a man from the same village who was famous for bringing bad luck to his partner, wanted Qingli as his wife. The matchmaker wondered why a wretched woman like her was so popular. Gu Qingli did not mind. She thought that she, a wretched woman, was a perfect match for this man. For the days to come, she'd take her younger brother with her to forage for herbs, and they'd stir up trouble when they got bored. Wretched woman? A failed investment? Those things had nothing to do with her!

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.

Yu Sui and Shi Luo met each other when they were much younger. One was a pro-gamer, a widely-renowned, best of the best, in-game medic. The other was an e-sports newcomer who was just starting out. The two originally played for the same team, during which their relationship became increasingly deep.

Zhang Ruo Chen was the sole male heir of one of the nine emperors of the Kunlun Field. Ruo Chen’s father was known to all as the “Enlightened Emperor”, however Ruo Chen didn’t just leech off his status as emperor’s son. He proved himself to be a dragon amongst men, possessing a heaven defying body, and managing to cultivate to Greater Perfection within the Yellow Horizon Realm, at just the young age of 16.

But even though he stood at the summit of the younger generation and had a boundless future, he sadly died at the treacherous hands of his own fiancee at a young age.

Reincarnated 800 years later in the body of a young boy who shares his name, he found out his former fiancee already unified Kunlun’s Field and built the First Central Empire, and was now known as Empress Chi Yao… Empress Chi Yao—Her Majesty governed the mortal world and enjoyed prestige in all directions as well as an eternal life.

Zhang Ruochen stood outside of the Imperial Ancestral Temple, looking at the statue of Empress Chi Yao, and the flames of hatred burned in his heart. “After I practice for 13 years, I shall send the empress to her doom!”

- Description from Novelupdates