City of Witches - Chapter 391: The Last Supper (2)

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.

For the sake of his family, Ren embarked on the popular VRMMORPG, COVENANT, that used real-time in-game currency. But being a mediocre player who only knows how to gather information, he was put in a supporting role.

As the game explodes in popularity and every multibillion-dollar company invested in the game, things have turned for the worse for Ren. Due to the amount of information he gathered, the cheats, secrets, quests, and bugs he discovered, he was silent in fear of selling the information to the other guilds.

But given a second chance, he went back in time when his father was still alive and COVENANT was just in its starting phase.

This time . . . he wouldn’t be that guy on the side who gathered information from day in and day out for ten years.

Equipped with the games knowledge he accumulated, he will become . . . an Alchemist!

Chrono Mage? Djin Master? Summoner? Necromancer?
Chaos Lord?

What good are those?

Sure they’re powerful and rare classes and sought after by guilds, but it’s the alchemist who forged artifacts and concocts rare items and potions that gets the most coins at the end of the day!

It was better than being a blacksmith or a crafter! Plus, he could use all sorts of magic without limit to race and class!

It was the ultimate class! And no one even knows it!

I turned my assassin into my maid with the power of money! Money is all-powerful!

It was a world full of swords and magic; Lawrend was the son of the wealthiest merchant in town. Since the age of 7, he had been having dreams. A dream about a past life in a modern civilization where monsters are nonexistent, and humans dominate the world. Lawrend saw Iron birds, Magical bricks that display moving paintings, Thunder wielding, and many more.

There was a scene in one of the dreams that made Lawrend’s heart beat fast. A row of a dozen maids bowing in front of him. Each dressed in a french maid outfit.

Something awakened inside Lawrend when he had that dream. A fervent desire to have his very own Maid Harem!

Fu Yuran, a genius actor crowned as a queen upon her debut, basked in endless glory; Yuran, a prodigal, frivolous, and brainless rich third-generation heir.Fu Yuran never thought that upon her sudden death, she would become Yuran, sharing the same name but vastly different in standing, not to mention living at the mercy of others and having an infinitely dazzling movie emperor ... brother?Yuran, who had intended to keep a low profile and strive to better herself, was one day scandalized as the “little demon” cohabitating with the great movie emperor, Yen Shen. Such gossip, truly malicious and insane!Lately, Yuran replied with no expression, “No, I'm not close with Yen Shen, you've misunderstood. How could Yen Shen possibly take a fancy to me?”Just when the dust seemed to be settling, some media personnel surprisingly caught her hand in hand with Yen Shen, and she still spoke earnestly and nonsensically, “We're just acting, don't misunderstand!”Yen Shen, “Let me formally introduce, my wife, Yuran!”