Ghost in the City - Chapter 63

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.

Luis Hartmann activated the mysterious Portal and began the journey of traveling between two worlds. In Immortal world, there are various immortal cultivators who can destroy mountains and live for thousands of years. In his own world, it is a Western fantasy realm where people can become knights or wizards, with different kinds of races. Luis, using the resources of both worlds, rises through the ranks. The life seed that knights awaken when becoming apprentice knights transforms into spiritual roots in the immortal world. With strategic wisdom, he helped his family become the eternal family, dominating both worlds. [Knight + Martial Arts + Immortal Cultivators + Family building]

Su Jie, capable of traveling between Blue Star and the Cultivation World, discovered that cultivation was just too difficult.Spirit Pills, Magic Artifacts, Pocket Worlds, and inherent comprehension—each was a mountain on the long road to immortality.Not until Su Jie found out that Demon Cultivators refined corpses by killing, extracted souls to cultivate fiends, and used fear as sustenance for their cultivation.Need souls to consecrate a Soul Summoning Banner? Get to know the pig farms that slaughter millions of pigs a year.Need human fear to cultivate fierce ghosts? Stock up on ghost houses, horror films, and horror games…Need fresh blood for Demon Techniques? Across the ocean, America is the world’s largest grey market blood transfusion station………Years later.“You devil, how many people have you killed? And you still have the face to call yourself a good person? Pah, today I shall act on behalf of heaven to mete out justice.”The Tianyuan World’s most beautiful person’s eyebrows were furrowed with rage, as she stared at the terrifying Devil before her, enveloped in wronged souls, with thousands of ghosts parading on his Soul Banner, seated in a palace made of bones, she posed her soulful question.The Devil slowly stood up and pulled out a business card that read “Hua Country’s Philanthropist of the Year / Founder of the World’s Largest Chain of Ghost Houses / Owner of Blue Star’s Largest Livestock Slaughter Business / Emerging Tycoon of the Entertainment Industry.”“You see, I’m really not a devil, okay? Nowadays, who still uses such a lowly method as killing people to cultivate as a devil!”