I Am a Salted Fish in Ancient Times - Chapter 12: Warm Lotus Bed

How long will it take for a murdered thief to distill into something monstrous? In this story the darkness only grows stronger, and its reach only grows wider as it expands by devouring the life that surrounds it. This is a dark fantasy where evil is a where, not just a who that focuses on slow progression, undeath, and atmospheric storytelling.

In the year 2022, gamers rejoice as Sword Art Online-a VRMMORPG (Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) like no other-opens its virtual doors, allowing players to take full advantage of the ultimate in gaming technology: NerveGear, a system that allows users to completely immerse themselves in the game world by manipulating their brain waves to create a wholly realistic gaming experience.

But when the game goes live, the elation of the players quickly turns to horror as they discover that, for all its amazing features, SAO is missing one of the most basic functions of any MMORPG-a log-out button.

Now trapped in the virtual world of Aincrad, their bodies held captive by NerveGear in the real world, users are issued a chilling ultimatum: conquer all one hundred floors of Aincrad to regain your freedom. But in the warped world of SAO, “game over” means certain death-both virtual and real…

It was the Great Age of Pirates, surging forward with their thousand sails unfurled.

One young man from earth ate the Goro Goro no Mi (Rumble-Rumble Fruit) and joined the Marine.

Justice vs Evil, Freedom vs Tyranny, the colliding waves between them would never cease.

But all of this…..”I couldn’t care less about!!”

At the summit of the war, surrounded by ten thousand people, Rowen held a thunder halberd in hand and walked forward with strong steps.

Rivals meet face to face, but only one could become the King.

“I wished them immortality but my thirst for redemption caused them suffering, I gave them eternity yet brought the end of the world” Ethan mumbled as he dragged himself from the ruins of the Golden throne. “You should understand me, human, what I wanted, was eternal happiness...yet I received torments from my own wish” “You call me a human, aren’t you the same?” Replied a faint voice. Ethan laughed in response before saying “ Human? I am beyond humanity, I am...a God!” _____ The world was no longer what it once used to be. A thousand years after the birth of Nexulytes, people who were able to wield Nexus energy and awakened miraculous talents with unimaginable abilities, the earth had fallen to the brink of near extinction with just less than twenty percent of its population left. The Dreamscape, also known as the reflection of the real world, was a space that was shockingly similar to the real world and copied every small detail of the real world. Their only difference was that the Dreamscape was not a place where humans could move about easily as even the strongest Nexulyte could die without knowing how. Years after the appearance of the dreamscape and multiple gateways spammed all across earth, giving the horrors of the dreamscape access to the real world; they unleashed chaos and a hundred years of bloody battle were the consequences of humanity’s late response. In a world where those with talents were worshiped and respected, a boy who hated Nexulytes and wished all of them could die ended up becoming one himself. Not only did he become what he hated, but he awakened a talent that he had never heard of or known about. How was he supposed to survive the fusion with a seemingly useless talent or was he ever going to find out the secret of his talent and the birth of the dreamscape?