Sovereign of the Ashes - Chapter 19: Cruel and Ruthless

In the steampunk world, races are mixed, and all spirits coexist. This is a different world that worships Iron Armored City!

The smelting furnace provides kinetic energy, heavy weapons protect dignity, and armor is the strongest protection. Every mobile ‘Iron Armored City’ is an independent force.

Every ‘Iron Armored City’ is a hunter driving in the wasteland, and likewise, all Iron Armored Cities are prey in the eyes of the stronger!

- Description from novelbuddy

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.

An unexpected transmigration and upon opening her eyes, she encountered a sleazy man trying to take advantage. Considering Su Yu was the heir of medical studies, proficient in multiple martial arts. How could she endure such a great shame? Just as she was about to show some of her moves, someone heroically came to her rescue, though he was somewhat disabled, his good looks were undeniable.With nowhere else to go, Su Yu naturally had to offer herself in return. It was just a limp, and it happened to be her specialty.Watch how she heals her handsome husband and together with her family, happily engages in farming and grows wealthy...

Lin Fan had inadvertently saved a breathtaking beauty, only to wake up and learnd that she was the fiancée his master had arranged for him, and now she was filled with regret...