Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 3: Exploring the Hotel (1)

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.

“You will be my wife one day.” Declared Liu Jun - the handsome and wealthy young master to his beloved childhood friend. He vowed to marry her at all costs. But that vow made him a villain. The woman he desired didn't return his love. Crazy and heartbroken, he crashed into her wedding, who was going to marry the love of her life, Liu Jin, unfortunately his own younger brother. Circumstances took a drastic turn, leaving him with only one choice to pay for his sins - His death. But fate gave him another chance. Liu Jun was reborn. In this new life, he chose to let go of his love and start anew. He discarded his villain's identity and closed his heart forever. But a new encounter and new troubles come knocking on his door with the secrets of his past life that even he doesn't know. Will the villainous Mr. Liu find his happy ending this time? *Excerpt* Ai said, “I forgot to clarify something. It seems you have a misunderstanding that I am interested in you because I stared at you.” Jun blinked once. “Rest assured that's not the case. I won't look at you that way. You are not my type.”

“Ding! Soulbinding has been successfully completed; you will now head to the Heaven Awaken World.” After hearing this, Zhao Fu’s vision darkened as he fell to the ground.

With bleak prospects in the real world, Zhao Fu’s life is turned around when countless crystals fell from the sky one night, which people could use to enter an alternate, game-like world. After obtaining an ancient Chinese empire’s legacy, Zhao Fu uses his intellect and resourcefulness to develop his own empire from a tiny village. However, with enemies both in the real world and in the Heaven Awaken World, he must make brilliant decisions and use creative schemes to survive.

- Description from Novelupdates

This novel is also known as Endless Bloodstone / Infinite Bloodcore

In the dark night there is no light, save for the sound of war drums and rally cries. The young man listens carefully, it is his heartbeat and the flow of his own blood.

What hides in the darkness ahead? Is it man, god or… a monster?

There is no such thing as the best road. However, the journey beneath one’s feet is unbounded!

- Description from Novelupdates