MTL - Rubik’s Cube Heavens - Chapter 4 Death paradigm

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.

I lived like any ordinary person when a stranger suddenly approached me, “You are… a hero.”

Rocco Di Malvento lived a short, but loving life in his previous world, surrounded by a caring family. Despite suffering from a terminal illness, he found solace in books, especially his favorite BL novel >. But when he dies, he wakes up in an unexpected new life—as the weak, neglected second son of a powerful mafia family.Now reborn in the world of the novel, Rocco finds himself in a terrifying situation: he's the useless younger brother of Sylas, the main protagonist, and likely doomed to die young unless he changes the course of his life. So, what's his plan? Simple—befriend the protagonist, avoid being a spoiled brat, and secretly recruit Sylas's future allies to protect him.First target? Georgio the Hyena, an infamous killer. Rocco's strategy: charm the terrifying man and make him his ally instead of Sylas’s.It's a ridiculous plan, but hey, at least Rocco is trying. Can he survive the mafia world and avoid his tragic fate? He hopes so. After all, he’s just a kid trying to make the most of his second chance!

Betrayed by her boyfriend in the most humiliating way, She seeks solace in a night bar that leads to an unexpected turn—she finds herself pregnant with quadruplets, and the father is a gigolo!She thought it was merely a fleeting encounter, she returns home only to discover he's transformed into the city's most influential CEO.Struggling as a single mother, she's caught off guard when fate brings them together again. He recognizes her, and traps her...