Shadow Monarch: Heroines Could Hear My Thoughts?! - Chapter 103 103- I Will Eat You Up

Markus spent his life piecing together fragments of his past life on Earth, flickers of faces, half-remembered streets, the ghost of a world that no longer existed.Slowly, gradually, he’d finally found his footing in this new world of monstrous beings. He felt grounded, as if his fractured memories could finally settle into something resembling a family.But it all went downhill from there.A lingering touch, a promise, an obsession. As if fate itself was playing a cruel joke, his life begins to spiral down. Gradually tumbling down like a crescendo of madness, dragging him deeper into something inescapable.Every attempt to claw his way back only pulls him further down, like a bottomless pit with no end in sight.How much can a person endure before they break? And when they do, can they ever truly piece themselves back together?

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.

She is the legendary queen of mercenaries whose name daunts even the big shots in society. With an ancient jade pendant in her hand, she is great at almost everything, be it seeking the truth or the art of healing.

Lin Xuan transmigrated into a world where demon beasts rampaged. He became one of the lowest ranking wasteland reclaimers in the Germinal Organization to explore the mystic realms.

The Zero Realm mystic realm was the Giant Rock Cave. The First Realm mystic realm was the Demon Ant Nest. The Second Realm mystic realm was the Tree King Sea.

[Congratulations on seizing a Gold Swallowing Lizard as one of your avatars for gaining more experience. Do you want it to begin its training?]

[Your current location is first floor of the Giant Rock Cave. (1 coin per minute. 5 exp points per minute)]

[Gold Swallowing Lizard has been training for 4 hours. Do you wish to collect its experience?]

Lin Xuan’s eyes were wide open. He was well-versed in how this worked. This was similar to the AFK games that he played in his previous world.

As such, he began his comfortable journey of becoming the strongest.

Up until one point, the Germinal Organization discovered that he was abnormal and decided to deal with him. It only then did Lin Xuan realize that even Seventh Realm fighters and the managers of the organization were inferior to him.