Stellar Train: I Open a Small Shop on the Train - Chapter 73

Ace had always harbored feelings for his childhood friend, only to have his heart shattered when he learned she was secretly in love with Duke. The betrayal left him disheartened, but nothing could have prepared him for what came next.That night, instead of waking up to another ordinary day, he opened his eyes in a completely different world—inside another man's body. Worse still, the first thing he heard upon waking was yet another rejection.Thrown into an unfamiliar land with a past he doesn't remember and a future he never planned for, Ace faces a choice: chase after love once more or embrace a new passion—one that comes in the form of an unexpected farming system. As he cultivates spirit crops and reaps rewards beyond imagination, he begins to wonder: perhaps love isn't found in a person, but in the soil, the growth, and the endless possibilities of the land.Will Ace sow the seeds of a new destiny, or will the echoes of rejection root him in the past?

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.

After being abandoned by her long time boyfriend on their wedding day, Rachael lost all her faith in love and relationships. But that changed when she met Andrew again.

With no hope of finding love again in her life, Rachael agreed to marry her father's best friend's son, Andrew Collins. But little did she know fate had different plans for her.

…..

Excerpt:

Holding his drunk wife in his arms, Andrew kicked the bedroom door open.

When he placed her in the bed, Rachael slowly opened her eyes. “Are we home?”

“Yes.” Taking her heels off, he covered her with the quilt. “I'll get you some warm water.” But before he could get up, she grabbed his hand.

“What happened? Do you want something else?”

Kicking the quilt off, she crawled in his lap. Placing one hand on his cheek and the other at the back of his neck, she inched closer. “Andrew—”

“Hmm?”

“I think I am falling for you, what should I do?”

Betrayed. Starved. Left to die alone in a world that chewed up the weak and spat them out.Gu Qingran trusted the wrong people, loved the wrong man, and paid the ultimate price.But fate? Fate gave her a second chance.Reborn 30 days before the apocalypse, she refuses to be the naive fool she once was. This time, there are no attachments, no kindness—only power.With the Omni-Alchemist System, she can create weapons deadlier than an arsenal, fortresses stronger than steel, and medicines that could cure or kill with a single drop.While the world slept, she stockpiled.While they wasted time..she built an empire. When the world burned, she rose from the ashes—untouchable, unstoppable and unchallenged.Let the apocalypse come. Let them beg for mercy.Because in this life, Gu Qingran is no one’s prey.She is the storm.