The Last Gentleman - Chapter 311: Head-On Collision

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.

Seo-Joon, who had been working to save money in order to pay off his dead parents’ debt and attend a hunter academy, ended up needing to spend all his savings on a surgery due to an unfortunate accident.In his moment of despair, a weird advertisement played.[You can also become an awakener!]He decided to register since he had nothing else to lose.[Mr. Kim Seo-Joon, welcome to Transcension Academy.]This hunter academy is on a completely different ‘dimension’ than the rest!In the age of private hunter education, you can also become a ‘transcender.’

“Some connections are written long before two hearts ever meet.”Arjun never believed in fate, just another lost soul buried in the noise of textbooks and deadlines.Ayesha was a quiet storm, hiding a fragile heart behind glowing smiles and disappearing messages.They were just two strangers, separated by borders, bound by pixels on a screen.But what starts as casual texts in the dead of night slowly turns into something neither of them can explain.A bond stitched through unseen heartbeats.A love whispered through endless silences.But every heartbeat carries secrets... and some secrets are too heavy to cross the distance.When time begins slipping through Ayesha's fingers, Arjun finds himself caught between holding on or letting go.Will their hearts find each other in the silence or will destiny write their last message before they ever meet?

Lianna Velcross, a girl who came from nothing, with no family, no worth to her name, and no place in the world.Enverna Alteri, a young woman carrying the weight of an entire house's expectations on her shoulders.One wants nothing more than to have a purpose, the other has one but cannot possibly fulfill it.These two women who would never have crossed paths normally end up with their fates being intertwined when a Constellation decides to empower them both, on one condition...That these strangers, from different nations with different beliefs, get married.And, both of them accept.---A GL story about a marriage arranged by a higher power!