Hail the King - Chapter 1260.4: Strangeness (Part Four)

Emperor Zi Yu used 5 strikes of his axe to split mountains and unify everyone underneath the heavens. He partitioned the land into 9 areas, thus establishing the Nine Cauldrons which eventually became known as the 9 prefectures.

Growing up in a cursed world, brought up in a country of warriors and soldiers, Nero was always eager for the day he would awaken his innate ability, and gain the chance to become an Eldrim Card master! Eager for the day he could fight against hell, hail and damnation itself and rid the world of its many curses.But the day his older brother was framed and sent to the frontlines to die, he woke up to a new truth. The notions of his youth - camaraderie, brotherhood, patriotism - they are all fake, and in the eyes of the powerful he and his ilk were just cannon fodder. In this cursed world, humans were curses too.He continued to wait for the day he could awaken power and rid the world of its curses - all of them!WSA 2024Hey guys, for access to maps, character pictures and more check out the discord. For those that don't use discord, I'll think of something so you can see them as well!Discord: https://discord.gg/xTWUR5BnD2

In the year 2090, technology has advanced to the point where Simulation Boxes, (Sim Box for short) are common place, allowing for the user to link up their brain's neural network to a full dive Simulation. While initially used for educational purposes, recently a large gaming company, Averon, released a fully fledged immersive MMORPG simulation where users can become anyone they desire, level up, choose their class, and become a hero or a villain. The name of this simulation is The Shattered World Online.

Eli Winters had no interest in playing it. His father, a jobless bum who spent his entire life playing games in the hope of becoming a famous player or streamer, was able to use the release of The Shattered World Online to gain wealth and fame, quickly becoming the number one player and a household name as the game took the world by storm. He immediately abandoned Eli and his mother in favor of being with someone from his guild, despite his mother having worked two jobs to support them and raise Eli by herself. Eli had nothing but spite for his father and the game.

When Eli's best friend convinces him to try out the game, his father's fame begins to interfere, culminating in him being singled out and shunned by his peers, and his father offering to pay for his university tuition in return for Eli hiding their relationship and quitting the game. Instead of complying with his father's wishes, Eli decides to prove to everyone how useless a guy his father is by challenging him that if Eli is able to surpass him in the game world he must delete his account and quit his streaming career. His father accepts the challenge believing his son to be useless at games - but Eli will soon show him just how ambitious a spiteful person can be.

The Third Dimension is collapsing. The Fourth Dimension is descending.

First it seemed that only technology would evolve, but who knew the world itself could too? It wasn’t as simple as climate change or tectonic movement. No, the fundamental laws of physics that governed everything were changing.

Leonel was fairly lucky. His family was decently well off, his father loved him enough to brew vomit inducing nutrient rich smoothies every morning, and this was both the day of the National Championship and his 521st confession to his dream girl, Aina. As his father always said, nothing was more important than respect and persistence.

Unfortunately, everything changed that night. At the after party of ages, the world reached a saturation point and an apocalypse descended.

Abilities awakened. Sub-Dimensional Zones opened. Invalids rampaged through the Earth like a virus…

Those who could evolve would have a slim chance for survival. Those who couldn’t would die.

This novel will be a unique spin on the dungeon/system genre. Dungeons won’t be dungeons and the system won’t be a system… Take a look to find out what I maen :)