Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord - Chapter 93:

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.

This was a fragmented and disorganized world, this was a place that had been forgotten.

That day, was the most frustrating time for Ning Cheng, when on that day, he was abruptly brought here.

Because this world had Ning Cheng, who would imprint his name in the vast heavens, it would finally shine in the endless universe!

- Description from Novelupdates

Saying 5000 year-old-dragon has an impressive ring to it, yet that dragon was an extremely harmless, herbivorous being. However, because of his uselessly giant figure and scary appearance, he was mistaken for the Demon King’s executive and provided by the nearby village with a sacrificial maiden.

Fundamentally cowardly and timid dragon tried to send her away, but the extremely enthusiastic sacrifice didn’t want to give up. Inevitably, he lied: “Okay, I just ate a small portion of your soul, so you can go back already”, but the maiden with outrageous assumptions has misunderstood that she became the dragon’s kin.

Then, out of all things, she began to manifest strange power on the basis of her wrong assumptions – in turn, the helpless dragon, by some mistake started a rebellion against the Demon King.

Rebellion or whatnot, he wasn’t even his subordinate in the first place.

Tang Yu transmigrates into a modern urban novel as a wealthy second-generation villain. Each time he survives a segment of the plot, he earns a reward!He decides to lay low and survive until the very end! He starts by calling off an engagement to avoid getting killed by the Dragon King!However, everyone around him seems to be plotting against him, insisting on pulling him into conflict.Su Muyue: “You want to break off the engagement? No, you don't.”Father-in-law: “Who does Ye Chen think he is? My son-in-law can only be Tang Yu.”Bodyguard Captain: “Young Master Tang has been incredibly kind to me, I will kill the Dragon King for him.”No matter how much Tang Yu tries to stay out of the plot, someone always shows up to drag him back into the fray.To ensure his safety, Tang Yu has no choice but to defeat the Dragon King.