MTL - Mister Li, the Heart Bandit - Chapter 139 Can you be a little bit upbeat?

Growing up with eccentric materialist parents who left him in the care of his grandfather for a job overseas, Zhang Heng had learned to adapt and be unfettered by the oddities and challenges in life. But he would soon learn the baffling truth about the world he thought he knew when one day at midnight time froze and he found himself in a world so quiet and still it was deafening. That night, he discovered that he had 24 hours more than everybody else and thus, marked the beginning of his adventures. The mysteries surrounding his newfound ability only deepened when a strange old man claimed to have given Zhang Heng that ‘gift of time’ and recruited the young man to participate in a cryptic ‘life-changing’ game on his behalf. Little did Zhang Heng know that accepting those terms meant embroiling himself in many versions of reality and exposing himself to the hidden secrets of the world—a decision he could never undo.

A hundred years ago, the blue star world fell into an endless abyss, and the era of abyss lords for all began.

Become the lord of the abyss, expand the territory, and resist the invasion of the abyss. The lord is hope, and the lord is destiny!

A hundred years later, a boy who has obtained a soul-entry talent, a treasure chest, a resource crystal, and a summoning scroll, will be perfect after ten consecutive draws? Hundred consecutive draws will produce legends?

What are you waiting for?

Wu Feng, who became the will of the abyss, was interviewed: “I really just didn’t want to lose my status as a lord, so you believe me!”

When you gaze into the abyss, I am the abyss!

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Readership: 892119197.

- Description from novelbuddy

It all started when the protagonist downloaded a game called “The Fool (Beta Version),” marking a pivotal shift in the style of his life. This was no ordinary game; it lacked visuals and music, composed solely of lines of text and a multitude of choices. Yet, each decision within the game had the power to alter the player's destiny, for on the other side of the game lay a real, unknown world.Players were unable to physically enter this otherworld or see its landscapes, experiencing the alternate realm solely through text, vicariously living each step of their character's journey.As the game progressed, not only could rewards from the game materialize in the real world, but creatures from the game began to appear in reality as well.Then came the day the game was released for global public testing.An era quietly unfolded, where the masses embarked on explorations and treasure hunts in an alternate universe through 'textual adventure,' heralding a new chapter of engagement and discovery.

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.