The Blind Lover - Chapter 168 - Sleepover

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.

My brother* and I, from elementary school to university, had grown up together. We didn’t just get into the same degree, we’re also sharing the same dormitory room.

What does it feel like to be betrayed by the person closest and most trusted?Having been reborn, Hua Mi says that the first priority in surviving the apocalypse is to have sufficient supplies, stay away from the crowd and the White Lotus, and lay low until the end.Just as she rolled up her sleeves, ready to make a big effort, she suddenly activated a supermarket space and the Cashier System?!Tsk, why struggle in life when you can just stock up on goods and breeze through it?However, looking down at her increasingly large belly, Hua Mi carried baby formula in her left hand and a Chopper in her right.Where did this kid come from?!The plan had gone a bit awry, the first priority was to ensure the baby’s safe birth, and, to be wary of the man who kept staring at her belly every day.Man: Honey, why do I feel like you're getting fatter recently? You look like you're pregnant.Hua Mi: It's not like...

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.