Winter Swan - Chapter 79

A good-for-nothing man married a beautiful girl but was kicked off the bed on the wedding night. Furiously, he wrote a bill of divorce and ran away.
He was schemed a car accident in which he nearly lost his life. However, it turned out to be a blessing. He swallowed the soul that passed through the outer world, thus obtained superb medical skills and martial arts.
Later on, with the silver needles and invincible martial arts, he embarked on the road of counterattacks and was committed to his great dreams.

- Description from Novelupdates

In a not-so-distant future, Earth is thrown into chaos by a weird alien ship that crashes and starts leaking spiritual energy all over the place. This energy messes with the planet’s ecosystem, making everything mutate—animals, plants, even people. It’s like nature’s gone wild, with some folks getting crazy supernatural powers while others struggle to survive against mutated creatures and power-hungry groups trying to take control.In the middle of all this craziness, Amira Hailen—a tough-as-nails ex-special forces assassin with a complicated past—gets a second shot at life. Thanks to a mysterious ally’s Mental Transference powers, she’s sent back in time, waking up with the ability to control ice. Determined to keep humanity afloat, she gathers her old crew and turns them into a reliable team amid all the chaos.Meanwhile, Aiden Emberstorm—a fiery elite operative—gets fed up with the government’s weak response to the crisis. With his own fire powers blazing, he ditches the bureaucracy and teams up with his battalion to protect innocent lives. He becomes a symbol of resistance, taking on mutated beasts and rogue factions while trying to restore some order.When Amira and Aiden cross paths, it’s not exactly love at first sight. Their icy and fiery personalities clash, but they can’t deny the need to join forces. They both want the same thing: a sanctuary where survivors can be safe. So, they decide to work together, hatching a plan to take down the alien ship before it can call in reinforcements for a full-scale invasion.Amid epic battles, unexpected alliances, and a budding romance, Amira and Aiden must face both their inner demons and the alien threat. It’s a fight for survival in a world that’s gone wild, with everything at stake—including their own hearts.

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.