The story of a Comic Book Collector who is brought to a world where he finds out that he is one of the special people who can earn experience and level up to become a superhero.

It was the 3rd month of Tanatswa's unemployment and things weren't looking up for him. He had surfed the web for companies that would put to use his programming skills, even submitting his CV to businesses that didn't seem like they would need an IT person, but alas, his efforts were met with no responses and harsh berating from his mother. He had been called lazy even though he dedicated the entire day to emailing more than 300 companies. Things were tough but his parental figure's scolding didn't make it easier. Some people got jobs through nepotism, knowing who is who in the market, and the fact that' that piece of networking advantage was lacking in his arsenal of talents, made him feel seriously fucked. 



Even when he did get replies and went for interviews, it almost always seemed as if for some reason, he didn't meet their requirements. Tanatswa took his time to learn more web development frameworks and useful tools like Angular.js, Bootstrap and even advanced forms of PHP. He believed that he could impress a potential employer if he closed the gap of knowledge he had concerning things he needed to know as a developer. The growth was ever so slightly an improvement that made him more competent and capable of handling much more complex software projects, but alas, even that effort didn't pay off. This was undoubtedly a dark time for this young man's life.

 

During this period of his life, Tanatswa tried to find outlets to make money, even returning to the skill sets he had given up on to pursue his education. Though, if was being completely honest with himself, he had barely made it through university. He graduated with a 3rd class degree and finally cleared his tuition debt. He wasn't one to keep debts and liked to owe no one anything, but realized that most of the business tycoons he had read about didn't pay their taxes and owed a lot of money to the government. This made him consider whether or not he felt good about being a debt free person who is also broke and unemployed. The thought would make him feel like shit and he would avert his mind onto other matters, matters like getting back to drawing his comic and entering it for an online contest or pursuing a youtube channel that never really experienced any growth. 



Tanatswa had liked art and also partly chose a computer science program because of his interest in game design and the marvelous art that was accompanied with video games. His art skills were rusty but he knew that with a little effort he could get back into it and level up in the skill chain. Apart from farming the coding knowledge on the internet, he would now dedicate his time to improving his gaming skills and killing time with anime youtubers. This was rather a pathetic lifestyle as compared to the expectations that society expected from someone like him.  

 

Tanatswa went through a gradual slump in his life, but was neither an overt trouble maker and got along with most people, exhibiting manners and respect towards people of all walks in life. However, this wasn't always the case for people who he found annoying or deemed insufferable. The pool of friends that this young man had was small and even he didn't believe that he had anyone he would classify to be his best friend. Whenever he felt depressed or wanted to have a discussion about a show he liked, he didn't have anyone to really indulge him in an interesting conversation. Even if he couldn't do it face to face with someone, the online options weren't always to his liking. Going on forums or even the discord servers to find someone like minded was as tasking as getting a job. 



Sometimes the fun people were there, but their appearance was rare and having to filter through the trolls, memers and the perverts who could not get into intellectual discussions peeved him a lot. He eventually got frustrated and barely used any of those platforms. Facebook, twitter and even Instagram got boring for him. Even youtube slowly began to lose its sparkle. Shows that seemed to have their shine became repetitive and he no longer saw any value in consuming their content. This would propel him to search for other content creators, but when he would find their stuff, after a while he would get bored. The young man felt bewildered by this gradual decline in interest and worried about his mood swings.

 

After a while, Tanatswa had two websites up, one as a web application and another as just a normal site. He thought that maybe due to a lack of a portfolio that maybe he had been side lined from job opportunities because of that and decided to send a link of his work included to his attached CV. This happened at the same time as he was about to finish drawing his comic which he was going to submit to a contest. He was thinking that if things were not going to work out on this Japanese site he would take his material to either webtoons or tapastic. He was now in his 5th month of unemployment and he really wanted his efforts to pay off. As he expected, the inclusion of his finished works made a difference and he got called for just 2 interviews. However, this didn't go as he expected.

 

At interview number one, the tall 6 feet tall, ebony skinned, skinny Tanatswa, came in to an office that was at the outskirts of town. He was well dressed, and looked super dashing in his light grey suit, beige shirt and black tie, accompanied with crimson shoes. He didn't have the broad shoulders to finesse his appearance but at least the tailor had made a suit that matched his body type. He walked into the building that looked more like a home that was being repurposed to be a working environment. There the young man went through the process of telling the secretary that he had an appointment with the head of IT there. The woman on the desk who had a nice face but a body that was in desperate need of exercise, made a phone call. Tanatswa waited and darted his eyes everywhere. 



The place looked kind of interesting and there were a lot of certification frames placed all over the wall and as always, the picture of the president of the country was on the wall. The place looked homely, but eventually, Tanatswa's time for his face to face with his potential employer was about to begin. A stocky man who was light skinned, wearing a striped shirt and black trousseaus called for him. Tanatswa followed the man's lead and meet him in his office. There Tanatswa was grilled about his intentions for working at the company, and the shock of his life came from when he got to see how his 2 websites looked on the man's device. The employer had a Mac desktop and its screen dimensions were extremely wide and everything he worked looked different on it. Some of the icons were off and looked like shit.



 Tanatswa opted for the man to check how the website looked on his phone and laptop, lucky for him, the man gave it a shot despite getting an immediate negative impression from the desktop orientation of his websites on his Mac. The websites looked fine on the other devices, but the fact that he had missed one mark had messed his chances. Finally they gave him an aptitude test to see whether or not he could demonstrate real coding capabilities. 



Tanatswa was given a website that was done by some company that wanted it revamped, but the source code seemed like an abomination. It was well commented but it was clearly a template that was reworked by some tasteless developer who left a mess. It was chore to go through and even more of a struggle to find all ids and classes used for everything. Going through the mess took a while and soon enough, his time limit was over. The end result was that they would assess his performance and give him a call. A week passed and he never got a call and the other interview he went for turned out to be a disaster. This was only the beginning to a perpetual list of misfortunes.

 

After Tanatswa had submitted his comic and got his results after 2 months of waiting, he had mixed feelings about the results. The judges essentially stated that he had the best story out of all the contests but his art was in the lower bracket of their score. Due to this uneven scoring, he didn't place really high in the ranking but he got an honourable mention. This was the first time he was acknowledged for his talents by an organisation and he felt a bit happy, but this wasn't really the result he desired. If he had won, he would have claimed the prize money and moved out to pursue his comic as a published author serializing in their magazine, but even if that did not happen, at least he got consolation that he had writing talent. Tanatswa began to dabble into art tutorials online at the same time doing chores for his mom, who seemed to only escalate he indignation towards the unemployed youth. 



Tanatswa's goals had shifted and he now wanted to become a comic artist instead of dedicating his time towards finding employment where employers didn't seem to want him. This change in what he wanted to pursue fuelled him with fire and he practiced stuff like foreshortening, figure drawing and complex angles of dynamic poses. Sometimes the drawings would come out well, but for the most part it was a struggle. Tanatswa began to wonder whether or not he would ever get as good as the artists he idolized and wondered whether or not he should team up with someone really talented to draw in his stead, however, the young man wanted to make this happen through his own merit. He finally entered another contest but this time, he was unlucky.

 

With the popularity of the prior contest a behemoth of pro artists were attracted to the upcoming one and entered it. His art had improved and his story was plausible but compared to the elite talent that had joined in, his work paled in comparison. Deep down inside he envied them and wished these pro god tier artists would have entered something else so that the rookies could get a chance to shine, but nevertheless, his final chance was taken from him and he was left depressed. Tanatswa thought about the webtoon and tapastic options but the only way to make it on their platforms was to have a consistent release schedule of work and also to become a featured artist on their platform. Featured artists would get paid plus with the promotion from their site, a creator could leverage the traffic drawn to them by opting for a *******, but it took him forever to get even one issue out and his mother seemed tired of supporting a bum like him. Thus he would have to be sent to the village and subsist on farm life or live with his poor uncle in the worst possible part of the country. 



The gamble had not paid off and he was unemployed, a failed comic artist and a failed developer. Eventually, drawing itself became a painful experience. The young man turned to porn, masturbating 3 or even 5 times a day, sometimes he would go on those dating websites which he knew were a waste of time because 95% of the user base were men and the supposed sexy women who wanted to get laid were actually bots posing as actual people. This morbid catharsis made him laugh inside but also made him feel like shit. He was 23 years old and feeling like a loser, but he always made a point of hiding that side of him. Tanatswa never liked wallowing in misery and showing the world that he is sad. Whenever he had the chance, he would always dress up and get fancy hair cuts that made him look cool and dashing, hiding his broke appearance, but that was it, it was all just an appearance. He pretended to be okay, dressed up nice and faked a smile, but was really dealing with depression. He reflected on his life and even began to associate his lack of success as to why he never really had luck with women. He had never gotten laid and he was already 23 years old. 



The closest thing to anything sexual he had gotten were lap dances and really arousing grinding from women who probably had to sit on top of at least 40 random crotches of men in a night. This was mainly a means to deal with his sexual frustration, but at those clubs that he did go to, even married men or guys who had girlfriends would get lap dances, grabbing women's asses and doing unholy things with them that they wouldn't even consider with their significant other.


 Tanatswa believed that he wouldn't have had to come to such a place if he had a girlfriend and probably wouldn't even do it for fear of being unfaithful, but seeing all the alpha males getting lap dances, fucking side hoes at the same time having a girlfriend or wife,  gave him a slight paradigm shift. Being a decent human being didn't matter; all he needed was power, fortune and luck! It became clear to him that he was competing in this world at a handicap and needed a boost. However nothing relieved him from his suffering.


A full year had passed and he was now destined to continue his existence at either his uncle's decrepit living hell hole or at the village to become a farm boy. Tanatswa no longer enjoyed drawing, programming, watching television or even waking up. He got interested for a while in music production, exhausting more than a 100 tutorials and even made a few decent bangers, but then after  some research he realized how cut throat it would be for him to even make it in that scene. At that point he was just throwing darts into the air and hoping that something would just stick. He was wasting time, caught in morbid thoughts and drowning himself in some doom and funeral metal to wallow in his misery. The music gig didn't work out, even the acting gig he tried bombed badly. Everything seemed hard and all he was good at was failing. 




Tanatswa sat on his bed and cursed, "Fuck the world, fuck it, fuck it all!" He looked at the ceiling and darted to the left side of his bed which had a pile of tissues that were covered in the semen of his 6 masturbation sessions. It dawned at him that he was nothing but a piece of shit human being and that he wanted to die.  After all he had done throughout his life he had decided that there was one thing he had to succeed at doing. Ending his life!

A young man struggles with unemployment, failed dreams and overall becoming a useless member in society and decides to kill himself. Upon seeking this method of death, he encounters a being from the alternative realm who gives him an option of starting his life over from scratch, from level 1 on his planet. This gives him the chance to finally carve out a path for himself that he could never do on earth.




**********************************************************************************************

If you enjoy the book, please do leave a book review or comment. I will try my best to respond to all of them so please do. It helps me out. Also, the paperback version of this novel will be available soon so if you want hardcopies, it will be available on Amazon.com

Who would thought that getting so much money in so little time was gonna be so fucking tiring? Next time I should put a clause over there to have a maximum set of money. But that would not work because that would destroy my god impostor disguised that I really liked. Since when a god cared about the money being asked right? Shit. Well, I would think a solution on the way. If the deal was too absurd I could simply cancel the <Life Dealer World> before signing it and make the client forget and search for a less demanding client.

I woke up in the morning. Dressed with the same cloths as yesterday. But since I'm on a 5-star casino, is like you live in your own little world. You have anything you would ever want, to make you stay longer and spend more money. Gyms, barbershops, spa, coffeehouse, and even a small mall. I went to the said mall and bought 5 pairs of good looking clothes and a thick black hoodie and a pair a cheap black sunglasses. Of course, I bought a travel bag to carry all of this to my room. I spent almost $800 dollars on this. Shit, I'm almost at my limit of the budget. I can't get lower of $10.000 to join the second floor. I currently had $10.140, yes I counted all on my bedroom and rolled on the bed with money like in the movies and had to gather them again. But...WORTH IT! 

Luckily if I join the second floor they have a free buffet bar. YAY! Free food 4 life son!

But before all that I left the $10.000 in the safe of my room, yes I know the cleaning staff has a master key to all of this safes but I couldn't carry $10k to the place I was going.

Yes, you guessed right. I was going back to get my driver license back! And not from the government again! I already past that stupid test! I mean for that stupid pawn shop.

I arrived at the shop and asked for my license back, they smiled and made me pay $60 dollars and gave them to me and polite bide me out of the store.

Well, that was anticlimactic. I was prepared to go on a full head-on verbal and curse war to only receive professionalism. Jesus fuck, maybe my luck was acting again. I remember when I was a teen I pawned my favorite comic book for $15 to go to the movies with my bros and kept my lunch money for a week eating only cafeteria free bread to exchange for the comic book without my parents noticing it. The perfect crime.

The problem was that the comic book was pretty rare and I got scammed pretty bad. They asked me the retail value of the comic book, not the amount of I pawned it from. Since It was mine but I was a minor we were both at wrong but they have the upper ground. 

So I grinded my teeth and begged my parents. After a huge beat up they bought my comic book at the inflated price while remaining me to stay away from those places.

Oh, sweet summer beating memories. Wonder where that bastard father is up now? Maybe enjoying his parent free responsibilities on the Caribbean sea making that fake pirate accent that he used to make.
...
Concentrate! Not use to remember that now!
...
I returned to my temporal home, the mighty Pegasus Casino. I went to my room, counted the money, checking that it was all there and thanking the cleaning ladies didn't even bother to check the safety of the cheapest safe of the casino. I was feeling pretty lucky already and went on my way to my free lunch. I mean my free money. I mean my fierce competition yet!

I arrived with my black-hood and cheap sunglasses and looked like one of the other guys. Yes! Nailed it! I was going to go to the table when a security guy stopped me and derived me to the nearest cash chip stations. Oh silly me, they don't handle real money on the table, this was not a dramatic TV show! So after I exchanged $10.000 dollars worth of chip to a slutty cashier giving me wicks per word I said, I rushed to the free buffet while holding my bag of chips.

Sure it doesn't look good to see a guy carrying $10k of chips refilling 3 times his plate. But in my defense, I didn't had dinner last night, didn't had breakfast and didn't have lunch. So...that makes 3, totally making sense to eat I kept nodding to myself, praising me for being so intelligent. Maybe I would even gain one Int stat thinking like this? 

***************************

[Status]

[Name] Fergal Parker (Dead but alive)

[Lifespan] -60 years

[Job]

<<Life Dealer>>

Ability to shorten a human target lifespan and transfer the number of years to the user by receiving those years in exchange for something in return.

[Stats]

Level → 1

[Power/Strength → Current: 10 STR (50 KG) | +5 KG/STR]

[Intelligence → Current: 21 INT (IQ: 94) | +4 IQ/INT]

[Speed → Current: 12 SPD (6m/s) | +0.5m/s/SPD]

[Agility → Current: 10 AGI (-0.030s | -0.003s/AGI]

[Stamina → Current: 10 STA (Ability to run 10 KM without stopping) | +1 KM/STA]

[Luck → Current: 30 LUK | Max: 100 LUK]

[Charm/Charisma → Current: 10 CRM | Max: 100 CRM]

[Recovery → Current: E | Max: SSS]

[Control/Accuracy → Current: D | Max: SSS]

[Skills]

<Life Dealer World> → MAXLVL (A shop where a person's desire can be fulfilled)

<Lachesis Eyes> → LVL1 (Ability to see target's lifespan)

<Inventory> → MAXLVL (Somewhere to store all the random junk)

<Lucky Draw> → LVL1 (What new skills will you obtain?)

<Overdrive> → LVL1 (Doubles the basic stats for 10 minutes. After the times concludes basic stats decrease by 50% for 1 hour).

<Omniscient> → LVL1 (See everything within a 5-meter radius).

-----

[Quest Log]

*Use <Lachesis Eyes>100 times. (Reward: Unlock LV2) {97 more times to completition}

*Collect 10  gold coins. (Reward: LEVEL UP) {8 more gold coins until completition}

*Purchase 10 stat points. (Reward: 1 x Lucky Draw) {10 more stats until completition}

-----

[Contract Log 1/1]

Matthew, the drunkard → Deposit $1.500.000 into his account before 30 days. Failing to fulfill this contract you need to pay double of the lifespan of written on the contract. If unable to pay the lifespan requested, the user will die.

*******************

I was joking checking my [Stats] while I said that. But my intelligence did actually go up! Obviously not for that terrible excuse to eat 3 free plates of food... I mean a genius idea! Anyhow this is a good discovery. Yesterday I spent almost 12 hours of hard use of my brain to try to beat my opponents. Maybe that's why the intelligent rose. 

If this doesn't have a limit and I gain sufficient years I could possibly be the smartest guy on Earth! 
*heavy breathing*

No, this system can't be that broken. From the golden coin quest, it seems that I'm currently LV1 so it most possible means that I have a cap of growing stats per level. Like 5 or 10 per level. That would be the correct assumption.

Quickly checking if I gained a stat for that hypothesis I became frustrated when It didn't.
Well, fuck you too system!
While I was thinking all that a rude voice interrupted my thoughts and said "Are you a beggar that a rich man took pity of you and lent $10.000 just to eat for free? HAHA!!"

What could you do with the possibility of living forever? Would you refuse it and just die? Would you accept it and became evil or a merciful God? Of course, no deal is made to be fair. Join Fergal Parker in his adventures to explore his new ability!

***************************
This is a novel inspired by the original novel in this site called "Life Merchant" by YoonTaeTifYuFeiMin. 

I remade this novel keeping the realistic part and cutting the fictional elf/orc/monsters stuff since for me it seemed unnecessary.

This novel focus on the way Fergal slowly but cautiously gains power thanks to his new ability.


* 1 Chapter/ Week. Minimum of 1200 words. (Maybe even more chapters if I have free time)

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/KoFuWrites

After class, the math teacher flew into a rage in the office and yelled at Bai Ziyue, "The students in your class are incorrigible! There's nothing I can do about them!"
Bai Ziyue didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Next to her, Tang Yijun chuckled. "If I remember it right, both Su Xiaomo and He Jiayu have good grades, right?"
"Yes."
"Let them sit together, then. He Jiayu will be able to keep an eye on Su Xiaomo," Tang Yijun suggested.
"Good idea!" Bai Ziyue clapped her hands.
Even the math teacher's beard was shaking with anger now.
That was outrageous! Aww!
Bai Ziyue went to the classroom to tell them about the change in seating. He Jiayu switched places with Kang Jian as arranged, but Su Xiaomo had been reading a comic book under the desk. She didn't even notice Bai Ziyue come in, let alone the fact that she had a new deskmate.
She cried out in excitement at a twist in the plot. "Aah! They're finally sleeping together! I'm so content! I can relive that moment for ten years!"
He Jiayu took a look and blushed.
Was she reading… an X-rated comic… 
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. The top has an Apollo's belt and abs. One, two, three, four, five… all eight of them! I'd like to feel them myself! Come over here. Let me feel yours." Su Xiaomo was as unrestrained as ever. Her gaze still on the page, she reached out her hand to her left… 
As an athletic student, Kang Jian had well-toned muscles. Since he wasn't her match in a fight, Su Xiaomo had her way with him all the time.
He Jiayu pursed his lips and stopped her hand.
"Why, you're shy now? We used to take baths together when we were little!" Su Xiaomo grinned. "Kang Jian, have you lost your abs from eating too much lately?"
When she turned around and met He Jiayu's gaze, the look on her face turned very interesting.
WTF?
Shit!
"Ahem! Sorry, I thought you were someone else…" Su Xiaomo chuckled awkwardly and tried to free herself from He Jiayu's grip. "Dude, we can talk about this. There's no need to get physical!"
He Jiayu blushed and let go of her hand.
"The next class is starting soon," he reminded her.
"I see." Su Xiaomo nodded awkwardly. "Aren't you going back to your seat?"
He Jiayu raised an eyebrow. "Going back where?"
What?
Su Xiaomo turned around and saw that Kang Jian was sitting in He Jiayu's former seat and was having fun playing five-in-a-row with Chi Yuanfeng.
Su Xiaomo's mouth fell open. "Did you… switch seats with Kang Jian?"
"Yes." He Jiayu smiled. "What were you doing? Didn't you hear when Miss Bai came in to announce that?"
Su Xiaomo chuckled in embarrassment, putting her comic book out of sight.
"Well… it's time for class, let's study!" Su Xiaomo made a show of getting out her textbook, but her drawer was way too messy and it took her forever to find the book she needed for the next class. With a tug, a stack of colorful comic books fell out in a cascade.
Su Xiaomo: …!!
She went to pick them up in a hurry. A pair of slender, nice-looking hands reached out and helped her to pick up every single one of them.
He Jiayu sounded rather helpless. "What can I say… You're so clumsy."
He then rubbed her head. "Be a smart girl and hide your comics better next time. The dean will probably have a stroke if he sees them."
Su Xiaomo's heart raced; she had butterflies in her stomach, and her face turned scarlet… 
Was this what they called a "killer head rub" in romance comics?


As an anti-fan of the idol group, Starry Night, An Xiaxia is happy to spend her time online slandering lead singer Sheng Yize. 

But things take an unexpected turn when An Xiaxia starts high school - the Starry Night trio somehow becomes her classmates, and even end up moving into her house. 

Also, the nation’s idol Sheng Yize seems particularly interested in An Xiaxia for some reason...

Sheng Yize: Xiaxia, if I and a chicken wing fall into the water together, which one will you save?

An Xiaxia: Hm… I can't swim, so obviously you're going to save yourself and get my chicken wing out!

Sheng Yize: I thought I was the nation’s idol???

Kimura Kazuki never imagined that he would be able to get a person who could help him accomplish an apparition's obsessiveness offline, and all he had to do was to reap what he has not sown.
And to think that that person was a young girl somehow made him feel ridiculous. 
Of course, he was also thankful for Chiba Shiori's reminder. If not, he could not imagine how long it would have taken him to realize that obsessiveness could also be achieved through this way.
Maybe this method would occur to him in the future, but to be reminded gave him a more in-depth understanding of his obsessiveness. Also, without Chiba Shiori's reminder, this "future" might only occur afterward.
Now that he had a more broadened mind, Kimura Kazuki started to do a lot of thinking.
The obsession of apparition came in many forms, there were definitely more out there in which he was not familiar. Should he continue to develop the offline world, such as Nakagawa Aokiji? Of course, there must be rewards, or else no one would assist you in accomplishing this obsessiveness. 
But Kimura Kazuki instantly kept these thoughts to himself. 
There were not many apparitions. To bump into one, he needed either to be in search of one, lucky, or both. From the time he traveled till today, aside from evil ghosts, he had only met three kind spirits, namely Akie Hanzawa, an older woman in Suiryu Duplex Apartment, and Yuriko Kawachi, together with Tsukumogami of Mai Kujo.
These made Kimura Kazuki feel that his luck was not bad after all. 
However, luck wasn't in abundance, maybe it would be a long time before he got to see another again. 
"Then I'll leave first." Since Chiba Shiori was willing to help, Kimura Kazuki accepted it, and she seemed to be of great interest.
Of course, though she volunteered, he could not take it for granted, as Chiba Shiori was always curious about mysterious stuff. Perhaps when Yuriko Kawachi's obsessiveness was completed, Kimura would reward her with a gift. But, he was still considering what the gift should be.
"Alright… Oh yea, haven't you been looking for Chiyoko?"
"Looking for me?" Yuriko Kawachi, who was standing by the side, looked confused upon hearing this. She soon realized it was not her who was being searched for, but someone called Nishiyama Chiyoko.
"Why? Do you have ways to find her?" Kimura Kazuki waited for Chiba Shiori to finish explaining to Yuriko Kawachi and asked with curiosity. Though Chiba Shiori was a person with no status, yet he had never looked down on her. Whether it was recommendations of exorcism websites or new thoughts on obsessiveness, she had contributed great ideas that exceeded most people. 
"No," Chiba Shiori laughed as she answered. "You can send me a photograph of Nishiyama Chiyoko. Maybe we can start on the internet. When I'm free, I can get on the Clairvoyant website and go through the surveillance videos."
The Clairvoyant System was a video surveillance system, created by humans to maintain security. It contributed to scenarios such as on-site monitoring, case investigations, post-event evidence collection, and the like.
Japan was considered as one of the countries with the most clairvoyance in the world. Privacy was unheard of among Japanese officials and citizens.
Japan's clairvoyant surveillance could be checked through websites, and even through an iPhone. One could find clairvoyant videos and download them as they pleased. Of course, not all videos were opened to the public.
Some hundred thousand surveillance were blocked from the public eye.
Kimura Kazuki was slightly surprised upon hearing this. He was not very familiar with this as he had only been in the country for approximately one year. He had never thought that most of Japan's surveillance videos were open to the public. This would come in helpful when in search of someone.
"As long as Nishiyama Chiyoko isn't in the village, we can definitely trace her," Chiba Shiori explained. "Once we have photos, we can hire professionals to help with shortlisting. Perhaps, we'll find her sooner than expected."
When Chiba Shiori found out that Kimura Kazuki was looking for Nishiyama Chiyoko, she had been thinking of ways to help him. She was only aware of this while surfing the internet the day before, this was all a surprise to her as well. She had never known this previously. If she had not taken the initiative to understand, she would not have gotten this far.
Kimura Kazuki looked at Chiba Shiori with heartfelt emotions. If she had lived in the era of recuperation of reiki, even if she could not practice it, she would also be a knowledgeable researcher because she had flexible thinking. While in thoughts, he took out his mobile phone and was about to send her Nishiyama Chiyoko's photo...
However, when he looked at this photo sent to him by Nakagawa Aokiji, a sense of familiarity arose. He was taken aback. Carefully looking at it again, all of a sudden, the image of that person he met at Akihabara Square that noon flashed through his mind. The feeling of familiarity towards that skimpily-dressed female cosplayer.
It's her?
Because of the inexplicable familiarity, he had kept the female cosplayer in mind.
Of course, as time passed by, this memory would eventually fade out. 
Just like this photo sent by Nakagawa Aokiji. When he first saw it, he had remembered it clearly. But as time passed, the picture in his mind faded. This was why when he saw the female cosplayer that afternoon, she was very familiar, but he did not react to it. 
But... this was not right either.
Kimura Kazuki looked at the photo. He realized Nishiyama Chiyoko had a soft feature in the picture, though not very pretty, there was charisma, which was entirely different from the beautiful female cosplayer he saw. But besides the charm, they both had very similar features.
He was lost in deep thought for a moment. Later, instead of sending the photo to Chiba Shiori, he handed her his phone.
Curious, Chiba Shiori took over the phone. She was shocked when she looked at it, "Isn't this the female cosplayer we saw this afternoon? But their charisma was different, they couldn't be the same person, could they?" She also had a deep impression of the cosplayer from that afternoon as her attire had been very revealing.
"You think they look alike too?" Kimura Kazuki took back his phone and sent her the photo, saying, "I'll call Mr. Hiroshi to find out more about the female cosplayer. I've sent you the photo, and while you're at it, you can find someone online to check on the surveillance. Have the expenses recorded, I'll pay for it later." 
"Sure." Though Chiba Shiori wanted to offer that she would pay, she decided to keep silent about it.
"Thanks for the trouble."
Soon after, Kimura Kazuki bid farewell to Chiba Shiori and Yuriko Kawachi and called Muraoka Hiroshi the second he stepped out of the door.
As the organizer of the comic con, he should have the registered information of the famous cosplayers. Unless it was an ordinary cosplayer, that female cosplayer whom everyone wanted to take a photograph with should be considered as a renowned cosplayer.


Time travelling from the majestic era after the Recuperation of Reiki, he became Kimura Kazuki, a 16-year-old high school student in Japan, one year before the Reiki Recuperation.

Tentatively, he set out to hone himself to the bone, burning candles at both ends to stockpile resources in preparation for the imminent Recuperation of Reiki. His goal was to be many steps ahead of all humanity when the time comes.

However, it seemed like fate had decided to play a cruel trick on him.

One year later, the Recuperation of Reiki... did not happen as expected.


"Eeek!" 
After typing the title, Pi danced around with excitement, and high-fived Galaxy to celebrate this great achievement.　　
"Wait a minute!" Zhang Zian could not ignore this. "Pi, do you want to write a novel about pets?"　　
"Eeek!"　　
Pi nodded. It pointed at him, at Galaxy, then at itself, and typed: "A novel about pets, pet shop and everybody."　　
Zhang Zian frowned slightly after hearing this, feeling worried about the future of this novel. He had not read many online novels, but his gut feeling was telling him that nobody would be interested in such a novel. For pet owners, they were so busy cuddling their cats and walking their dogs, how could they have time to read a novel about pets? For those who don't own pets, they were either not interested in pets or even hated pets, not to mention reading a book about pets. The most likely potential readers were those who didn't have time to own pets, but liked pets and wanted to own them remotely in a "cloud". But how many of them could there be?　 
Most online novels were about travelling back in time throughout history or another world, practicing Kongfu, writing poetry, being cool and kicking butts; or about being raised from the dead and returning to a city, then making monkey with prophetic knowledge and dating a few or dozens of women at the same time...He had never heard of a popular online novel about a pet shop.　 
Pi wanted to kill time by writing a novel. He was happy about this. But for a novel with so few potential readers, it may lose confidence after finding out nobody was reading it. It may fall into deeper self-isolation.　 
He knew all this, but he didn't want to kill Pi's enthusiasm at this moment. He smiled reluctantly. "OK. Will I be in it? Then write me as a handsome man."　
"Eeek!"　　
Pi grinned and typed: "This is hard..."　
Zhang Xian said, "I was just kidding. But, Pi, when is the beginning of the story? Now?"
"Eeek."　　


Pi nodded and typed: "From last year, when you just returned to this city."　　
Zhang Zian thought about it. Maybe a good story can be written about it, such as writing him as a hero with hundreds of years of experience, but met his "Waterloo" and died, then was brought back to life. This may interest the readers and meet their expectations. He smiled. "OK. I'll tell you my story before coming to the pet shop... Do you know Wang Qian and Li Kun, the two guys working part-time in the shop? They always believed that I was a big hero during the time of Jindan. In fact, this is true..."　
"Eeek!"　　
Pi waved its hands and interrupted him. It showed him the nameless book, and typed: "No. Everything that happened in the past can be found in the book."　　
Zhang Zian: "I'm just an ordinary Joe in real life. Can't you gratify me in the novel?"　
Famous interrupted him as well. "Everything in the past? Does it include my stories in the Imagined Landscape?"　　
"Eeek!"　　
Pi nodded.　　
Famous said, "Can't I have any privacy? I gotta pay attention to my image in the Imagined Landscape."　　
"Which website will you publish your work? I mean, there are a lot of online novel websites. Where do you want to publish? There is a saying that goes: the worst that could happen to a man is getting into a wrong profession; while the worst that could happen to a woman is marrying the wrong husband. The websites have different styles. This is a book for a small population of readers. If you pick the wrong website, you may have even fewer readers..." Zhang Zian reminded it tactfully.　　
"Eeek!"　　
Pi swiped the tablet screen to unlock it. Then it opened up a reading app and showed it to Zhang Zian.　　
"Oh, Qidian Web novel, that's the site I used earlier for online reading..." Zhang Zian nodded. He didn't know the online novel websites very well and could not have offered more help. But he heard that this was one of the biggest literature websites. It might be a good choice for Pi.　　


Pi tapped on a menu button: "Becoming a writer", then showed it to Zhang Zian.　　
"A photo ID is needed?" Zhang Zian took a glance, and thought this was complicated.　
"Eeek."　　
Pi typed: "I'm a residential alien. I don't have an ID."　　
Zhang Zian's face twitched. He didn't know where it learned the words "residential alien"...but it was appropriately used.　
"That is to say...you need my ID?" He pointed at his nose and asked.　
Pi nodded.　　
Fine. He was the only one with an ID in the pet shop. Although uploading his ID was not a safe move, he was an ordinary Joe after all. Not many hackers were targeting him. The internet was a free space. If all publications were anonymous, it could cause big problems. The dark web developers might blend in and advertise their illegal business.
Zhang Zian took a picture of his ID photo, and uploaded it according to the website instructions. After identity verification, he finally created a new book and uploaded new chapters with his account.　　
"Eeek!"　　
Pi typed the title of the first chapter eagerly: Amazing Fate Pet Shop. Then it entered the text: On the magnificent East Coast of the motherland, there was a quiet coastal city called Binhai City. It was beautiful, with a large economy and a slow pace of life. Binhai had an absence of large industrial enterprises, making it a suitable place to live a peaceful life...　
"Wait a minute!"　　
Zhang Zian found a big mistake, and asked Pi to pause, in case the mistake grew bigger.　　
"Eeek?"　　
Pi gestured to inquire.　
"What the heck is Binhai City?" Zhang Zian pointed out the mistake. "Pi, did you make a mistake? This is not Binhai City, and there is no such a city in China."　
"Eeek."　

Pi pointed at the website instructions for authors to show Zhang Zian. 
He stretched his neck, gazed at the screen and read. "In order to avoid unnecessary complications caused by real information in your work, we suggest the that authors avoid using real information in your writing, such as geographic locations, celebrity names, well-known companies, etc.... What the heck is this?"　
That was why. No wonder Pi used "Binhai City" to replace the real name of the city. He thought Pi was making a mistake.　
"But this city name is too sloppy. You'd better make a note, in case the readers complain about it." Zhang Zian reminded it.　　
Pi nodded bitterly and continued: "In this city with a sloppy name, there was a small, unknown pet shop." 
Zhang Zian nodded with satisfaction. But the next sentence made him uneasy again!　　
"Who is Zhang Zian? Why haven't I heard of this guy?" He asked.　　
Pi pointed at him, meaning "you", then at the website instructions on "celebrity names". 
Fine...I'm a celebrity at the end of the day. I was about to be myself and win the heart of a thousand girls...Zhang Zian was speechless. But to avoid breaking the website's rule by using a real name, he had to accept this weird alias.　　
"How about you, Galaxy and Famous? And Fina, Old Time Tea, Richard, and Snowy Lionet? Will they have aliases too?" He asked.　　
Pi typed: "No. We are not humans, so we can keep our names."　　
After typing, it deleted this extra sentence.　　
This cheered Famous up. "Great! I always wanted to keep my real name, not using an alias nor becoming a substitute of another dog."　　
This is unfair... Dogs have more rights than men these days? Zhang Zian was a little upset in his heart.　
After writing for a while, Pi was stuck, and could not tap any more keys on the keyboard. It scratched its head, read the nameless book for a few minutes, then resumed typing.　


Pi was a slow typist. Before this, it was typing out newspapers, following a template. Chinese was not its mother tongue. It had to design a plot, sketch the Chinese words in its head, then type them out.　　
If it were someone else with the same typing speed, Zhang Zian would not have watched on the side. But Pi was the one typing, and the story was about himself. He watched with great patience, going downstairs occasionally for business. 　　
As the words jumped from of Pi's keyboard onto the laptop screen, Zhang Zian's memory gradually came back. He relived the unforgettable days with Pi's words. 　
The detail that Pi described were things that he never told anybody else. He had even forgotten some of them himself. He lived everything in first person, but Pi recorded from an objective, third-person perspective, just like an invisible camera floating around him, recording every tiny detail.　　
"I absolutely didn't have dark eye circles." He pointed out.　
Pi typed "Yes" with certainty, then deleted it. It waved the nameless book, suggesting the nameless book's record could never be wrong.　　
Zhang Zian didn't know how to defend himself. He knew that he may have dark eye circles then after a few sleepless nights in the hospital, and being exhausted with the funeral. He might have very dark eye circles, but he couldn't see it himself. 
After the debut of Little Celery in Pi's writing, he laughed and said: "If Wang Yaning reads this novel, my obsession with young girls would be made known... Oh, Pi, apart from the names and locations, is everything else real?"　　
Pi thought about it and typed: "70% real and 30% unreal, just like 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms'."　　
Zhang Zian laughed silently. Pi certainly read the four masterpieces.　
After finishing the first chapter, with a 2079 word count, Pi uploaded it with satisfaction.
"Take a break, Pi." suggested Zhang Zian. Two to three hours had passed since Pi started writing this chapter.　
Pi jumped off the chair obediently to stretch itself. But it was worried about the fate of this novel. The beginning was so ordinary. Would someone read it?　　
　　



1. Download a suspicious game
2. Catch a few magical pets as partners
3. Go through interesting daily routines and lead the pet shop to a whole new level

Togetsu Academy, Rina's house.
Late at night, Rina lay on the bed, reading a comic book with relish.
Di!
The mobile phone placed on her pillow suddenly received a message. Rina frowned and opened her phone; it was a Twitter message from a female comic author friend:
"Hey, Rina, are you free this weekend? Let's go eat Chinese food together!"
The profile photo was a cute girl with golden ponytails.
"Chinese cuisine?" Rina raised her eyebrows. The young girl she knew was not only a painter, but also the daughter of a British diplomat. The two met at a celebrity banquet in the past, and later they gradually knew each other's identity.
No one knew that the 'Tongue of God' of Togetsu's Top Ten had a friend of the same age from a foreign school except for Rina herself and her follower, Feisha.
"Yeah, don't you know that there is a restaurant that is hotly discussed by the otaku tonight. Just in Ameyoko, Taito..."
Seeing this, Rina took a deep breath, and the abominable face appeared in front of her eyes again.
"Is that restaurant called Xia's Chinese Cuisine Restaurant?" She twitched her fingers to send a message.
"Oh, Rina, I thought that you, who's part of the Togetsu's Top Ten, didn't care much about the information of local restaurants."
"…"
Rina was silent until the girl on the opposite side urged her. She hummed and typed hardly, "What sh*t Chinese food, don't go!"
"Rina, your character is really inscrutable." The girl sent a sneering expression. When she was annoyed and intended to sneer at the girl, the girl sent the next text that made her heartbeat jump rapidly.
"I recently finished a short story. Would you like to see it, huh?"
"Short story?"
Thinking about the identity hidden by this friend, Rina blushed.
On the surface, she was the daughter of a British diplomat, a well-known Tokyo celebrity, and also known as debutante, but in fact, she was a deep house lady. She was also a small well-known peer painter on the Internet.
Thinking about the delicate and gorgeous book that she had sent before, Rina unconsciously stirred her legs on the bed, and her eyes were hesitant.
"Do you want it?" There was no response from the opposite side. The girl's tone was impatient.
"No, don't want!" 
"...Really don't want?" said the blonde girl with double ponytails. "You must be honest, Rina! After all, besides cooking, comics and novels are your second hobby! As a painter, I think I have the responsibility of giving you happiness, which will give you more inspiration for cooking!"
"I'm just saying that this short story was painted especially for you. Heehee, you will be pleasantly surprised after reading it!"
Seeing the last message, Rina was curious. Just as she was about to ask, the phone received a new email with a compressed package attachment, more than 20mb in size, which was quite small for a comic picture package.
Pursing her mouth, Rina received the email, skilfully downloaded it, un-compressed it, and opened it with her mobile phone.
"Full color?"
The first picture was very beautiful, giving a stunning sense of visual spike.
The setting sun was falling. The sky was far away, and the cherry blossom petals covered the ground. The surrounding trees were cherry trees. The two girls' limbs were entangled in the cherry blossom petals, and Rina's heartbeat accelerated. She looked carefully and noticed the appearance of the two girls. They were very familiar. She was stunned.
The girl with short red and purple hair was on the bottom, and the girl with long wavy blond hair was on top. She was charming. The girl on the top grabbed the other girl's uniform and tie, and the other hand picked off the other girl's white shirt which had been unbuttoned after she took off her coat. If the girl below was half-covered, then the girl above was too exposed. Her skin was white as snow. Below was a short uniform skirt. The black stockings on the right leg faded to the ankle.
"Hiss..."
Rina was able to see it no matter how stupid she was. The two girls in this picture scene were herself and Feisha!
"This, it's too foul!" Rina's face was as red as an apple. Her heart almost suffocated. She turned off her phone with a snap, gasping heavily in bed. For a while, she bit her teeth. But her body was still very obedient. She unlocked the phone screen again.
Di. The gorgeous style of lesbian pictures once again occupied the mobile phone screen.
This time, Rina grinded her teeth and looked at them.
First, second, third...
A total of eleven.
It was still alright at the beginning. The bolder the content was at the back, which made people's heart stop.
Because it was full color, and it was private self-entertainment, there was no code to describe the indescribable. Rina was dizzy. Her nose was hot, and she seemed to have a nosebleed.
"How is it?" Soon, the female artist with golden double ponytails sent greetings.
"Okay! Very good!" Rina grinded her teeth.
"…"
A luxurious villa on a ramp in Tokyo. 
Late at night, the girl sitting at the painting table holding a mobile phone shivered.
"Don't worry, Rina, it's for internal appreciation only. I will not upload it to the Internet!"
"...Golden retriever, do you want to die?"
From the text Rina sent, the girl could perceive the terrible murderousness, shrinking her neck. "Oh, I know. I will keep the manuscript carefully."
"Whatever. Anyway, if the set of pictures spread to a third person, you know the consequences!"
Rina finished saying it and actively changed the topic.
"I heard that you have made up with your first love recently?"
"What? Who wants to make up with him!"
This time it was the blonde double ponytail girl who was a tsundere.
"Well, it's better not to mix with a group of common people all day. Your primary school and junior high school are public schools, right? Why did you suddenly go to Hakunosaki High School..." 
Late at night, two arrogant girls with similar characters started a long chat.
…
The next day.
Yesterday, the heavy rain in Tokyo made the streets wet. It was a bit cold in the middle of March. But in the morning, the Chinese restaurant deep in the old store street was surrounded by a group of guests.
"It's almost nine o'clock. It hasn't opened yet?"
"Who knows. I came here after reading Mizutani's tweet. Today happens to be Saturday. I'm free, so I can wait."
This group of guests had one common characteristic:
Young!
The younger guests were only 13 or 14 years old, and the oldest were just university students. It could be said that they were all loyal users of NicoNico, and even the fans of Mizutani.
The psychology of fans was easy to understand. Whatever the idols strongly supported, no matter what, they would pay attention, not to mention a Chinese restaurant that was said to be delicious.
In this world of clothing, food, housing, and transportation, 'food' was infinitely elevated, even sacred, and the chef's social status had also risen.
The RB network had recently set off a career discussion craze. People were scrambling to vote. As a result, professional chefs had a shocking number of votes. It was far away from the second and third civil servants and doctors.


Xia Yu made a wish to eat until he vomited. And this particular wish brought him to a completely strange spirit world which was full of cuisines.
What, Chef God System?
"You need to not only satisfy normal people's appetite but also all kinds of devils and ghosts. Use your food to move them!" the old man said to him coolly.
So, Xia Yu would never stop running on the road of becoming a Chef God.
 

However, how he was supposed to use the ways of civilized people to get in touch with these people and convince them to give up this place to make way for the construction of a hub for the Milky Way Nets Above Snares Below was a difficult problem. 
What he had previously encountered on the Magnetic Star was an evil society, which made it easier to deal with those people. Following the rules of the other party, their power level would determine their social rank, so by directly suppressing the Emperor of the Magnetic Men, he was able to free those slaves of the magnetic people. 
As for this society that seemed almost as if they were in the Era of Technology of humankind, Fang Ning found it to be a rather tricky matter to have them move away in peace.
Despite it being tricky, he still managed to come up with a solution to the matter as soon as possible...
"Baby, release an Epic-level mission right away on the alliance's platform."
"Yes, Master. How should the mission be described?"
"The construction of the Milky Way Nets Above Snares Below. In the area of thirty-fourth node, there's a civilization that has to be relocated. The process of relocation must uphold the notions of fairness, justice, and free will." 
"Master, why do you insist on relocating them? Won't it be better to get them to join in our construction work for the Milky Way Nets Above Snares Below?" the Heavenly Book questioned. 
Fang Ning shook his head. "If it were any other normal nodes, it would be fine. However, this is one of the eighty-one central nodes, so we must let the Whitestone people create their settlement here if we want to keep our peace of mind. You have to understand how fickle a person's heart can be. What would never are benefits and interests. It is destined that our interests can never be in agreement with the interests of others forever."
"Master is wise indeed," the Heavenly Book baby quickly flattered.
"Has the mission been released?" Fang Ning asked.
"Yes, but no one has accepted it just yet."
"I suppose the rewards aren't high enough." Fang Ning shook his head.
"These people are too greedy. I've already offered a reward of one million Justice Points, and they're still not eager to participate?" The Heavenly Book baby sounded very upset. 
"Uh, let me take a look at it." When Fang Ning heard this, he became puzzled.
Then, he used an administrator's clearance to enter a few discussion threads. 
"The relocation of an entire civilization? Well, this mission seems epic enough, but will we be able to complete it?"
"According to initia ourl estimation, if it's just us, our mission completion probability is zero. If we need to relocate them, we'll have to find another planet for them."
"Yes. Unless we're able to cultivate our powers up to God-level, there's no way we can complete the mission." 
Fang Ning finally understood the situation, and quickly instructed, "Baby, hurry up and add a remark saying that they can ask for free assistance from the Great Venerable Dragon God." 
"Okay, got it, but will System Daddy agree to this?" asked the Heavenly Book.
"I refuse to agree. Why should I assist them at no cost?" Sir System quickly interjected.
"Oh, sorry, my only weakness is that I'm too kind-hearted," Fang Ning said without a choice. "It only occurred to me that we need them to relocate, but I didn't realize that they're more in need of our help to relocate. Well, this sounds a bit like a tongue-twister. In reality, their civilization is left with only four hundred years of survival time, and most of their descendants will then become extinct. On the other hand, our situation is not that urgent."
"That's right. You should've said that after these crab people have been relocated to a new planet, they'll have to pay me a large sum of remuneration."
"Uh, the most common form of remuneration would be magical energy points. However, we'll need to carry out technological diffusion first. Otherwise, they won't be able to pay the remuneration," Fang Ning said while frowning.
"Well, do it then. There's no point worrying about bringing them into the picture when so many other people already know of these technologies," Sir System said indifferently.
"In that case, how much remuneration will you require?" Fang Ning asked warily.
"We'll set it at one trillion magical energy points then. I'll still need to find them a habitable planet, which is very time-consuming," Sir System said gleefully.
"That's pretty ruthless of you, but you'll have to set a payment period as well. It can't be too short, so let's have them pay one billion per year. They'll be able to make the full payment over a thousand years then," Fang Ning suggested. 
"Alright then, I'll give them a payment period of a thousand years," Sir System gave in. 
After adding the new mission remark and indicating the bill rate for the Great Venerable Dragon God, the Alliance of Justice and Order's platform livened up in an instant.
"Team up, team up!"
"I've a nine-star rating on the platform with an average mission completion rate of ninety-three percent. Looking for a team!"
This was an important mission dealing with extraterrestrial beings, and mostly importantly, its risk factors were low. This meant that as long as their powers were above Pond-level, and that they knew some defense spells, they would be considered invincible to the other party.　　
This was definitely an easier mission compared to the previous ones.
Since there was no risk of dying and having to go through reincarnation, they did not have to worry about any other difficulties.
Fang Ning saw that the number of people accepting the mission had surpassed thirty thousand within a very short period of time.
This was mainly because the mission itself had a default restriction. With this type of mission where its place of execution was in outer space, the participants' powers were required to be above Pond-level in order to ensure their ability to protect themselves. 
In the past two years, the number of Pond-level powerhouses had been increasing rapidly, and they were now in great abundance.
Fang Ning did not bother to watch how these people formed their teams. In any case, he only needed to know that out of the thirty thousand people who had accepted the mission, only eight thousand of them passed the examination at the end, after which they came together to form an interstellar relocation team...
"Okay, now that our business is done here, let's move on to the next planet," Sir System urged.
"No way. As a hero of justice, I have to supervision this from beginning to end." Fang Ning had not even seen anything interesting happen. How could he move on already? 
Now that he was finally able to go out on a free adventure, he did not want to waste all his time on work and paving ways for others. He also deserved to enjoy the scenery along the journey from time to time, right?
"You're just being lazy. After this matter is dealt with, I think I should make you train and cultivate in isolation again," Sir System said resentfully.
Fang Ning did not respond, and continued to wander around the crab man's room.
After the other party had gone to bed, he then started to use the person's computer to go on the internet.
Was he not afraid that the other party would discover any traces of his presence? Well, he was not such a cowardly alien.
The next day, the golden crab man woke up and reached for his phone out of habit to check the news headlines of the day.
"We're going to be relocated by aliens!"
"This may seem like a huge joke, but this is the truth. Dear readers, please read on patiently and trust us, for we're a public-spirited media that has persisted through three cycles of civilization."
"A group of powerful beings who call themselves humans from a planet called Earth has made an announcement to the entire planet at 2 o'clock Valley Standard Time."　
"A highway is being constructed through the Milky Way, and our planet is coincidentally situated within the scope of land acquisition for the highway, so they're given us the choice of moving out of the Solar System within a limited time frame."
"There are two parts to the compensation for relocation. The first part is that we'll be provided with a more habitable and safer stellar system free of charge. The other part is that they'll transfer to us some technologies that are commonly used at an interstellar level. For the technology transfer fee, we'll need to transfer two trillion magical energy points to them over the coming one thousand years." 
"These magical energy points are a special type of commodity that they're urgently in need of, which is the common currency of the Milky Way. We'll only be able to produce it after we've received the relevant technologies."
When the golden crab man saw this, he became dazed for quite some time before rushing over to his calendar to confirm that today was not April Fools' Day.
Afterward, he hurried over to the computer and opened all the major official news websites as well as many popular online forums.
Then, he realized that the news had taken over all the websites and forums...
"Aliens really exist!"
"Powerful humans from Earth! How scary!"
"One thing to be grateful for is that they're still quite civilized. They aren't like those evil aliens from the thriller and science fiction department, and don't seem to have snobbish characters."
"Now, we have to give a response straightaway. I hope the entire planet will come together and protect the interests of all our people in a rational manner. We must not be impulsive."
"The differences between us and the other party seems to be on a dimensional level. Our technological development has fallen into a bottleneck while they already have the power to travel across the Milky Way. The differences in the strength of both parties are glaringly obvious! Dear decision-makers, you must be very aware of this problem and don't be foolish like those decision-makers in the films." 
"Right now, we must initiate a referendum on both planets immediately and decide on this issue. In fact, this referendum is not to decide if we should agree to the other party's request, but to confirm whether their conditions are true and reliable or just a scam."
"The suspicions of the previous replier are very foolish. Looking at how formidable the other party is, they have no reason to lie to us. It would've been much easier for them to destroy us. Such suspicions will only make them detest us more. What we should do now is to accept all of their conditions and show them our friendliness, civilized and orderly nature, as well as our love for peace…" 
"The hypocrisy of the previous replier will be actual cause of them detesting us more. We should express ourselves in a genuine way. We're not a race that's entirely kind-hearted, but neither are we a completely evil race. We're just a normal group of people trying to survive in the universe. As long as we can live on in peace and control our own desires, we're a rational nation and not a bunch of crazy colonizers…"
"In other words, the agenda for this referendum should be to collect the views and opinions of our people toward these humans from Earth, which would later be publicized to the other party to gain their kindness. As for the other party's conditions, they all seemed very fair and reasonable, so we should absolutely accept them."
"The previous replier is being too spineless. No matter how powerful those aliens are, we can't get down on our knees and surrender just yet. We need a better set of conditions." 
"Well, that's very easy. We can move away while you stay behind."
The golden crab man quickly posted an inquiry.
"I'd just like to ask, where's the polling station for this referendum?"


Procrastinator extraordinaire, Fang Ning, had lost his consciousness after banging his head on a night of celebration. He woke up to a realization that he no longer had control of his body, as a System had taken it over. Will he eventually regain control of his body or will he be trapped in his body forever? How does he maneuver this situation? What's in store for Fang Ning?

Since Zhang Tie came to Fire Dragon Bounty Territory, after finishing the handover formalities of Fire Dragon Bounty Territory and authority confirmation, Zhang Tie always wandered around alone. He almost traveled all the 10 cities and Yangui Mountain Range in Fire Dragon Bounty Territory. After a few days' travel, Zhang Tie was already familiar with the local customs and practices.
Zhang Tie came back to Xuantian City in the morning. When he found this common hotel which was a bit boisterous, he entered it to have some food. By the way, he would learn about the situation in Xuantian City. Zhang Tie thought that the simplest way for him to be familiar with a place was to listen to the free chat of those people from all walks of life in the mass-gathering public places like teahouses, pubs and hotels.
However, it was out of Zhang Tie's imagination that he could listen to the "Legend of Black Iron Hero", in which he was the main character.
This story was vivid. Some contents were real although being processed artistically; some were fabricated reasonably. As a result, Zhang Tie's image turned full and real which was righteous and hot-blooded just like a vivid legendary figure.
'What the hell?'
Zhang Tie wondered about it very much.
After hearing that Boss Feng was going to have the top 8 prostitutes in Xuantian City play "Mudan Pavilion" in Pear Fragrance Garden tonight, the audience in the dining hall started to discuss Boss Feng while they shifted their topic to the selection of local representatives of Xuantian City. After bidding a farewell to Boss Liu, the storyteller left the hotel under the guidance of a lad.
"Boss Feng is our heroine in Xuantian City. It's said that Boss Feng only sold her talents instead of her virginity when she was young. Later on, as she was very shrewd, she rented a hub and gradually expanded her business..."
"I was told that Boss Feng never forced her girls to sell their virginity. As long as those girls could work enough years for her or make enough money to redeem themselves, Boss Feng will recover their freedom on her own initiative. If any of them meets her Mr. right, Boss Feng will even gift her a dowry. The third son of the mayor of Xuantian City wanted to sleep with Ruoxi in Phoenixflute Pavilion, Boss Feng stopped him as Ruoxi had already met her Mr. right. It displeased the third son of the mayor; as a result, he had people damage half of the entire Phoenixflute Pavilion..."
"If not, how could the geishas exert their full efforts to work for Boss Feng?"
"But it's a bit improper for a woman who was once a geisha to attend the selection of local representatives..."
...
When those people were discussing on the 2nd floor, Zhang Tie stood up. After throwing a gold coin onto the table, he followed the storyteller downstairs.
"Sir, you've paid too much; wait a moment, I will give you the change..."
The food and tea water that Zhang Tie consumed were worth at most 2 silver coins. However, Zhang Tie dropped 1 gold coin. It really was too much. Therefore, at the sight of the gold coin, Boss Liu hurriedly stopped Zhang Tie.
Boss Liu was not short; however, his top of the head could only touch Zhang Tie's elbow.
"Your stretched noodles and steamed puffed buns tastes good, keep the change..." Zhang Tie waved his hand. In Zhang Tie's eyes, gold coins were already nothing different than silver coins. He just paid in terms of gold coins in case of change.
Additionally, Zhang Tie found that he liked the satisfied looks of these commoners caused by one gold coin because it would remind him of himself when he worked as a human sandbag for others in the Iron Thorns Fighting Club. Behind each generous deed, Zhang Tie was warning himself to think like a commoner and not to get lost because of wealth and strength.
No matter how many buildings one had, he only needed one bed to sleep on; no matter how many fertile arable lands one had, he could not eat more than 7kg's food per day; no matter how many gold one had, he could only wear 1 kg's silk and linen cloth at most. Even knights would have unfortunate moments or even die; therefore, even as an earth knight, Zhang Tie still treated himself as a commoner.
Boss Liu felt happy as he had not imagined that the tower-like tough man was such rich. After watching Zhang Tie's look carefully, Boss Liu said, "If you like my food, you can always come here. Given your special sturdy figure, I will keep your look deep in mind. If you come here in the future, I will not take your money anymore!"
Zhang Tie threw a glance at Boss Liu as he had not imagined that Boss Liu was really good at doing business. Although it was just a few silver coins, his words sounded very comfortable.
Zhang Tie burst out into his laughter as he patted Boss Liu's shoulders. Closely after that, he clattered downstairs...
After coming to the gate of Yuean Hotel, Zhang Tie looked left and right and found that thin frame less than 50 steps away on the bustling street. He sped up and patted the storyteller's shoulder. The storyteller turned around. Zhang Tie's eyes flickered as he said, "Follow me..."; closely after that, he walked towards the teahouse in the distance.
The storyteller just followed after Zhang Tie at the same speed all the way towards the teahouse.
After coming to the teahouse, Zhang Tie ordered a tranquil compartment and entered it, followed by the storyteller.
After taking a seat, Zhang Tie pointed at another seat in the room and told the storyteller to sit down.
"May I know your name?"
"This old man is Liu Yuqing!" The storyteller's eyes looked clear as he replied fluently. However, he felt that the words of the tough man in front of him were as euphonious as music from heavens. As a result, he just followed the tough man's will and replied honestly.
"How many years have you told stories?"
"This old man has told stories for 26 years!"
"Did you fabricate the Legend of Black Iron Hero?"
"No, the Legend of Black Iron Hero was written by Mr. Jingan..."
'Mr. Jingan?' Zhang Tie slightly frowned as he had not heard about this name before, "Who's Mr. Jingan?"
"Mr. Jingan is a great novelist. His novels are most popular among storytellers..."
"How long have you told the Legend of Black Iron Hero?"
"About 2 years!"
"Who let you tell the Legend of Black Iron Hero in Xuantian City?"
"This old man doesn't know who's he. Two years ago, a strange guest gave me the novel Legend of Black Iron Hero and told me that I could gain 10 gold coins a month in my account of Golden Roc Bank if I kept telling this book in Xuantian City. After saying that, that guest gave me 10 gold coins as the advance payment for the first month. You know, storytellers could make 3-4 gold coins a month at most. Those poorer could make at most 1 gold coin a month. Therefore, from then on, I started to tell the Legend of Black Iron Hero in Xuantian City. In the second month, I really gained 10 gold coins in my bank account. Therefore, I have been telling Legend of Black Iron Hero every day in Xuantian City until now..."
"What about the other storytellers in Tianxuan City? Are they also telling Legend of Black Iron Hero?"
"2 years ago, the novel Legend of Black Iron Hero had been popular among storytellers and guests in the Northeast Military Region. You could listen to the story in each city, even in the towns..."
"Whether the other storytellers will also gain 10 gold coins a month as a payment by telling the same story?"
"I have no idea. However, in the last sacrificial anniversary of my teacher, I met a junior fellow apprentice who was mainly telling stories in Yanzhou Province. He told me that he had the same experience as me. As long as he told Legend of Black Iron Hero, he could also gain 10 gold coins a month in his bank account. As my junior fellow apprentice was younger and healthier than me, he was paid 12 gold coins that month by telling Legend of Black Iron Hero in the teahouses of towns outside the city where there was no storyteller. As a storyteller, the more you tell Legend of Black Iron Hero and more audience you have, the more money you will get..."
"Where can I buy the novel Legend of Black Iron Hero?"
"You could find it in all the bookstores in the city. Previously, there was only novel, now you can even buy a comic book..."
After knowing that he could not get any intelligence from the storyteller, Zhang Tie dropped a gold coin on the table. After that, he stood up and walked out of the room.
...
After Zhang Tie left the room for 2 minutes, the storyteller who was sitting quietly at the table suddenly quivered all over. He looked around the room in a vacant expression before uttering, "Ahh, what's wrong with me? Why am I here? Shouldn't I have returned home? Why am I drinking tea here?"
...
After leaving the teahouse, Zhang Tie felt that this event was a bit weird. Besides being confused about that, he felt deeply moved. Therefore, he took a walk on the street and looked for a bookstore.
Only after a few minutes, Zhang Tie had found a bookstore and entered it.
"Boss, do you have Legend of Black Iron Hero?"
The clerk pointed at a bookshelf a few meters away.
Zhang Tie walked over there and noticed a very delicate novel Legend of Black Iron Hero in the most eye-catching place. Beside it, there was a set of many delicate comic books of Legend of Black Iron Hero. At the sight of the figures on the cover of the comic book, Zhang Tie felt it was very interesting. Therefore, he stretched out his hand to take it. Out of his imagination, another person on his side also stretched out her hand to take the same comic book. Therefore, their hands pressed on the same book.
Zhang Tie turned around and saw a pair of beautiful, big and black eyes...
A young lady in many precious headwears was watching him with a strong 7-8-year-old boy in her hand.
At the sight of this woman, Zhang Tie was shocked inside because she was Lv Shasha, his junior fellow apprentice on Hidden Dragon Island...


After the Catastrophe, every rule in the world was rewritten.
In the Age of Black Iron, steel, iron, steam engines and fighting force became the crux in which human beings depended on to survive.
A commoner boy by the name Zhang Tie was selected by the gods of fortune and was gifted a small tree which could constantly produce various marvelous fruits. At the same time, Zhang Tie was thrown into the flames of war, a three-hundred-year war between humans and demons on the vacant continent. Using crystals to tap into the potentials of the human body, one must cultivate to become stronger.
The thrilling legends of mysterious clans, secrets of Oriental fantasies, numerous treasures and legacies in the underground world — All in the Castle of Black Iron!
Written by Drunk Tiger, this novel is a prime example of fantasy steampunk. Let us journey through the world of limitless possibilities and inventions together!
------
**Warning: This novel contains mature content**


Wu Ji and his team went to Japan for an Asian MMA training camp. In addition to the training, there's a few friendship games and regular competitions, too.
The fighting conditions in Japan were considered very good in Asia, featuring both an excellent social foundation and atmosphere, as well as plenty of competition experience. Kyoto, especially, is the best site for large fight competitions in Asia outside of Macau.
When Wu Tong realized Wu Ji was going to Japan — and after finding out about events at the Singapore airport — she instantly called Meng Fan. It sounded like Meng Fan was staying a few days in Japan, so she instantly thought of having Meng Fan find Wu Ji.
She was still worried for Meng Fan!
While she was proud of Meng Fan, she was still concerned. She was afraid there was an organization behind the hijacking; if they found out Meng Fan's identity, they'd do him harm. Yet Meng Fan was so relaxed he still wanted to be out in Japan, which wouldn't be as safe as China. 
She heard previously that Meng Fan was going to Japan after Singapore — something to do with manga — now that Meng Fan told her the same thing, she didn't want to force him to come back to China. However, she still ordered Meng Fan to stay at the hotel and not go anywhere before Wu Ji's arrival.
After some more conversation, Wu Tong could hear Meng Fan was checking into the hotel, so she hung up.
The lobby for the Aman Kyoto Hotel was on the 33rd floor. The tallest part of the lobby was almost 30 meters high, crossing six levels, and proved to be a stunning sight when you looked up.
The interior of the hotel lobby featured a distinctive style similar to Japanese lanterns, presenting a different effect with the light and shadows, depending on the time of day. It was very unique.
The huge lobby offered check-in services as well as meals and drinks. One could enjoy an afternoon tea, all meals, plus drinks and coffee and more. In the afternoons and evenings, female artists in kimonos would play piano and provide art performances.
To Meng Fan, the most striking thing about the lobby, other than the grandiose size, was its symmetry.
When he was checking in, the employee offered him a welcome drink and hot towel. Then, he was led upstairs.
His second eldest sister, Meng Cailian, reserved a luxury suite of almost 80 sqm for him. Divided into a bedroom, lounge, office, and bathroom, the room was large and comfortable.
Since Meng Fan was Chinese, the employee taking him upstairs was bilingual in Chinese and Japanese. After she explained the facilities of the room and other services, she left after delivering a welcome letter, snacks, and a room entry card.
The entry card was built into a belt buckle and could be worn on his waist when he went out to prevent losses and make it easy to carry. Of course, this belt buckle was a custom design and made an ordinary belt look quite upscale.
What if you didn't have a belt?
Then you could put the entry card wherever you liked.
After Meng Fan closed the door, the first thing he did was take a shower. It had been more than 24 hours since he last bathed, not to mention the six-hour-plus flight he just had.
"Ahh, this is nice."
Meng Fan walked into the bathroom and turned to the right, which had a toilet next to the double counter. There's plenty of room in the bathroom; other than a shower and a jacuzzi, there's also a sauna.
All of the toiletry products in the bathroom were the Aman Kyoto Hotel brand, with great quality and a full selection.
After a shower, Meng Fan started soaking in the jacuzzi.
Then, he sweated for ten minutes in the sauna. So relaxing!
If Meng Fan wanted, a phone call would bring a massage therapist, male or female. Female therapists would undoubtedly be pretty; however, they were medical therapists, and there's nothing funny with their services.
After a relaxing time in the bathroom, Meng Fan ordered a meal and went toward the TV console in front of the bed.
The TV was hidden inside the console and could be moved up or down.
Behind the TV console was a minibar. After he opened it, he saw all kinds of beverage containers for tea, wine, coffee, and others. There was a fridge full of soft drinks, water, milk, and juice, all of which were free and were refilled daily. If one drank them all and wanted more, it could be refilled for free as well. In fact, if you didn't want the drinks in the minibar, handmade coffee could be delivered to you.
The environment was amazing; the service was comprehensive. After all, this hotel charged more than 100,000 Japanese Yen per day.
This time of year wasn't the peak tourism season, so the hotel charged 120,000 to 130,000 Yen for this kind of room. If it was the peak season, a smaller room would run to more than 10,000 Chinese yuan.
When it came to peak and off-peak tourism seasons in Japan, there was an interesting theory. For all southeast Asian countries including Japan, the peak and off-peak seasons depended largely on whether the Chinese people had holidays.
In a little while, Meng Fan's meal was delivered. It was a two-people dinner as requested. The food looked beautiful, the kind some girls would take photos of before reluctantly eating. The taste wasn't bad.
Meng Fan wasn't in the habit of checking food for poison. He inhaled the food quickly, then he started pacing in the hotel suite.
Even if Wu Tong didn't give the order, Meng Fan didn't plan to go out. He didn't even want to go to a CV meet and greet in the afternoon.
Why?
He was staying in to draw manga!
By now, he had +12 points in comic book Settings and Scriptwriting attributes. The story in his mind had been plotted over and over. He also had an outline and many sources of pictures, so he wanted to focus and draw today. He planned to have an opening chapter before visiting Shueisha Comics and Kodansha Comics — he wanted to submit his manuscript! 
There were also 10 points in attributes he didn't assign yet.
Meng Fan started thinking of how to assign them.
The 10 points weren't too many, but they weren't too few either.
Wait!
Meng Fan remembered something else. He hadn't completed [100 Champion Honor Points] yet. If he got this title, he'd receive +3 points in Drawing skill, Settings, and Scriptwriting as rewards in attributes.
Currently, in his bank card, in addition to the 500,000 yuan from Bai Zhi, he also got paid for the royalties from 8th Station streaming platform last month. In addition, there were the 100,000 dollars in reward from the airport and Japanese airline, which was given to Meng Fan after a conversion to Chinese yuan, so he definitely had more than a million yuan now.
He made money so he could spend it.
Meng Fan was perfectly happy using the one million yuan to get nine properties. Strictly speaking, it was 500,000 yuan; after all, half of what he rewarded him belonged to himself.
He logged onto his account on Penguin Animation and Comics Online, and in a flash, he added 100 million Penguin Bucks into his account!
He was going to use them all on "There's a Spirit Underground" but thought it was too selfish.
He clicked on "Create New Work" in the publishing platform. After careful consideration, he entered the name of his original comic, "Legend of the Mountains and Seas," and uploaded a book cover he drew earlier. Now the book was ready for review.
Meng Fan called his editor, Yixin, asking him to help review and approve the book.


To reward Meng Fan for his bravery before his heroic death, the cosmos rewarded him with a 'system', sending him back in time to three months ago, alive.

free comic book websites

Comic Book Guy!

Welcome to the Gaming World

Life Dealer System

The Heir is Here: Quiet Down, School Prince!

The Sword Deity in Tokyo

Pet King

Chef God Reborn in Japan

Seized by the System

Castle of Black Iron

My Extraordinary Achievements

People search free comic book websites also like: