Thoughts of why and why stories are written.

All the same English, he has not improved in 18 days.

I'll figure something out, try to correct the text.

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This is a work of art. Any resemblance to real people or real events is purely coincidental.

Every thing seems working as planned for Mia when she gets promoted as project manager. A nice house 
 on EMI, an international vacation with her son Ryan and increased say in company's decisions are few things on her mind.But everything including her precious job looks suddenly at stake, when the company is bought by a giant MNC which is headed by dangerously good looking, rich and smart CEO Stephen, who is set to make every thing upside down.He is prince of CCC corporation,but Mia is not there to fall for Cinderlla's fantasy,not again.She can't let any one sweep off her feet,her dark past doesn't allow her, not even in her dreams.Will Stephen let her go so easily? what has destiny planned for them, will life give them a second chance?

After Minos from the Jackal Bank left, Rubica had trouble focusing on what she was doing. She even poked a finger with her needle, but she didn't notice the finger bleeding. Ann couldn't watch her like that anymore and asked her to take a walk. She knew doing more needlework would end up having all of Rubica's fingers bleeding.
"Shall we?"
Rubica had already taken a walk earlier in the afternoon, but she gladly nodded to Ann. The fresh air that had the scent of flowers made her feel much better.
She walked in the garden, but then she saw Stephen coming out of the lab. He was supposed to be at Edgar's office guarding him, so it was weird he was out here, and he was even staggering a little.
"Doesn't… Sir Stephen look a little strange?"
"Yes, he looks as if someone broke his heart."
Ann replied with curiosity. Thanks to his handsome looks, rank, and excellent swordsmanship, he had been quite popular at Rubica's tea meeting. He had gotten several letters after that, but he refused all the invitations he received and didn't even write back any letters to the lovesick girls.
"So, which girl has made him stagger like that?"
"I don't think that's what this is about."
Rubica quickly stopped Ann's imagination from writing a sad love story. However, what she was thinking wasn't much different from what the others thought.
'Has something happened to him with Edgar?'
He looked so fragile that she just couldn't walk past it. Edgar was now acting sweetly as if he could do anything for her, but how did he act when they first met?
He kept saying and doing horribly arrogant things that completely shrouded his beauty. Stephen must have been hurt by him, and Rubica just couldn't ignore that.
"Wouldn't it be better to call him and find out what it is about?"
"Yes, I think so too. Sir Stephen?"
Ann called his name repeatedly in a loud voice, but Stephen couldn't listen. As he was usually keen even to the smallest sound, it made Rubica even more worried.
"Lord Stephen!"
Ann shouted so loudly that the sound rang through the garden, and Stephen stopped only then. He was a little surprised to see Rubica, but then he quickly wore his usual emotionless expression.
"What is it, madam?"
"Sir Stephen, is there something wrong?"
Ann and Stephen spoke at the same time. He frowned at Ann's question, but only for a second. But sadly, Rubica's maid didn't miss that small change.
"Oh, so something really has happened."
"Is it really a broken heart?"
"Well, it's time for him to fall in love."
The maid's talking eventually made him frown even harder.
"What on earth are you talking about? Do not misunderstand me."
He wanted to say he would leave if that was all, but he just couldn't say that to the duchess.
His knights had changed a lot after the tea meeting, and he wasn't liking the changes. He was also getting several love letters and invitations to meetings, which he didn't welcome at all, so he wasn't glad about such misunderstandings.
"Yes, it must be because of Edgar."
Rubica added that, pitying the knight, but it almost made his eyes come out in shock. Actually, he just had a conversation about the new machine the duke had ordered to be made at the lab.
-Why is this here at the lab?
He was checking on the raw materials that had arrived at the lab, pretending to be on a different errand. There was something that didn't belong there: some smooth and soft fabric.
-It's needed for a new experiment.
-An experiment with fabric… I wonder what you are going to make.
Were they trying to make some kind of special defense suit? He couldn't hide his hope and asked. The duke had stopped working on his blueprint some time ago because of his wife, and Stephen wondered if he had finally come to his senses.
-Oh, the duke is trying to make a machine that cuts fabric cleanly with heat.
As it wasn't any top military secret or something, the engineer answered his question without any doubt. Stephen, however, hadn't seen it coming. A machine that cut fabric cleanly? Why on earth was Claymore trying to make such a thing?
-Why on earth are you making such a machine?
-I don't know either. Anyway, we have to make it as soon as possible since it is the duchess's request.
The moment Stephen heard the word duchess, he almost bit his tongue. It was almost like she was born just to ruin his plan.
The duke had so many things to do. Why was he supposed to waste his time on such a useless thing? He really wanted to accuse the duchess. The engineer could see he was angry and left after murmuring a goodbye. Stephen was supposed to leave as well, but he stood on the spot and stared at the piles of fabrics as they went into the lab for a long, long time.
'I thought he had finally come to his senses, but he is completely out of his mind now.'
The duke had been having trouble focusing on his work for some time. He meddled with something that looks like a toy and came up with a strange tool for needlework. He said he made it because he got some free time, but everyone could see whose heart he was trying to win with it.
Even then, Stephen thought it would be temporary. No, he had hoped it was temporary. The duke had so many projects on his hands. Messengers and letters from the king had gone into his office more than once during the last few days, so the king had to be urging him to come back to his senses.
However, the duke hadn't made that threader as a temporary impulse. Really, he was blinded by love.
"Ha, is he… not going to make it?
When the anger faded, despondency came. He remembered how hard he tried to gain the duke's trust and become his most trusted guard. He already had a lot of information he wanted to steal right now, but he had been waiting only for 'Stella'. However, it looked like he wasn't going to get its blueprint even if he waited for ten years.
'I must calm down and let them know about this.'
Stephen decided to use a messenger bird to let them know about the duke's strange condition and make a new plan about it. He must have been shocked a lot and the way felt so long. He staggered, and then he stopped to take a deep breath.
Then, the duchess and her girls called him and were now talking about love and heartbreak. However, what angered him the most was the duchess's, 'It must be about Edgar.'
'Does she know?'
He got mad and scared at the same time. The duchess looked quite worried about him. Therefore, she carefully said to him, "Do not get too disappointed even if you don't achieve what you want. You know, none of us can always get our ways."
Rubica was sure Stephen liked Edgar. The duke, among so many men in the world… what would happen if that was ever revealed? Although it was about her own husband, she pitied Stephen for it.
"You will get another chance, a better one."
"Your Grace…"
Rubica tried hard to make him feel better, but then she was surprised. He called her with an extremely gloomy and ominous gaze but, contrary to that, there was a blue fire burning hot in his brown eyes. However, considering she was his rival in love, she could understand that.
"You… know?"
Rubica thought about it and then nodded. He had to be in so much pain that he couldn't tell anyone about it, and she pitied him for that.
"Just cheer up."
However, Stephen slapped her hand away and left without saying another word.
"Sir Stephen, how dare you!"
"It's alright, Ann."
Ann was enraged by Stephen's attitude and tried to follow him, but Rubica stopped her.
Stephen was guarding Edgar while hiding his feelings for him, so he had to be in extreme agony. She had asked him to come to her tea meeting without knowing about that. And just as she had expected, he was now getting a lot of attention. Oh, he had to be hating her so much by now, for that and for taking the heart of the man he liked.
'I must pay more attention to him.'
It wouldn't be good for him to keep guarding Edgar. Maybe he would get a little better if he was distanced from Edgar. Rubica didn't know that he was a spy and was completely misunderstanding everything. She also didn't know what her kind consideration was about to bring.

How much money must I spent for you to divorce me!?

Rubika dies in a war without being able to confess her love for Arman but is instead sent back in time.

A new life, she will not live in vain

But what are these new obstacles?

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© Jeonryeongga 2018 / D&C MEDIA 

The amazingly handsome, rich and powerful Duke Claymore wants to marry her!?

The blonde-haired boy introduced himself as Denki Kaminari, receiving Ayajo's name in return.

He had decided to make conversation with the rest of Ayajo's friends, thinking it would be rude not to as it was obvious that Ayajo was very close to them. 

"Hey sorry for barging into your group like that, I couldn't help myself when I heard someone playing Vakkan"

"There's nothing to apologize for, at first, I thought you just wanted to talk with Ayajo and fake interest in her game to be relatable, but the way you geeked out over it was enough to convince me otherwise" Zenchi jabbed, not oblivious to the attention that Ayajo receives when people meet her.

Kaminari stuttered when he heard it, unable to immediately formulate a response.

"No way dude!! I wouldn't lie about liking something just to get closer to a girl" 

"And it is good that you did not do so with Ayajo's beloved Vakkan, as she would've immediately sensed the lie," Stephen said, joining the conversation. 

"Does it have something to do with her quirk? I'm Eijiro Kirishima by the way" The red-haired boy asked as he introduced himself." 

"Zenchi Kanosei" 

"And I am called Stephen Ozoku, in a way it does, but not directly as it something that normal humans can learn by interacting with hundreds and thousands of people, so usually only leaders and anyone who interacts with a lot of people would be able to learn it, and it'll still take them years upon year to learn it" He explained.

"She is able to vaguely sense the emotions of people around her and use that as a sort of lie detection, it also allows her to be able to read people very easily no matter the expression they put on" 

"She derived that ability off her quirk? That's damn awesome!" Kirishima stated excitedly, impressed that someone was able to get such an ability so young considering what Stephen had explained. 

"Speaking of quirks, what is your's dude? I'm guessing you can't speak being faceless and all, not to mention being made of wood! Is that inherited from your parents or is it part of your quirk?" Kaminari asked Zero, curious about the silent member of the group.
Kaminari and Kirishima watched as Zero pulled out a notebook and pencil out of seemingly nowhere and started writing in it, they weren't confused as Kaminari had already guessed that he was mute. 

'Technically, I'm not a student nor do I have a quirk, it's a little hard to explain at the moment but I'll be sure to explain it when the class is properly acquainted. My name is Zero Kazeki by the way, nice to meet you both' 

Both boys were confused about what Zero had meant and also noticed that he had the same family name as Ayajo.

"I'm cool with you not explaining since you said you'll tell us later, and it'll be hard for us not to get to know each other since we'll be classmates for three years" Kirishima spoke, he only found it natural that people he had just met won't tell everything about themselves to him.

Kaminari nodded in agreement, he still wanted to know what Zero had meant as soon as possible, he had no choice but to wait.

"Since I didn't really get my answer questioned, what's the deal with your quirk Ozoku? Pretty sure the whole class saw you use it on those three at the door, and I was impressed by it!" Kaminari tried asking again, he thought that Stephen had some sort of mind-control quirk and if it was, it would be amazing in subduing villains and criminals without any need to fight.

"Hmph, I shall allow you to know some details of my quirk, my quirk allows me to do anything that a king can do! An example was what I demonstrated in class, it is an ability I call, 'kings command' where I am able to command others to follow any command I give." Stephen explained, he always enjoyed telling others about his quirk and showing off. 

"Wait, that's only part of your quirk, that alone is a great quirk, no wonder you're second on the entrance exam rankings! Is it safe to assume it works on more than just people?" Kirishima stated, surprised that his 'kings command' wasn't the only part to his quirk.

"Wait what!? Second on the rankings!?" Kaminari exclaimed in shock, he wouldn't have guessed that his slightly arrogant faced classmate with a foreign first name would be second in the entrance exam. 

"Yeah dude, he got like two hundred over points, but compared to him Ayajo is the real crazy one" Kirishima replied, as someone with a competative spirit, he had memorized the top ten in the entrance exam rankings to be able to recognize the strong people in the course and possibly in his class.
He was already shocked when he had heard Ayajo introduce herself, breaking the strong, confident and beautiful image that he had assumed Ayajo to be, though she was still beautiful in a cuter way.
He almost had a mini heart attack when Stephen and Zenchi had introduced themselves, recognizing their names as the second and seventh on the rankings.

Though he was fourth in the rankings which were only one rank away from the top three, a clique of four, two in the top three, one in the top ten and a mysterious individual who claimed not to be a student made him think that there was more to them than he originally thought. 

Though he thought that, he also thought that they would be a great group to hang out with as they could help him further himself as a hero as they are all obviously very strong.
"Two hund- wait, what do you mean Ayajo is crazier compared to him" Unlike Kirishima, Kaminari only briefly looked through the rankings as a bunch of names of people he didn't know didn't matter much to him, only wanting to find out his ranking.

He didn't even bother to see the difference in ability between him and the others, not even looking at anyone else's points as he didn't really care.

"She's the first-ranked man...I know it's been a couple of weeks and all but such a difference in points compared to the other passing examinees, heck even the difference between her and Stephen in points was enough for me to etch her name into my memory..." Kirishima answered Kaminari, remembering the time he had opened up the rankings document and his jaws dropping at the number of points the first-ranked got compared to himself. 

"How many points did she get?..." Kaminari asked hesitantly, to him two hundred over points was already an insurmountable number of points, seeing as how he had to give everything he got just to get sixty or so points. 

'550 points, or more specifically, 486 villain points and 64 rescue points' Zero replied with his notebook. 

Kaminari's eyes bulged in disbelief, that was over eight times more than his points, with the rescue points alone just being a few points under his total. 

He took a glance at Ayajo who was ahead of them still playing Vakkan and couldn't believe such a cute and small girl had amassed so many points. 

"Before subject Kaminari gets another aneurism, I shall answer your question Kirishima, my ability as you have guessed work more on just people, it works on any living creature and even plants!!" Stephen stated proudly.

"Its works on non-living things as well like rocks and water, and of course, the villains in the entrance exam where I had created a robot army!! Though I did not originally plan to do so" 

"That's almost like cheating!! You would have gotten points just by bringing them to your side!!" Kirishima stated with an unbelieving expression on his face. 

"Of course, the ability has its limitations and weaknesses, for example, the effectiveness of the command would depend on the will of the target, like if someone wanted to punch me and I had commanded them not to punch me, the effect would be that the punch would be weaker as the targets will was contradicting with my command and thus was less effective."

"But if the target currently did not have a will, my command will be more effective, but still have resistance as the instinctual will of their body is to move by itself instead of being controlled. If I had suddenly commanded someone to raise their hand without them having a contradicting will, they would raise their hand with little resistance." 

"The same thing happened to the three at the door, as they had no contradicting wills to my command. There is also another use for this ability, if the will of the target is in sync with my command, it will instead aid their ability to follow that will and strengthen it too." 

"If someone wanted to punch an enemy, and I commanded them to punch harder, their punch will become stronger using the royal energy my commands emit, said royal energy attaching to my selected targets" 

"That mega cool!! Though it's too bad that it'll only be most effective on enemies when they're unaware of you" Kaminari pointed out.
"It's still really good considering that he's able to hinder his enemies attacks and movement, imagine if he commanded you to not dodge his attack when you wanted to and you dodge slower than his attack, and getting hit" Kirishima stated, still convinced that the ability was still amazing despite its drawbacks.
"You're like an amazing support character in an rpg! With the ability to debuff enemies and buff allies at the same time!" Kaminari stated enthusiastically.
"Do not forget that 'kings command' is only a fraction of what my quirk is able to do, despite being the ability I trained the most, so you should not even think to underestimate me" Stephen reminded a bit arrogantly, satisfied at the praise they were giving his quirk.
"Stephen's quirk has a lot of room to grow with how broad 'anything a king can do' is, but is still powerful as it currently is, how about botj of you, what are your quirks?" Though Zenchi already knew their quirks from using his own quirk a while ago in the classroom, Zero and Stephen didn't know and decided to ask for them.
 "Mine's pretty simple, my quirk is called 'hardening' and allows me to harden any part of my body, giving me immense defense"
"it also makes the hardened areas sharp and rough like a jagged rock which increases my offensive abilities, it's a pretty solid quirk overall and its simplicity works well with me as I don't like things that are too complicated" Kirishima stated honestly.
 "My quirk ain't too complicated either, its name is 'electrification' and allows me to charge electricity within my body, electrocuting anything that makes contact with me"
"I'm also able to discharge the electricity around me to electrocute anyone nearby, though it obviously doesn't discriminate between friends and foes, so it more of a last stand kind of move, not to mention the side effects..." Kaminari knew it was inevitable that they would find out about the side effect but decided to delay it as long possible by not telling them what it was.
"How about you Kanosei? Being the seventh in the rankings, your quirk must be pretty amazing" Kirishima asked Zenchi as he was the only one besides Zero, who 'doesn't have a quirk' and Ayajo, who isn't fond of talking, that hasn't talked about their quirk.
Zenchi gave his signature smirk and replied, "It's better if i demonstrate it after we change and get onto the field, what Aizawa sensei has planned for us will be a perfect way to show you"
Kaminari and Kirishima were wondering what Zenchi's quirk was and how he he would know what Aizawa sensei had in store.
They didn't question him further and decided to wait until they got onto the field, since that was where he was going to demonstrate it.

Grandfather: So you wanna be a hero?

MC: Mhm...

Grandfather: And what kind of hero do you want to be?

MC: The best

Grandfather: Haha! I like that spunk! Reminds me of myself when i was younger. But its currently the golden age of quirks, with not only heroes but also villains being more powerful... You sure you have what it takes to reach the top?

MC: If not me, then who else?

Synopsis: 
The age of heroes is on the rise, with crime and villainy reaching a new high.
A new challenger approaches the scene, having trained all her life, will she be able to reach the pinnacle with her friends or will she be snuffed out like a candle, by the winds of evil?

At last, Sun Yu was forcibly dragged away by the old butler.
The butlers of Huaguo Water Curtain Group were not people to be trifled with, and this was true of Old Butler Lin, Lin San. He had watched these two young ladies grow up. Back then, Huaguo Water Curtain Group hadn't yet had the world-renowned success which it enjoyed in the cultivation world today.
Lin San was already an old man in the group and had seen so much of the world; it was because of his years of experience that this old butler could still remain with Huaguo Water Curtain Group despite the fact that he wasn't very strong.
"Uncle Lin! Let me go! Let me fight it out with these two brothers!"
This was the last thing the girl said as Lin San dragged her away before she could let loose her lethal "Maiden's Adorable Fist"[1] skill.
He sighed in his heart. His Second Miss was still too young and naïve.
Based on his years of experience, Old Butler Lin felt that there was definitely some terrible person living in this small villa in the outskirts.
By the roadside, two baldies in aprons respectfully saw Lin San off in the grey commercial Chuanjianguo limousine and watched until it disappeared at the end of the road.
"Did we go overboard? The Lord likes to keep a low profile. If they investigate him…"
Before he finished speaking, the rubber man was interrupted. "Did you forget our Lord's Great Shielding Spell?"
"That's right!" The rubber man suddenly remembered this fact.
"It has nothing to do with us now… our Lord has more or less finished reviewing the materials. Now we can go help him with his homework."
...
It took Wang Ling a full half an hour to learn all the content for this week which he had missed out on. At the same time, he also looked at the next two months' worth of study material. He enjoyed the learning process very much, but he hated that it took him so little time to study; it wasn't difficult for him to master these knowledge points at all.
However, while he could master all the relevant knowledge, he also needed to learn how to read the atmosphere in class, find the position that suited him the most and then try his best to attain average grades. Implementing the "be mediocre" education policy which Father and Mother Wang had instilled in him since he was young… this was the hardest thing to do!
At his desk, he held his head in his hands and heaved a long sigh of relief. It was fine to leave the written work to the two gremlins, the monster pen and goblin eraser.
While Wang Ling had been reviewing his homework, Father Wang hadn't been idle. After a phone call with Lie Mengmeng, he quickly continued writing his novel.
He was a very swift and decisive person, especially when he was in the throes of inspiration; the rhythm of his fingers on the keyboard was so fast that they flew, like a live tentacle monster.
Just as he was brimming with inspiration and writing freely to his heart's content, his wristwatch suddenly rang.
He frowned slightly — he really hated the feeling of being interrupted. But when he gave the caller ID on the wristwatch a look and realized that it was Lie Mengmeng, his mood changed and he picked up the call.
"Hey Near Expert[2], is there something wrong, I'm writing at the moment." Other authors liked to call Lie Shou "Lie Mengmeng," but Father Wang had a special nickname for him and preferred to call him "Near Expert."
When Wang Ling lay back on his bed and took out his earplugs, the sounds nearby poured steadily back into his ears. Even before he opened his eyes, he happened to hear the conversation between Father Wang and Lie Mengmeng as the voices of the two men flowed into his mind.
"Brother Situ… your book is going to knock them dead!!" On the other end of the line came Lie Mengmeng's loud, excited voice.
"I just uploaded your first chapter to the VIP website. Guess what? Less than two hours! The number of clicks has already exceeded three hundred thousand! The first chapter has a positive review of eighty-seven percent!" Lie Mengmeng was shouting pretty wildly.
Outsiders might not have any concept of these statistics, but it needed to be explained that there were seven hundred thousand veteran readers with accounts more than a hundred years old who were registered on the separate VIP website set up by the Cultivation Reading Network. Furthermore, the registration mechanism had already been inactive for a few years. Of a total of seven hundred thousand users on a website that could only be accessed by VIP readers, half of them had already read Father Wang's new novel! Furthermore, the review rating had surpassed the normal level, completely shocking the entire editorial office!
Father Wang was certainly happy when he heard the news, but given his character, he would never be too obvious about it. "What use are lots of clicks, the way of the king is good sales."
"Brother Situ, don't be so modest… tell me the truth, are you from the future?!" This question that Lie Mengmeng asked was very mysterious.
Father Wang was stunned when he heard it. "Huh?!"
"First, it was Let Go of that Wet Nurse, now your book The Live Streaming Life of the Immortal King will probably also be a big hit and may once again break website records! I've read a few books before about plagiarists from the future coming back to the past! Don't tell me you're one of them?!" Lie Mengmeng said in astonishment.
"Near Expert, if you make this kind of joke again… I'll quit writing!"
"Don't, don't! I was just kidding!"
Zhu Ge had already left; if Wang Situ was driven away, the website wouldn't be able to afford the loss.
On the other end of the phone call, Lie Mengmeng smiled secretively. "There's another piece of good news for you."
As Father Wang listened to Editor Song speak on the other end of the call, his expression also gradually turned strange. "What?! A fan gave me a reward? And also straightaway recognized my alternate account in the book review section for the trial chapter? You and I only decided on me starting a new book, plus uploading the draft onto the VIP website, just this morning. No one else knows about this, not even my old readers."
"That's strange… our website investigated this ID and discovered that this VIP reader account actually had been inactive for a very long time. But at two or three o'clock this morning, someone suddenly logged into this account and changed the ID. We suspect that this account wasn't passed down in the family, but was bought through other channels."
Father Wang frowned. Two or three o'clock in the morning? He remembered that at the time, he had been in Little Xuan's live stream gathering audience intelligence in order to come up with a theme for his new novel.
Then… could this person have been some audience member from the live stream?
Father Wang was a little confused. No one had known that he would finish the draft of the first chapter and upload it onto the website on a trial basis, not even his old readers, so how had it been leaked in advance?
F**k! These days, even a web novelist had sasaeng fans[3]?!
On the other side, Lie Mengmeng calmed down and said, "Brother Situ, do you know how much this reader gave you today? It's a whole hundred million cultivation reading coins!"
"So much…" While writing the latter part of Let Go of that Wet Nurse all this time, Father Wang had never encountered such an extravagant reader before. A hundred million cultivation reading coins was a million HNY[4]. After splitting it with the website, he would be able to keep five hundred thousand HNY!
Hearing that someone had gifted him with so much money, Father Wang sighed with deep feeling in his heart. "What's the reader ID?"
 "It's… Super High School Level Deputy Director," Lie Mengmeng replied.
Hearing this, Father Wang's face suddenly darkened and his intense gaze shot toward Wang Ling's room. "Hm… I think I've figured something out, I'll call you back later."
Saying this, Father Wang ended the call on his wristwatch. "Wang Ling! Come here!"
Wang Ling: "…"
[1] "Maiden's Adorable Fist" comes from a Chinese comedy sketch performed by an actor named Wensong, whose shifu is popular skit and sitcom actor Zhao Benshan.
[2] The people in northeastern China call people who are good at something 'da shou zi' or 'da shou.'
[3] A "sasaeng" or "sasaeng fan" in South Korea refers to an overly obsessed fan, usually of a celebrity figure, who engages in stalking or other behavior that constitutes an invasion of privacy.
[4] The author has introduced the currency of Huaxiu nation here as "Hua nation yuan," so we will be adopting it as HNY whenever it's mentioned from now on.


As a cultivation genius who has achieved a new realm every two years since he was a year old, Wang Ling is a near-invincible existence with prowess far beyond his control. But now that he’s sixteen, he faces his greatest battle yet - Senior High School. With one challenge after another popping up, his plans for a low-key high school life seem further and further away...
Wang Ling: I just want to eat my crispy noodle snacks in peace...
Father Wang: If you're careless enough to destroy the country, it’s coming out of your pocket money. 
Wang Ling: It’s not my fault that the backlash from punching me kills you.
Please support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/henyeetranslationsDLIK
If we hit certain milestones, we will release more chapters in a mass release!
Tags: comedy, school, cultivation, tsundere, popular culture, almighty protagonist, action


In the early morning, it was still dark. Zhang Zian was still the first one to wake up in the pet shop. To expand the space, the walls between the bedroom and the living room had been removed in the last renovation. From his single bed, he could see the basket hammock chair and the desk. Sitting up in bed, he found that Pi had not yet woken up. It was still crouching like a baby and sleeping in the basket hammock chair. Its pince-nez was placed on the desk. It only took off its glasses when it was asleep.
When it was wearing the glasses, Pi appeared to be somewhat precocious, and Zhang Zian often ignored its age. Without the glasses on its nose, Pi was clearly a young monkey. If it was a wild monkey, it may have just left its mother's back at this age and would have been trying to explore this strange and unknown world.
The single bed creaked gently with Zhang Zian's movements. Several elves were startled, but then they continued to sleep. Only Galaxy and Pi blinked and sat up, probably because they were both imaginative elves and they did not need too much sleep. As for Snowy Lionet, theoretically, this cat was also an imaginative elfin. But Zhang Zian suspected that something must have gone wrong, because Snowy Lionet kept sleeping all day long.
Pi jumped out of the hanging basket, put on its pince-nez, sat in the swivel chair, and opened the laptop eagerly.
After uploading the first chapter of a new novel, the author must face the review of the website regarding the new book. The review editor would check whether the content of the first chapter had the tendency for violating the regulations, such as forwarding the articles from the forums of the underworld gangs or publishing some contents that would incite people to commit crimes. But Pi's novel did not violate these two aspects, so there should be no problem in passing the review.
Zhang Zian knew that after turning off the lights last night, Pi had been staying up till very late. He heard that it was tossing and turning restlessly and rubbing the blankets in the basket hammock chair from time to time. It must have been waiting anxiously for the results of the review.
When the old computer finally opened, Pi entered its user-name and password into the platform for writers on the Chinese version of the Qidian Website. Sure enough, a short message sent by the website immediately popped up on the platform—Pet King has passed the review; we wish you enjoy your writing!
Zhang Zian also gave Pi a thumbs-up to encourage it. Anyhow, he hoped Pi could be happy. 


Zhang Zian dressed up and got out of bed, but in the blink of an eye, Pi's face had turned gloomy. It was staring at the screen with its mouth half open. Zhang Zian did not know what had happened. He stepped lightly forward and drew a question mark on the desk with his finger to ask Pi.
The screen displayed the "work management section" of the website. From this section, he could see some simple data of the novels and the pen name of the writers. At present, there was only one book under the pseudonym of Pi. And that very book was Pet King. Pi pointed at one column of the data for Zhang Zian to see.
Add to Library: 2
This number indicated that only two readers had noticed this book and put it in their library after the first chapter was published. One of the readers was Pi itself, and the other reader would probably be the review editor. 
Zhang Zian understood why Pi was suddenly frustrated. To be honest, this result was what he had expected, so he typed on the computer to encourage it: It doesn't matter. Web novels usually have millions of words, if you are the readers, would you read the novel that only has one chapter? Keep going! Perseverance prevails!
His encouragement worked to some extent. Pi dredged up a smile and typed: Okay.
It was not convenient to write directly on the website. Pi took a deep breath and tried to forget about the fact that only two people had put its novel into their library. It opened the Word document and started writing the second chapter.
Seeing Pi like this, Zhang Zian was even more worried about it.
Zhang Zian was not sure whether it was wise for him to encourage Pi to abandon the popular genre and choose to write the niche genre instead. When parents knew that their kids were taking a wrong path or heading toward a dead end, should they encourage their kids to continue bravely regardless of the potentially harsh obstacles, or should they persuade their children to change their paths?
Zhang Zian did not know what the parents in the foreign countries would do, but most parents in China would choose the latter method wisely, hoping to build an easy path leading to "happiness" for their children. They hoped that their children would walk straight on this path without taking a wrong way or suffering any kind of harm.
If Fina or Old Time Tea encountered such a setback, they would not mind at all. Their arrogance and strength had equipped them with unparalleled confidence. They did not accept interference from anyone, not even the interference from their owners. 

 Even if they failed, they would smile, lick their wounds, and move on. However, Pi was different from them. Pi was an introverted and sensitive elfin who was not good at communicating with other elves, and was barely a powerful elfin. Could it withstand the pain of failure?
When he got up in the morning, Zhang Zian usually went downstairs to clean up the shop and start the routine operation of the day. However, today was a rare exception. He stood still behind Pi for a long time, weighing the pros and cons repeatedly and could not make up his mind. 
Pi turned its head in confusion. It typed to ask: What's wrong?
Zhang Zian pretended to smile with ease, bent down and wrote the character of "people" (人) on the desk with his fingers, and then typed: Did you see that? The Chinese character of "people" means that people support each other. Pi, I want to tell you something. No matter what kind of novel you write, we will always stand behind you to support you.
Pi turned to look at Zhang Zian. It silently grinned and clenched its fist.
Under the light of the display screen, its face was filled with excitement.
Normally, after waking up, Galaxy would also go downstairs and play hide-and-seek with Wendy and other kittens. But today, Galaxy also stayed on the second floor. It jumped to the desk, waved its front paws to Pi, and expressed its support.
Pi smiled happily and typed: Thank you.
As if gaining some sort of intangible power, Pi kept its body upright and continued to type in the typing posture and method that Zhang Zian had instructed it. It was still typing at a very low speed. 
Zhang Zian silently watched the back of Pi. When he typed those words, he had made a decision in his heart. Taking the wrong way was not necessarily a bad thing. The experience of taking the detour routes would become a valuable asset for the children. When they faced junctions the next time, the kids may be able to recognize the detour and choose the right path. Parents could not stay with their children forever. They would eventually have to let their kids go on alone. All that parents could do was to watch the children's backs in silence just like Zhang Zian was watching the back of Pi. And then when their kids ran into major setbacks on the wrong path, parents would help wrap the wounds so that the kids could prepare for the next journey. 


Under the glimmering rays of the morning sun, he turned slightly and looked at the black and white portraits of his late parents on the chest of drawers. They were smiling at him. They had never interfered in the path he had chosen, nor had they asked him to inherit the pet shop. The bones recovered from fracture would be thicker and sturdier; the hearts that were injured would become stronger. His parents must have felt this way before. 
However, standing behind Pi did not mean that he wanted to be a pure spectator. There were so many things he could do to better support Pi.


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

Daylight came rather suddenly for Stephen, and he was thankful not to have another nightmare during his sleep. A quick glance at his clock told him that it was already mid morning. Usually on Sundays, he didn't work until 2 pm, so he would have some free time before heading back to Price Chopper. Although, despite the hours, he wasn't looking forward to tonight's shift. As was usual for Sundays, Ram Doyle would most likely be coming into the store tonight.

Groaning at the mere thought of his name, Stephen kicked a rogue sock halfway across the room. Ever since high school, Ram Doyle had been one of the biggest bullies in his class. Ram was around the same height as Stephen, but perhaps only around 180 lbs, yet he was pure muscle. He was one of the hockey jocks of their school, and being a star forward, had led the team to state championships during their senior year. 

For all of this, Ram had everything a young man could possibly want: popularity, fame, friends, and girls. He received breaks on his grades, since no one could have their star forward not able to play because he was failing English. He frequently got to skip class early, under the guise of "practice" for the next big game. Not to mention, most of the girls in high school would have done just about anything to be seen with Ram. He always had his pick of women, and was almost never single for any length of time. 

Sadly, all this popularity went to his head. While a pretty normal guy during middle school and in the early stages of high school, once he became the star of the team, and of the high school, his ego swelled to enormous levels. Ram started to enjoy teasing his fellow classmates and friends, and then started to become cruel to some of the more outcast type of kids, which of course, included Stephen.

He cringed remembering some of the pranks that were played on him during senior year. One time, he padlocked Stephen's locker, preventing him from being able to turn in Physics homework, nearly falling the course. Another time, when Stephen was chatting with Stephanie Carroll in the parking lot, Ram drove by and called him a fag and a loser right in front of her. He shut his eyes, cringing at the memory of being embarrassed in front of a pretty girl like Stephanie. His confidence was so shot, he couldn't even bear the thought of asking her out like he had intended.

It was only last week when Ram showed up at Price Chopper, he sent a shopping cart flying through the parking lot into Stephen's parked car, leaving a large dent and chipping the paint. To say the least, Stephen tried to avoid Ram Doyle like the plague. 

Trying to shake the thoughts of Ram out of his head, he spent the next few hours before work shut in his room, writing up his latest chapter to the story he had been working on for the last few weeks. Writing was calming for him, and a way for him to escape the problems of this world. His latest work, a fantasy story that he had planned out for at least five books, was nearing completion of book one. It was a hope that one day he'd be able to publish his works, and perhaps become a well-known author. The idea never ceased to bring a smile to his face.

Book promotion - 

Name - The CEO's Rented Wife
Link -  https://www.webnovel.com/book/14558290406833805/The-CEO's-Rented-Wife


------------

"The first rule is that I am always and forever bound to the one who opened my portal. I can only grant wishes to him, and him alone." The genie leaned in really subtlety, and whispered, "That means you, silly," before giggling again. 

"The second rule, is that I can only grant wishes that pertain to areas of love, sex, companionship, towards making you a better mate, or to protect our anonymity."

"Number three, and this is a very important one, Master. I can not grant any wishes that would harm, maim, or kill anyone, destroy anything, or bring anyone back to life. "

"For rule number four, I am bound to you for as long as you wish it so. The only way, and I mean the only way, I can no longer be bound to you is for you to wish for my freedom."

---------------

"Number Five, and the most important rule is that the readers reading our story on Webnovel have to encourage the writer with Powerstones"

---------------

TLDR: As with every end of a book, I will be taking a break and will resume posting on 12th November 2018. I know, it's a longer break than usual, but since it is the end of Act One, I think it should be justified... Oh and since this author thoughts is really long, it really is a too long didn't read, lol.

Hi there guys! Linodo here! WE FINALLY MADE IT!!! We finally made it to the end of ACT ONE!!! *Confetti pops!* Haha, that's right, these first four books are actually part of one act. I know, I know, if it took me about five to six months to complete one act, how long would it actually take for me to finish the entire story?! Three years? Five years? Or should I go full Oda and write it for twenty plus years?

Well, joking aside, I didn't plan for my writing to take this long. If you followed me from the start, you would have known that I wrote Book One in just one month during my semester break. Naturally, the chapter length and quality of writing have been steadily improving (at least in my opinion), so there's that, but the real issue that I have is time management. As a final year university student, school is my full-time job. The most important thing that I must focus on is my school, even if it means decreasing the release rate of Spirit Immortal. And let me tell you, it sure was a challenge. University courses were tough enough, now I have even less time to study and do assignments? There were even times where I just wanted to write an apology letter to you guys and drop the entire novel altogether. However, there was no way that I could do that. Why?

Because I love writing.

I don't know why, no matter how stressed I am, when the clock ticks ever closer to 11 pm, I look forward to when my chapter to go live so that I can see how you guys liked it. You guys don't know it, but there were many days where I would refresh my latest chapters just so that I could see your thoughts about the chapter. In fact, I might be refreshing this chapter right now! Hahaha! So don't be shy to leave a comment or a review about the novel. Let me tell you now, the fear of an author isn't a negative comment or a negative review, the true fear is that no one reads your work.

Before I go in depth about the things you guys really want to know, let me tell you a little bit of my background. As many of you already know, I am an avid anime fan and got into reading web novels because I wanted to read light novels (the source material of a significant portion of anime). To tell you the truth, I didn't like reading books growing up. That's why my English is somewhat lacking as compared to most authors. I did, however, love watching shows/movies/cartoons. I watched many Chinese/Hong Kong dramas, American movies when the K-Wave first started I'd even watched Korean dramas. But, my one true love was still anime. I grew up watching Inuyasha, Shaman King, Naruto, One Piece, Katekyo Hitman Reborn… The list goes on… 

The peak of my anime obsession came when I was about 13-15. Those three years, I probably watched like two-three hundred anime titles, and that's when my life really changed. I watched timeless pieces like Code Geass, FMA, Cowboy Bebop, Fate/Zero, Hunter X Hunter… I delved into comedy anime like Baka Test (which I finished reading on Baka-Tsuki), Daily Lives of High School Boys, Seto no Hanayome, Seitokai Yakuindomo, Niichijou… I had even watched Shoujo anime (even though I was not a young girl) like Seitoukaichou wa Maid-sama, Ouran High School Host Club, Kimi ni Todoke and thoroughly enjoyed them.

However, up till that point, watching anime was just an entertainment hobby of mine. Only after I was exposed to Slice of Life anime did my opinion change. I first watched Angel Beats, and when the ending came, I found myself in tears. I was amazed at how a single storyline could affect my emotions that much. Following that, I binged watch several Slice of Life anime. Air, Kanon and so on. One day, at the peak of my obsession, I discovered a little title called Clannad. I soon discovered that it was by the same company that made some of the titles that I'd watched before, so I went into it with some high hopes. And well, season one was touching, but it was well within my expectations, after watching Angel Beats and whatnot. However, Clannad had something that the other titles did not. A second season. Curious, I thought, well why not?

Boy, was I not prepared for that fucking second season… Clannad: After Story destroyed me. If any of you haven't watched it, stop reading this post and go watch it now. I don't care if you drop my story, I'm just content that I had enriched your lives by letting you know how awesome After Story is. For the first time in my life, after watching a series, I felt empty. I felt as if there was an endless void that ripped my heart in half and that feeling lasted for a solid week. Ever heard of feels train? Clannad: After Story is like getting run over by the feels train while the conductor used the feels bat to hit you every single second. So, once I was finished griefing, I thoroughly reflected upon my experience. How could a story, that had no living creatures in any part of its production, tear me into shreds emotionally? Then, I had an epiphany. It was all about the story. You see, all forms of entertainment that I enjoyed, movies, dramas, anime, manga, light novels, video games, they all had one thing in common. They all had a story. It sounds stupid to say, but it was something that my young mind had pieced together. So, a slight flicker of passion started to burn within me. I wanted to write stories that made people feel that way.

As I grew older, I started watching many more mature animes, like Kara no Kyoukai, Death Parade, Death Note that all had a theme of morality behind it. Instead of the emotional train wreck that Clannad had put me through, it made me question the existence of everything, something that very little Hollywood or Chinese/Korean/Japanese drama ever could. Also, let me shout out a little-known anime called "The Legend of the Legendary Heroes." Severely underrated in my opinion and I can't seem to get my friends to start it. Perhaps you guys would after reading through this post. :p

I wanted to be like Maeda Jun (writer of Clannad, Angel Beat and Kanon) and write touching and thought-provoking titles, and what better way than to write a web novel? Naturally, I'm nowhere near the level of Maeda Jun and the folks at Key, but I'm trying my hardest. After all, how could I climb Mount Everest without taking the first step? If I could make you guys feel even a fraction of what I felt after watching Clannad: After Story, then I'm content. 

So yeah, before this turns into an anime recommendation section, let's talk about the pacing of the story, which was a significant issue that had been brought up by multiple users. As a novice writer, I'm still trying to figure out when I should speed up the pace and when there should be more exposition. At the start of this novel, I had a more direct 'tell not show' writing style which is something that I am still trying to fix till this day. Furthermore, I feel that my writing has a systematic structure that had been ingrained into me due to my numerous years of schooling and learning how to write reports, essays and whatnot. That's why I have been reading multiple successful author's works, trying to find the best style that fits me. Trust me, I have been researching. I read many successful works and analysed their styles. I took time off going to social events just so that I could read/write more. After all, I want to improve my writing. I want to deliver the awesome story of Spirit Immortal (I'll get to that later) in the best possible writings to you guys. In conclusion, my writing style still is a work in progress, and I hope that you could bear with me as I continue my experimentation.

Okay, now that the soapy stuff is out of the way, let's discuss the actual story. This is something that I don't often do in Author's Thoughts or any comments in general as I am not a good secret keeper. I'm afraid that I might accidentally divulge everything, in an accidental comment or otherwise. So I'll try to be very careful here.

The theme of Act One is family. Or to be more precise, what is a family? This is something that I had deliberated on for years, even before I decided to become an author. In Chinese culture, there is this saying, "Blood is thicker than water." I'm sure many of you who are frequent readers of eastern fantasy have come across this quote. However, one day I asked the question. Is blood really thicker than water? Why is it that just because someone is related to you, they must be closer than anyone else in the world? That's how the idea of the orphans came about. I wanted to explore the relationships between children, who have no clue about whether their related or not, and see whether they can be as close as real family. Furthermore, I wanted to see if the adults that adopted them, in this case, the First Elder, the Instructor, etc. would treat them as if they were their own children. And I tried to show you guys that they genuinely loved for the orphans, albeit in a flawed way.

Let me give another hypothetical example. A child was adopted as a baby by a foster family. The child was loved for, cared for and even treated as the most important family member by those who had no blood relations to him. However, one day, when the baby is grown to be fifteen years of age, the biological mother demands that the foster family hand over the child back to her custody. Is it truly right? If we're going by the doctrine that "Blood is thicker than water," the child should be reunited with his mother. However, she is no longer part of his 'family.' There had been no ties of love, memories shared or anything that could bind the two together. The foster family, which had treated him as their own son, is now his true 'family.' That's why when Shin found out about the truth of the Awter Clan, he didn't go full on rage mode and vow to kill everyone who had the Frie Clan's blood. It was because even though he is the heir of the Awter Clan, in his mind, he had no ties to it. 

Junius, on the other hand, is the polar opposite. He loved his family and would do anything in his power to reunite the orphans with their rightful 'family,' those that shared the blood of the Awter Clan. Although his purpose is righteous, his methods are flawed, which led to the unhappy circumstances in 'The Unfulfilled Promise.'

And now… We are finally addressing the elephant in the room. I'm sure many of you who read the last chapter are just dying to wait for me to talk about this. The deaths of Ariel, Lily and Linus. 

When I planned out the entire story, this was the turning point of everything. Ariel's death. The promise that had been made in chapter one will forever remain unfulfilled. I had actually run into some issues when I first started to write book four. A problem that no author should have… I didn't want to kill off Ariel. I had grown too attached to her antics, and I wanted Shin and her to remain together and become some sort of power couple. I had even toyed with the idea of re-planning the story from scratch just to keep her alive. However, the more I thought about it, the more it would ruin my beautiful ending. If Ariel lived, the ending wouldn't make any sense. So, I stuck to my guns, and I wrote the initially planned story, as much as I didn't like to. I'm sure that there will be many who will dislike my choice to kill Ariel and might even drop the novel altogether. And that's fine. I can't force you to read my story anyway.

I'm sure you guys can tell that I try my best to avoid the Wuxia/Xianxia cliche storylines that follow the same arc over and over. However, that, in turn, means that my writing style has to flesh out many details so that you guys can follow the story. So bear with me on that. Each Act will follow a theme. For instance, Act One's theme is family and Act Two's theme is… Well, read to find out!

The future of Spirit Immortal is unknown, even to me. I will be starting my internship soon and possibly, a job offer might come. Once I have the job, there would be so much less time for me to write so I don't know if I can continue my daily releases. Especially since I'm not getting paid to write and this is essentially my hobby. However, I promise you this, as long as there are readers, I will continue to write. I just love the story too much to just walk away. I will try to finish the story within two-three years, but as it stands now, I don't know if that's a reasonable estimate. So, who knows what the future would bring?

Alright, I shouldn't talk anymore lest I accidentally leak my entire storyline to you guys. To be honest, I have been dropping many hints about the end of Act One, and I'm sure many of you caught on early. In truth, I had also dropped subtle hints about the final ending in many of the chapters. I wonder if you guys have picked up on some… 

If you like the story, feel free to leave a review or a comment in the latest chapter, especially for my readers on Webnovel. I don't get notifications if you post comments on older chapters so I won't be able to respond. Please don't ask questions hinting for spoilers. As I explained earlier, I'm not good at keeping secrets so I will ignore the question altogether.

Thank you for supporting Spirit Immortal! Do leave a comment or review that tells me how you think about the novel! I hope that you have a lovely week ahead! Till next time! :D

Over a million years ago, the first human contracted with the first Spirit. Ever since then, Spirit use has become commonplace. Humans used Spirits to carry items and start fires. Eventually, even start wars. Thousands upon thousands of years past and one day, one human did the impossible. He transcended his mortality and ascended to the realm above.  

In the present day, the Frie Clan was once a great clan of the Himmel empire. However, a devastating battle ten years ago crippled the clan and their numbers dwindled. To make up for their loss, the upper echelons decided to adopt young orphans and nurture them to become a future pillar of the weakened clan. Shin was one of those orphans. 

Although picked up by the Frie Clan, not all is smooth sailing for Shin and the other orphans...
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Tags: Action, Comedy, Romance, Fantasy, Drama, Male Lead, Tragedy.

For some reason, QI doesn't allow you guys to see my tags so here they are. Also, there is no Harem in this novel for those of you who are curious.

Chapters are released daily at UTC+8 0100 unless stated otherwise

Support me at: https://www.patreon.com/Linodo
For additional content, visit me at: https://linodofictions.com/

It was the middle of March. Hannah's birthday had arrived.
The sky was a little dark. Thinking that it might rain, Li Du brought an umbrella with him when he left in the morning.
Spring rain was as precious as oil; especially so Arizona, one of the states with the least rainfall in America.
He brought Ah Meow with him to Hannah's apartment. Once he entered the door, Ah Meow's eyes became wide and round like saucers. It licked its lips, twitching its little nose, and went straight to the kitchen.
The house was full of the buttery aroma of baked goods—something only second to seafood in Ah Meow's book.
Hearing Ah Meow, Hannah, in her apron, knew who had arrived at once. Without even popping her head out, she called from the kitchen, "Hey, Li, you're early! Hans is still sleeping."
Hans's voice traveled down the stairs. "I can hear you. I woke up awhile ago!"
The siblings started bickering.
"Happy birthday, Hannah," Li Du greeted her. "I wish you happiness, and that every day, and every year, you will be just as happy as today. Big Fox, shut up. Hannah's the star today. Whatever she says goes."
"Fine. I'll listen to you, Li." Hans padded down the stairs lazily.
Li Du washed his hands and then went to help out in the kitchen. "Will there be many guests today?" he asked. "You're making the cake quite early."
"Of course!" Hannah smiled. "I'll need to welcome the guests, so I won't have time to do anything else later."
There were piles of ingredients in the fridge and the pantry. Li Du said, "I'll help you. Why don't you just go and rest after you finish the cake? This is your day. We can't let you do so much work."
Hannah didn't decline his offer. She left after thanking him.
"You won't change your mind?" Hans asked, leaning on the door. "Hannah is a really great girl."
Li Du pared the tomatoes effortlessly. "I agree with you. Hannah is a great girl," he said, "but there's no spark between us. We are good friends, but we wouldn't be a good couple."
Hans opened his mouth to say something, but Hannah's voice cut him off. "Big Fox, come over here. Help me put these lights up. Stop lazing around, alright?"
At around ten in the morning, the guests started arriving. The little house began to bustle merrily.
Hannah introduced Hans and Li Du to her guests. Most of those who had already arrived were her friends. She worked at a convenience store; it was quite large, with 14 people staffed in total. All eight of those who had the day off came to the party.
Hannah was obviously quite popular.
Her colleagues lined up like soldiers for review to greet Hans and Li Du. Wearing expressions of awe, they extended their hands in greeting.
Li Du smiled. "What is this? We're Hannah's brothers, not your commanders. Aren't you guys being a little too formal?"
A young man said, "Hello, Li. We've all heard about you. The whole of Flagstaff is talking about you two. We've heard amazing things about your treasure hunting!"
Li Du understood—Hannah had probably been talking about them. Otherwise, these people wouldn't gape at Hans and himself as if they were their idols.
Hans was very good at handling situations like this. He broke the ice and blended in with everyone very quickly. Very soon, he was heatedly discussing with some of the other guys about which girls from the red light district were good in bed and the details about their nice legs.
Hannah and Hans's relatives arrived a bit later. Family members such as their paternal aunt, maternal uncle, and many others walked rolled in. Altogether, there were probably twenty-something of them.
Americans placed a lot of weight on family ties. Hans put on a steady, reliable image in front of his elders.
At almost noon, another group of people dropped in; the mechanic Stephen, with some other people around his age. Hannah hugged them happily. From their conversations, Li Du inferred that they had been classmates in middle school.
Li Du was a quiet person. The house was full of born and bred Americans. He didn't really feel at ease there, so he volunteered to prepare food in the kitchen.
Hans saw him as a brother and pulled him back, saying, "Why would we need you to cook? We can just grill some meat or call some take-out. Come, let's get you introduced to your new relatives."
"My new relatives?" Li Du noticed that Stephen's face had turned pale, and he was staring intently at Li Du.
Hans seemed quite matter-of-fact. "Yeah. You're my brother. Doesn't that make my relatives yours as well?"
Stephen's face resumed its normal color. The dark clouds in the sky outside brightened as well.
Li Du insisted on going into the kitchen. Hannah asked if she could help, but he said to leave everything to him.
Stephen and some of his classmates also came into the kitchen. A guy with a head full of dreadlocks piped up, saying, "It's almost half past eleven. There's barely enough time for you to make one dish. What is this? Are you putting on a show?"
Hannah glared at the dreadlocks guy. "Clyne, don't say that."
Stephen shook his head at Clyne. "Li was in the kitchen all morning. That wasn't very fair to him."
In a low voice, Clyne said, "You idiot, Stephen. You're just as daft as you were in middle school. Do you want to just watch as Hannah gets snatched away? You should be using every chance you get to put him in his place!"
The kitchen was quite small, so everyone heard him. Stephen hastily waved his hand. "Don't, Clyne—for the sake of Mother Mary, don't say things like that."
Li Du looked at the dreadlocks guy with interest. "Your name is Clyne? It's now half past eleven. How about having lunch at twelve? I'll prepare a feast for you guys. A Chinese banquet."
"In half an hour?" Clyne sneered. "On your own? Impossible!"
"How about this—let's bet. The one who loses has to do something for the winner. Of course, it can't be too large a favor. Do you accept?"
Dreadlocks Guy wasn't a brash person. Seeing Li Du's confidence, he hesitated.
Some of his classmates egged him on.
"Go on, Clyne—there's no way he can whip up a feast in half an hour!"
"There are more than 30 of us! A feast for that many in half an hour, on his own? Ha! Not unless he's the magician, David Copperfield!"
"Beat him, Clyne, for Stephen!"
With so many people egging him on, Clyne couldn't back down. He folded his arms arrogantly and said, "Fine. Let's bet."
Stephen tried to stop him. "Don't, man. Hans told me that Li has a nickname called Gao Jing among the Chinese."
Dreadlocks Guy looked confused. "Who is Gao Jing?"
"The Chinese call him Gao Jing—the legendary God of Gamblers," explained Hannah.
Smiling, Li Du pushed them out of the kitchen. "Alright, the bet has started. Everyone give me some space. I'm going to start now."
On his way out, Dreadlocks Guy asked, "Are you really the God of Gamblers? Who's better—you, or Peter Eastgate?"
Peter Eastgate was a Danish man who was extremely well-known in the American gambling world. In 2008, Las Vegas held an international poker competition where Peter won the championship—his prize was 915,000 dollars and fame throughout America!
Li Du just smiled. "You'll find out in half an hour."


They love gold, and they love silver. Even more so, they love gems that dazzle, like stars across the skies. 
Firearms, jewelleries, and precious metals; A collector’s world will not be complete without antiques.  
Storage auctions, old goods trade, re-estate sales and gold-digging. But the truth is, if one wants to make money, then the supreme way is through searching for the legendary treasures. 
Holding the fort, there’s an ocelot, a wolf, and an Andes condor. At the side, there’s a loyal hound, an irascible ape, and an African honey badger. Who said that you can only rely on humans when treasure hunting?! 

Today was to be an important day, seven years of work's completion. Stephen Umber, 57 years old, and team leader for the design team which currently surrounded him was watching as his team moved the bare car chassis that was the culmination of their work to the center of the work shop. Having been an engineer for 31 years Stephen had experienced many similar events, when the ultimate goal was on the cusp of being achieved, however he believed this was most likely to be the most significant. The new engine could use a special hydrocarbon fuel, scientists had recently developed that could be efficiently produced from water that was in the presence of a carbon dioxide containing atmosphere. This new engine combined with the fuel making process would remove the necessity of batteries being used by cars, it was a matter of international importance. The team finished setting up the new engine in its chassis. 

"You do the honours, Stephen" says the deputy head with a jovial cheer. 

He hands Stephen the small control box with a large red button. With great excitement all the team looks on excitedly as Stephen presses down the button, the sound of the motor turning over a little sounds out before BOOM! an explosion rocks out from the engine shrapnel blasting outwards. All Stephen sees is a bright flash before a large chunk of his life's greatest achievement flies through his head killing him instantly.

Suddenly, a teenage boy sits up in his bed breathing heavily having just woken from a nightmare. He looks at his hands confused and down along his toned body before looking even more confused around the large room. 

'Where am I?' Stephen thinks to himself noticing the large opulent room and feeling the smooth and soft silk sheets against his oddly young body. 

Another thought comes to his mind 'who am I?' 

As the thought comes to his mind a pain racks through his head and he grips his temples fighting the pain. Many memories belonging to someone else rushes through his head, "Alexander Halgran? Is that my name? Or the name of the previous owner of this body?". 

Stephen sits on the bed thinking over the memories in his head, Alexander, a prince of the Kingdom of Halgran, the third prince. Alexander doesn't seem to be particularly famous, a minor military career, not bad nor great, and a similar diplomatic career. An unexceptional prince. From the memories it seems that the King is deathly ill... this nation's inheritance laws not handing the kingship to the eldest son or anything similar, instead after every king dies the nation is almost always embroiled into civil war as the princes compete for rule. 

Stephen knows this doesn't bode well for him. 'I may as well sleep and deal with this in the morning...' Stephen thinks before drifting off to sleep.

Beams of light drift down onto Alexander Halgran, who is now seemingly inhabited by Stephen Umber. Stephen, no Alexander woke up at this bright light and attempted to sit up in his bed only to find himself currently pinned by a large black shape. The large black shape raises its head revealing it to be a large wolf like dog, currently resting its large torso on his chest. Alexander almost has a heart attack from fear before recognition comes across him followed by another rush of memories belonging to the previous Alexander, who was who was very confusing for poor Stephen/Alexander. 

"Lucio…" Alexander whispers extending his one free hand towards the large dog, its eyes immediately responding to its name. 

The dog stretches its head towards the hand with a gentleness defying its large menacing appearance. Alexander now remembers Lucio, his dog who had been with him/ the old Alexander for most of their lives. 

"Well Lucio… this is all very confusing…" he remarks to Lucio more for his own benefit then the now slightly confused dog. 

As Alexander looked at the dog the doors to his bedchamber burst open.
"Prince Alexander!? Are you awake!?" calls out a young woman clearly a maid and clearly a little older than Alexander.

Alexander responds nervously, "Um… yes…" and awkward silence embroils the whole room before he realises his mistake. 

"Yes, I am awake, Maria" he says in a voice filled with new-found confidence and a slight tinge of bravado attempting to mimic the old Alexander, "Why have you burst into my room so rudely? What is going on?"

Slightly breathless Maria responds quickly stammering slightly, "The king, his majesty, has summoned you, your highness and the princes to the throne room."

Maria draws a deep breath before calmly continuing, "I do not know why he summons, only that you only have a very short amount of time to be present."

Numerous thoughts rush through Alexander's head as he considers the possibilities, the king, as everyone knows, isn't far from death, this could be an announcement relating to his inheritance. Alexander feels his palms become sweaty as he gently but also quickly shoves the hulking form of Lucio off of him. 

"Leave now" he orders hurriedly to Maria, and as soon as she leaves he rushes around the room attempting to use his memories to find his clothes and remember how exactly some of the more complex, unusual and ceremonial articles go on. 

After getting fully dressed he fumbles with his sword belt attempting to correctly attach his sabre. 

"Stay Lucio, you can't come with me" he quickly says to the confused dog which has been watching him from his bed this whole time, before rushing out of the room and towards the throne room. 

Almost running through the corridors Alexander finds himself almost bumping into many of the servants going about their morning duties. Eventually he reaches the large foyer to the throne room where he can see his siblings all patiently waiting seemingly having been given more notice than him.

"Ah, Alexander, you have finally arrived" quietly calls Percible in a snickering voice, his thin body and dark complexion making him look the part of the schemer that he is. Percible the second prince had earned his fame as had their older brother and Alexander during the Great Magic War, Percible as a cunningly backstabbing diplomat. 

'Wait!' thinks Alexander, 'Magic!? That exists here!? What is this Dungeons and Dragons!?'. 

Alexander had many fond memories of Dungeons and Dragons from his previous life, he was 13 when first edition had been released, and he had loved it despite that early version's numerous flaws. Now as Alexander compared what he remembered about the world of Dungeons and Dragons and this new place he was in the similarities were striking. Most notably the existence of dwarves, elves and goblins, each of these races having been important in the Great Magic War, when humanity had pushed for more territory invading each of those races.

A deep and strong voice reached Alexander's ears, "uh, brother you are here. I do wish father is well" when Alexander looked towards the stoic man who was the source of his voice he saw his eldest brother, first prince of Halgran, Ildan, a famed military leader. 
"Hello brothers, do either of you know why father has called us?" Alexander politely responds, to which Percible just shrugs and Ildan shakes his head looking at the ground with concern.

The large doors of the throne room swing open, standing looking at the three princes stands the king's advisor, Darius.

"Come now, princes, the king will not be awake long" Darius says quickly before immediately turning around and walking down the long length of the throne room.

Waiting down the far end of the throne room upon a throne of massive proportions covered in copious amounts of gold that raises him far above everyone else in the room. The trio of princes quickly follow the adviser and each knelt in front of the large throne. Now closer to the throne Alexander noticed an old and wizened man sitting just behind the throne, 'this man is the wizard working to keep my father alive' thinks Alexander.

"Welcome my sons" says the king in a high reedy voice week from age and disease, "I have called you hear today because I fear for my kingdom, and for you my sons. For three generations only one prince has been present for the death of the previous king, and during this time our great kingdom has flourished. And yet here we are, on the brink of repeating the scenario that destroyed this city five generations ago. As such, to any of you my sons, who are willing to renounce your inheritance I will grant a governorship over part of the new and prosperous lands each of you had a hand in cleansing of the goblin filth."

Alexander realizing this is the exact opportunity he has been looking for to save his life faced with an impending war immediately shouts, "My lord father, I will renounce my title of prince and accept your offer, I have no intentions upon the throne."

The king's smile grows, only one more of his sons needs to accept his offer now and the kingdom will be saved from ruin.

"Father", a snickering voice calls out, "I will not be denied my birth right to fight for the crown, if my brothers wish to give it to me, then that will be fine." Concludes Percible.

The king appears to visibly age and peers over to Ildan a last glimmer of hope burning in his eyes, "Ildan, what about you my son?" he asks deeply concerned.

Ildan sighs heavily, a deep burden resting upon him, "father, I am beloved by the people, a hero of the war. I could not in good conscience leave the kingdom to Percible. Our traditions exist in order to choose the strongest king."

The king's visage grows dark, he slumps back into his throne, wrinkles appearing to grow on his face. After some time of just looking up at the portraits of previous kings and paintings of battle scenes on the ceiling he finally speaks again, "Alexander, you are no longer a prince of this realm, but you are now baron of the town of Sapphire Lake. Take with you fifty thrones of gold and choose an advisor from the Presidium, a clerk should do. Also, Mondaeus will go with you." 

The weakened king then turns to Darius, "see to it that all of this is done and that Alexander leaves on a river galley tomorrow." Turning away from Darius back towards his sons he concludes saying, "my kingdom, my life's achievement will be destroyed but so be it. Leave now, and you who are still princes do not look at me again until… until I am in my coffin."

Alexander is the first to rise and bow quickly leaving the throne room.

A talented Engineer reborn into a classic fantasy world? The sky's the limit in this New World Of Steel! At least for now, after all, I doubt a human lifetime is long enough to develop space flight from a feudal society... or is it!? Find out as the story progresses.

This is my first novel, and I honestly hope the quality will be acceptable, we will see I guess.

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