This story unfolds the forbidden love that occured in 18th century and 21st century, the settings of the story happened in the Philippines. You will see the traditional love if you open this novel. 18th century will be an old english but i will put a modern english translation to it.

In a dried canal, two coins gleamed merrily in the sun. One is silver and the other is copper. 18th century. They were found on the site of a former fortress, which stood in the steppe and covered the northern Light mountains trade route. It connected the main city of Light bekty with mountain gorges, villages and mines. Sometimes small caravans carrying goods were attacked, dashing horsemen from the steppe.

There were agricultural lands near the fortress, water irrigated them along the irrigation ditches, which received their food from the nearby mountains.

In the nineteenth century, its beginning and the middle of the fortress were of great importance. But with the advent of the empire, its importance fell, and at the end of the century it was completely abandoned. For some time, it towered in the steppe, with its five-meter high walls and a ten-meter observation tower. The fortress was not very large, only two hundred guards. It was originally built in the 17th century, and it lasted only three centuries. At the beginning of the fifties of the 20th century, the fortress was demolished and after that in its place they made a new field and plowed everything. But in the early sixties, the shepherd accidentally found these two coins. After they wrote a short note about them in the press.

And how many such small coins still lie in the steppe, in the nowadays flooded adyr, no one knows. And how many such hidden fortresses, caravanserais, are now few known.

"Carmella?i love you,until my last breath,i love you so much"Alejandro spoke.

"i love you too Alejandro"

my life,my historical life,my past,my beautiful past.

I am Carmella Ibarra from 18th Century but here in 20th century,and this is my story.

"Of course it is." Lu Yan flashed him a beautiful smile. She was wearing a yellow floral bikini, showing off all the curves on her body. Mind you, her face alone was capable of pitching a hundred tents in men's trousers. Therefore, almost all the tourists stopped to gawk at this beautiful Asian woman.
Feeling jealous, Qiao Fei took out a silk scarf and laid it down on Lu Yan's body.
"What are you doing?" Lu Yan stopped drinking her juice and placed it off to the side.
"I'm trying to hide your fat," Qiao Fei scoffed.
"What the f*ck, are you blind? My body is perfect, there is no fat! Psycho Qiao, how dare you insult me when I give you food to eat and clothes to wear!" Lu Yan shouted angrily.
"I do what I want," Qiao Fei said, purposely trying to make Lu Yan mad.
"Hm, I think you're just jealous. Admit it," Lu Yan laughed, proud of herself.
"So what if I am? You shouldn't be wearing so little out in the public anyways."
"Hahaha…" Lu Yan suddenly burst into laughter.
"What?"
"Psycho Qiao, are you from the 18th century? Everyone wears bikinis here, isn't it normal?! I used to even swim naked in Australia." Lu Yan grew up in the western world, so she wasn't as traditional as Huo Mian – however, this didn't mean she was a slut.
Lu Yan had a beautiful face and a perfect body; she was stunning no matter where she was, and all the men and even women fawned over her.
Moreover, Lu Yan's looks taught her how to utilize it to her own advantage. She often used her face and body to lure the enemy, just to kill them before they could lay hands on her.
Huo Mian used to think that Lu Yan took after their father. However, when they met in the United States, Huo Mian saw that their father looked like any ordinary man. This meant it was very possible that Huo Mian looked like their father, while Lu Yan looked like their mother.
Too bad she rarely got to hear anything about her mother. Even Lu Yan and their father rarely talked about Dr. Lin Ya, the medical genius.
Huo Mian decided not to keep digging; after all, she didn't have a lot of chances to see Lu Yan and their father. Perhaps theirs was the only family in the world that lived like this, the only family that had to stay away from each other to protect each other.
"You swam naked? Why didn't you just walk about naked?" Qiao Fei glanced at Lu Yan with disdain. Growing up as a member of the most powerful mob group in Russia, Qiao Fei followed his father and traveled the world in his youth. He had met countless figures and even heads of state – of course he wasn't from the 18th century!
However, because he loved Lu Yan, he wanted to dominate her. He wanted her to be all his. Why should his future wife show off her body to the entire world?
"Do you wanna fight?" Lu Yan stood up, half-angry and half-amused. She took her hands out and made fists. She enjoyed fighting with her bare hands, especially when facing pros. Qiao Fei was a good opponent, and she had always enjoyed their fights.
This was because Qiao Fei never went easy on her because she was a girl. Of course, he would never hurt her either.
"Shh, stop talking." Qiao Fei's face suddenly fell.
Lu Yan immediately understood what was going on. She turned around immediately to see a group of suit-wearing men walking quickly towards them.
"Ian's men are more just getting more and more useless, I was waiting for them all morning but it took them until after lunch to find us? " Lu Yan muttered as she took out two sharp daggers from her backpack, handing one to Qiao Fei.
"Did you just give me a dagger? Don't you see guns in their hands?" Qiao Fei looked helplessly at the dagger in his hand.


Original Synopsis: 
Seven years ago, after their breakup, he disappeared without a trace.
Now, he reappeared on the eve of her wedding, sparing no means in forcing her to marry him… 
With a certificate of marriage, he bound her mercilessly to his side. 
From there, this “Cinderella” began her journey as a wife of the business empire’s heir...
Mrs Huo - composed, sharp-tongued, and freakishly smart.
Mr Qin - wife-spoiler to no end and a complete “slave” to their daughter.
Quality love story, one on one. You are welcome to get hooked on this story with us. 
Stats on QQ Reader: 102 million favorites, and was voted 8.4/10 by 41 thousand readers. 
TL's Note: Probably one of the best stories I've read, and I was very tempted to translate the title to Big D Brings Spring. Girls, I hope you enjoyed it as much as my girlfriend and my female translators who binge read 4000 chapters in about a month. 
For all the guys hesitating to give it a try, you won't regret it. It's a manly book, I swear.

How to find what was hidden there after 90-200-400 years? There is no tree, there is no that stone, there is no house, and even the ruins are left ... It's good when there are coordinates ... then you can narrow the search square.

- Coordinates? Where do you get it from? Asked, surprised, Dara.

Well, you that did not listen, me? I said, I put data from the road builders on old maps of the geographical and topographic of the 19th century. And for this I'm scanning them, then tying them to a modern co-ordination grid, setting the projection, choosing the zone according to Grues Krueger, choosing an ellipsoid ...

- And what is so difficult?

And you thought it was easy? You are a fool!

- Why do you swear right away? Offended noticed, Dara.

Well, you understand, before you go with a metal detector, you need to know where to go ?! And for this you need to conduct research.

Look for books, maps ... well, I talked about this.

After I snap the old map to a modern grid of coordinates. Then I digitize, vectorize the old map. I compose an attribute database, bind it to the map.

Then, I apply a vector layer to a raster with a satellite image or aerial photograph ... or a drone image.

I am looking for similar shapes on the surface ... I compose an interpretation key, and I create a preliminary version of a map of perspective places for searches.

After I leave for a place, with a navigator and a drone, I look for that place, and on the spot I already confirm or deny whether it was a place or not.

Sometimes I am mistaken. Then again I look in the archives and funds. But not everything is there ... since in different eras, 1917, 1930, 1950, 1989, and 90-00 of the 20th and 21st centuries, part of the archive and stock data was burned. Corrected the story, in an ideological vein. From the point of view of historical science, this is idiocy, falsification of history. But from the point of view of ideology, this is a very expected move. To form a commonality of lies, simply keeping silent about some facts, entire generations are being formed who do not know the truth and think in a given format. Actually turning into formatted robots. But it is, a fairy tale. Do not get hung up on this.

So you need to look for clues in foreign archives, not all of them are open to foreigners, and even individuals, without legal organization behind their backs. So ... you have to wool collector sites, auctions, a database of photographs, stocks ... second-hand books in Europe and Asia. You find something, something not ...

And then by the method of checking on the ground you begin to get to the point.

Sometimes in the place where there was a fortress on the map of 1871 and 1897, it is possible to find a handful of tiles and broken bricks ... and sometimes just ceramics of the 18th and 19th centuries. If it was a royal fortress, it was built from burnt bricks, and if the local principality of Small-An was made of adobe, clay bricks burnt in the sun.

As I said in the 50 years of the 20th century, the second empire wanted to catch up and overtake the production of agricultural products and US industry. There was a race for the leader. Then the leaders of the empire did not think about ecology, and simply willed decision, sowed the plains and steppes with rural cultures. And to increase the cultivated area, they cut down forests, demolished fortresses, castles, villages ... but of course hell didn't work. The US eventually won ... anyway. Also a dark story. Either the new leaders of the second empire just bought them and they surrendered their empire. In general, not a damn thing is clear. Although only 35 years have passed.

So, returning to our topic, I am looking in such areas for these ruins themselves or what remains of them. I put on the map, and already from this point I begin to conduct my searches. But here, of course, you understand that an error of a couple of mm will be initially laid down, that on the map and on the ground it can become a couple of tens or even hundreds of meters. So you have to comb thoroughly. Drones here provide me with indispensable help. Since they can cover a large area, and have special cameras and scanning equipment. Thanks to applications on archeology and special thematic software products, it is possible to decipher these images.

Then, I go to the desk work, in my base camp in the mountains, in the gorge, so as not to be in sight. There already, having a confirmed interpretation key, on the ground, I begin to draw up an updated thematic map, an electronic note. By searching for historical artifacts, I reconstruct old roads of the 9-10th centuries and sometimes 3-4 centuries, and of course the caravan roads of the 14-18th centuries.

I am breaking through old points, on such a road at 30 or even 1300 km there are dozens of villages, caravanserais, wells, underground reservoirs, customs points and fortresses. But now, if you go through this map from dozens of villages, only 3-4 of them remain.

- Where are the others?

Where? Gone. So I need to find them all. When I find their ruins ...

- But as? According to knowledge, where were the caravanserais found?

Oh, so you are in the subject! Yes, something like that. I know from the days of Persian and Arab sources that the caravanserais were located in the 8-9th century, 30 km from each other and later in the 14-15 centuries in 35-37 km.

Now about it is easier for me to search.

COMPLETED

The Silk Road ... it is inevitable the emergence of wells, caravanserais, guard fortresses, postal stations, local bazaars, regional bazaars, the emergence of new jobs:
- robbers (there were whole settlements)
- caravan guards
- changed
- merchants

Just about them and will be discussed.


About their life, tricks.

Alas, English is still the same ... there are mistakes, I am sure of it.

I hope over time I will be able to fix them.

I just wanted to share information about such an interesting topic as the history of the development of the Silk Road.

----
And also a series of stories about treasures, treasure hunters.

--------------------------------
This is a work of art. Any resemblance to real people or real events is purely coincidental.

Stories about immortals have shaped human history since the beginning of time.
Zeus and other gods of Olympus were immortals. Adam and other early human ancestors were written in religious books as humans who lived up to 900 years old. Adam (930), Set (912), Enos (905), Kenan (910), Yared (962), and the longest-living human in the world which was Methuselah who died at the age of 969.
In the scripture, following the epoch of Noah and the Great Flood, was a period of time where humans, as punished by God because of their evil ways, could no longer live past 120 years old. This had been my basis for writing the story of 'The Alchemists'.
Alchemy is a pseudoscience (considered as not real science) believing that the entire universe is moving toward a perfect state where gold, a metal known for its indestructible properties, is the most perfect substance.
With this principle, alchemists believe that by understanding the secrets of the unchanging gold, they would eventually grasp the key to warding off diseases and organic decay, thus creating humans with physical perfection: the immortals.
 The Alchemists tried to find or come up with the chemical formula for the Philosopher's Stone which functions to convert metals into gold and make the Elixir of Life/Youth,  a drug that cures all kinds of and allows them to live longer than humans in general.
Topics about chemistry, spirituality, and astrology became the focus of medieval alchemy. Until the 18th century, alchemy was considered a serious branch of science in Europe. Isaac Newton devoted much of his time to this field of study.
Other prominent alchemists from the Western world are Roger Bacon, St. Thomas Aquinas, Tycho Brahe, Thomas Browne, and Parmigianino. It was this alchemy that later became the foundation of 18th-century modern Chemistry.
WHAT IF, the alchemists actually succeeded in finding the formula for the immortality potion and restoring the human bodies into their original perfection, so they could be like their ancestors who used to live past 900 years?
This is the story of the Alchemist clan who discovered the elixir of youth and has lived as immortals since 1450, ruling the world from behind the shadows and at the same time spreading rumors that alchemy is a failed science.
Because time was in their hands, these immortals or semi immortals did not rush to find partners and only bore children when they were already hundreds of years old. In their long lives, they learned and gathered so much wisdom and knowledge that no modern humans, who only have dozens of years to do so, could compare.
Because time is in their hands, these perfect humans acquired a different outlook on life and society than today's regular people who tend to rush and pursue temporary pleasures in the modern world.
They became people who have finally found a way to manipulate the elements and make themselves perfect. They now have all the time in the world to do whatever they want, learn whatever they want, and explore wherever their feet could take them.
To conceal themselves from the general public, Alchemists spread rumors that alchemy is a failed science and that all fables about immortal humans are nothing but mere fairy tales. Yet in reality... they are among us, living with us, and ruling the world from the shadows.
***
.
WHAT'S IN THIS BOOK SERIES?
In VOLUME 1 (254 chapters), you will be introduced to the Alchemists. The story is light-hearted and heartwarming. I intentionally started the series with romance to put us in a good mood before getting ready for the intense Volume 2.
In VOLUME 2 (350 chapters), you will meet more of the Alchemists and witness their internal conflict for power. This volume is quite intense but also passionate.
Later, we will have light hearted side stories (100 chapters) about the side characters before we continue to Volume 3.
In VOLUME 3 (approx 200 chapters), the Alchemists will face an enemy who found out about their secrets and wanted to destroy them. This will be the most intense part of the series.
Each Volume (except for the side stories) is an independent book, related to one another but can be enjoyed individually. If you like short novels, you can just read per volume. If you are into romance, go for Volume 1, if you like more action and sci-fi go for Volume 2. But if you enjoy reading long novels, you can just read the whole series. It's very flexible.
I could choose to write 3 different novels but opted against it because I am a practical person. Since the stories are connected, why not let readers have the whole series under one title? It is also for ranking purposes. Usually, once a novel is completed, the ranking will drop, I don't want that to happen so soon.
So, please bear with me and give this book a year to reach its final destination, starting in May 2019.  I intentionally only locked it from chapter 176 so you could enjoy so many free chapters and decide if you would like to invest more time and SS to continue reading.
I do hope you'll enjoy the first volume enough to continue to the next one. This book is originally written in Indonesian and most original readers who enjoyed Volume 1, cannot say enough good things about Volume 2.
They said VOLUME 2 is INTENSE, PASSIONATE, HEARTWARMING, and THEY LOVE THE ENDING!
I think the current original rating of 4.9 out of 5 from 2,800 reviews should speak for itself (you can see my author page and check the original version in Indonesian).
Thank you for giving this book a chance. Enjoy!


*How do immortals live in the modern world? One had been walking the earth for 438 years without ever falling in love. The other one couldn't get over the only woman he loved, even after 100 years.

**What happen when an immortal didn't know he was immortal? After living for almost a century, he still looked like he was 25. So, he thought maybe... maybe he was a freak, a victim of human experimentation during Hitler's time. Growing up, he came to hate humans and their fondness for war and destroying nature. He swore to one day rule the world and decide on which humans got to live. In his book, 'only the good, the strong and the intelligent should live'.

***The wealthiest tycoon was an immortal who was raised in the ivory tower by his overprotective parents. One day he decided to go undercover as poor photographer to make friends with regular people. Alas! Scheming people tricked him to sleep with the most notorious golddiger in Berlin whose only goal in life was to marry a wealthy and powerful man. When she was pregnant with his child, the undercover tycoon wanted to take responsibility but still pretending to be poor. Will he finally let her know that he was wealthy? Why was she so adamant to marry a wealthy and powerful man?

THIS BOOK HAS 3 DIFFERENT STORIES. They are connected, but you can read them as standalone.

1. The Alchemist
2. Aleksis & Prince Siegfried
3. Secret Identity


Volume 1 has fluffy romance, Volume 2 has action/adventure, Volume 3 has comedy, and Volume 4 is a revenge/redemption drama.

#modernfantasy #alchemist #alchemy #immortalmortal #immortals #fantasy #romance #slice-of-life #sci-fi #action #adventure #secret-identity #comedy #travel #trivia #contemporary #billionaires #mystery

I did a big mistake with all the peoples in the world. When I finished the computer it says that you want private or public. I accidentally clicked the public. That's why all had change to the technology world. But all the peoples said to me that you are a stupid technology intelligence. I became sad. But I didn't loss, I went to my house and try again but nothing worked. It said that you have to finish.
                                You have to take a heaven leaf and put at a sea named king sea. I became shocked by the computer said. It said to put the leaf in the king sea. King sea the most dangerous seas in the world, with the greatest number of shipping accidents in the last 15 years, according to a report by the World Guards. There are many dangerous sea animals too. Such as the rockfish, predator big alien whale, scorpion shark, falcon monkey whale shark, and the most dangerous one the raven whale shark. For others, this is a world but for me, this is a game. 

                                    Now I have to go to the technology werewolf path."Wolfman", "Lycanthrope", and "Lycanthropy" redirect here. For other uses, see Wolfman (disambiguation), Lycanthrope (disambiguation), and Lycanthropy (disambiguation).

Woodcut of a werewolf attack by Lucas Cranach der Ältere, 1512
In folklore, a werewolf[a] (Old English: werewolf, "man-wolf"), or occasionally lycanthrope /ˈlaɪkənˌθroʊp/ (Greek: λυκάνθρωπος lukánthrōpos, "wolf-person"), is a human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely or after being placed under a curse or affliction (often a bite or scratch from another werewolf) with the transformations occurring on the night of a full moon. The werewolf is a widespread concept in European folklore, existing in many variants, which are related by a common development of a Christian interpretation of underlying European folklore developed during the medieval period. From the early modern period, werewolf beliefs also spread to the New World with colonialism. Belief in werewolves developed in parallel to the belief in witches, in the course of the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. Like the witchcraft trials as a whole, the trial of supposed werewolves emerged in what is now Switzerland (especially the Valais and Vaud) in the early 15th century and spread throughout Europe in the 16th, peaking in the 17th and subsiding by the 18th century. 
                                                         SET SAIL TO WEREWOLF PATH.

With that, Zhang Heng tasked Carina with finding the mole. Ever since the Jackdaw returned to Nassau, Zhang Heng hadn't managed to get any sleep. As promised, he made the announcement to Nassau's residents that he would defend the fortress with Honegg. When that was done, he retreated home to get some well-deserved rest.
It was late in the evening when he opened his eyes. Zhang Heng took a look at Anne, who was sleeping next to him. She had a questionable sleeping position, with an arm and a leg placed on Zhang Heng's body. She was drooling like a baby as well. The most ironic part was that Anne had her leg placed on Zhang Heng's chest while her hand was on his thigh.
Zhang Heng had no idea how she managed to turn herself upside down while she was sleeping. The reason why he suddenly woke up suddenly because Anne kicked his chin accidentally. Trying his best not to wake her up, he spent quite a bit of effort to remove her contorted limbs from his body. However, it seemed like he overthought it. Once Anne was asleep, waking her up was a challenge, to say the least. 
On the flip side, she had this feral instinct when it came to threats. Even when she was in a deep sleep, she would automatically wake up if something dangerous happened around her. Zhang Heng had no idea how to explain a phenomenon like this. He guessed that it had everything to do with her personality, a beast-like nature that automatically allowed her to detect any incoming threat.
What she told him that night reminded him of the little fox of Little Prince. Due to the little fox taking a liking toward Little Prince and it knew that goodbye was coming, it was willing to be domesticated. The little fox did that because it wanted to remember the color of Little Prince's hair when it gazed upon the wheat field.
Zhang Heng took a jacket from a nearby chair and covered Anne with it. He went proceeded downstairs to his little farm, where he plucked the vegetables that were ripe and dug up a few potatoes. While he was tending to his garden, he saw the little girl living next to him and gave her a barbary fig. Before entering the game, Zhang Heng had never tried Barbary figs before.
It was the fruit of a cactus and was native to the north and south of America. It could typically be found above the cactus plant. Like the main tree, the fruit was also covered in thorns. One had to cut off its tail and remove its skin before it could be eaten. It was essential that the octagonal thorn within the fruit was picked out as well. As for its taste, there was a tinge of sweetness coupled with sour parts. Zhang Heng was weirded out when he first ate this fruit. He had once heard that Indians favored the fruit a lot, regularly using it as medicine.
As usual, the little girl ran away the moment Zhang Heng approached her. He wasn't too bothered by this, knowing that the parents of kids her age would usually advise them to steer clear of strangers. When he was done with the harvest, he brought the Barbary figs and vegetables back in. Instead of eating the fruit just like that, Zhang Heng preferred to scoop out its flesh and add a little honey with it.
When Anne finally woke from her slumber, Zhang Heng was already done preparing dinner for the two of them. He sprinkled some salt on the fishes that he'd just grilled over a flame. The 18th century wasn't as exciting as the modern world where there were no cellphones or computers. Even books were a rarity. Each time they returned from a voyage, they would be distraught from the harsh life out at sea. Hence, different people had different ways to relieve their stress.
For Anne, she preferred picking fights as a stress relief method. As for Billy, he preferred to spend his time with his family. Zhang Heng, on the other hand, liked to cook and tend to his little farm. It helped him to take his mind off things when he wasn't on the raging oceans. Farming was a hobby he acquired when he entered his very first quest. When he was on the island alone, he needed to survive. Thus, he looked for something to do to keep him going. Not only did farming bring him game points, but it also provided him with satisfaction and joy.
To see the seeds he sowed finally bear fruit was a great healing process. Cooking had the same effects as well. Unfortunately, the pace of life in modern society had gotten a lot faster, and a good amount of devotion would be needed for these things to succeed. It was possible to reap happiness if the person involved managed to calm their heart down. Unfortunately, fewer and fewer individuals from the modern world chose to embark and commit to these kinds of activities.
After becoming a pirate of the Caribbean, Zhang Heng realized that he had more time for activities like this. Now, he was required to stay in the game for an unprecedented amount of time. After reaching LV2 on his saber and sailing skills, Zhang Heng was thinking of learning other skillsets. Learning other languages had become a priority. After completing a few rounds of the game, Zhang Heng realized that it was vital for him to speak various languages. After all, communication was the most important skill a human could master. During the Mannerheim Line quest, many people took advantage of him as he didn't know how to speak their language.
Though he now spoke two foreign languages (plus a couple of Finnish words), he was better than most around him. However, every quest was unpredictable, and knowing only two languages wasn't quite enough. Zhang Heng quickly realized the advantage of the formation of teams, where each member could choose to learn a different language. If there were six people in a team, they would be able to communicate in six languages.
However, a single-player like Zhang Heng could only rely on himself. Fortunately, he had ample time to learn other languages. Now, he planned to learn French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, and Latin throughout the ten-year tenure in this game. He wanted to be able to understand basic speech at the very least.
If his memory served him right, Zhang Heng remembered that Latin was only used up until the early 18th century. As the official language of Rome, Latin was widely spoken throughout Europe during the 1st century BC. French, Italian, and Spanish were considered as local dialects. Along with the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Renaissance Era, Latin started to lose its place as the essential language of Europe. In the end, the Vatican was the only country that remained using Latin in their day-to-day business. Although languages of this era and languages of the modern world varied slightly, Zhang Heng figured it shouldn't be a problem for him to master some simple ways of communication.
......…..
Zhang Heng was still waiting for Black Prince Sam to vouch for him so he could join the meeting that was to be on this island. The next morning, he received an unexpected notification telling him that his main quest of the game had been completed. After eliminating a few possibilities, Zhang Heng figured that Billy must have recruited a new batch of pirates. There were at least 70 pirates on the Jackdaw right now. Thus, when the game instructed him to build his own force, it meant that he had to recruit a certain number of people to work under him.
It seemed that his quest was complete. After living in this world for one year, it was only logical that his main quest was completed. Zhang Heng had no intention to give up on anything after achieving so much in this game. After all, he had to stay here for another ten years. Everything that he did right now was preparation for a bigger goal. Be it joining the meeting, helping Carina fight the black-market alliance, becoming Honneg's ally, or helping Laeli, Zhang Heng was building a strong foundation for himself.


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

Gray and Jono returned to their suite before the promotional video would be released publically and in front of everyone at the game conference.

Although Gray normally doesn't like to stand out, receiving some recognition was nice once in a while.  Seeing his team being displayed for everyone to watch was a good feeling.  Gray noticed that not only his name was shown for his team, but so was Caleb's name.

"Caleb must be here somewhere then" Gray thought.

Assuming the other VIP suites were filled with other teams that were invited today, Gray looked at the other balconies and saw that all of the others had a lot more people than his balcony.

"Do other teams share suites?  Why am I the exception?" Gray thought as he looked at the large suite just for Jono and himself.

A knock was heard on the door and Gray heard a familiar voice.

"It's my suite too baby cakes, no need to knock" came from behind the door with a slightly nasal and arrogant voice.

Gray thought that the voice… sounds like Caleb, but the way he talks is nothing like him.  The door opened and a fairly short guy in his early 30s wearing old 20th century glasses sauntered in being followed by a slightly stressed looking Felicia.  Gray was happy to see her again but this happiness was interrupted by this guy.  The guy turned to Felicia and said "Thanks babe that will be all!" and Felicia made a quick departure.  Gray almost half expected the guy to pinch her butt or something like that.

"So, I'm guessing you must be Gray." Said the guy as he looked directly at Gray.

"Correct, and you must be Caleb!  This is my friend Jono" Gray replied while introducing Jono also.

"I'm guessing you figured out it was me from the name in the video?" Gray asked Caleb.

"Indeed, and the 4 teams used in the promotional video were provided with a suite for each of them.  Since you and Geoff are the only other male members of our team, it was safe to say that it would either be Geoff or you, Gray, that would be in this suite."

"Yeah, you definitely sound like Caleb now, so how come you knew it was me and not Geoff and couldn't Jono have been Geoff?" asked Gray

"You and Geoff are similar, if one of you had opted to have yourself high-lighted, the other would too.  Since only your name was visible in the video one could deduce that Geoff is not here.  As for why Jono is not Geoff, he doesn't have a VIP badge."

Gray felt the urge to rib Jono more about the VIP badge, but frankly the joke was getting old.  He'd wait until later when Jono started to get over it.

"You didn't talk to Yurika and Stacia like that though in game, what's up with that?" asked Gray to Caleb.

"Team cohesion, creating a disturbance in the team would be detrimental to our cooperative relationship thus maintaining proper etiquette is imperative."

Jono whispered to Gray "Does he always talk like that?"

"Yes, he's one of those types that likes to flaunt his intellect by using big words to hide his insecurities." Gray whispered back to Jono.

Caleb coughed loudly to bring the focus back to himself.  "I can still hear you even if you whisper.  I do not have any insecurities, my intellect is significantly higher than probably everyone else in this conference.  I am not trying to boast, this is merely a fact.  I created a tech company that specializes in custom AI at the same age you two were just discovering puberty.  I do not need to boast, my achievements in synthetic neural algorithms and software based linguistic analysis and emulation speak for me."

Gray and Jono blinked not really sure what to say then both looked at each other.  Simultaneously they both thought to themselves. "He's totally boasting"

__________

After the promotional video was shown, the press group in charge of promoting Alterra Online were showing off some of the features that would be implemented after the game launched officially in 5 days.  Gray, Caleb, and Jono sat in their balcony and listened to the question and answer session with a few of the employees from Alterra Corp did shed light on some features and design choices of Alterra Online.

Of the features to note, faction creation would be unlocked, matchmaking would be expanded, and mech customization would be unlocked.

The faction creation feature will only be available to Diamond Tier players.  It was noted that players could be promoted within a player created faction to become the new leader should the existing one retire from Alterra Online.  As for faction housing, players could use merits to rent specific buildings from NPCs as faction headquarters.  These would include basic support staff for up to a squad of mechs (8 mechs) and be expandable to support a full platoon of mechs (50 mechs).  Minimum rank to start a faction is 1st Lieutenant which will also be unlocked to players at the official launch.

The new matchmaking features also got Gray a little more excited.  With the player base expanding, matchmaking would support up to 50 vs 50 in team assault.  Having more mechs would drastically increase the complexity of the matches and it never hurt to have more cannon fodde… I mean… friends on the battlefield.

Mech customization didn't appeal particularly to Gray, but it was fun to mess with at times.  He thought it might be hilarious if everyone painted their mechs to look like various childhood cartoon characters.  The thought of Yurika going berserk with some SMGs in a mech that looks like Mikey Moose would be a terrifying sight indeed.

A question about matchmaking was brought up about solo ranks and how it felt like players were forced to join a team because of the lack of solo matchmaking ranks.

"Alterra Online aims for realism and is designed to emulate military structure.  Missions and battles are carried out in teams.  Individual bravery is important, but glorified heroism often romanticized about in movies and other popular media will only lead to wanton losses.  While this seems harsh, our aim is indeed to create as accurate a military simulation as possible."

Overall most of the attendees agreed with how Alterra Corp responded to this, but a few of them seemed a little disgruntled from what Gray could see.  This made sense as a lot of players didn't trust other players or just enjoyed not having to worry about a team and did only solo matches.  While going in to a match solo wasn't disallowed, if you couldn't get your team rank up you wouldn't be able to get merits very quickly.

Another question that everyone has already asked before that was brought up again was regarding why Alterra Online was so persistent about keeping the game as realistic as possible.

"We want to offer something that no other game has, the feeling that you're not playing a game.  Others have tried to do this in the past, but none have reached the amount of realism that Alterra Online has been able to facilitate.  We don't want you to just feel like you're lumbering around in an 80 ton mech, we want you to believe you are piloting it!" answer the Alterra Corp staff.

Lastly a question was brought up regarding the policy on if you die in game you lose your account and how Alterra Corp would essentially be losing customers if players died in the game because of this.

"I know it may seem harsh to force a player to quit a game, but as we said before, we aim for complete realism.  If you die in real life, you don't get a second chance at life."  (This isn't one of those kinds of novels after all)

__________

After the question and answer session, Gray, Jono, and Caleb decided to return to the main floor and look around some of the other booths.  By the way Jono was asking about Felicia, Gray was pretty sure he just wanted to look for her and it wasn't all that surprising.

Gray pulled the door closed behind him to their suite when a very familiar male voice that caused Gray to get repulsed immediately came from behind him.

"Gray?  Gray Wilhelm!  Yes!  That is you, what are you doing sneaking around up here with the VIP attendants or is the dropout lost?"

A hundred years from now the Earth is now reduced to several domed cities after the last war raised the temperature across the planet thus raising the sea level.

The most common escape for everyone is virtual reality.  A new game, Alterra Online, is set to release and promises to be the most realistic mecha/military/political simulation to date as well as the first full dive virtual reality game.

Gray Wilhelm, like so many others, wants to be one of the first to play.  What is Alterra Online's secret?  Why do players feel more alive in the game than in real life?  And why is the government and Alterra Corporation working on it together?

Features:
- NO Systems, Reincarnations, Supernatural Powers, harems, or brain dead females that chase after MC.
- Monty Python references and many others.
- Believable characters



11/9/2019 - Slowing down release rate temporarily as I edit and clean up the first volume extensively.  Wow was I bad!  Doesn't quite need a rewrite thankfully.

18th century realism

My 18th

Reincarnation |: Tangent Lines

Traveler notes

MY HISTORICAL LIFE

My Youth Began With Him

Stories about merchants or cunning merchant

The Alchemists

THE INTELLIGENCE'S TECHNOLOGY SYSTEM

48 Hours a Day

The Alterra Project

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