In the midst of all the technology in 2067 a scientist manages to create an incredible teleportation machine, extremely powerful able to travel among other universes 

** Disclaimer: the book cover design is not mine; if the author wants me to remove it, send an email to luniit0218563@gmail.com which I will remove. **0.

"Director Luo needs a highly difficult mission, and this mission that I designed will be able to satisfy him." Chen Ge stayed at the School of the Afterlife until dawn. To perfect this four-star scenario, he had not slept a wink. "One has to wear the band designed by Director Luo to enter this scenario so that the doctors can rush to save them at first notice."
After the underground morgue was unlocked, Chen Ge had grown more courageous. As long as Doctor Wei said it was okay, he dared to do it. Hugging the white cat out of the scenario, Chen Ge left tired, but his brain was active. "Am I sick?"
Since the School of the Afterlife was unlocked, the reward that correspond to that scenario should have unlocked as well. Putting the white cat down, Chen Ge entered the dressing room and found Lin Sisi's phone and Zhang Ya's bedtime story in an unassuming wooden box in the corner of the room. He had used Lin Sisi's phone before, so there was nothing to be said. He opened the phone to look at it, and it contained a lot of information related to Lin Sisi and the video of him being bullied.
"This thing belongs to Lin Sisi. I'd better keep it." Chen Ge did not delete anything on the phone but used the comic to summon Tong Tong. "Can you possess this phone?"
After trying, Tong Tong nodded.
"Okay then, I'll leave Lin Sisi's phone in your care. Tomorrow, when visitors enter the school, just follow my instructions." Chen Ge handed Lin Sisi's phone to Tong Tong, who looked like he had just gained a new toy. However, Chen Ge was reminded of something else. Once he entered the School of the Afterlife, Chen Ge had been knocked unconscious, and Chang Wenyu had stolen his phone, causing him to be inactive.
"I can't let that happen again." Chen Ge went online to order several custom-made phones that matched the appearance of the black phone. He did not need them to have many functions, as long as they could call, send messages, and hide Specters. He had just opened the browser and had not even started his search when he saw the day's headlines. He glanced at them out of habit, but when he did, he was stunned.
Of the ten headlines, two of them were related to Chen Ge's Haunted House!
The top five highlights were celebrity gossip, but from the sixth headline, things took a strange turn, like a clear rivulet turning into a swampy ravine.
"The world after death really exists‽ The real testimonies from several comatose patients who woke up on the same day!"
Then, the seventh highlight that followed it was: "The fainted world is a theme park in the real world!"
Clicking on it, Chen Ge realized that the name New Century Park had entered the top twenty most searched terms of the day, and the number was still climbing.
"Did Director Luo buy these clicks?" Normally, he would read the news, but to have his workplace appear on the news, that was quite uncomfortable for Chen Ge. "Hopefully, Director Luo will be able to handle this."
Chen Ge refreshed the page and was about to go and find a web store that could custom make a phone when he saw the fiftieth headline and the two familiar words that appeared on the end of it.
"Chen Ge?" The highlight had just two simple words, and it appeared conspicuous among other highlights that had long titles. "Why is my name there?"
Chen Ge was sure that he did not see wrongly. He really did see his name among the daily news headlines.
"What is going on?" Quickly clicking on the link, Chen Ge realized that his 'glorious' history of helping the police had all been dug up—the livestream where he encountered the murderer in the haunted house; the livestream where he was chased by mad people in the mental asylum; how he had helped the Jiujiang police capture criminals, solve cases, and unearth the truth behind the case that had been silent for five years during the period when his livestream was banned; and even the news of him receiving the good citizen award had been found by the internet.
Some internet users even created a Chen Ge Wikipedia page, but the more they dug, the more shocked they were. Just what kind of a man was this?
All the information that they had found already existed online, including the award announcement on Jiujiang Law Enforcement's website, Chen Ge's livestreams, and many 'tearful complaints' from the numerous Haunted House visitors. There were rumors flying everywhere, and many people thought that Chen Ge was not a simple Haunted House operator, that it was just a cover.
Some said that he was a Private Investigator, some believed that he was a psychologist, and some guessed that he was a mysticism researcher. There was so much online that Chen Ge felt a headache coming. The comatose patients who woke up pushed him to the center of attention. He could not keep a low profile even if he wanted to. After looking through the article for a while, Chen Ge sighed in relief. The users were just guessing. None of them had any proof, and more importantly, the children had forgotten about the events behind the door; they only had a brief recollection of them.
When their spirits returned to their bodies, their memories became blurry. The experience behind the door would be like a very long nightmare, and Chen Ge was the person who woke them up. They appreciated Chen Ge a lot, but they had no idea why that was.
"Even I was in the headlines. Should I make use of this chance to promote the haunted house?" Chen Ge had never been someone who hesitated for too long. He logged into his video account, and even without having released any videos, he saw the wild growth of his followers and fan. With every new refresh, the number would continue to climb. One should strike the iron while it was hot, so Chen Ge used his account to release a teaser about the new scenario.
Once he logged on, the forum instantly exploded. The activity was so high that it scared even Chen Ge.
"Do I have such a big following?"
Chen Ge replied to about ten private messages, but there were simply too many, so he had to log out. Putting the phone away, Chen Ge turned to the last reward—Zhang Ya's bedtime story. The book had a black cover, and it felt special to the touch like it was weaved from hair. Just touching it caused his body to break out in cold sweat.
"I'll take a look at it when I'm free." Chen Ge placed the book in a drawer in the staff breakroom and lay in bed to take a small rest.
At 8 am, the employees had gathered at the door. Chen Ge's chat the previous night had been quite effective. "Mind your scenarios carefully. Que Changlin, come with me. I have a special mission for you."
Chen Ge called Que Changlin over. Since theme park had not opened, he sent him over to the workshop boss, Qian Guigen. "I need to custom-make fifty student mannequins, and I need to use them tomorrow. So, you'll be here helping me."
"Use them tomorrow? Do we have enough time?"
"It'll be fine." Chen Ge took out the design that he had come up with the previous night. "You can start with this, and I'll come to help you in the afternoon."
Then Chen Ge's phone rang; it was Director Luo telling him to get back to the theme park. After giving the down payment to Boss Qian, Chen Ge hurried back to New Century Park and realized that Director Luo and Uncle Xu were both standing at the resting hall.
"Xiao Chen, the promo for the School of the Afterlife has been completed based on your request. Come and see if there's anything that needs editing." Director Luo summoned Chen Ge.
"It's perfect, matched the world after death perfectly." Chen Ge was satisfied with the promo. "By the way, Director Luo, have you seen the news headlines today? Did you buy those placements? How come even I am among them?"
"If I bought the placements, I would have placed New Century Park at number one." Director Luo shook his head. "Yesterday, there were at least ten children who were reported by the news, but the actual number hasn't been reported. Many media outlets are watching this, and we are right at the center of it all. However, this also means that we must be careful. Be cautious of your words. Say what you need to, but keep the lid on anything that you shouldn't."


The hearse with the weird odor slowed to a stop before the entrance. The sound of pebbles could be heard bouncing on the ceiling. There were footsteps coming from the corridor, and there seemed to be someone sawing next door. The door knob to the room rattled slightly, and the faucet in the bathroom kept dripping even though it had been screwed shut. There was a rubber ball that rolled on its own underneath the bed. Wet footsteps started to surface one after another on the floor. 
At 3 am, Chen Ge held a cleaver in his hand as he hid beside the room heater. The call he was trying to make was finally answered. "Landlord, is this what you meant by 'the house can be a little crowded at night'‽"

Little Lin had yet to realize what was wrong with what he'd said. His head was cocked to the side as he asked again, "Little Brother?"
It's already a miracle that your brother isn't fighting me right now, yet you're actually asking me to watch him and prevent him from getting into fights?
Truly, doing so would be really difficult for both me and him.
However, Mo Bei could not say that to a child. She could only respond with a neutral "mm" and a cold handsome expression as her finger cleaned Little Lin's face.
Master had said that one had to treat children gently.
Even if her face could not produce much of an expression, she had to do her best.
The assistant really didn't want to watch this situation progress anymore.
He felt like his entire being had been dazed ever since he had stepped into this restaurant.
Meanwhile, Feng Nai used a napkin to wipe the corner of his lips, which still hurt a little. He suddenly smiled with a strange expression on his face. "Oh? Then Little Brother will have to watch me properly in the future. After all, sometimes, when my anger flares up, I don't care who the other party is."
Mo Bei figured out the meaning behind his words. Her slender fingers spun the coffee cup around rather absent-mindedly as she said, "You're right. I will frequently go for a walk on No.1 Middle School's side in the future."
Feng Nai's lips curled up slightly. "We'd really welcome you."
Little Brother was totally unaware that these two people were arranging a fight. He lifted his milk tea and took a sip before saying, "Brother, didn't we come to an agreement the other time? It's too dangerous for Little Brother to go to No.1 Middle School. Next time, we'll go play at No.2 Middle School."
Feng Nai's posture was languid. Trouble Lin had started to dig a hole for him again.
Mo Bei watched that attractive face before looking down and commenting, "He would go to No.2 Middle School?"
"Brother has agreed to it. He even said that he wasn't afraid of being caught." Little Lin was really serious. "Fortunately, Little Brother isn't like my brother, who's so fond of fighting. Actually, that's not right…"
Intelligent Little Lin, who seemed like he had been struck by a sudden thought, frowned. "When I first met Little Brother, he was in a fight. If the relationship between No.1 Middle School and No.2 Middle School is so bad, then the two of you…"
"Don't know each other."
"Have never met."
An emotionless voice and a languid voice spoke together with a chemistry they had never had before.
Even the assistant seated at the next table was tempted to cough. Luckily, he was able to hold back.
Meanwhile, Little Lin was bursting with joy. "I knew my brother would like you, Little Brother, once he met you. Fortunately, there was no conflict between the two of you previously. I'm so thankful about that."
How were they supposed to respond?
The assistant was really tempted to comment.
Little young master, it's simply because you don't go online. Take a look at Weibo. The disputing comments are a mess.
This Little Brother of yours used Almighty to gain attention all the time in the past.
You think Almighty likes him?
How could that be?
How did you come to this conclusion, little young master?
Based on how friendly these two are on the surface?
Feng Nai had experienced all sorts of storms before. Thus, he chuckled softly and said meaningfully, "Yeah, we've never had a conflict. Why would I have a conflict with such an outstanding person as Little Brother?"
Mo Bei glanced at him, her countenance impassive.
Even the assistant found this unusual.
He had to hand it to this gay guy. He was actually able to respond to whatever Almighty said without freaking out at all.
After all, Almighty rarely showed this shameless side of himself in front of others.
"Little young master is formidable…" the assistant thought, his gaze falling on Little Lin once more.
The latter was completely oblivious. After all, he was too engrossed in his joy.
"Want some cake?" Mo Bei's disposition was still cold and elegant.
Little Lin nodded. What he'd looked forward to the most was finally here. "Yes, yes!"
Mo Bei reached out and opened the carton. Fingers as fair as jade picked up the knife and created a flower design with just a few casual cuts.
This made Little Lin's eyes light up. "Little Brother, you're amazing!"
"It's nothing." She'd learned it in technical school. Mo Bei placed the cut-out flower before Little Lin.
Happiness was written all over his face as he took a bite. "Little Brother, give a slice to my brother too. He loves cake."
Feng Nai, who had been called out, was speechless.
==============
From 15 Feb 2020, Coins spent on books that aren't selected will be refunded within 30 days. However, Fast Passes will not be refunded.
The selected book will have a mark on the corner of the book cover in 30 days to indicate continuation.
Thank you for your understanding.


Three years ago, when Sovereign Union disbanded, gaming genius Mo Bei laid low and went into seclusion.
Three years later, she returns with a concealed name, disguised as a man.
Despite being scorned and loathed, she ultimately reascends to the thone, causing a sensation in the entire nation!
Handsome but aloof, pursued by countless fans, he was the famous King of the eSports scene.
Dark Flares' Captain, who was known for his looks, was even more famous for his ambiguous playing style.
*
When she first joined the team, he told her, “Know your place. Do not try to have inordinate ambitions.”
Subsequently, when her identity was exposed, he looked up from his seat at the table and stood up gradually. “Are you thinking of deserting me after marrying me in the game? Hmm?”
Sequel to National School Prince Is A Girl! Mo Bei is the disciple of NSPG's Almighty Qin. Join him as he too becomes one!

Gun-Ho received a book from Jae-Sik Moon.
"Hmm. Finally, Professor Jien Wang's book has been published. It's thick."
Gun-Ho opened the book. On the other side of the cover page, Professor Jien Wang's profile was listed. It said that he obtained his Ph.D. from Yale University and taught at Yale. He is currently teaching at Zhejiang University in China. There was a brief profile about the translator who translated this book into Korean too. He was an instructor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.
 
Gun-Ho turned the first page over. There, he could see the name of the publishing company and publisher, etc. The publishing company was GH Media, and the publisher was Jeong-Sook Shin; the chief editor was Jae-Sik Moon. The name of the design team's leader—Jeong-Sook Oh was shown there too. The price of the book was 15,000 won. Maybe given the thickness of the book, it was priced high.
"Let me see if there is any book review on this book in a newspaper."
Gun-Ho searched the Internet. The three major newspapers: Chosun, Joongang, and Donga Ilbo were making an issue of the book. Even a small newspaper in a province was talking about the book. Maybe because the author was a college professor in China, who used to teach at Yale University. Moreover, the economy prospect in China for the 21st century as the book title indicated is closely related to people in Korea.
"I hope it sells very well."
Gun-Ho opened the book while saying that. There were many charts and diagrams, it certainly looked not a fun book, unlike a novel.
 
Gun-Ho asked for the general affairs manager.
"How many workers do we have, who is above team leader?"
"We have 62, sir."
"Then, please buy this book, 62 of them from online and hand it to all of them."
"It's Economy Trend in China for the 21st Century."
"Tell them to read it and make a book report. The one who submits the best book report will be awarded."
"Yes, sir."
The general affairs manager made a note about the name and the publisher of the book while standing in front of Gun-Ho."
"GH Media? It's one of our companies?"
The general affairs manager seemed to be delighted.
 
Gun-Ho went on a business trip to China. He was carrying the book that Professor Wang authored. He was carrying several Korean versions of the book. Once a book was published, the publisher usually sent the book to the author by mail. Gun-Ho wanted to bring it to Professor Wang himself.
Once he arrived in China, he didn't go to Suzhou City where Min-Hyeok was, but he went to Hangzhou Jien Wang was living in.
Gun-Ho was thinking of calling Jien Wang and asking him to come to the hotel where he was staying, but he decided to visit him to his workplace instead, which was his research office at Zhejiang University.
"Professor Wang? It's me, Gun-Ho Goo. I just arrived in China and I am on my way to your research office."
"What? You are coming to my office? I am in the office by myself and writing a paper. I will be here waiting for you."
 
When Gun-Ho and Jien Wang met, they hugged each other.
"It has been a while."
"Guess what? I brought you the book you wrote. It's a Korean version that has just been published in Korea. The publishing company will send it to you soon by mail, but I wanted to give it to you myself. I brought two of them."
"You could just send them by mail. It is kind of heavy to carry."
Jien Wang looked delighted, he was smiling.
"The Korean language is so beautiful. It is a phonetic language. I am envious of it."
"The Chinese language contains profound meaning."
"The Chinese characters are not easy to use on the Internet, and it is hard to write a foreign language in Chinese. If we want to write a foreign name such as Obama or Trump, we have to make it with Chinese characters. That's difficult."
"We have 24 letters in the Korean language."
"Exactly. I am so jealous. It's so easy to learn. You know what? There are three things that Chinese people will never know in their entire lives."
"What are they?"
"First, since the land of China is so big that they won't be able to visit them all before they die."
"That makes sense."
"Secondly, we have so many different cuisines in each province that they won't be able to taste them all before they die."
"Hahaha. Really?"
"Can you guess the third one?"
"I don't know."
"Chinese people die without knowing all of the Chinese characters. Even I sometimes encounter a Chinese character that I don't recognize because it is rarely used."
"Hmm. That's a bit sad."
"Well, I have my good friend here who came all the way from Korea. I will have to have a drink. I will buy you a drink today. I received a royalty from GH Media."
"That was already several months ago."
"Well, I at least want to buy you a drink, President Goo. You helped me to publish my book in Korea. Let's go and have Shaoxing wine."
 
Professor Jien Wang took Gun-Ho to a shabby bar at Hubin Lu.
"I come to this bar sometimes after work. I enjoy drinking by myself. My favorite menu here is a bottle of Shaoxing wine with a seasoned eggplant."
"This seasoned eggplant and water parsley taste similar to a Korean dish. I like them."
Gun-Ho ate a lot because he really liked those seasoned vegetables. They sautéed the vegetables with a little bit of oil, and they were really good. A pork dish came out.
"This pork dish is a special order for you, my friend. You eat pork, right?"
"Sure. It's good."
The port was sautéed with sliced onions.
 
Gun-Ho thought that the bar was a type of bars where a professor with not much money would come just like Jien Wang.
"I once wrote something while I was drinking at this bar. I sent it to a newspaper. The title is 'thinking of my friend.'"
Jien Wang took out a newspaper from his bag, it looked a bit dated. Jien Wang's writing was in the newspaper.
Gun-Ho started reading it. In the writing, Jien Wang talked about his Korean friend—Gun-Ho as well. It talked about how he met Gun-Ho for the first time, and how Gun-Ho was developed into a successful businessman. He also talked about how kind Gun-Ho was to him when he attended a conference in Korea along with Korean people's sense of public order and cleanliness.
"Thank you, my friend. You talked good about me."
"I really meant it."
Gun-Ho truly appreciated it.
"Let's keep our friendship forever."
"Sure. We will be friends until we die."
Gun-Ho was feeling good and enjoyed his drink with Jien Wang that night.
 
Gun-Ho headed to Suzhou City to see Min-Hyeok. Min-Hyeok seemed to gain some weight.
"You gained some weight. Maybe because Chinese food here is a bit oily."
"I think that's because I ate too many dish when I drink with customers as part of my sales activities. My fiancée already nagged me."
"What did she say?"
"She said I need to lose weight. She even gave me some kind of pills that would help me lose weight."
Min-Hyeok showed a bottle of pills to Gun-Ho, which said Jianfei.
 
The factory in China was doing great, it was vibrant. Min-Hyeok gave a brief report to Gun-Ho on the company's current loss and profit status. Gun-Ho could see how hard Min-Hyeok had been working because of the stock option.
"You have been working so hard."
"Yeah. I actually need some extra money, so I worked as much as I could. I am expecting to get some extra income from the stock option at the end of this year."
"Is it because of your wedding?"
"I will have to find a place to live with my fiancée. The rent is too high, so I am thinking to buy a home in Suzhou City. I will live with my wife right after we marry next spring."
"Do you think you would get a good dividend this year?"
"If things go well as expected, the ordinary income will be 2 billion Korean Won. My stock option is 5% of it, so I will receive an extra 100 million won. There is a condo complex in Suzhou City and it is called Cui Yuan Huayuan. It is close to our factory. I think I can buy a 25 pyung condo there with a loan. It costs 150 million won."
"The price of the condo will increase in the future?"
"I think so."
"Did your fiancée see that condo already?"
"No, she hasn't yet. Her name is Dingding. She will quit her job at school in Shanghai once we marry."
"Dingding? The teaching job in Shanghai International School is hard to get, isn't it?"
"Since she studied in the U.S., she can easily find another job here too. She was already offered a position from Suzhou International School."
"Really? That's great."
Gun-Ho thought Min-Hyeok was doing really good with his life.

This is the story of a poor young man whose poverty even shreds apart their family willing to climb his way through society and into the top. A very realistic novel that moves away from fantasy and sci-fi and focuses solely on the issues of society and life.

Planet Draor, Golden Dragon Star System.

Cynthia stood in a crowd of people and among them were many with the same hair color as her. They were all related to her. All of them was her stepsiblings and cousins. 

They all looked focused and they did not talk with each other unlike the other explorers around them chatting and everything. 

Cynthia was also preparing herself with her equipment and everything else. Thanks to the newly updated system, it was easier to equip herself with the equipment. 

With the equipment function, all she needed to do was think about the equipment she wanted to wear and it will automatically be equipped on herself. 

Cynthia wore a white robe and it looked really plain. It did not look as grand as the equipment wore by her step siblings and cousins. 

However, considering her identity as a princess, there was no way the robe was a low-level equipment. 

While she was checking her system for everything she might needed in this exploration, suddenly a loud shout was heard.

Looking in that direction, a young man with full set silver armor stood in front of all the explorers. His golden hair was enough to tell which family he came from. 

That young man was the 7th prince of the Golden Dragon Family, Glenn. He will be the one leading the exploration in closing the time limit dungeon that appeared a few hours ago on Planet Draor. 

Since Cynthia had too many siblings, she was not close with all of them and Glenn was not one of her siblings that she was close to. He was two years older than her. 

Glenn had raked in a lot of achievement for the past few years and he was really popular among many people especially girls. 

He was by no means a playboy but he was engaged to four girls and from rumor that Cynthia heard, the fifth one will be soon. It was not a political marriage too and he was the one that made his decision to engage with them. 

Knowing about the strict selection in his family about the ones they were marrying, Glenn worked hard to make sure that they were all competent. 

He gave a briefing on many things for a few minutes and then it was time to enter the time limit dungeon. 

Looking at the dungeon portal, Cynthia's heart was beating fast. She was nervous as well as scared too that she will not be able to come back. 

Explorers started getting inside the portal. They had a really determined face as they wanted to save their planet. 

Looking at the portal, the time limit of 4 days 15 hours was shown in their system with the level limit of level 20 to level 30. 

Cynthia entered the dungeon and suddenly, her environment instantly changed. Cynthia looked around and no one was around her and the portal she came in earlier disappeared. 

Cynthia did not panic and looked around but she was really surprised at what she saw. 

***

Since the matter regarding the time limit dungeon was important, a live stream of every time limit dungeon in the universe can be seen online. 

Cade was in his apartment and he was watching the live stream for the time limit dungeon in Planet Draor, the one that Cynthia decided to enter. 

He watched the live stream to see if he can see Cynthia but unfortunately, there were too many explorers and it was hard to spot her. 

Cade was actually really worried about her. He was really hoping that they will be the first one who succeed to close the time limit dungeon and Cynthia will be among the explorers that survived the dungeon. 

After all the explorers gone inside the dungeon, there was nothing else to see. Cade can only wait the result in four days. 

Cade closed the live stream and he went online to see if what he put online were bought by people. To Cade surprise, most of the things he put online were immediately bought by others. 

The skill books were sold out, some of the equipment was still there as well as the materials. As for his leftover puzzle piece, Cade decided to put them on auction online. 

He decided to not put all at once because it might lower their price. Since everything was done automatically, all Cade needed to do was put the puzzle piece online and wait until the auction for it was done. 

He also decided to do the same with the toad and tongue magic crystals. Cade searched online and at the moment, no one had started selling that kind of magic crystal. 

While waiting for the auction to be done, Cade went to the shop website online that he had surveyed earlier in the hospital to buy the material to upgrade his linked equipment. 

Cade had a lot of money and thus, he decided to buy high grade equipment if possible. However, to Cade surprise, they were really expensive. 

He remembered that they were not that expensive a few days ago. He checked on the comment section and found out that the demand for equipment skyrocketed due to the time limit dungeon and the equipment price was raised high. 

Cade then came to the realizations that he sold his equipment drop at normal price. He immediately went back to change the price but he was too late and they were all sold out. 

"I should have expected that earlier…" Cade was a bit regretful that he was unable to raise the price of his equipment. Cade continued shopping for everything else. 

After he was done with buying everything, Cade checked his puzzle piece and the price had gone up a lot. He was not surprise by this because they were super rare after all. He let it continue and went to his bed.

Cade sat on his bed with few equipment around him. They were all the ones he bought earlier to be used as the material to upgrade his linked equipment. 

First, Cade decided to use a trouser that had magic defense stat on it as the material to upgrade his jeans. Once Cade made the decision, the system processed the upgrade. Just like before, Cade needed to wait for a while before the upgrade finished. 

As to not wasting more time, Cade proceed to upgrade the white t-shirt. He bought a t-shirt equipment but that equipment was a bit special. It had skill imbued on it. 

Equipment with skill was not rare. There was many equipment with skill on them and the best example was the blue bear full set equipment Jonathan had. 

Cade had never seen Jonathan used the equipment skill but it was common knowledge that full set equipment had them. 

As for how strong the skill will be, it was quite the same as normal skill learned from skill book. However, the only different was that, equipment skill had cooldown time and used user's energy while normal skill depended only on how much energies the user had. 

The t-shirt equipment had the skill of cooling. It was a simple common skill and it was used to cool down the body of the user. 

Cade found out that wearing the t-shirt, hoodie and body armor increase his body temperature and it was too hot. It was quite a torture to him when he was inside the big tongue toad dungeon especially when he was fighting. 

Cade used the t-shirt with cooling skill as the upgrade material and he hoped that he can choose the skill as the new stat for his t-shirt. 

Cade moved on to his hoodie. Cade actually wanted to buy a robe with a skill that can conceal his presence but that robe was sold out. He kind of got that idea because of Shihoon's mute skill.

When he searched it on another store online, their price had unfortunately gone too high and over his budget. 

Cade did not know what he should buy. After long consideration, he bought a clothes equipment with another magic defense on it and wanted to upgrade his hoodie magic defense to magic defense 2. 

Cade move on to his last linked equipment, the mouth mask. Looking at his cardboard mouth mask, it was too sloppy. He only used it to cover his face from embarrassment wearing the cardboard equipment. 

The mouth mask had been his most useless linked equipment. It had the defense stat and can protect his mouth from physical attack but that was it. 

At the moment, Cade had never once fought an enemy that went for his mouth. So, the defense that the mouth mask provided was useless. 

Other than that, because he did not poke small holes on the mouth mask before it was linked, it was quite stifling wearing the mouth mask. 

When he fought a hard battle, there was not much exchange of air happening because of the mouth mask and that sometimes created a lot of disadvantages to Cade. 

When he found out about the possible change of design to his cardboard equipment after an upgrade, he was so happy about it and an idea of changing the shape of his mouth mask immediately came to his mind. 

Cade wanted to upgrade the mouth mask by using a gas mask as the material.

In an age of magic, space travel and explorations, humans had far surpassed what they were capable of in the past. 

In a small planet located in a small star sector, a young man name Cade was living his life peacefully. 

One day, Cade was playing around with cardboard and he suddenly awakened his system. However, an accident happened and the cardboard he played with became part of his power. 

Followed Cade's journey in making his name as an explorer in the universe.

Right before the first orc he ran into got a head full of baseball bat, Jake Smithson, shopping addict of Nohas, was holding his bat like he was back at home on a home-run derby.
'This makes me wish I spent more time training with my local softball team,' Jake thought, not surprised that his body was moving by muscle memory as soon as he planted his feet.
'A bunch of guys around the neighborhood and office used to play softball on the weekends, and they dragged me along for the ride. It made for a good few hours for actually going out and doing something, and it also got me out of trouble with my folks for being too much of a shut-in.
And now, something I do to keep my work life "healthy" turns out to be a really useful skill here?
Color me surprised.'
The orc's groaning knocked him out of his thoughts, and before Jake knew it, a massive meaty orc fist came hurtling towards his face.
'Odd,' Jake thought as he saw the punch coming in slow motion, his confusion slowly being replaced with confidence as he eased himself past it. 
'I could tie my shoelaces before this orc's fist would end up anywhere near my face!' 
As the fist sailed past him, Jake grinned, remembering nicer days from the past. 
'Even middle school me could dodge a punch that lame.'
The old bloodlust that he had kept hidden inside himself began to swell forth, and as it did, the surge of adrenaline reminded him of that time he gained the moniker Jake "Mad Dog" Smithson, the guy who walked away, bloodied but unbowed, from a five-on-one fight against the high school bullies giving him a bad time.
Jake's grin widened to what he personally thought as "serial killer level", yet he didn't know that the orcs he was dealing with were only downgrades that exist only within the beginner's area.
But it didn't matter, as the world immediately kicked back into high gear as Jake reared up again and swung for the same orc, knocking him on the head with a very satisfying thwack.
However, the orc's skull seemed to have the resilience of a bicycle helmet, causing Jake's hands to go numb.
He didn't stop, yelling "LIMITED! SALE!" each time he swung down, almost like how a martial artist yelled right before chopping down a set of tiles.
'This bat is pretty reliable,' he thought as he was close to ten minutes battling the orc. 
'It really earned the name Hardened Bat. I've been smacking this orc around for goodness knows how long, and I haven't felt this thing give way yet.'
Something popped out of the corner of his eye.

[Unbreakable through conventional use.]

'Well now,' Jake thought as he saw the additional flavor text. 'Guess I don't have to worry about the bat for now – I can use this on the orcs all I like.'
The sounds of hardened ebony wood smacking against orcish skull echoed in the cavern, all the while Jake considered how he was bringing his full strength to bear when hitting the orc.
Judging by how hard he was swinging, Jake hypothesized that he gained the equivalent amount of strength a normal person would after going through general weight training in a gym for a few years.
'This guy should have been taken down a few minutes ago!' Jake thought, and swung in frustration at the orc's head a little harder than he wanted – he felt a strain in one of his shoulders.
Thud.
His extra effort paid off, as the orc finally tottered and fell, the life going out of its eyes.
'Close to half an hour,' Jake thought, calculating the time he took based on the "LIMITED SALE TIME REMAINING" counter at the corner of his eye. 
'I had to yank one of them so that I'd beat it up in close enough quarters for me to swing this bat, and to dodge the orc's fists. This is taking too long for my liking.'
And as the now-deceased orc began to vanish, Jake gave it a dispassionate look, the one a worker wears while looking at his phone and waiting for a payday deposit alarm to come.
As soon as he turned his head, a most welcome chime resounded in his ear, and at the corner of his eye, he saw his reward...
 
[300 points earned.]

...and his jaw dropped.
"Eh?"
'Wait a minute,' Jake thought, crushed with disappointment as if his monthly salary had an undisclosed deduction. 
'These orcs were much stronger than the goblins I took care of before! What's going on?'
What Jake didn't know was that the goblin scouting party that attacked Brino were some kind of bonus monsters Nohas prepared to train new Awakeners – and that was why those goblins gave a lot more points than normal.
These orcs weren't made for training new Awakeners, they were just located in the beginner-friendly area.
Jake sighed, as he spent a lot of energy just for taking down one orc. 
'This is going to get tougher and tougher. 300 points – still need 2500 more, meaning I need to take down 9 orcs.'
He looked ahead in the gloom to where several other orcs were lying in wait.
'No matter how fucked up I felt about working at my company, I just couldn't quit. This feels similar, somehow,' he thought. 
'I mean, this is the only way to make money. If I stop now, I can't shop. And if I can't shop, what's the point of me being here?'
'Well,' Jake thought, as the old saying goes, 'nothing worthwhile comes easy.'
He turned to another orc who had spotted him running into the corridor and was now closing in on him.
Jake sighed and hefted his bat.
"Looks like I'm running the graveyard shift today! Come on!"
Another thud of many echoed in the cavern. 
***
Much blood, sweat, and tears later, Jake smiled the smile of the victorious as he was making his way back to Brino from his orc incursion.
The smile stretched even wider as a pleasant surprise came his way. 

[As a bonus to our loyal subscribers, you will receive a Book of Strength as a gift after you have purchased from our shop 3 times.]

The telltale chime and alert pointed Jake to the inventory, and Jake took out the box and began unpacking the box with a finesse borne of someone who has done the same thing many, many times.
The sound the tape made as it was ripped from the package was music to Jake's ears, and a welcome reprieve from all the orcs he'd been fighting.
While the clothes he was wearing – the same ones he wore at the time of his summoning – were soaked with the sweat of his toil and the blood of his enemies, the smile he was wearing said that all of his hardship was definitely worth it.
If everyone in Nohas could smile like Jake did at that moment, it would be the happiest place in the entire universe.
'Opening packages never changes,' Jake thought, hearing an angelic choir in his mind as he opened the cardboard box. After removing the crumpled paper bags used to hold the item steady, he looked within to see an extremely luxurious book that made his eyes light up and mood lighten just by looking at it.
He let out an admiring whistle. 'These guys really know everything that needs to be known about online shopping.'
The design of a package is one of the core bases of an online store, and Jake knew this by heart. He found that he bought more items and more often from sellers who paid attention to this rule.
Despite it being a very superficial rule and a blatant appeal to vanity, Jake liked it. It was kind of like the tasty cherry on top of a delicious fudge sundae. Sure, the item inside is what you buy, but how the package is presented speaks more about how serious the store takes their business.
It also needs to be said that Jake was, in his own words, extremely vain ...and that he liked to shop to curb his addiction and indulge his vanity at the same time.
'It's this feeling, this rush, this excitement,' he thought. 
'Once you're done buying, the feeling is gone, and it's on to the next purchase. Oh wait, my hands are dirty. I am NOT touching this beautiful book with my hands full of dead orc.'
And after wiping his hands off on his pants, he flipped open the cover to his brand-new book.

[Tome of Physical Defense: Gives you an additional 2 to physical defense (this is a hidden stat).]

Unlike last time, Jake took a moment to read the additional flavor text he missed the last time he bought an item from the Awakening Store.

[We've taken some time to come up with the perfect item for you: a book that increases physical defense is really hard to get. Upon reading this book, you gain tougher skin and harder bones, for that extra bit of safety when fighting monsters. As your physical defense grows, you will slowly but surely defend against harder attacks! Isn't it great to have a head start on that? Thanks for staying loyal to the Awakening Store, and we hope for more business from you in the future!]

***

[Would you like to read the book? ]

'Of course I should read it,' Jake thought before opening the cover. 'This is one of those important stats needed when hunting monsters. Humans are, by nature, squishy.'
He turned the pages, and as Jake was reading passages from the book, he could feel the change just as much as he could see the essence of the book itself flowing to him.
Jake could not describe it – it sort of felt like he was becoming harder, more solid.
He flexed his arms to see that his biceps had more definition to them and felt them one by one – they not only improved in shape, but in feeling as well – they felt harder. At the same time, he also noticed that the skin on his arms had also looked more vibrant and flexible.
After the book disappeared giving its knowledge to Jake, he looked at the newly-changed status window.

[Name: Jake Smithson
Level: 1
Class: Shopping Addict
Basic stats
Strength: 13
Agility: 13
Intelligence: 13
Physical Defense: 2
Skill: Shopping (Awakening Store currently in beta)]

'All right, I got a new stat category! I think it started out as zero before I read that book, though. Guess I'm not THAT squishy compared to other players now!'
After closing the status window, Jake looked to his inventory to see that all of the skill and stat up books he read was still there, but all of them were marked with "Read".
"Wait a minute, the books didn't disappear after I read them?" Jake asked himself before checking the flavor text on the books he bought. Sure enough, all of the ones marked with "Read" had an additional line of flavor text added to them.
Awesome. I'll keep it nice and safe in my inventory.
For Jake, the empty book was a proof of him making an actual honest-to-goodness purchase from all the points he gained smashing up goblins with rocks and whacking orc heads with a baseball bat. 
He also considered the sentimental value and that he might be able to put these on a coffee table if he had a chance.
He was about to make a decision when he reflexively opened his mouth and yawned rather loudly.
'Well crud,' he thought. 'All that orc bashing left me a bit tired. I think I'll take a break. Even marathon shoppers need to relax once in a while. Besides, there won't be any new events after this… right?'
Jake stood up and began the long walk back towards Brino, taking care to read the Tome of Strength en route, and keeping all the books he read as a souvenir of his adventures.
Plus, if he had a chance to have a place to call his own, he'd store and display all the books on a shelf and place it in a prominent location.
He was halfway back to Brino and unfortunately, that was when the Awakening Store decided to take up Jake on his offer of defying fate and dropped a new push notification on him.

[Featured Event: Hidden Stat Extravaganza! This event is limited only for customers with at least one hidden stat! 10% off all books of hidden stats! 30% off on bundle purchases!]

'Oh, nice. A seasonal event. Kinda like those summer sales. I get it – if I bought a pair of board shorts, I can't shortchange myself and skip out on the goggles, the sun cream, and the waterproof digital camera for underwater picture taking.'
Naturally, Jake found himself opening the Seasonal Event menu, because one can't be called a proper Shopping Addict without buying one of those packages.

[Mana Up! Do you believe in magic? Yes, we do! And we can give you the stats so even YOU can learn magic and set monsters on fire! Only for 2000 points.]
[Magic Defense Up! Are you the type of player who runs away when a magician starts throwing fireballs at you? Buy this now and laugh in the face of danger! 4500 points only!]
[Luck Up! You have to ask yourself: do you feel lucky? With this, now you can really feel lucky! Dodging undodgeable blows and scoring critical hits is now within your reach! Only 4000 points!]

Jake checked the items carefully, his practiced eye looking for a way to get all of them for less…
'Discount rate of bulk purchase? Yes, here it is.'

[You can purchase all three as a bundle for 7000 points! And if you buy this Hidden Stat Bundle, we'll throw in a Tome of Guidance (All Stats +1 except Hidden stats) absolutely free!]

'This is unbelievable!' Jake thought. 'It's incredible. It's attractive. And it even has a freebie! If it was lemon-scented I would have snatched this up in a heartbeat – wait, how long is this offer lasting?'

[Our Hidden Stat Extravaganza will be available for the next two days! ]

Jake's mood quickly did the fastest 180 degree turn imaginable.
'WHAT? I have to get 7000 points within two days?
I… I don't have time! 
But… I have to try it.
No… I HAVE TO BUY IT!'
With the fatigue from his system replaced with an urgency to gain 6800 points in 48 hours, Jake made a mad dash across the meadow back towards Brino.
***
Back in Brino, strange matters were afoot.
"If you do not obey the rules from now on, you're out of the guild," one of the knights said towards a group of lightly armored Awakeners, crossing his arms.
On the surface, their actions seem reasonable, as there is neither law enforcement nor incarceration in this brave new world. There are no punishments for crimes here. It is like the Wild West in America.
But if you take the time to think about it, someone may do something they should not do out of malice.
Which is why powerful Awakeners have created rules to prevent them.
'If that's the case, then who watches the watchmen? Who keeps the stronger Awakeners in line and stops them from abusing their power?' Emmanuel grudged to himself, as he was not fond of what was going on.
'Who or what gave them the right over others? Nobody did. It was just pure and simple power.
And these group of people… this is less a way of keeping order and more a way of gaining power.'
However, he remained silent pretending he was content with the situation.
'I cannot deal with all of them myself.'
***
When Emmanuel first arrived on Nohas, he found out that he had an extremely useful Awakener class: the Assassin.
And as an assassin, the skill given to him was stealth.
True to form, nobody knew that he had such a skill; he did not employ his stealth during the battle with the goblins.
After the battle, he took some time to go to the outskirts of the village and tested out his personal skill in secret, figuring out how it worked in a relatively short time.
For all its benefits – he could become literally invisible – it also had its fair share of disadvantages. One, stealth did not affect his attack power or strength, and it was not good for killing monsters. Also, he was struck by a stone thrown while he was in stealth and it hurt him more than when he was hit in the shoulder by a goblin spear during the first battle for Brino.
Also, someone was able to sense him while he was invisible.
All in all, his personal skill wasn't appropriate for larger-scale battlefields where many Awakeners and monsters are battling each other.
Thus, the Awakener named Emmanuel did not gain much experience or attention during that first battle, and why the stronger Awakeners did not have any interest in him.
This was also why Emmanuel could only watch as the stronger Awakeners started pushing the weaker ones around.
'If not even a couple days had passed and they're already doing this, what will become of Brino and the rest of the Awakeners in a week? A month? Will we even be around at that point?'
During his hours of watching over Brino in the shadows, Emmanuel felt a sense of sheer wrongness from the Awakeners in town.
It was after witnessing that incident that it all made sense to him.
'We're going to be at each other's throats in no fucking time at all! If the Awakeners who won't follow the guilds get taken out by these ambitious guildsmen, there will be fewer Awakeners left to defend Brino! What are these guys' priorities?'
He darted from one shadow to the next, carefully staying out of other Awakeners' field of vision, despite using his stealth skill.
He wasn't exactly recruiting or starting a new guild himself, but with the guildsmen on the lookout for him, he could only observe, and what he saw disheartened him.
A lot of the weaker Awakeners were content with keeping their heads down and doing what the guilds wanted them to do, either to avoid trouble or to become a member of the guild in the future.
It was like they were being tempted to bite into a poisonous apple, and Emmanuel couldn't prevent them from doing so.
'Damn it. What do I do?'
Just as Emmanuel's frustration was becoming unbearable, he saw a man walking down the street, wearing bloody clothes, toting a baseball bat… and was he rapping?
"Two step with me, let me show you how it goes, the Murcielago, lemme show you how it roll..." 
Emmanuel had to take a moment or two to check if the reality of what he was seeing somehow shifted. After he confirmed that yes, he wasn't hallucinating, he corrected himself. The guy with the baseball bat wasn't walking down the street while letting out a passable flow, he was taking confident steps, swaggering like he owned the town.
"You wanna shine, it ain't hard, just get on your grind."
'I know that song,' Emmanuel thought. 'And I know him. Isn't he that guy who walked out of town alone with a plate full of food? What in the world has him so worked up he's rapping about having money in the bank?'
"We keep a bankroll, wallet full of credit cards."
Jake Smithson, after his successful sortie against the orcs, had returned. 
"Cup full of Cristal, box full of cigars!"
And despite his state, he was walking with a purpose Emmanuel had never seen on any other Awakener before – yes, even the guildsmen.

Jake Smithson was an ordinary man who lived an ordinary life and worked at an ordinary job... until he found himself on a fantasy world and tasked to fight off monsters.

While his old life revolved around one thing -- online shopping -- his way of life in this brave new world remained the same.

Despite his extraordinary circumstances... shopping, shopping never changes.

In a world so very different from his own, with his life turned upside down, he turns to the one thing he knows. Accompany Jake as he takes the first few steps on the journey of working and buying his way towards absolute power.

Gao Tian had dashed to the university after receiving the news. In order not to aggravate the criminal, he changed into plain clothes and rushed over in the police chief's private car. Only three police officers followed him.
The Immortal Arts Mobile Squadron had already been deployed, and was hiding nearby around the school. For the time being, they wouldn't reveal themselves, but as long as Gao Tian gave the order, they would burst in and rescue the students.
But in the end, storming the auditorium would be a poor strategy – this serial killer had already murdered several people, and wouldn't scruple to kill a few more.
"What's the situation?" Gao Tian asked his assistant when they were on the road.
"The teachers are currently maintaining order at the scene. By the way, Chief Gao, the suspect mentioned a person called Zheng Jingxuan. Our colleagues in the intelligence department dug up information on him. Have a look." The assistance passed his phone to Gao Tian.
The information on Zheng Jingxuan was detailed: he was part of Magic Treasure Development University's graduating batch number 4393 three years ago. His grades were excellent, and he even represented the university at a magic treasure design competition.
Gao Tian read the relevant information which the intelligence department had gathered from the Internet. "Because of suspected plagiarism in this international competition, he was permanently banned from participating ever again, which tarnished the reputation of his alma mater Magic Treasure Development University. After discussion among the university higher-ups, Zheng Jingxuan was ordered to issue a public apology to the entire university and to the magic treasure design circle. If not, he had to withdraw from school or accept punishment. Zheng Jingxuan refused to apologize, and after several talks came to nothing, the school issued a notice of disciplinary action. When the courier delivered it to Zheng Jingxuan's rental, Zheng Jingxuan had already committed suicide by exploding his golden core."
Reading this, Gao Tian rubbed his chin. "So it's this matter…" This incident had actually caused quite a stir back then. Gao Tian vaguely remembered how Zheng Jingxuan was universally condemned in the news, with people itching to press his head down and force him to apologize.
This matter didn't settle down after Zheng Jingxuan's death. WeMedia articles were published online which expressed the universal view that Zheng Jingxuan had felt ashamed and committed suicide because he couldn't take the pressure.
But after that, online users started to change their tune: these people, who had made a fuss before about wanting Zheng Jingxuan to be brought to justice, and who had itched to crucify and flay him on the pillar of disgrace, started to sympathize with him, and wondered if there was some inside story to this matter.
But just a week later, all the voices online subsided and vanished… 
No matter how hot a topic was, it wouldn't last more than seven days – this was Gao Tian's understanding of the modern Internet.
"I remember this case; I also knew about it three years ago, but I didn't have the authority to get involved. The ultimate findings of the police investigation was that Zheng Jingxuan had indeed committed suicide; a suicide note was found at his place, and after it was examined, it was indeed Zheng Jingxuan's writing." Gao Tian sighed ruefully – he never expected to run into this case again several years later.
Could it be that there really was an inside story behind this incident back then?
Gao Tian speculated in his heart.
But this was only conjecture, and he had no evidence. He would have to find more proof to put together as much of the truth as possible of what happened back then.
But even if Gao Tian wanted to carry out an investigation, it wouldn't be easy. It had already been three years since it happened, and a lot of the lines of evidence had been cut. Even the rental where Zheng Jingxuan had committed suicide had been converted by the landlord into a games room, since no one wanted to live in a place where someone had died.
After going through the information, Gao Tian gave the phone back to the assistant next to him and listened as the latter said, "In short, this is a student who tarnished Magic Treasure Development University's reputation. Our initial speculation is that it might be Zheng Jingxuan's parents behind the serial murders and this hostage situation, doing this for revenge.
"A preliminary investigation shows that Zheng Jingxuan's parents divorced before his death because they couldn't take the online abuse. We've already contacted his mother, who is in a relationship with a new boyfriend in another part of the country. We've already entrusted some of our local colleagues to drop by and confirm this, but it should be the case. Currently, we're still investigating Zheng Jingxuan's father, and we can't exclude him from the list of suspects yet."
"Mm, be sure to find his father."
Gao Tian nodded. Zheng Jingxuan's parents had the biggest motive in this case. Of course, Gao Tian didn't completely agree with his assistant's view.
Zheng Jingxuan was undoubtedly a disgrace now in the magic treasure design circle, but who actually knew the truth of what happened back then?
"When we arrive at the scene, don't provoke the criminal by insulting Student Zheng. Is that understood?" Gao Tian gave the instruction.
"Yes, sir." The officers accompanying him all nodded.
"What demands has the criminal made so far?"
"First, he wants three million in ransom."
"He abducted so many hostages, but he wants just three million?" Gao Tian felt that there was something wrong with this criminal's brain. But it suddenly struck him – the first prize for that magic treasure design competition which Zheng Jingxuan took part in that year was three million.
Was the criminal was giving them a hint?
Gao Tian felt that things were becoming more interesting. If this criminal was really here because of that competition back then, he might be trying to uphold justice himself by revealing some inside story.
But in Gao Tian's opinion, this was very foolish behavior.
Regardless of whether there was some secret behind the competition that year, even if there really was some inside story, this wasn't a reason to kill so many people. The cultivation world was now ruled by law, and such a nation would naturally uphold law and justice. Blowing the cover off an inside story was absolutely within the bounds of the law, and not a case of using public office to avenge private wrongs.
Gao Tian would do whatever it took to clearly investigate what happened that year, but he would also catch this heinous criminal who had killed several people, and have him brought to justice.
"His second demand is for the principal of Magic Treasure Development University, Zhou Dongye, to publicly release the unedited video recording of the entire magic treasure design competition that year. Since it was a while ago, Principal Zhou said that he couldn't fulfill this demand at the moment as he has to first contact the organizing committee for their approval before he can bring the video over… However, the criminal didn't accept Principal Zhou Dongye's objection, and has demanded that Principal Zhou make the video public in half an hour, otherwise he would start killing one hostage every half an hour after that."
"Anything else?" Gao Tian's face darkened.
"His third and final demand is that, except for university personnel, all cultivators above the Golden Core stage within a ten-kilometer radius has to leave. If they're not gone in an hour, he'll blow up the auditorium…"


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

He was in disbelief. 
The head of the department laughed at his reaction. "Snap out of it, Aihara. You look like I've just fired you."
"I'm sorry, sir!" Kaoru regained his composure. "I didn't expect this. Thank you very much."
The older man sitting opposite him in the meeting room just smiled kindly. "It's a great achievement for someone at your level. Hakusen should have hired you when they could."
Kaoru stared at the mock-up of the cover of the book with his design. It was for an up and coming novelist, who wanted a cover expressing separation.
A senior designer had overseen the project and Kaoru was staffed on the team. They spent weeks trying to meet the novelist's demands, on top of other assignments.
It came to a breaking point when his senior threw in the towel.
"I give up! He's just being fucking unreasonable. What's wrong with our ideas? Screw this."
Kaoru had been helping to polish his senior's work up until then. When the team went home dejectedly that day, he stayed back and thought about what the novelist wanted.
They had been fixated on a darker, wintry look. It made sense since the novel was equally dark and tragic.
To Kaoru, separation was on a warm autumn day, when leaves fell together with the hearts that followed. The memories which kept resurfacing during the entire project. 
He sketched out an idea and showed it to his senior the next day.
His senior was going to throw it into the bin when one of the team leads of the production department passed by and noticed it.
"Hey, let me look at that."
Kaoru had seen him before during meetings. Confident, effective and with a personality which  engaged with others easily, Fujiwara Ren was one of the rising stars in the company.
His senior handed over the sketch grudgingly. Fujiwara's hazel eyes scanned it and then asked Kaoru, "Is this your work?"
"Yes," Kaoru admitted.
A warm smile crossed Fujiwara's face. "I'll ask his editor to show it to him."
Both his senior and Kaoru had been shocked. 
That was three days ago. Now, he was sitting in the office looking down at his first book cover. Kaoru couldn't believe it.
He was on cloud nine for the rest of the day. His co-workers who have heard congratulated him heartily, except for the senior designer who muttered something to the effect of him lucking out.
Kaoru didn't mind if it was luck. It gave him a tiny confidence boost. 
Even if his inspiration was…
Don't think about it at work, he told himself. When he went home, then he could try to piece his heart together, as he often did ever since that day.
He tried to look for Fujiwara to thank him but the man was out for meetings. He did manage to speak to Miss Tachibana over the phone to convey the good news to her. 
When he left the office, he finally saw Fujiwara at the lobby.
Kaoru waved to get his attention.
Fujiwara looked up from his phone and grinned. "Aihara!"
Kaoru went over quickly and bowed. "Thank you so much. For the cover."
"It's your design," Fujiwara reminded him in a friendly manner. "Thank YOU. If not, the project would have been delayed and I'm probably still in the office."
Kaoru was embarrassed. "No, I..it was just an idea which came to me."
"Don't be so modest," Fujiwara chuckled. "You're such a cute junior!"
"Who's cute?" a deeper voice asked, amused.
A taller and very good-looking man appeared beside Fujiwara. In a suit and still carrying a briefcase.
"Shin! You're on time," Fujiwara exclaimed happily. "Meet Aihara Kaoru. From the design department."
Then to Kaoru, he introduced the man easily, "This is Kurosawa Shinobu. My partner."
Kaoru was surprised. 
"Nice to meet you," he said.
"And you," the man returned and added wryly. "Ren isn't giving you trouble, is he?"
"Of course not!" Fujiwara protested with a pout. "I'm the perfect senior."
"He's very kind to me," Kaoru agreed. "I got my first book cover because of him."
"He's just being unnecessarily humble," Fujiwara countered and told his partner, "My project is back on track. He's the reason you can take me out to dinner today."
"In that case, you have my thanks too," Kurosawa told Kaoru.
They made a dangerously attractive couple. It was clear that they were in love. Kaoru could see the adoring laughter in Fujiwara's eyes and although his partner seemed to be the more reserved type, the glances he gave Fujiwara contained a certain softness.
"Not at all! Anyway, I shouldn't take up more of your time." Kaoru smiled. "Have a good evening."
"Bye! See you around in the office!" Fujiwara waved cheerfully.
He could still make out bits and pieces of their conversation as he walked away.
"Just dinner? I haven't seen you for a week."
"What else?"
"Shin, don't tease me. Unless you don't want to..."
"Fine. A quick dinner."
"Now we're talking."
It didn't take much imagination to know what they could be referring to. Kaoru found himself smiling at how comfortable they seemed with each other.
When he got into the packed train, he finally let his mind wander. 
What was Keigo doing right now? Was he still in the office or traveling for work? Did he find someone who could make him happy?
Somehow, seeing Fujiwara and his partner together made him missed Keigo so intensely. What wouldn't he give to have just one dinner, free of any consequences and repercussions?
Kaoru knew back then that it would crush his heart. 
He hadn't expected that it could possibly be irreparable. Unlike the defect from his childhood, this could not be healed by any surgery or medication.
The human heart, once scarred, was never quite the same.

"You need money. I want company. It’s a fair trade.” That was the start of the relationship between Wada Keigo and Aihara Kaoru. How far will they go?

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


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

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


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

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