From Today, I'm a Player - Chapter 180: A Changed World Pt. 5

I am currently re-writing the first chapters of this story. They are quite rough and bounce around a lot and I can do better. At some point, I will replace these with the better chapters.Sometime in 2024 Aethon Books will publish the first volume of this story on Amazon, KU, and audible. This will mean the story will be stubbed. I will notify people far in advance of that.In the dystopian world of the future, life is rough when you live at the bottom. Jobs are non-existent. Far too many people live in poverty, crammed into huge buildings called Habitats. With no jobs in the real world, many people can only find work online in VR worlds as servants to the very rich. And it's getting worse. The old internet is unusable and hacked to pieces. The new system needs AI to run things, but all but one of them were destroyed. The last sentient AI is ordered to create a new game world so the rich can have a playground, and the corporations that rule the world can have a new global market place. Everyone wants a piece of the new game. The guilds are competing to be the first to find the dungeons and kill the biggest monster. The corporations are claiming land and putting in their online market places. Ozzy and his friends just want a paycheck.Four friends sign five year contracts as virtual serfs in a small village, and can't go adventuring at all to gain money. They don't have many choices. They can work as a blacksmith, barmaid and shepherd for all those years....or they can cheat and find ways to take advantage of the system and carve out a section of the game world for themselves, and earn a fortune in the real world.When they give you a mop and not a sword, you have to find the loopholes and change the rules.

What would you do if you could shuttle the plane?

Gao Linhao got an artifact that can shuttle the plane, so he reached the pinnacle of life, and became an existence beyond everything, just suffering from the unrecognizable planes that Lin Hao had given to evil!

Ji Linhao said, “I want to change as long as it makes me unhappy!”

- Description from Uukanshu

Gu Qingli, a modern-day doctor and poisoner, was killed by her best friend. She was reborn as a weak peasant girl who could easily be bullied. Not long after she returned home, her wedding was called off. Everyone in the village started speaking poorly about her. A greedy matchmaker showed up and tried to convince Qingli to marry an older man! The matchmaker had barely been gone for a few seconds before returning once again. It seemed that Xiao Laosan, a man from the same village who was famous for bringing bad luck to his partner, wanted Qingli as his wife. The matchmaker wondered why a wretched woman like her was so popular. Gu Qingli did not mind. She thought that she, a wretched woman, was a perfect match for this man. For the days to come, she'd take her younger brother with her to forage for herbs, and they'd stir up trouble when they got bored. Wretched woman? A failed investment? Those things had nothing to do with her!

All the firsts I want to remember were with you.From the summer when I was eighteen and knew nothing to the summer when I turned thirty-one and learned so much.Even the seasons without you felt like you were deeply ingrained.“We’re just friends, so there’s nothing special between us.”You pushed me away with a poker face, but because we were friends,I endured those countless days,and it seems you still don’t know it.So, it looks like I’m going to repeat the same futile effort.“Did I ask if you needed a man? If you do, I’ll be your man.”You need to get to know the thirty-one-year-old me.If you look at me with those eyes you didn’t see before.“You’ve become a real troublemaker.”Now that you’re here, it’s just the beginning of .