Game of Thrones: Oath of Iron and Fire - Chapter 8: Ambition

The royal bastard of House Vasquer, Argrave, changed after his stay studying magic at the Tower of the Gray Owl.

The sickly man's awkward posture and cruel behavior have been replaced with a neat dignity and acerbic wit.

Though once listless, he now strives towards his goals with a life-or-death tenacity.

Most come away thinking he seems to know too many details about too much. Few can claim to know his motives or his goals.

Yet behind that confident appearance, the primary contributor for an open-world RPG's wiki battles existential dread and things far beyond his ken as he struggles to adapt to a grim, gothic fantasy world mirroring his favorite game.

The prospect of fighting against a world-ending calamity loses all of its appeal when it transitions from entertainment to reality.

Argrave is spurred towards unwanted heroism to preserve his life as he struggles desperately to keep this sinking ship afloat.

In the year 2090, technology has advanced to the point where Simulation Boxes, (Sim Box for short) are common place, allowing for the user to link up their brain's neural network to a full dive Simulation. While initially used for educational purposes, recently a large gaming company, Averon, released a fully fledged immersive MMORPG simulation where users can become anyone they desire, level up, choose their class, and become a hero or a villain. The name of this simulation is The Shattered World Online.

Eli Winters had no interest in playing it. His father, a jobless bum who spent his entire life playing games in the hope of becoming a famous player or streamer, was able to use the release of The Shattered World Online to gain wealth and fame, quickly becoming the number one player and a household name as the game took the world by storm. He immediately abandoned Eli and his mother in favor of being with someone from his guild, despite his mother having worked two jobs to support them and raise Eli by herself. Eli had nothing but spite for his father and the game.

When Eli's best friend convinces him to try out the game, his father's fame begins to interfere, culminating in him being singled out and shunned by his peers, and his father offering to pay for his university tuition in return for Eli hiding their relationship and quitting the game. Instead of complying with his father's wishes, Eli decides to prove to everyone how useless a guy his father is by challenging him that if Eli is able to surpass him in the game world he must delete his account and quit his streaming career. His father accepts the challenge believing his son to be useless at games - but Eli will soon show him just how ambitious a spiteful person can be.

The villainess sees herself executed in front of a large crowd by the order of the emperor (her husband and the one she loves). However in the next moment after her death, she is back in the past. Monique is sent back into the past because of her brutal memories of her previous life with a prince who was engaged due to their similar age. When Empress grew and looked at the past, she killed her emotions to live as an Empress and remained one emotion, that was sickening affliction. Where in her next life, she made new connections in order to avoid getting executed again…

An elder asked a young man if he wanted revenge for being humiliated by a strong man and disregarded by his master. The elder offers to pass his power to the young man, who is amazed to find centuries' worth of skill appear on his phone. The power is from the Heavenly Court, where users can borrow without interest for 30 days. The young man worries it might be a 'magic loan,' but the elder assures him that it is safe, as the daily interest is very low.Zhang Yu snorted coldly and closed the ad.