Hollow Ascension - Chapter 54: Subtle Fortifications

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.

Every family has that one person who is born as a sacrifice. For her family, that person was Selene Vale, who was to become a spare for her younger twin siblings success.Due to her innate shy and kind nature, she was not able to connect to her family every since she was young. So, despite her rich background, Selene Vale never felt like a part of the family and was often regarded as the 'First spare' or even 'defective'. That did not change even when the world fell and Apocalypses happened.Selene Vale's first life ended trying to protect her twin siblings, the only people who had yet to abandon her. That was her end......but it wasn't.Due to her sacrifice, Selene Vale awakened her system and innate power and was given another chance at life and survival. And this time, she vowed to free her siblings from their parent's cruel influence. If she was able to do that, then she would be happy with that.But unfortunately, that was not all she did. She also ended up attracting the attention of the big-boss of the Apocalypse, the only L-ranked hunter and the hope of humanity....and also, a long time friend she would rather forget about.

In the Year 2030, the ground-breaking online game «Divine Realm» shook the whole world. Its system of allowing players to exchange in-game currency into real-life money attracted everyone’s attention.

Jade Hunter? The man which many women want to meet? If she really was a girl, then if she were to dress in a female attire… wouldn’t she look beautiful and refine? She is his fiancee? Could it be that she disguised herself as a man to avoid marriage? She would rather go catch thieves and hunt for bandits than to marry this wangye?

No, he will not let this happen! She is bound to be his!

For the arrest of a bandit, she became the hostage and jumped off a cliff? Dead?

…Nonsense! He does not believe! She is destined to become his wife, and he will find her…

Found her!

Although she repeatedly denied and repeatedly avoided him, he will find a way to let her fall in love with him!