I Unknowingly Rejected My Favorite - Chapter 153: On The Way To Kaifeng (7)

The story is about a boy entering high school, who answers a strange call from a public phone one night. The caller challenges him to a bet: She’ll remove the birthmark which he sees as the cause of so many problems, and he’ll have fifty days to win the heart of a girl he’d considered far beyond his reach. And with this, a very strange summer begins.

Qin Nuo transmigrated into the Great Zhou dynasty, becoming the dim-witted Ninth Prince. As if it’s not enough to be a female transmigrating into a male, (s)he thought that (s)he could just enjoy a life of drinking, eating, and being merry–but no. He ended up being pushed to do something way beyond his abilities and entered the fight for the throne. Internally there is strife among brothers, and a powerful official with great authority; externally there are foreign powers looking to invade, and the discontent of the people that is boiling over. How is he supposed to pave a path through this mess both domestically and abroad? It’s hard to be emperor, and even harder to be a good emperor! This is a story about an emperor farming. While others are farming a field, he’s farming a whole imperial court.

- Description from Novelupdates

In a world where the boundaries between dimensions are thinning, a young man named Kael Ardent is thrust into the Eternal Nexus, a realm where countless worlds converge. Here, the laws of reality are dictated by Aether, a mystical energy that fuels both creation and destruction. Kael discovers he is a Nexus Warden, a rare being capable of manipulating Aether to bridge worlds and command the forces of the Nexus.But the Nexus is not a place of peace. It is a battleground for Eldari, ancient beings who seek to control the Nexus and use its power to dominate all existence. Kael must navigate this treacherous realm, forge alliances with warriors from other worlds, and unlock the secrets of his own latent powers. As he grows stronger, he uncovers a prophecy that foretells the rise of a Prime Warden, a hero who will either save the Nexus or doom it to eternal chaos.

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.