MTL - Age of Empires From Scratch - Chapter 158 Cold Winter

“There are no heroes. In life, the monsters win.”

...

In 2106, [Mayhem Online], a fully immersive VRMMO game, was released. Soon, it dominated the world's economy when people could exchange the in-game currency with real-life currency and vice versa.

In the year 2107, Flynn Grey, a 22-year-old college dropout with an ambiguous history, joined in the fray of billions of people that had already started playing [Mayhem]. Hoping to uncover the game's secret and earn a fortune, he spent months on adventures without fruitful results.

For better or worse, Shura, Flynn's in-game character, ends up in a great Wyvern's den, acquiring a hidden class and a monstrous race. Join him as he defeats his past and paves his way into becoming a true legend in both worlds.

After a god screws up and accidentally takes high schooler Shou’s life, he offers him reincarnation with a gift to make up for it. Shou asks to retain all his old memories for the new life. Shou is reborn as Will, a noble’s son in a world where magic use is common and involves knowledge of kanji characters. With all his memories, he’s a brilliant toddler, and when he experiments with magic, he finds that he has an amazing talent for it! What’s more, though he was smart but unloved in his old life, in his new life he has a mother and a father who both love him deeply. His future as Will is looking very bright and cool!

Suddenly exposed on all the top news websites and social media platforms globally, 'Return Order's Notes' leads to a revolutionary virtual reality game.Game Name: 'Dark Sand'Game Type: Oriental fantasy historical theme, featuring a certain degree of soulslike difficulty and roguelike gameplay in a role-playing game.Requirements for recruiting beta players: Good mindset, quick reactions, strong stress resilience, a certain amount of historical knowledge, excellent physical condition.The most crucial requirement: superb acting skills, preferably at an Oscar-winner level!Special Reward: Among the beta players, the one with the most excellent simulated completion performance can undergo the ultimate trial and, after a perfect recording, have it presented to the public in film form, fulfilling your dream of becoming an Oscar winner!Players are complaining, they have never seen a game with such high entry barriers!What they don't know is that their every action in the game will truly affect both history and reality.

Two years ago, Lin Chou Sui’s firefighter father sacrificed himself in a fire.

The last conversation between father and daughter ended in a big fight.

Lin Chou Sui woke up crying countless times in her dreams, wishing that if her dad could be reborn, she would obediently listen and never talk back.

Little did she expect that her dad would actually be reborn!

His soul possessed the body of Xiao Yan, the academic god of their high school.

…

Xiao Yan excelled in both character and academics. His total scores never dipped below 700. All the girls at their high school knew: getting into Tsinghua or Peking University was easy, getting close to Xiao Yan was difficult.

But Lin Chou Sui noticed that recently, the way Xiao Yan looked at her was very strange. His aloofness contained deep affection; his affection…was full of fatherly love?

So Lin Chou Sui’s daily life became:

Before exams, Xiao Yan would give her his notes to copy.

During her period, Xiao Yan would brew her red date tea and cook porridge.

Bad boys who blocked her path and harassed her would get kicked flying by Xiao Yan.

Lin Chou Sui was very touched. Other than her dad, no one had treated her this well.

…

On a hot afternoon, Xiao Yan sat with Lin Chou Sui on the stairwell to do homework, his gaze tender beyond words.

A light breeze blew by. The youth was about to lean in to kiss her.

Suddenly, a cold, icy male voice sounded in his mind:

“Young Xiao, may I ask what you intend to do with my daughter?”

Xiao Yan: ……

Xiao Yan crawled out from the mud. Beneath his cold and aloof appearance was a sinister and vindictive nature.

To climb from the lowliest dust to the summit out of reach, the path was filled with thorns. For this purpose he would stop at nothing, sparing no cost.

However, all the darkness and gloom in his life ended with that one strange encounter…

From then on, the skies cleared and his dead end led to new life.

A sinister genius boy meets a muddled Failure girl