MTL - Start with Batman - v2 Chapter 399

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.

It has been six years since the game to decide the world’s fate began. The strongest player, Hero King Kang Yoosung, who has never lost his first place as the top ranker, greets a new season. “It was… over for me a f*cking long time ago. I’m just doing this for the money.“ [Provocation stat increasing exponentially!] [The Clown Lord expresses satisfaction with contractor’s behavior!] The survival journey of a player with insane talent begins now!

When the Earl’s daughter, Serafiona, met the Holy Beast, she realized that she had reincarnated as the villainess of a fantasy novel that she had read in her previous life. This is the story of Serafiona avoiding her worst fate and her dream to become an adventurer with the Holy Beast, Lu.

Xiao Ran transmigrated to a fantasy world. As a dungeon guard in the Celestial Dungeon, with a special floor called the Purgatory meant for powerful demons and martial arts experts, he faced a huge challenge from the start. The Eldest Princess acquired a forbidden martial arts technique and was banished to the Purgatory. However, no one was powerful enough to restrain her. All the dungeon guards were defeated. Xiao Ran stepped up and declared, “Your Highness, it’s better for you to behave yourself on my territory” and effortlessly subdued the Eldest Princess.

He progressed from imprisoning the Eldest Princess to delivering the Great Xia Kingdom from the evil clutches of various demons and evil martial arts experts.

…

Xiao Ran was the mastermind behind the scenes.