Papa Paladin - Chapter 67: so awesome

Shunned by her pack as the Traitor's daughter, Natalie Cross—a werewolf without a wolf—has endured more pain than most could imagine. Forced to bear the mark of a ruthless alpha, rejected by her destined mate, and ultimately banished, she finds herself alone and unwelcome among her kind. With the Alpha's scent branding her as untouchable, no other pack will take her in.Desperate and discarded, Natalie hides among humans, scraping by in a world that doesn’t know or care about her true identity. But everything changes when she crosses paths with an adorable wolf pup—and its enigmatic, wealthy owner. The man offers his help, something no one else has dared to do.Yet, kindness feels like a foreign concept to Natalie. Can she trust this stranger who harbours secrets as deep as her own? Or is his generosity just another trap, promising a fate darker than the one she’s already survived?

The century long war had just ended and humanity had managed to get their hands on alien technology, sending them years ahead in terms of technological advancement, fulfilling their hope of finding life outside their planet and their desire to dominate these extra-terrestrial existences. The effects of their technological advancement alone wasn’t capable of giving this result.The appearance of mutations which granted supernatural powers among humans was another boon giving them the chance to act out their darkest desires.Their joy took a dark turn when it was revealed that they were nothing more than livestock to the mysterious race, Xillthars, who cultivated them to that level. Like fattening livestock.Shortly before this dark turn of times was a forbidden creature, Kieran who had been born into the lowest levels of a society created by the greed of humans. To him, life had always been hard, but things got worse after the arrival of the Xillthars as he found himself on a trail of shocking discoveries about himself and the world around him.

The MMORPG ’EVR’ was released unexpectedly one day, along with its advanced equipment that allowed players to fully immerse themselves in the game, even though prior VR technology wasn’t nearly as realistic. To prevent people from replacing their real lives with the game, the servers were shut down during the day and on weekends. I was the best at the game, but since I had no friends or family, I could only watch and bet on sports while waiting for the servers to reopen—until the day I died and regressed to a week before the game was released. I know everything that will happen in the game. I know the game is not just realistic; it’s real. And for some reason, I don’t need to log out!

How long will it take for a murdered thief to distill into something monstrous? In this story the darkness only grows stronger, and its reach only grows wider as it expands by devouring the life that surrounds it. This is a dark fantasy where evil is a where, not just a who that focuses on slow progression, undeath, and atmospheric storytelling.