Return of the Swallow - Chapter 546.1: To Speak Softly of Love

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.

The daughter of a healthcare company's CEO, Ines Jackson was in an arranged relationship that was soon supposed to turn into a marriage.However, her fiancé, Trevor Harrington, was physically abusing her and using her only for her family’s status.One night, while running away from him as he chased her in a drunken rage, she bumped into a guy…not just any guy, but a famous boxer: Raphael Giovanni, whom she had never heard of personally.He saved Ines from Trevor, and in her rush for safety, she offered him a marriage in return.Unbeknownst to Ines, Raphael knew her father, who was responsible for his mother’s health issues and eventually her death.Seeking revenge, Raphael agreed to the marriage. But little did he know that the heiress would become more than just a part of his revenge plan.“You can’t love me…monsters like me don’t live enough to experience love.”

Yun Ling, on the eve of his sixteenth birthday, faces mixed feelings from his younger sisters, Yun Wei and Yun Chu, about the upcoming test to determine his cultivation talent—a critical milestone in this world where martial prowess can define one’s destiny.Despite their teasing and doubts, Yun Ling harbors a secret determination fueled by a tragic past. He’s not originally from Blue Star but a transmigrator who lost his parents at a young age and witnessed his father’s mu*der—a powerful martial artist and vice master of the Golden Wind Martial Club. Adopted by Yun Jinglin, Yun Ling has lived with a burning desire for revenge against his father’s killer, now a grandmaster level martial cultivator.On Blue Star, a planet transformed by disaster thirty years ago that unleashed ferocious beasts and dark demonic energy, humans discovered the power of vitality, giving rise to superhuman warriors and a new era of martial cultivation.Will he possess the cultivation talent needed to pursue his quest for revenge and protect those he cares for in a world where ferocious beasts and martial might reign supreme?