The Amusing Adventures of a Directionally Challenged Dad and Daughter - Chapter 53: The Big Aunt Returning to Hometown

Toradora!’s story begins with the male protagonist Ryuji Takasu who is frustrated at trying to look his best as he enters his second year of high school. Despite his gentle personality, his eyes make him look like an intimidating delinquent so he is utterly hopeless about his chances of getting a girlfriend anytime soon, and does not have many close friends either. After being greeted by his hungover mother in the morning, Ryuji goes to school and is happy to find that he gets to be in the same class as his best friend Yusaku Kitamura and crush Minori Kushieda. However, it is then that he unexpectedly knocks into “the school’s most dangerous animal of the highest risk level” — Taiga Aisaka — who just happens to also be in his class, and is a good friend of Minori.

Taiga has a negative attitude towards others and will not hesitate to snap at people. After meeting Ryuji, she takes an instant dislike of him. Taiga comes from a rich family, though she moved out to live on her own due to family issues, and by coincidence is now living in an apartment next door to Ryuji. After Ryuji discovers that Taiga has a crush on Yusaku, and Taiga finds out about Ryuji’s affections towards Minori, Ryuji suggests that they cooperate so they can win the object of their affections. Ryuji says he will do anything to get closer to Minori, which Taiga exploits, making Ryuji her personal servant, and getting him to do household chores like cooking and cleaning for her. Taiga spends a lot of her time over at his house, so much so that she could almost be considered a member of his family. Since Ryuji spends a lot of time with Taiga, he is opened up to her world and to a side of her that most people do not see. The two also attempt to help each other in order to improve how people view them. Unknown to them, however, people they know from school start to become curious about their strange relationship together and rumors begin to spread about them.

What does it feel like when you have a best-selling detective fiction author for a boyfriend?

Whenever you offend him, he would look at you disdainfully, “A character molded after you could only ever appear in my novel as a deceased victim.”

Whenever you seriously offend him, he would threaten you, “The very next victim who dies in my novel would be named after you.”

Whenever you seriously, seriously offend him, he would add on to the previous threats, “Furthermore, the victim would have died at the hands of an extremely perverse and twisted serial killer, and would have suffered an extremely painful and terrible death.”

But, by a stroke of coincidence, if you happen to be this best-selling author’s editor, he need not resort to the above mentioned tactics. In fact, all he has to do is one, single thing –
-Delay the submission of his draft.

- Description from Novelupdates

“The new book 'Scolded as the Star of Death, All the Big Shots in the Capital Rush to Spoil Me' is now available!”Also known as “Reborn Era: Getting Rich with the Check-In System.”[A physical powerhouse of a female lead vs. a vindictive, sarcastic, and elegant male protagonist]After a laboratory explosion, Lin Tang returns to that impoverished era and is bound to a check-in system.Before she has time to claim the newcomer gift pack, her fiancé, sporting an air of confidence, comes to break off the betrothal.The reason being, he's about to secure a stable job.Lin Tang looks at the ordinary yet self-assured man, parted her red lips slightly and said, “...break it off!”Less than a month later, her ex-fiancé was fired for some reason.Lin Tang took a stroll around the county and became the executive officer of the Broadcasting Station in the Textile Factory.Ex-fiancé's internal OS: Is it too late to reconcile now?Those times were tough!Despite being treasured by her three big brothers and parents, everything from food to cloth and even soap required coupons...Even living frugally couldn't alleviate the miserable condition.Looking at the black mush in the bowl, Lin Tang fell silent, “......”Thankfully, she had a system!Need anything? Just check in to get it.Many years later.A handsome man looked at his delicate wife with a fair complexion, managing to keep a straight face as he said, “I heard you could knock out a wild boar with just two punches?”Lin Tang's eyes sparkled, her fingers gently exerting force, and the Enamel Jar in her hand deformed. She responded in a stern manner, “Nonsense! Don't believe those rumors. We're civilized people and can't be that barbaric!”

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.