Apocalypse Trade Monopoly - Chapter 13: A Crash Course in Survival

“Master, the people from the Zhuang family have come to cancel the engagement.”

“My fiancé whose beauty was said to be capable of causing the downfall of a city, finally decided to throw me away?”

“I think so.”

“I want to see this legendary beauty, and confirm whether this bastard is as really great as people said to have no flaws in all 360 degree, a picturesque appearance however you see him; does he need me to help him open the corner of his eyes (Epicanthoplasty) or reshape his chin (Genioplasty)?”

“Actually, he didn’t come.”

“He didn’t? He didn’t even come to cancel the engagement? What a wicked b***h.”

“He definitely will get karma.”

- Description from Novelupdates

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.

Title: Trillionaire Student: The Art of Corporate WarfareGenre: Cyberpunk Corporate Drama / Tech RomanceSetting: Near-future Shanghai (2045) where blockchain dynasties and AI oligarchs dominate global finance.Protagonist:· Ye Chen: A 22-year-old financial prodigy with military-grade neural implants. Orphaned and self-made, he accidentally inherits trillion-yuan assets tied to a cryogenically preserved heiress.· Su Ning: A “frozen elite” heiress resurrected from cryostasis. Her trauma-encrypted mind holds the keys to her family's blockchain empire.Core Plot:When Ye decrypts suicidal patterns in Su's neural data, their forced partnership to upgrade her emotional firewall exposes:1. Corporate Espionage: Rival tech giants weaponize celebrity scandals as NFT commodities.2. Family Conspiracy: Su's mother audits her memories like hostile mergers.3. Hidden Protocol: A blockchain ledger tracking physical intimacy as corporate liability.Key Westernized Elements:· Boardroom duels in holographic Hunger Games-style shareholder arenas· Romance through shared neural hacking of trauma encryption· Memetic warfare where viral tweets manipulate stock marketsThemes:· Capitalism 2.0 (emotions as crypto assets, SEC-regulated marriage contracts)· Cybernetic identity (childhood trauma rebuilt as AI firewalls)· East-West fusion (Tang poetry as quantum encryption keys)Cultural Bridges:· “Black Swan Fund” → “Quantum Contingency Fund”· Neural interface battles styled as The Matrix meets Game of Thrones· Food metaphors: Xiaolongbao dumplings as encrypted data carriers

How wise is it to make an enemy of the divine. In the end, there a fine line between the divine and human...and to cross it is the biggest taboo a living thing can commit.But this was one Tabbo he was willing to cross._________Kyle Armstrong was a man who could do anything...in his past life. He climbed up to the pinnacle of power using his sheer determination and ruthlessness. However, because of God's who did not want the likes of him around, he failed.Everything was supposed to be over for him...until he got a second chance at life. However, there was a catch-he was throne in a new world that was similar, yet different to his previous one.Here, he must occupy the body of a Useless noble master and regain all he has lost....while also battling all the people who want him out of the way to claim his inheritance.The battle to glory and godhood is not an easy one, and the road is filled with lood. But Kyle has already overcome all this once. A second time will pose to not be a problem for him.______r18 is mainly gore...and MC's tendencies. You have been warned.