Pay With Your Heart - Chapter 14

Joanne Smith, weighed down by significant debt and humiliated by Jeffrey Winchester's cruel rejection just a day before their wedding, transformed her life into that of a multi-millionaire entrepreneur, allowing love to fade into memory.Joanne had one rule in life: money first, emotions later. She built an empire from the ground up, balancing her booming logistics company with the peace of her family farm.When a rugged stranger shows up, desperate for a place to stay, Joanne reluctantly takes him in as a paying guest. But little does she know, he’s not just any guest. He’s the man who brutally rejected her years ago, the one she’s long since forgotten.And he remembers everything differently.Now, living under her roof, he’s fueled by the sting of his own downfall and a hunger for revenge.Will the truth tear her world apart—or bring a reckoning neither of them saw coming?Join me on this incredible journey to find out!I will provide daily updates, and I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Please consider leaving a review and supporting me with GTs, Power Stones, and gifts.I hope you enjoy this story as much as I enjoy writing it!

King Grey has unrivaled strength, wealth, and prestige in a world governed by martial ability. However, solitude lingers closely behind those with great power. Beneath the glamorous exterior of a powerful king lurks the shell of man, devoid of purpose and will. 

Reincarnated into a new world filled with magic and monsters, the king has a second chance to relive his life. Correcting the mistakes of his past will not be his only challenge, however. Underneath the peace and prosperity of the new world is an undercurrent threatening to destroy everything he has worked for, questioning his role and reason for being born again. 

In the year 2090, technology has advanced to the point where Simulation Boxes, (Sim Box for short) are common place, allowing for the user to link up their brain's neural network to a full dive Simulation. While initially used for educational purposes, recently a large gaming company, Averon, released a fully fledged immersive MMORPG simulation where users can become anyone they desire, level up, choose their class, and become a hero or a villain. The name of this simulation is The Shattered World Online.

Eli Winters had no interest in playing it. His father, a jobless bum who spent his entire life playing games in the hope of becoming a famous player or streamer, was able to use the release of The Shattered World Online to gain wealth and fame, quickly becoming the number one player and a household name as the game took the world by storm. He immediately abandoned Eli and his mother in favor of being with someone from his guild, despite his mother having worked two jobs to support them and raise Eli by herself. Eli had nothing but spite for his father and the game.

When Eli's best friend convinces him to try out the game, his father's fame begins to interfere, culminating in him being singled out and shunned by his peers, and his father offering to pay for his university tuition in return for Eli hiding their relationship and quitting the game. Instead of complying with his father's wishes, Eli decides to prove to everyone how useless a guy his father is by challenging him that if Eli is able to surpass him in the game world he must delete his account and quit his streaming career. His father accepts the challenge believing his son to be useless at games - but Eli will soon show him just how ambitious a spiteful person can be.

June 15 of the year 2010, the third awakening happened. Several smaller worlds had returned to connect with the main world as living beings of different races started to appear and some people managed to connect with the origin and gain control of various powers: control of fire, of water, of wind, of air, and of earth... In the midst of all these confusions, towers that gave unimaginable powers began to appear in all corners of the world, where those who already had powers could upgrade and become more powerful or even those who did not have powers could receive powers through tests of the tower. And because of these towers, conflicts started to happen in all corners of the world by those wanting to monopolize these towers.

Luan Dimas was betrayed by one of the people he trusted most. However, in his final moments before being killed, he was transported back to four months before the third awakening that started the apocalypse on earth. Being a man who lived for a thousand years and had accumulated several techniques, he now had a new chance to correct some of his early mistakes. Luan decided to make the most of this new chance that the heavens had given to him.