Immortal of the Nine Realms - Chapter 109: Scouting

“Stop following me!” Asher yelled, his patience running thin. He had let it slide for too long because she had done a lot for him. But now she was everywhere, suffocating him.“I’m only trying to protect you,” she responded.Asher sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I need some space, alright? I can take care of myself.”She didn’t budge, and just kept staring at him with that same obsessive look, like she had no intention of leaving.“Is it because you’re strong now? Are you going to leave me because I'm no use to you anymore?” Her voice had turned cold, sharp enough to cut through the silence.“Of course not, you know that’s not the reason…”“Then why do you want me to stop following you?”“I’m just going to the restroom, for God’s sake!” He massaged his temple, clearly at his wit’s end.“Oh, you should have said that earlier.” She giggled, the earlier tension melting away.“I did,” he sighed in defeat.

Anton is a great-grandfather. He is living quite a happy life, despite his advanced age and declining health… until a group of cultivator bandits moves into the area. The nearby guardians of the area, the Order of Ninety-Nine Stars, are unable to track them down as they continue to ravage nearby towns. During one desperate winter Anton is out on a hunt when his family- his entire village- is killed or taken as slaves by the bandits. He lacks the strength to fight them, and he wasn’t even present for their arrival to die with his loved ones. At the pit of his despair, he wonders if he ever had any chance to change things. What could he even do? He cannot even pull his best bow, and his eyesight is failing. If he had been a cultivator… perhaps there might have been a chance, but he was decades- perhaps even most of his life- too late.Participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge (2022)Notes on cultivation levels:There are five general stages of cultivation, though the fifth is extremely rare. Each cultivation style might have their own name for the stages.1. Body Tempering2. Spirit Building/ occasionally System Creation (Ninety-Nine Stars)3. Constellation Formation (Ninety-Nine Stars)4. Life Transformation/Galaxy Construction (Ninety-Nine Stars)5. Ascension

A War Without Casualties.The Republic of San Magnolia has long been under attack from the neighbouring Giadian Empire’s army of unmanned drones known as the Legion. After years of painstaking research, the Republic finally developed autonomous drones of their own, turning the one-sided struggle into a war without casualties-or at least, that’s what the government claims.In truth, there is no such thing as a bloodless war. Beyond the fortified walls protecting the eighty-five Republic territories lies the “nonexistent” Eighty-Sixth Sector. The young men and women of this forsaken land are branded the Eighty-Six and, stripped of their humanity, pilot the “unmanned” weapons into battle…Shin is the leader of a squadron of eighty-sixers. Lena is a “handler” who commands the detachment from the remote rear with the help of special communication technology.The farewell story of the severe and sad struggle of these two begins!

Jin-woo had never considered himself someone ordinary. Okay, that sounded like an arrogant thought to have, but he was definitely unordinary. He would always be reminded of this whenever he had to take his antipsychotic medication for his schizophrenia. It also didn’t help that he was starting High School with the whole school knowing this fact because of his little… slip up? Of course this comes with bullies targeting him, but that wasn’t new. Jin-woo was determined to do his best to avoid them and not draw any unnecessary attention to himself… But that was impossible as some God seemed to have cursed him to be in the same class as his bullies, and even that nosy popular girl who won’t stop talking to him in front of everyone. How many times did he have to say they weren’t friends, much less childhood friends for her to leave him alone?! However, what might be worse than being in the same class as your bullies and that annoying girl, was being in the same class as your bullies and that annoying girl, while being trapped in there because of a zombie virus outbreak… and somehow being the cause of it? Should he stay, or chance it with the hordes of zombies outside? What would you do?