MTL - Ancient One - Chapter 8 Never a shortcut

Ah! Aythryn City. Truly a mess of neon and trash all supporting the psychopaths that live here. Desire is the name of th...

Adrian Voss was a forgotten beta tester—erased by a corrupt game company that put profit over players.Now reborn in Primordial Abyss with a glitched class that lets him control dungeon bosses, he doesn’t grind levels… he grinds players.Every monster he subjugates becomes a weapon. Every raid boss he enslaves earns him passive income. And every overconfident guild that steps into his domain?They drop loot when they die.But this isn't just another OP power trip. Adrian doesn't win because he's stronger—he wins because he's smarter. He lays traps like a raid leader, exploits mechanics like a dev, and rewrites the system from the shadows.From dungeons to PvP, he turns the most advanced gaming system ever built into a weapon that stabs its creators in the back.Now the streamer assassins, sponsored guilds, and even the developers are hunting for the one they call...The Dungeon Phantom.Too bad they don’t realize:The real dungeon isn’t the game.It’s the one they’re walking into.Let the hunt begin.

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.

“Rishe Ilmgard Wertsner! I’m breaking off my engagement with you!”

“Okay, I understand”

“Huh.”

The Duke’s daughter, Rishe left the evening party without delay.

In fact, for Rishe, this engagement has been terminated for the seventh time. And that’s where her new life starts, having enjoyed the way of life of a pharmacist and a dressed up knight, she lost her life at the age of 20 and now has gone back to the scene where her engagement was broken off.

Normally, this could have broken Rishe’s heart, but her mentality now is strong.

Her past six lives have been busy and fulfilling, she wants to live longer this time around.

If possible, she wants to live a life of leisure and squander money….

To commence her 7th life, Rishe has set up such a diagonal goal.

However, in this life, she will be married to the Crown Prince of a militant nation, who killed her in her past life.

…….. It’s probably better. It doesn’t matter if it’s a former rival country. In her seventh lifetime, she’ll enjoy loafing off at a castle!!

Against all her determination, she inadvertently demonstrated the skills she had cultivated in her past lives and garnered attention as a brilliant Crown Princess.