MTL - Monster Hunt: Notes From a Hunter - Chapter 544 short story

Kailen Darkhaven's world crumbled when his parents died two years ago in a beast tide invasion in New York City. Alongside slipping into depression that caused his grades in school to drop exponentially, he failed to become an awakened on his sixteenth birthday. Losing his consciousness due to his frail body and a life of poverty one evening in an alleyway on his 17th birthday, he thought he would die, only to wake up in the same alleyway to a shocking holographic screen before him''Fusion complete, you have obtained a time dilation artifact.. You are too weak, you will be taken into the pocket world of the time dilation artifact to train in 3...2...1....''Follow Kailen's journey, as he embarks on a journey with this cheat item, to stand at the Zenith of of the Universe.This novel is participating in Webnovel Spirity Awards 2025.Disclaimer : This is purely a work of fiction.The setting, including any imitation of real names, places ,people or events is purely coincidental .

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.

The Descent of the Dragon Tower.A young man refines the nine Dragon Emperors, cultivates the invincible Dragon Body of eternal glory.Slays the emperors of myriad heavens, gods, and demons alike, defying gods and Buddhas.Invincible across nine thousand realms!

Mana finally arrived in our world after being delayed for unknown reasons, causing the evolution of everything that had life.

Humans, plants, and monsters all evolved, ushering the planet into a new era in which old laws no longer applied and the only law in the world was the rule of the jungle, where the strong preyed on the weak.

It was a question of whether we, the 'rulers' of the land, would be able to maintain our position and adapt to whatever came after our planet's awakening, and if we did, was that the end?