Picking Up Fragments - Chapter 29: Meeting Champion Player

An alien abduction romance. Updates Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.Grant has a tolerance for boredom. Late shift in a middle-of-nowhere facility? Sign him up. If the money's good, he'll happily take the peace and quiet of a long night watching an empty cell.And then he meets Subject B-31. Blue, beautiful, and completely inhuman. Her captors call her Batty, thanks to her big ears and the way she hangs upside down by her tail.He's told not to talk to her. He's told to think of her as a test subject, not a person. He's told to cash his checks and live his humble life. He's told to ignore the sorrow on her face and the desperation in her crimson eyes. Maybe he should have listened. When he finally busts her out, the rescue isn't a rescue at all: it's an abduction.Batty is Princess Sykora, of the tyrannical Taiikari Empire. She commands the Black Pike, a massive voidship on the imperial frontier. Grant must learn a new life, in a firmament filled with ambitious nobles, deadly rivals, and the sinister smiles of the Taiikari Imperial Court. And he'll have to learn fast.Because when the Princess of the Void looks at Grant, she doesn't just see a savior—she sees a husband.And she isn't asking.

[2022 Science Fiction Starlight Award Word-of-mouth Good Book]

[Third Prize of 2022 Science Fiction Essay]

When a photo of the North Pole taken by a satellite was sent back to various countries, people on earth were shocked by the content of the photo.

They saw thousands of wolves in the North Pole, including hundreds of polar bears and arctic silver foxes, all bowing their heads in unison.

On the top of the snow-capped mountain, a giant arctic wolf whose size exceeds everyone’s imagination is overlooking the arctic ice sheet.

- Description from novelbuddy

I became a miserably weak aristocrat in the web novel ‘SSS-Class Knight’.

With a body that can drop at a moment’s notice, no less.

‘Let’s live for now. Let’s fight on.’

I have to survive, even without knowing the ending.

After waking up in a world of magic, knighthood, and alchemy, Carlotta finds herself with an unexpected gift: an intelligence system that feeds her daily updates, secrets, rumors, and even hidden dangers unfolding around her.Yesterday’s intel was especially eventful.Mrs. Thea Ashfield, an eccentric alchemist, tossed away an old tool called the Rose Thorn late last night, left forgotten in a trash bin just south of the academy.Meanwhile, a new restaurant at No. 56 Fame Street is quickly becoming the talk of the town, fresh ingredients, great prices, and a steak that people are already calling legendary.Not all food fared as well though: most of the caramel bread in the academy cafeteria turned out to be leftovers from days ago. (Still edible, just… don’t expect miracles.)Teacher Estelle Marlowe pulled an all-nighter preparing the upcoming magic exam. Rumor has it the questions are no joke this time.Then came the serious alerts. One warned of a wanted criminal hiding in the Fame District, with a bounty of thirty thousand Orrae on their head.The other was more personal, Headmistress Viviana Richards’s lost dog was about to be shipped off by dog traders through the port.Thanks to Carlotta’s timely tip-off, the headmistress was able to rescue her beloved pet just in time.######Some Tags: Female Protagonist, Card Magic, System, Daily Intelligence, Genius Main Character, Focused Main Character, Academy, Intelligent Main Character####There's no plans for romance for now. In my outline I don't plan to add romance for main character but will see how it will develop