Short, Light, Free - Chapter 95: Smoke and Business I

One late-night run changed Aila’s life forever after getting caught up in a battle between werewolves and hunters. She is suddenly kidnapped by said hunters and finds out secrets about her past and her future as she embarks on a journey to find out who or what she truly is. Issues arise one after the other when she finally escapes the hunters grasp, only to be taken in by the ferocious Alpha of the Silver Crescent Pack. Unlike most who fear him, Aila challenges his authority every step of the way as she learns more about herself and the dominant, possessive Alpha who tries to claim her. Will heads collide in a battle of will, or can they work together and help keep the hidden world of creatures safe from the hunters? Join Aila on her journey of rediscovery, love, laugh and cry along with her on this action-packed, steamy romance novel. ----- Gold Tier Winner in #161 Writing Prompt Contest - Shapeshifters. ------ *** SNEAK PEAK *** [ MATURE CONTENT ] “Eyes up here, Aila.” He snapped; his harsh voice made her look into his eyes, and she was immediately trapped under his stone-cold gaze. She couldn’t move her eyes away from his as he stepped closer to her, his movements slow as though he was ready to pounce on her, his prey. Without thinking, she stood up from her position, prepared to bolt, but he grabbed her and pinned her hands against the bed. He moved his knee forwards, parting her legs that resisted only for a second before allowing his knee entry. He pushed it slowly into the spot between her thighs, making her gasp from the sudden contact. “Do you like disobeying me, Aila?” He growled; Aila was confused for a moment until she remembered how easily she defied his commands. Was he really still angry from earlier? But when she searched his face for an answer, she soon found it. He was definitely mad from earlier. “To be quite honest, I do. It puts you in your place,” Aila smirked when she met his blazing eyes. He brought his face down closer to hers, the pressure from his knee in between her legs increased, making her bite her bottom lip. “Wrong answer,” He growled before biting her lip apart from her teeth.

He never performed well in either middle nor high school, and even after becoming an adult, he never worked. Be it morning, noon or night, he only played an online game. For him, being the world’s number one rank, playing that online game, was his very reason for living.

One day, his account was hacked and his character deleted. Restoration was impossible. Nothing that could be done. The number 1 rank that he literally spent his life to attain and to defend was now lost. Filled with despair, he turned to suicide.

When he opened his eyes again, there was the online game. No, the world itself looked similar to the game. He had been reborn as the extra character of the premium avatar he created in the past, but left untouched.

The former world’s top, was reborn in a world that looked like that online game. That was the beginning of his extraordinary legend.

A knight, a cat, a dark elf, and so on. Together with several unique companions, his training to regain his “world’s first rank” now begins.

“Ah, him? He’s just Daeyeong’s acquaintance.” He hated those words. Choi Seolwoo is trying to leave behind his teens and twenties, which he spent as Won Daeyeong’s shadow. Won Daeyeong (gong), the national team captain who became the first Korean track and field athlete to qualify for the Olympics in the 400m, and Choi Seolwoo (soo), a newly qualified Certified Public Accountant, are childhood friends of over a decade. Choi Seolwoo, weary of the pain of his obsessive unrequited love for Won Daeyeong, impulsively enters into a contractual relationship with a sub-seme and declares a break-up with Won Daeyeong, intending to completely remove him from his life and start anew. Won Daeyeong is displeased with Choi Seolwoo trying to end their friendship over a relationship. Just how much attention had he demanded since they were young? Even he himself acknowledged how incredibly well he’d treated him. It wasn’t as if he had expected anything in return for looking after him, but still, this is absurd. To take him for granted and push him aside like this. Won Daeyeong proposes that if Choi Seolwoo appears on five episodes of a segment called “An Acquaintance” on his Xtube channel, which has 1.1 million subscribers, he will agree to the break-up. The filming of a variety show exposing every detail of Won Daeyeong’s life begins. Unexpectedly, the view count explodes due to the spicy and entertaining talk with frequent bleeps, the genuine bromance chemistry and realistically fierce fights, and Choi Seolwoo’s idol-like visuals. Choi Seolwoo, the “break-up guy,” ends up advertising himself to the entire nation as Won Daeyeong’s best friend. Wait, somehow this… seems to be moving further away from a break-up…?

The year is 2236 and the Deep Dive Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game Ancients World is the most advanced game of its type ever created. Now that DDVR technology has reached the stage of commercial consumers everyone is addicted to the games available. A person who spent 5 years in the game has been reincarnated in his younger self as a request from a world item the game provided. Not everything is known about Ancients World since he only spent 5 years playing, so things will change this time around.

Many people don't really know what the game really provides till everyone with an internet connection is playing. It is the only way to survive in the coming years because of how special the world is.

Cera Adamo is a young man who is almost 20 and he is the one that found the world item that granted him one wish, something that saved his life in a last chance effort. He chose to go back into the past so he can get everything he needs for his family, he doesn't want them to be dirt poor like they once were and this is his way to secure that it never happens again.