The Phantom's Gambit - Chapter 29: Beast tamer

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 system: We must take the plot seriously!

Mo Fan: Ok.

The system: We cannot be OOC!

Mo Fan: Yes.

The system: We have to be cold. We must be ruthless. We cannot lose ourselves in this imaginary world.

Mo Fan: …no problem.

Not long after…

Mo Fan: System, can we talk? Hold my gong and take him away.

System: ……

- Description from Novelupdates

“Drive this woman out!” "Throw this woman into the sea!” When he doesn’t know Debbie Nian’s true identity, Carlos Huo cold-shoulders her. “Mr. Huo, she is your wife,” Carlos’ secretary reminded him. Hearing that, Carlos gives him a cold stare and complained, “why didn’t you tell me earlier?” From then on, Carlos spoils her rotten. Little did everyone expect that they would get a divorce.

“I Possessed the Academy’s Silver-Rank Examiner.”I was on the verge of becoming someone who’d be pushed around by students left and right…◎ [Silver Gatekeeper]“No one can pass without the Gatekeeper’s permission.”I awakened an absurdly overpowered trait.TN: This novel follows a protagonist who becomes a rank examiner, tasked with evaluating students at an academy to determine whether they are worthy of advancing from Bronze to Silver rank. Known as the Silver Gatekeeper, he has the authority to decide which students can progress. As a gatekeeper, he possesses overpowered abilities, making him powerful when fighting on the examination field.