Trapped In Elysium: A Virtual Reality Nightmare - Chapter 87: Cruel Selection

Bubbles…Soft, fragile, and fleeting. They drift without purpose, bursting at the slightest touch.They aren’t weapons. They aren’t threats. Just harmless playthings, forgotten the moment they vanish.But what if bubbles weren’t so innocent?What if, in a world of Hunters—where magic shatters mountains and fists split seas—someone awakened a Skill based entirely on bubbles?A joke. A death sentence.Goblins would laugh.The weak would pity him. The strong wouldn’t even bother to look twice.But powers can hide secrets. And some truths are buried in plain sight.When a nameless F-Rank awakens the “Bubble Skill,” no one expects him to survive.Let alone rise.However, the indomitable spirit of River Faelan refused to die.Step by step, he climbed to the top—shattering every limit placed on a “mere” Bubble Mage.He proved them all wrong.And he’ll do it again,Even if it means starting from the very bottom… for one more time.

“Battling young masters for some treasures in mysterious caves? No, thank you.What's so special about a ring containing an old sage's trapped soul? I'll just toss it away.Becoming a direct disciple of some big expert with many enemies? Count me out.I'll flip the bird to the pointless struggle in prestigious sects that only attract calamity.What I have here, this opportunity I've seized, is plenty for me.I'll choose safe and steady methods of progress, even if they're slow. After all, I'm just a simple farmer seeking peace through cultivation. I'll rely on myself to pave the way.”- Aksai Everwood (Chapter 7)============Meet Aksai Everwood, a guy who thought he was done with life, but life had other plans.Aksai wasn't always Aksai. He used to be Arman Arlott, a terminally ill dude who decided to take one last wild ride before checking out. Little did he know, a crazy experiment would flip his world upside down. Arman's mind got tangled up with artificial intelligence, and things got seriously weird.Instead of peacefully bowing out, Arman ended up sacrificing himself for some mind-blowing breakthrough. But instead of eternal rest, he got a second chance as Aksai Everwood, a spirit farmer in a new world. Talk about a cosmic curveball!You'd think being a farmer in a serene, pastoral paradise would be easy, right? Nope. Aksai's new world is anything but peaceful. Farming is far from sunshine and rainbows here.Aksai dreams of a chill life cultivating his crops, but in the wild world of immortal cultivation, peace is a rare commodity.Luckily, Aksai's got some serious advantages. He's got a neural link fabric that makes him a whiz at alchemy and array formations, giving him a leg up on other Spirit cultivators. Plus, he has the Enchanted Everwood Farm, a magical place where he can grow all sorts of mysterious cultivation resources with awesome bonuses. This farm comes with perks that make Aksai a one-of-a-kind Spirit farmer.And here's the kicker: the farm is suspended in a spatial junction of all existing realities. That means Aksai can hop between different worlds as he levels up in his Spirit cultivation.With these unique advantages, Aksai ditches the traditional path of joining a sect or a renowned clan. Instead, he explores various worlds, using their unique resources and methods to forge his own path as a Spirit cultivator.What do myriad worlds unlock? A druid bloodline, body cultivation, martial arts, and lots more. Who’d join sects when given such perks?The stage is set for our Spirit farmer. Now Aksai, his companions, and you, his readers, are in for a journey of rebirth, redemption, and a whole lot of dirt under your fingernails.============Additional Tags: #druid #bloodlines #Martialarts #worldhopping #artificialintelligence #coldmc #battlenovel #calculatingmc #villain #farming #spiritcultivation #mindcultivation #bodycultivation #worldhopping #rpgelements #low-keymc #sliceoflife #nonarrogantmc

Hera Avery is working several part-time jobs to pay for her university tuition. She is managing her work and love life simultaneously. Her boyfriend, who is a rising celebrity, made her pay for their expensive apartment located in a well-known building. The building is also home to well-known heirs and heiresses.On her boyfriend's birthday and their third anniversary, she returned home to their apartment only to find him with another woman. But what did she get in return?A slap on the face, a breakup and she was evicted from the apartment she was paying with her own money.After being evicted and becoming homeless, she believed things couldn't get any worse. However, her cheating ex-boyfriend's wealthy new girlfriend went further by reaching out to every establishment and persuading them to blacklist her. This caused her to lose her means of living and they even spread rumors that she was obsessed with her former celebrity boyfriend and was attacked by his fans.Having no way out, she gritted her teeth.“Grandpa, I'm willing to inherit the consortium.”Old Master Avery laughed heartily after hearing her conviction and sent a bank transfer to Hera.[ You received a $100,000,000,000 money transfer to your account ending in ####][Note: My dear granddaughter, use this pocket money to treat yourself to anything you desire. Don't be frugal, and if you spend it all, don't hesitate to ask me for more.]Hera was astounded.When her identity was announced, her ex-boyfriend kneeled and cried to her, for her to take him back.The sarcastic Male lead 1: Do you think it's your turn? Look behind.When her ex-boyfriend looked back, he saw influential men lining up with bouquets of roses to woo Hera.The cold Male lead 2: It's your fault for being blind. Cry and beg but you'll have no chance as long as we are here.The brutal and impatient Male lead 3: Do you want me to break your legs?!The entertainment King Male lead 4: You're just a little star but you want to bypass me?The hot-headed Male lead 5: I'll make sure, you'll be shelve.The coquettish Male lead 6: Wifey, they are trying to steal you from me!Seeing the problematic Male leads, Hera felt an incoming headache not knowing what to do.“Let's just go with the flow then!”

Ren Arakawa thought getting stabbed by his psycho ex-girlfriend was the worst way to die, and it would end his story. Turns out, it was just the prologue. He wakes up in a parallel earth full of dungeons, monsters, hunters and way too many women with clingy tendencies and knives.To make things worse, the goddess who reincarnated him? Yeah—she's the Yandere Goddess, the divine creator of obsessive love and the world he is going to reincarnate is female-dominated world, and she’s mad Ren called his ex “crazy.” So she curses him:“Every girl who likes you will become yandere. Like, explosively, murderously, loyalty-soaked yandere, to them you will be their oxygen. Good luck, idiot~ Go ahead and realise how amazing this yandere love is.”BUT—plot twist—the God of Creation, who’s been hiding in a broom closet in heaven since the beginning of the universe to escape his yandere stalker (guess who?), snatches Ren’s soul mid-reincarnation and gives him a cheat skill:[Heartsteal] – Absorb one power from any yandere girl who's obsessed with you.“My guy...you should help me...this bitch is driving me crazy..”Now Ren just wants to survive dungeons and not die from accidental love. Instead, he’s collecting powers:A healer who murders teammates because they looked at him wrongA pop idol who sends her fans to the shadow realm for shipping her with someone else other than RenA plant mage who grows garden clones of him to cuddle and possibly do other thingsArmed with sarcasm, trauma, and increasingly dangerous girlfriends, Ren must climb the power ladder, level up, and eventually punch a literal goddess in the face to break the curse and destroy the concept of Yandere and be a free man.Love? Nope. Power through emotionally unstable women? Absolutely.