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An Author's Struggle - What Lies Ahead Ch 41 - The Kiss
Murphy asked without mincing his words, perhaps in the most direct and brash way possible. Devoid of any romantic passion, he simply stressed the sincerity of his plea and waited with bated breath. She stared blankly in response, unsure if she’d heard him well. When they both sunk into awkward silence for a good dozen seconds, she acknowledged he didn’t misspeak, and turned her head away. Murphy sighed again, the breath he held pushed out in resignation. Then, he also stood up. How could he know Eleanor didn’t turn out of repulsion, but to hide the traces of a creeping blush. ‘This insolent, thieving fool’, she thought, ‘How can shamelessly ask that?’ “It’s best I get going,” he muttered softly and ambled away. Yet, just as he made it past her, Eleanor caught his hand and lured him to look her way. A pair of brown eyes greeted him, closer than he would have ever expected. And closer still… Their lips met, tentatively at first, as if establishing a pact of their own. Then, they w
An Author's Struggle - What Lies Ahead Ch 42 - The Past
Murphy had a restless night. He rolled back and forth on the couch, the same thoughts eating away at his mind on a loop. He felt Ellie’s absence, but the solitude wasn’t welcome anymore. It left him uncertain and unsure of himself like never before, and it was only now he realized just how dependent he was on the system’s aid. It was just around dawn that his eyes lost their somber glow, and he fell asleep for a while. In truth, it felt like a blink, and he woke shortly after, his nose catching a tantalizing smell close by.“You’re awake already?” he heard her call from the kitchen.“Yeah…” he muffled a yawn and stretched. Rising from the sheets, he had to pause when reminded he still had no clothes. In a panic, he looked left and right and noticed Eleanor was looking away. With a sigh of relief, he wound the sheets around his shoulders, just barely covering himself in time.“Cosplaying a greek philosopher?” she smirked.Though embarrassed, he recovered with a joke of his own, “I w
An Author's Struggle - What Lies Ahead Ch 43 - The Future
Dracula was no vampire, of course. His power was not at all nefarious. It was his callous heart that made him so, perverting the Numen Code into something wicked and scorned. Like many kings before him, he could have lead his domain mercifully. Had his people loved him, they would act as psychic emitters whenever they remembered their lord’s grace. Alas, for Vlad it was not enough. With a taste for power, he chose the opposite way to garner it. Whereas Murphy gained his energy through awe and inspiration, the king chose terror. Hence, the impaling began. With each spear he drove into an enemy, their corpse put on display, thousands would cower at his name.The effect was much more immediate, and his gates were unchained one after the other. When his domain did not have enough fear to feed on, he slew the Ottoman envoys and brought war to his lands. The sixth gate was on the verge of opening, and he was nigh invincible among common men. After all, his was the power to mold flesh. H
An Author's Struggle - What Lies Ahead Ch 44 - Chainbreakers
Even after Ellie reined her emotions under control, they sat close together, sharing each other’s embrace. Despite having just met days prior, to Murphy it felt like the most natural thing.It was comforting, and somewhat reminiscent of their previous dynamic. He shared whatever he thought, and she in turn shut it down with ill-timed sass.“Just stay dead for now,” she shrugged, disagreeing with his notions of a comeback, “They won’t know where to look for now, and this place is largely off the grid.”“I can’t just sit idle,” Murphy retorted, “These people tried to kill me. The least I can do is expose it…”“A mere marketing ploy, and a good case for a slander lawsuit.”Ellie denied him again, but he still felt restless. He wasn’t sure if those people were still out looking for him, or presumed him dead, but at some point he would have to go back online. “I can’t connect from your place, Ellie. They might track it back to you. It’s best I stay on the move, and—““Your concern is note
An Author's Struggle - What Lies Ahead Ch 45 - Dream Walker
A hazy world surrounded Murphy in his sleep. He was in a limbo between reality and dreams, neither awake nor fully asleep. He had had lucid dreams before, but this wasn’t it. If in those he felt like he had control of himself, then now he was in control of his dream itself. Habitually, he thought of the world he created for his novel. That ancient island secluded from time he often wrote about. Then, as if woven from a spell, it manifested around him. A full world, all to himself. After exploring for a few minutes, he felt bored on his lonesome, so he thought back to his characters. They too appeared a second later, along with peddlers, sailors and other faceless cast he never explored.“Incredible,” he mused gleefully, before adding details to each one and clapping his hands, giving the world motion.Like a self-produced movie, the characters moved, setting a scene around him. The details were as vivid as he could imagine them to be, and he never lacked imagination. Alas, with ea
An Author's Struggle - What Lies Ahead Ch 46 - An Awkward Meal
When he woke up in the following morning, his head still ached, devoid of energy. Stretching languidly against the sun, his thoughts were restored and he eventually remembered last night’s dream.Rather unfortunately, however, he couldn’t recall the details of her body. Try as he might, with all of the imagination vested in him by the Creator, his gift proved useless in reimagining those curves.‘Shame,’ he grunted, then restored last night’s grin, “Still, this just makes me anticipate it even more.”The cabin was empty, and he only found a note from Ellie saying she’d return around noon. The dog was still there, skulking about the orchard. “Oi, mutt!’ he addressed it, beckoning it over with a slice of bread. In response, Lucky stared for a bit then bolted it deeper into the woods, scrambling as far away from him as possible.“I didn’t mean to burn you… you know!?” Murphy shouted after it, but ultimately failed to summon it back. In the end, he just left the food on the porch, a pe
An Author's Struggle - What Lies Ahead Ch 47 - Too Good to be True
It’s unknown if Murphy ever scored his bribe or not, but he surely never spoke of intruding in her dreams again. After being forced to try out a few suits for her viewing pleasure, they finally returned to the matter at hand.QiE-Novel — and more specifically the corpo giant behind it — was still an insurmountable obstacle. While it seemed irrelevant now, soon enough they would become his primary competitor for the reader market.If LACIE was allowed to resurface in this reality as well, she would inevitably drown the market and make his fandom growth impossible.Murphy didn’t require a monopoly, but it was paramount to have a free market. So far, writing became the most efficient tool he had to reaching others. Books were a stable means of digging up a person’s emotions, and through that he could siphon the power he needed to save Eleanor.He couldn’t force his novels to grow an audience overnight, even if he spent what remained of his fortune on ads to promote them. Therefore, he ch
An Author's Struggle - What Lies Ahead Ch 48 - Back on Track
With their first novelist secure, things were looking up for Murphy and his Pen Liberty. What the others were entirely unaware of was that GamerLord, the random kid he’d scouted, would one day turn out to be a bestseller on QiE-Novel.Due to his intervention, that wouldn’t come to be. The boy had just recently finished his first book with them, and it did only decently well. Still, webnovel wasn’t one to discard cash cows, since it didn’t take any investment on their part to keep a partnership going.By automatically securing his next works thanks to their “first rights” clause, they would keep him bound to their trough forever. All it took from them was a few hundred dollars in bonuses, pennies in the bucket compared to what they would earn in return.And if things didn’t work out and the novel didn’t sell? They had ample clauses they could exploit to get their money back in a dispute.When Murphy explained all of these, and offered a better guarantee, he was sure to have more peopl
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- An Author's Struggle - What Lies Ahead Ch 72 - Final Battle
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