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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
An Author's Struggle - What Lies Ahead Ch 49 - Renewed Threats
On the lone Carpathian roads, a small mottled convoy of minivans stopped at the waist of a mountain. They looked like ordinary tourists, dressed in colorful garb, and even occasionally stopped to take photos of the beautiful mountain scape. The only thing that stood out among them was that they were predominantly asian, but that in of itself wasn’t too odd. Even Murphy wouldn’t second guess it in this day and age.What truly stood out to Morpheus was instead a cottage, half-hidden in the woods on a cliff not far from here. A poorly maintained gravel road lead from the tourists straight to Eleanor’s doorstep. Hers was the only house in a thirty mile radius, so it became clear to him this dream was no mere coincidence.The tourists lingered even after the sun settled, and cars on the main road dwindled one by one, until the whole region slept.Then, colorful garbs were replaced for pitch black carbon. Bulletproof vests, helmets, and military grade comms. There were also guns… so man
An Author's Struggle - What Lies Ahead Ch 50 - Preparations
A few days had passed since that night. Still early in the evening, Murphy held his hand against a rock, not far away from the hill overlooking the main road.His eyes were closed, furrowing in deep concentration while his fingers continuously danced around the boulder as if weaving some invisible spell.“What are you doing?” Eleanor asked, having silently watched him for the past few minutes.Startled by the sudden intrusion, Murphy’s eyes shot open and he lost control. Flames flickered in his pupils for an instant, and the rock in his grasp splintered like a boiled egg shell. “I was practicing my control,” he frowned, watching the uneven cracks leading straight to the boulder’s core. There, the sediment was almost liquid, and it bubbled softly like boiling lava.“I’m trying to pass heat through a solid obstacle without affecting it,” he continued to explain, tearing his eyes away from the failed experiment, “What are you doing here?”“I brought you a jacket,” she smiled, “I thought
An Author's Struggle - What Lies Ahead Ch 51 - Burn
A small two by two hole was dug in the ground, just beneath his couch. Fresh concrete with thick rebar formed an impenetrable bunker, albeit a very small one. Murphy’s last job was in construction, after all. It was all too easy to make an impromptu safe haven for him. Just before the sunset, Ellie and Lucky descended in there and locked themselves from within. Inside, there was water and food for two whole weeks, as well as a few tanks of oxygen should the vents fail. A few monitors were linked up to the camera feed, giving her insights into what was to come. The assassins had already arrived, and were seemingly taking scenic photos of their roadtrip. ‘Stay safe,’ Murphy mouthed, then covered his head in a thin camouflage veil. Over the past few hours, while feigning an interest in the local flora, the hitmen had already scouted the place with a few drones. Murphy would have preferred if Ellie left the compound altogether, but they couldn’t lure them in without showing signs o
An Author's Struggle - What Lies Ahead Ch 52 - Pyrrhic Victory
Walking through the fire, he paid it no heed and stepped right over as if he were its king. The flames bowed, making a path for him to the cabin, where Ellie emerged with the dog. “Why are you out!?” he accused, even if the danger had passed, “What were you thinking!?” “I heard gunshots,” she stammered, hiding in fright from his gaze, “But then it was over… and the power was out…” “So!?” he approached, lifting her chin up to show her just how angry he was, “The plan was for you to wait for three knocks, or 2 weeks — whichever came first.” “I couldn’t,” she said, tears forming at the rim of her eyes, “I couldn’t wait to see if you still lived or not!” He frowned, his anger easing but not by much, “You could have gotten hurt… What if there were more out there?” “Then… it would have meant you died…” she sniffled, “and there was no point for me to live on.” “What nonsense are you spouting!?” he berated, “You had every reason to go on.” “It’s pointless, Murphy.” Ellie denied, “Witho
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