The Black Cab limped down the cobblestone streets of Paris, sounding like a dying washing machine.
With its rear left tire completely shredded, the heavy steel wheel rim was grinding directly against the historic pavement, kicking up a rooster tail of bright orange sparks.
To the un awakened human tourists walking along the Seine, it was just a regular taxi with a blowout. But to anyone with a System UI, the Black Cab was currently ruining the carefully curated vibe.
"Terry, turn the engine off, it's embarrassing!" Kai hissed, sliding down in the passenger seat as a group of glowing Monetizer players glared at them from a sidewalk café.
"I can't just stop in the middle of the road, Kai!" Terry grunted, fighting the steering wheel. "We need a garage! Pull up the bloody map!"
"I'm trying!" Kai yelled, furiously tapping his yellow Sudo-tag. A tiny, pixelated hourglass spun lazily in the air above his wrist. "But the local map is buffering! 3G roaming is killing me! It's loading one street at a time!"
"Take the next left," Walter sniffled from the back seat, wiping his nose with a handkerchief as he stared at his datapad. "There's a maintenance district just past the river. Go straight through the floating ad that says [SCENIC VIEW: THE SEINE – UNLOCK 4K WATER TEXTURES FOR 5 SHARDS]."
"And turn off that bloody music!" Terry barked, swerving to avoid a greyed out delivery cyclist.
"I'm not playing music!" Kai argued.
He wasn't , the music was ambient. A soft, aggressively romantic accordion soundtrack was playing directly out of the sky, looping perfectly every three minutes. The lighting in the city was locked in a perpetual, golden-hour sunset, casting long, dramatic shadows across the café patios. Above them, a massive holographic banner read: [REMOVE CLOUDS TODAY - ONLY 10 SHARDS!].
The air smelled of fresh croissants, lavender, and heavily monetized data.
"It's a Two-Tier Reality," Walter sobbed softly, tears streaming down his face as they drove. "The normal humans have no idea what's happening. The Monetizers didn't overwrite the city... they just slapped a billing layer over it."
Walter pointed out the window at a normal, un awakened human waiter carrying a tray of espressos out of a quaint little brasserie.
To the naked eye, the waiter was just doing his job. But in Kai's UI, the waiter had a massive floating tag above his head: [RESOURCE NODE: ARTISANAL CAFFEINE. 15 SHARDS].
As they watched, a high-level Monetizer player wearing a glowing designer trench coat walked past the waiter and casually tapped a platinum credit card against the air.
Ping!
The espresso on the waiter's tray instantly digitized into golden light and materialized directly in the Monetizer's hand. The un-awakened waiter stopped in his tracks. He blinked, looked down at his empty tray with a profoundly confused expression, and then slowly turned around to go make another one.
"The server automatically wipes their short-term memory to preserve immersion," Walter wailed, burying his face in his hands. "They are trapped in an infinite loop of minimum wage labor! It’s... it’s a tragedy of supply chain logistics!"
Kai blinked. "Walter, are you crying over a waiter's espresso?"
"I am crying for the macroeconomic injustice of it all!" Walter wept.
"It's the debuff," Maya sighed, patting Walter awkwardly on the back. A faint pink aura was glowing around the former analyst's head. "The [MELANCHOLY] status effect. Minus ten percent to logic, plus fifty percent to emotional damage."
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"It is a heavy burden we bear," Grom rumbled from the other side of the cab. The massive Orc Warlord was staring out the window at a normal, unawakened couple holding hands by the river. A single, giant tear rolled down his green cheek. "Look at them. They love so fiercely, yet they do not know their time is fleeting."
"Grom, they have a literal price tag floating over their heads," Kai pointed out.
It was true. In the UI, the kissing couple had a tag that read: [ENVIRONMENTAL PROP: ROMANTIC AMBIANCE. RENT THIS COUPLE FOR YOUR ENGAGEMENT PHOTOS - 50 SHARDS/MIN]. The Monetizers were literally renting out normal human intimacy as background props for rich players' screenshots.
"Do not ruin this for me, Kai," Grom sniffled, eating another M&M. "The accordion music speaks to my soul."
To add insult to injury as a couple posed dramatically beside the river as a hovering drone displayed [PROPOSAL CUTSCENE AVAILABLE – 200 SHARDS].
"Right, enough poetry, there's the garage!" Terry announced.
Terry muscled the sparking Black Cab off the cobblestones and into a sleek, neon-lit service station. Above the open garage doors, a glowing holographic sign rotated lazily: [L'AMOUR AUTO-BODY & MICROTRANSACTION HUB].
Terry killed the engine. The cab settled onto its rims with an exhausted metallic groan.
A Monetizer NPC wearing perfectly clean, grease-free designer overalls glided out of the garage. He had a pencil-thin mustache and a nametag that read Claude.
"Bonjour, travelers," Claude smiled, a perfectly rehearsed customer service grimace. Then, he looked down at the smoking, shredded wheel well, and his smile violently twitched. "Monsieur, your sparking steel rims are severely harming the local user experience. Your vehicle absolutely does not meet the aesthetic guidelines of the Premium Romance Hub."
"I just need a bloody tire, mate," Terry grunted, stepping out of the cab. "A standard steel rim and some rubber. None of your premium nonsense."
"Ah. A Free-to-Play user," Claude’s smile instantly vanished, his voice dripping with condescending disdain. He adjusted his pristine overalls. "Basic asset repair is available. That will be Eight Hundred Engagement Shards."
"Eight hundred?!" Kai choked. "For a tire?!"
"We are currently in a surge-pricing zone, monsieur," Claude sneered. "If you cannot afford the maintenance, I suggest you abandon the vehicle to the Scavengers."
"Now you listen here, you jumped-up spanner-monkey," Terry growled, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a wad of physical British twenty-pound notes. "I've got hard fiat currency. Sterling. The King's face, take it or I'll park this cab in your lobby."
Claude looked at the paper money as if Terry had just handed him a dead rat.
"Physical fiat?" Claude gasped. "How incredibly gauche. We only accept digital Engagement Shards, cryptocurrency, or raw emotional trauma."
"Kai," Terry snapped, not breaking eye contact with the mechanic. "Hack his till."
Kai sighed, raising his wrist. The yellow Sudo-tag flared weakly. He typed in a command to overwrite the garage's pricing module. A tiny, pixelated hourglass appeared in the air.
SCREEEEE-EEEE-UHHH-BING-BONG. The agonizing sound of a 1998 dial-up modem echoed through the pristine garage.
[ESTIMATING TIME TO OVERWRITE: 2 DAYS, 4 HOURS...]
"I'm on 3G roaming, Terry," Kai said apologetically, his own eyes welling up with tears as the Melancholy debuff suddenly hit him. "The bandwidth... it's just so slow. I remember when I had fiber-optic speeds. It was beautiful."
"Oh for heaven's sake, you're all useless," Terry groaned, throwing his hands in the air.
"Fear not, Charioteer!" Sir Gideon proclaimed, stepping out of the cab. His breastplate was slightly bruised from the highway, but his spirit was unbroken. The Melancholy debuff didn't seem to affect him at all; he was already at maximum emotional capacity at all times. "If this merchant demands gold, we shall earn it through honest labor!"
Gideon marched over to a glowing, digital notice board pinned to the side of the garage. It was a local Monetizer Quest Board.
[DAILY QUESTS: PARIS NODE]
- [RENDER A COUPLE JEALOUS (EMOTIONAL FARMING) - 10 SHARDS]
- [PHOTO-BOMB A BASIC USER (GRIEFING) - 5 SHARDS]
- [BUSK FOR ENGAGEMENT (TIP-BASED) - FREEMIUM ONLY]
"We shall become traveling minstrels!" Gideon announced, pointing at the bottom quest. "I shall recite the epic ballads of my ancestors, and the peasants shall shower us in their digital crystals!"
Walter wiped his eyes, looking up from his spreadsheet. "Actually... the local algorithm heavily prioritizes user-generated content. If we generate enough localized entertainment value, the System might auto-deposit tip shards into our inventory. We could theoretically grind eight hundred shards."
Maya looked at the giant, crying Orc, the sobbing corporate accountant, the knight, the aristo, and the furious London cabbie.
"Well," Maya sighed, pulling her matte black spray paint out of her pocket. "We are definitely a freak show."
Without waiting for another word, Gideon marched directly out of the garage and into the center of the cobblestone plaza. He drew his spoon-made shiv like a conductor's baton.
"Citizens of Paris!" Gideon boomed, his voice echoing off the quaint brasseries.
With a soft, melodic ping, a glowing, holographic tip jar instantly materialized at his feet.
? Ceaseless Horizons [A LitRPG Progression Fantasy] ?
by DivineRei
Bleeding to death was unexpected, but waking up in a magical world sure as hell beat that. It seemed like a miraculous second chance until Lev realized just what kind of a world he was in, one his adult mind understood far too well.
Monsters thrived on Monarch, the planet riddled with endless hordes. Hunters and Adventurers didn't chase glory, they ensured that humanity continued to persist. Those in charge tried their best to suppress how dire their situation was but, deep down, everyone knew the truth.
The future looked bleak and Lev wasn't willing to accept it lying down, not when he had yet to truly live even once.
Armed with two titles of unfathomable power, apprenticed under an obscenely strong mage, and accompanied by a precious found family, Lev was going to do his utmost to not just survive, but to thrive on the harrowing planet. He finally had the power to make a difference, and he wasn't afraid to embrace it.
No number of monsters would stand in his way to forge a worthwhile future.
What To Expect:
- Numbers go up.
- Low stakes and struggles at first. Problems will become massive quickly.
- Long story.
- Maybe Romance
- No Harem.
Read 40 advanced chapters on .