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<p>A centuries old cyberpunk assassin is reborn into a world of Cultivation.</p> <p>Heaven's Great Game begins anew. It extends grasping arms through the Material, clutching at hundreds of planets and peoples, none of whom have any idea of what they are about to be plunged into.</p> <p>One of these arms reaches for a planet known as Earth.</p> <p>In the streets of New London, year 2493, Nicolai is a centuries-old killer whose brain was implanted into the body of Zero-Twelve, a militarized killbot. He spends his days mostly numb and apathetic, a cog in a machine.</p> <p>But when Heaven arrives, and the Great Game with it, Nicolai is reborn as a human, his old body recreated—along with the madness and blood rage that characterised his past. To orient himself in this new world he is only given one direction: find the Lizard.</p> <p>Watch Nicolai try to survive when thrown into Nightmare, a world of Cultivation, Undead, Demons, Spirit Beasts, Sects and Clans, and much, much more. He finds himself in a rambling castle constructed long ago by the mysterious People. Now it is a decaying ruin, filled with undead who lack a purpose. But there is a war raging in this castle, one that started long ago and which is now entering its final stages, with no care for the human arrivals. In the midst of this he seeks to remain in control of himself, struggling against the dark urges which are ever eager to erupt from him.</p> <p>For Nicolai, in spite of all difficulties, this new world is a dream come true. After a century trapped within Zero-Twelve, he is free. Now, he can resume his endless goal.</p> <p>To become the greatest fighter alive.</p> <p>What you can expect</p> <p>EARLY:</p> <p>The MC is a calculating, halfway-insane, bloodthirsty psychopath who vaguely wishes to be a Better Man. His character arc revolves around gaining control of himself and working out who he is, and who he wants to be. I would say the MC has quite a bit of personality, an odd way of viewing the world, and is very focused on getting what he wants. It takes a while for him to start having significant interactions with other chars but once he does, this personality leads to some........ interesting character interactions.</p> <p>It is solo progression at first but later on the MC groups up (for better or worse). In the longer run, there will be a split, periods of solo, periods of group, over the series as a whole. It is unlikely the MC will ever develop a dedicated Forever Friend Group, but there will be a sort-of bromance in the longer term.</p> <p>There are humorous/darkly humorous moments.</p> <p>The MC is not OP at the start; it is a weak-to-strong and there is a lot of struggling early on. But, as he gains in power, his options grow and he can start improving his strength much faster. There is a focus on making use of everything available, thinking things through, and the MC does not rely on others.</p> <p>To be entirely honest, the story pacing can be a little off at times; most especially the first 20 chapters are quite slow - this is probably the main feedback/critique I have received from readers. This is because I didn't really understand pacing when I started writing. However, as it goes on, the pacing begins to speed up. I would say from chapters 20-50ish it gradually speeds up, and then from 50+ it speeds up fairly significantly. But there are still bits where it slows down then speeds back up; pacing is still something I'm trying to improve at.</p> <p>There is LitRPG stuff from relatively early. Cultivation magic starts to show up more and more later on.</p> <p>Finally, this is intended to be a long story. It will likely go for thousands of chapters/10-20 books. So, if you are looking for a quick story where everything neatly resolves in 120,000 words, this is probably not for you.</p> <p>LATER/OVERALL:</p> <p>- Cyberpunk vs Xianxia</p> <p>- Cultivation system inspired by Reverend Insanity/Devil May Cry, WH40k.</p> <p>- Deep world building, smart and wary characters, schemes, grounded and satisfying progression.</p> <p>- A Cultivation system that is deeply explored, with questions answered such as how exactly it looks inside, how does Soul/Spiritual Sense work in combat, what is Intent and how do you make yours better, what is Heaven and why is it so mean to me, etc.</p> <p>- Fast paced, satisfying action scenes, where the MC wins due to greater skill, technique, and understanding rather than brute strength.</p> <p>- Focus on combat meta where at different stages, different techniques and strategies are more or less effective, encouraging characters to seek out optimal builds and hunt for OP techniques in an organic fashion.</p> <p>- This story is going to last for a long time, but it has an ending planned and will not be endless-power-up-without-purpose.</p> <p>Schedule and Info:Releasing three chapters a week, on the Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule.They release at 12:03pm EST (noon).So far I have written 330,000 words over 150 chapters, so I will not be going anywhere.</p> <p>Read 10 chapters ahead on the Patreon. Come chat on the Discord.For those who like the cover art, it was done by Yam4817.</p>
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