Cultivating Chaos
Cultivating Chaos 2
Cultivating Chaos 3
Cultivating Chaos 4
Cultivating Chaos 5
More by William D. Arand
Runner has a problem. He and 499,000 men and women are trapped in a game. He also just happens to be the only person from IT who could log everyone out safely. And he doesn't remember his password.
He, like everyone else in this nightmare, had their memories scrambled or lost in the process of being loaded into the game. A single garbled message is his only clue on how to save everyone.
The problem is that whoever loaded them into the game, loaded their minds completely. If they die, their brain gets wiped.
Now it's time for Runner to flex his skills as a power gaming min maxer and see what he can do. Because every time he levels, he might gain the memory of the password. Time to go Hardcore.
Warning and minor spoiler: This novel contains graphic violence, a harem, unconventional opinions/beliefs, and a hero who is as tactful as a dog at a cat show. Read at your own risk.
This is the Omnibus edition of the Otherlife Trilogy. It contains all three books. Only the description of the first book has been included to prevent spoilers from occurring.
Book 1: Product Link-(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01...)
Book 2: Product Link-(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01...)
Book 3: Product Link-(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01...)
Warner spent his days like no one else.
He got up, went to work, forced people to balance their scales— either through taking lives or forced penance— went home, spent time with his daughter, slept with one of his girlfriends, and went to sleep.
Only to repeat the pattern over and over and over.
Life was the furthest thing from mundane that it could ever be.
Warner’s life had changed when his daughter had been nearly fatally injured, plunging Warner into a world of paranormal creatures, monsters, and magic that he’d never known existed.
Then he came out the other side as the arbiter of Retribution. He now personally hands out justice to any and all he comes across.
Warner has been using his powers considerably since then. Cutting down all who would stand before him and attempt to stop him in his personal crusade.
The price he had to pay for such a power cost him his life. He was forced to the point of giving all of himself to redeem the original holder of the right of Retribution, Warin.
Warner was quick to pay that price.
His effort was paid back to him in triplicate when Warin willingly passed the mantle to him. Giving all of what he was to Warner, effectively ending his life.
Now Warner is the holder of the rights for Vengeance, Retribution, and Redemption.
Each power has recognized him and responds willingly, allowing him to blend all three of them with growing mastery.
Long gone are the days of being sick after utilizing them.
Now the only concern Warner faces is the correct usage of those powers, and when to use them.
The world is an ever-shifting gray area that gets murkier by the year.
The great change that’d been on the horizon is now upon the world. A change that will cast the entirety of existence into shadow, or bring it back to stability.
A reckoning no one wished for has arrived.
The very world stands on the edge of a knife, waiting to see who will prevail.
Wayne dreamed of piloting a thirty-foot-tall walking robot that was closer to a battle-tank than anything else.
They were called Walkers.
They were armed with laser cannons, rockets, missiles, and heavy kinetic weapons more similar to artillery pieces than guns, and everything that went with that.
Unfortunately, he had been declined military service.
His only avenue left to become a Walker Pilot was to make it happen all on his own.
Under his own power.
With his own hands.
Literally.
Working his fingers to the bone, saving all he could, and digging through junkyards and salvage pits, Wayne made it happen.
One part at a time.
He was now, finally, at the starting line.
Having built a very rough Walker that he had cobbled together himself, he scavenged a few weapons that were perfect for starting out and had just enough money to afford ammunition. His long-term dream was just about to start.
Perhaps even forming his own Walker Mercenary company and hiring people to work with him.
Except just as he finally moves forward, his home world is about to take a gigantic leap backward.
With Wayne at the center of it all, without ever truly realizing it.
In a world full of super powers, Felix had a pretty crappy one.
He has the ability to modify any item he owns. To upgrade anything.
Sounds great on paper. Almost like a video game.
Except that the amount of power it takes to actually change, modify, or upgrade anything worthwhile is beyond his abilities.
At least, that was until Felix leveraged a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to give himself a great deal of points.
Investing in Super Heroes and Super Villains and owning them. Using them, Felix built up an empire.
An organization by the name of Legion.
Felix got what he wanted.
He pushed, pulled, fought, and dug his way through the world to get Legion, or more accurately, the Association, to the fore-front of the world's politics.
In doing so, he lost something he couldn't afford to.
Andrea Elex had been lost in the final moments of everything coming together.
Now Ryker and Runner have come calling to get those favors repaid he promised them, except he only has one thing on his mind. Getting Andrea back and as soon as possible.
Fighting against Zeus with the Overgod and the Architect, finishing his business with the Guild of Heroes and League of Villains, pushing the Association and the Legion to the pinnacle of power.
All of those things were on his to do list, but to Felix there was only one real answer.
Andrea First.
Warner spent his days like no one else.
He got up, went to work, forced people to balance their scales— either through taking lives or forced penance— went home, spent time with his daughter, slept with one of his girlfriends, and went to sleep.
Only to repeat the pattern over and over and over.
Life was the furthest thing from mundane that it could ever be.
Warner’s life had changed when his daughter had been nearly fatally injured, plunging Warner into a world of paranormal creatures, monsters, and magic that he’d never known existed.
Then he came out the other side as the arbiter of Retribution. He now personally hands out justice to any and all he comes across.
Warner has been using his powers considerably since then. Cutting down all who would stand before him and attempt to stop him in his personal crusade.
The price he is forced to pay for such power is catching up to him. Catching up to him and forcing him to pay... with interest.
Spending more of his time sick and wretched after overuse of the power, he must now begin to wonder about the balance in his own life.
Each time he finds himself throwing up golden vomit that turns to blood, he has to wonder just how much damage he is causing to his own body.
Except a great change in the world is coming. One that will force a reckoning no one wishes, with Warner becoming a massive lightning rod for it.
The very world trembles with the actions he’s taken, and quails in fright at what he must do next.
Warning and minor spoiler: This novel contains graphic violence, undefined relationships/harem, unconventional opinions/beliefs, and a hero who is as tactful as a dog at a cat show. Read at your own risk.
An existence spent being forced to kill others to satiate a Monster.
Where the only thing to look forward to was the blessed, if brief, period of time between paying that bribe.
Except that very same Monster is and isn’t Rene.
It just happened to live inside his own mind and force him to do what it wanted. Rather than being an actual Monster.
That was Rene’s entire life until a fateful day changed that.
A day that the career as a hitman for hire built on the Monster’s needs will end. Where Rene will be forced to atone for his actions. To be held accountable and judged.
Except the verdict is already long since passed and needs no deliberation.
His sentence was being sent hundreds of years into the past, into a different world even, where he must live a life for the betterment of others. Every action judged as it happens and weighed out against him.
But even this new idyllic life he’s been living in for eighteen years is now completely off the rails and Rene has gone back into a life lived in the underworld.
Armed with a few gifts granted to him by the one who judged him, gifts better suited to a fantasy about living in a video game, Rene has to maneuver his way through all the twists and turns in his new life while using all the things he’d learned in his old one.
Except using those skills is a double-edged sword. If he’s not careful, he’ll end up right back where he started.
Or so he would hope.
War is on the horizon and Felicie is in the crosshairs.
Or more accurately, the Mask is.
Warning and minor spoiler: This novel contains graphic violence, undefined relationships/harem, unconventional opinions/beliefs, and a hero who is as tactful as a dog at a cat show. Read at your own risk.
An existence spent being forced to kill others to satiate a Monster.
Where the only thing to look forward to was the blessed, if brief, period of time between paying that bribe.
Except that very same Monster is and isn’t Rene.
It just happened to live inside his own mind and force him to do what it wanted. Rather than being an actual Monster.
That was Rene’s entire life until a fateful day changed that. Where he died in a mission gone wrong.
When he met the Watcher in the afterlife, and took on a new life. A life of idyllic bliss that involved having a family.
Until he was kidnapped and taken to a new city. A city where Rene broke free, set down roots, opened a business, an orphanage, an underground gang, and began taking over.
Rene has become the Hood, the Mask, and young Anatolis all in one.
Where he continues to take more power with the Anatolis bankroll, his blade, or someone else’s blood.
Except as he gains more power, he becomes more of a target.
With every day, more people are targeting one of his lives and what they can take from him.
The city is about to be pitched head-first into the front lines of more than one fight to the death.
It has no idea, and it’s one true defender is a serial-killer turned hitman who became a bounty hunting money-lender that moonlights as a gang leader.
All before the month is over.
Warning and minor spoiler: This novel contains graphic violence, undefined relationships/harem, unconventional opinions/beliefs, and a hero who is as tactful as a dog at a cat show. Read at your own risk.
Reports to write, forms to fill, coffee to drink, leads to run down, organized crime syndicates to break.
Gus’s life had been a tedium and boredom he’d grown comfortable with. One that he sought out after he’d come back from his tour of duty.
That was before Melody, a contractor, more or less blew his life up as if it were a building packed full of c4.
Then helped him make a new life, which he himself ended blowing up.
A cushy new job with the FED, thrown out the window with a single gunshot.
All based on an assumption of who was working for who, and that he’d been on the wrong side of the equation.
And so ended his career in law enforcement after he became the assassin of a presidential candidate.
Now Gus is on to the next job. This time, working for his contractor and wife. The job they’re about to be given is a high paying one.
The thing is that the people they’re going up against? They’re just out to see the world burn. To send it screaming back down into the dark ages.
It’s a good thing that he’s a Boogieman.
Because being an apex predator that made the entirety of the Paranormal world fear him was something he could fall back on even in this situation. To hunt, investigate, and watch from the shadows.
Wouldn’t be the first time he’d put his life on the line either.
Unfortunately for everyone involved, the long forgotten and primordial past was rearing its ugly head.
Gus knows he can certainly punch above his own weight class, but this case might just be the one that ends him.
Warning and minor spoiler: This novel contains graphic violence, undefined relationships/harem, unconventional opinions/beliefs, and a hero who is as tactful as a dog at a cat show. Read at your own risk.
In a world full of super powers, Felix had a pretty crappy one.
He has the ability to modify any item he owns. To upgrade anything.
Sounds great on paper. Almost like a video game.
Except that the amount of power it takes to actually change, modify, or upgrade anything worthwhile is beyond his abilities.
At least, that was until Felix leveraged a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to give himself a great deal of points.
Investing in Super Heroes and Super Villains and owning them. Using them, Felix built up an empire.
An organization by the name of Legion.
Felix has brought it into the world once again, hiding it behind the name of the "Association". A neutral party he's building up to walk the line between the Guild of Heroes and League of Villains.
The foundation for all his plans is now in place. The time has come to work toward branching out into becoming a global power. A power that governments can't touch. Nor would they willingly want to.
It was time to push Legion right into the forefront of everyone's mind, without them ever realizing what they were looking at. Operating from the sidelines while controlling everyone.
There was no way Felix would let go of this chance, nor could he even consider the possibility of failure.
Kit and Lily were going to come home and Felix was going to make it happen.
Regardless of whatever government or organization might try to get in his way.
Legion First.
Ryker only had one goal in his life right now:
Turn a certain adventuring guild into a flaming wreck while dancing merrily through the smoldering ruins. All for the chance to get back at a handful of people.
It didn’t work out that way though.
At all.
He’d died, been forced into the body of an Avatar, absconded with the queen as her castle fell to betrayal, kidnapped a little kid who is obviously more than he seems, and to top all that off, he killed his undead father.
The smoldering ruins of the Queendom have cooled, the patterns reset, and Ryker has a task that is more than likely too much for him.
Take the Queendom back, destroy two armies, and give Lauren, the rightful queen, back her crown.
Warning and minor spoiler: This novel contains graphic violence, undefined relationships/harem, unconventional opinions/beliefs, and a hero who is as tactful as a dog at a cat show. Read at your own risk.
Warner spent his days like almost anyone else. He got up, went to work, answered phone calls in a call center, went home, spent time with his daughter, and went to sleep. Only to repeat the pattern over and over and over. Life was as mundane as anyone could ever fear it to be. Today was the day that all that would change. On this day, his daughter Maya would be nearly fatally injured, plunging Warner into a world of paranormal creatures, monsters, and magic he’d never known existed. The only consolation is that he discovers he’s not quite human, either. Nor is he very happy with the way of the world or how it spun. Built on corruption, lies, and injustice for all. An unlikely answer comes to him that fits his wounded heart. Justice handed out by him personally. Vengeance and retribution in equal measure to all that deserve it. Using his newfound powers and unbending determination, Warner is going to carve a path through the world that’ll send the darkest corners of existence fleeing before him. Even as he crushes them beneath his furious strikes. The very world will tremble with his actions and fear his coming. Warning and minor This novel contains graphic violence, undefined relationships/harem, unconventional opinions/beliefs, and a hero who is as tactful as a dog at a cat show. Read at your own risk.
Ryker only had one goal in his life right now:
Turn a certain adventuring guild into a flaming wreck while dancing merrily through the smoldering ruins. All for the chance to get back at a handful of people.
It didn’t work out that way though.
At all.
He’d become the Count of Dungeon, made a hostage, married off to the false queen’s daughter against his will, and had his county made ground zero for a religious war.
To top all that off, the Dark Lord of the North wants to see Ryker personally.
The smoldering ruins of Dungeon have been cleared, the patterns reset, and Ryker has a task that is more than likely too much for him.
Hold Dungeon, and give Lauren, the rightful queen, some breathing room.
Warning and minor spoiler: This novel contains graphic violence, undefined relationships/harem, unconventional opinions/beliefs, and a hero who is as tactful as a dog at a cat show. Read at your own risk.