Proxima Legends Vol. 1

Proxima Legends (Volume One) (Fantasy Online Books 1 & 2) By Harmon Cooper Copyright © 2023 Harmon Cooper Copyright © 2023 Boycott Books Book One edited by George Hopkins Book Two and Jatla short story edited by Andi Marlowe Cover Art by Richard Sashigane Font by Shawn King Interior art by Sor Cooper Print design by Joshua Diles Audiobook produced by Soundbooth Theater and narrated by Jeff Hays www.harmoncooper.com All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Table of Contents Table of Contents Map of Hyperborea Map of Polynya Map of Ultima Thule A very important note from the author Book One - Hyperborea Prologue: Troll Battles Chapter 1: Tamana’s Great Leap of Faith Chapter 2: Home is Where the Killer Droid is Chapter 3: Digital Hallucinations Chapter 4: Goblin Security and Why You’re Better off Without it Chapter 5: Paradise of the Insane Chapter 6: Brotherly Love Chapter 7: Is this the Real Life, or is it ファンタシー? Chapter 8: Natty Dread Chapter 9: Dream Armor or Bust Chapter 10: The Thulean Chapter 11: Back to Life, Back to Reality Chapter 12: Hanging Coffins Chapter 13: Breakfast in the Sky Chapter 14: Cherry Blossom Ninjas Chapter 15: Game Changer Chapter 16: The Gun has no Trigger Chapter 17: Boaster Toaster Chapter 18: A Tendril of White Magic Chapter 19: Digital Memories Chapter 20: A Puppetless Puppetmaster Chapter 21: Rilakkuma Pancakes on the Fly Chapter 22: Dirty Dave’s Armor and Weapons Depot Chapter 23: Orc Zombie Battle Royal Chapter 24: An Egg for Another Day Chapter 25: Drop in, Drop out Chapter 26: Kaizen Chapter 27: Shogyo Mujo Chapter 28: Aramis Solid Waste Management and Abatement Service Chapter 29: Life in the Fast Lane Chapter 30: The Golden Door Epilogue: Brother’s Keeper Ryuk Matsuzaki’s Character Sheet Book Two - Polynya Chapter 1: A Digital Spider in the Land of the Rising Sun Chapter 2: Choose a Quest Chapter 3: Port of Corpses Chapter 4: Special Delivery Chapter 5: A Scar is a Success Story Chapter 6: Chalupa vs. Churro Chapter 7: The Bronze Crystal Super Package Chapter 8: Pink Salon Chapter 9: Relics ‘R’ Us Chapter 10: Someone’s Little Blow-up Doll Chapter 11: Surprise Attack Chapter 12: Wolf Trap Chapter 13: The Takeover Chapter 14: Extreme Vetting (For Fick’s Sake) Chapter 15: Doing Oric a Solid Chapter 16: Poisoned by a Seagull Chapter 17: The Empress Speaks Chapter 18: Cave --> in Chapter 19: Imp Melee Chapter 20: Mark of the Beast Chapter 21: Warm Hands Chapter 22: FeeTwix “Turncoat” Fajer Chapter 23: DJ Ride the Lightning Rides the Lightning Chapter 24: After Party Chapter 25: Mani-Pedi and a Royal Confession Chapter 26: Repetition is a Form of Change Chapter 27: Get Woke Chapter 28: Friends in High Places Chapter 29: House Call Ryuk Matsuzaki’s Character Sheet (Book Two) Jatla is not a Shithole Chapter 1: One Final Bet Chapter 2: Spew Gorge’s Knitting Club Chapter 3: The Boner Ointment Chapter 4: Funeral Potatoes and Hot AzzBalls Dragon Wings Chapter 5: Fright Knight at the Golden Swine Chapter 6: A Typical Jatla Parade Chapter 7: Botched Happy Ending Chapter 8: Three Courses to the Finish Line Back of the Book Map of Hyperborea Click to enlarge Map of Polynya Click to enlarge Map of Ultima Thule Click to enlarge “Continents, three, Float over the Endless Sea, Hyperborea, Polynya, and Ultima Thule.” --A famous Tritanian poem “Takha bae bitakh novlaa rakh Aya Bortaetae, Huborakha, Polonkhya, Hutamae Dulekh.” --Written in Romanized Thulean A very important note from the author The Fantasy Online series was originally published in 2017. I never wrote a fourth book because I got busy writing other things. This was a mistake. To correct this mistake, I am republishing Fantasy Online as Proxima Legends in two volumes, each with two books and bonus short stories with audio narrated by Jeff Hays, who has narrated all of my Proxima Galaxy books. Will there be more volumes? That’s up to you. This is one of those kinds of series, one that slipped under many radars, was definitely before its time, but warrants a second look. It is not a style I normally write in. If you’re coming to this from one of my series like Pilgrim, Cowboy Necromancer, War Priest, or The World According to Dragons… You have been warned. Proxima Legends is a LitRPG fantasy epic that touches on everything from cyberpunk to XP grinding, portal fantasy antics to humor. Yet it also tells a gripping story about a futuristic Japan, digital hallucinations, capitalism, gaming, streaming, Yakuza turf wars, and brotherly rivalries. It imagines a place where people play video games in shared neuronal dream spaces, ones where NPCs are as real as people from our world. Proxima Legends features characters from my other Proxima series including Monster Hunt NYC, The Last Warrior of Unigaea, The Feedback Loop, and Sacred Cat Island. I do not want to spoil it and say ‘Quantum Hughes appears in the second volume forward,’ but he does. There, I said it. But you don’t have to read any of these other works to enjoy this, nor do you need to know any of the characters because they only appear later on. You don’t need to have ever read my works to understand what’s going on here. All you need to be ready for is a story that can be sophomoric in the same chapter that it can be incredibly serious, one that will make you laugh out loud and keep you flipping through the pages as things take a turn for the worst for Ryuk and his guildmates. Expect gamer antics. Expect sudden narrative shifts from fighting bugbears to violent hyper-realism. Expect pop culture references and expect JRPG-inspired stats. In a single series you’ll find humor ranging from Rick and Morty to Southpark to Letterkenny at the same time you experience a gripping tale with real-life consequences. Expect