Midway though a VIP sneak peak event for the most anticipated VRMMO of all time, something goes horribly wrong. A hostile takeover ends up trapping 998 of the world's best players inside the simulation. One player, however, manages to slip under the algorithm that trapped everyone in the game. Shelby Baker just so happened to be in the character creator, finishing up her 17th alt of the night. Truth be told, she hadn't even managed to get out of the tutorial zone on any of her characters, keeping her 'attunement' to the game lower than necessary to enthrall her. Now it's up to Shelby to make clever use of the game's systems and bind her alts together into a force powerful enough to free the others, foil the bad guys, and finally get to enjoy the game... if she can focus on one character that long.[Participant in the RoyalRoad April 2024 Writathon Challenge]

What to expect:

This is a 'trapped in a VRMMO' type story, inspired heavily by real world MMOs and the Shadeslinger series. This story features a ragtag group of heroes pit against overwhelming odds, powerful enemies, ruthless organizations, and overpowered raid bosses, but who slowly and surely making progress. The overall mood ranges from wholesome and light to occasionally having more cynical moments and themes. There are progression elements both within the games rules and by finding bugs, hacking the game, and cheating when possible. The main progression system focuses on trying many different classes, skills, and playstyles and exploiting synergies within game systems. I didn't mean for this to be particularly slow burn, but it is...

On a more 'meta' level, expect on-going edits. This is a Writathon story, so I am editing on the fly. There will be short to moderate chapter lengths, usually on the 1500-3000 words range.

This story contains profanity, virtual violence and death, and high stress situations.

Attribution: The cover is a modified image by Dragan Gazdik.