Valerie Kellsie’s report card reads: Does not play well with others.
Val’s life has taught her to trust no one. Both at work (for a RPG game developer) and at play in her favourite VRRPG game, she takes the loner’s path. She relieves the anger and frustration her job causes by slaying Orcs, Goblins, and (most delightfully) other Players who underestimate her elf-maid avatar.
Given the chance to beta-test “Forbidden Fantasy Questâ€, a brand new VRMMORPG where – according to rumours – one can do ANYTHING that’s possible in real life, Val jumps in with both feet. Perhaps she should have read the manual first.
A combination of FFQ’s unexpected challenges, stress brought on by a corporate merger, and the tripping of a landmine left over from her past has Val scrambling desperately to avoid losing everything. Fighting for survival, she uses every weapon and everyone she can to hold back the flood. Only with allies can she hope to win in either realm, but she has alienated practically everyone she knows in both worlds. Unless she can overcome her past to forge a new future, life as she knows it will end – and not well.