Matthew Morgan used to be the best thief in the business. No lock was too hard to pick; no safe was too secure for him to crack. But when he was double-crossed by an associate and sent to the penitentiary, he didn’t just lose decades of his life… No, he lost the agility and quick reflexes that made him such a successful professional.
Now freshly out of prison, old Matthew has to find a way to survive in a world that has evolved without him. Robbing art galleries was all he knew, but if his mind is still sharp, his body is no longer what it used to be. So he tries to find an honest job, something to pay the rent and secure him some food, but who’s going to hire an ex-con? No option seems opened to him… That is until he learns about some virtual game called Federation Feud. According to an old acquaintance of his, there’s money to be made there for people with their kind of ‘expertise.’
Skeptical, Matthew gives it a go as all other venues seem closed for the time being. He figures he has nothing to lose, and so he joins the game as a rogue. The very first sessions leave him perplexed as, being a low-level character, he’s still limited in what he can do. But as he sticks with it and gains enough experience, he finds that his former occupation does give him an edge over other players.
Soon, he’s raiding dungeons solo, using his stealth to navigate the dangerous grounds and his lockpicking skills to unlock the treasure chests. Soon, he’s making real money…
But still, he needs to act fast. Whatever small cash he had left is dwindling fast. And with rent to pay and food to put on the table, he needs to up his game if he is to ensure his survival both in and outside the game.
My Opinion: 313 pages, $3.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
This is one of the most tedious stories I’ve read in a while. The main character (MC) kind of just wanders around the game world exploring, fighting monsters occasionally, and leveling up so that he can hit level 10 and unlock the ability to transfer game currency into real money. Unfortunately, with the exception of the occasional times he meets another player, the story itself is mostly described as a fantasy not as an MMO. Additionally, though game notifications are seen regularly, they don’t matter to the story and 90% of the time aren’t even acknowledged by the story or the MC. It really felt like most of the notifications were inserted after the story was already written. Another thing that just didn’t make sense was all the times the MC logged out of the game. It broke immersion, and served no purpose in the story.
Score: 5 out of 10