Daria Jackson hasn’t entered NeuroNet to play Challenge of Vircon since her tanking husband passed away. A newly single mom, she quit VR esports to develop biofarming hardware for deep space exploration.

For ten years Daria’s cheered her kids on as they fought their way up CoV leaderboards. While cleaning their VR cabinets, a forgotten login protocol drops her at level one in the game world she almost ruled. Strange glitches and odd throwbacks from her past hint at a ghost in the machine related to her family.

Daria’s weekend project is supposed to be writing a speech to present her Perpetual Biofarming Unit at Earthsplorer Command. But now she’s caught up in CoV, leveling up to unearth a mystery. Can Daria choose between the game and her real-world responsibilities?