A gamer girl plays for her life.

There are seven stages of grief. Tatiana finds herself stuck in anger. Diagnosed with an inoperable, terminal brain cancer, she rails against fate as her choices get taken away one by one. Only two things prevent her from falling into the sixth stage – depression. The first is Grimdark Adventures Online, where she has two characters/avatars, one a brutal male Battle-Knight, the other a gorgeous Rogue. The second liberating thing: insurance.

When her real-life body dies, the insurance will allow her to escape extinction by paying for her upload into the game as a perma-player, ensuring that she will never reach the seventh stage – acceptance. She need only choose which character her consciousness will inhabit.

Perma-players can’t level up as quickly or easily as Players, so Tatiana spends her last days in the hospital playing the game, leveling up where she can and venting her rage in battle and mayhem.

When a demon in the game threatens to steal from her her final choices by permanently killing both of her characters, forcing her to upload as an unknown at Level 1, Tatiana knows desperation. She must either accede to the demon’s wishes by going on a quest, or meekly accept the unacceptable.

Backed by a flying dragon, she sends her Rogue character into the unknown to battle orcs, mages, and cannibalistic goblins. Determined to win through despite the odds, she refuses to accept any possibility other than victory. But, even should she win through, she can only hope that the demon will keep his word, freeing her to make her final choice before it gets made for her.

The game just got serious.

Bricklayer by day, Level 35 Battle-mage by night, Eddie Kilroy lives to play Realm of Battle as Killum, escaping the tedium of his job. Learning of a secret dungeon hidden in a vast swamp, Killum and his friends charge off to challenge it. After a grueling running battle with goblins, orcs, barbarians, and other fell creatures, they win through to the end. Only no treasure awaits the victors. Instead, they find an ordinary altar, but one which asks if they want to enter the Hidden Realms. Duh. Of course they do! Who doesn’t want to level up in the Game?

Big mistake. They can see no way back, no way to log out. Now, trapped in the Game, they face higher and more dreadful consequences – and all that with no certainty that they might ever return.