Rising Fantasy: Online

One hundred million players. One year trapped. No way out but through. When a massive VR game becomes a death trap, every player on the EU server faces a brutal reality: die in the game, die in real life. The only escape is to clear it — floor by floor, boss by boss — and with one year gone, two thirds of the first floor's players are already dead. Max Veritas is not a hero. He's a 25-year-old father of twins who spent his first months laying low, waiting for someone else to fix things. But when the void in his heart grew bigger, he could not work a job and live a normal life. He started venturing outside the safe city walls and never looked back. On the upper floors, the race to clear the game is in full swing. Priam Castellan — first ranked, terrifyingly powerful, carrying humanity's hope like a burden — drives his guild forward while Salvation, led by a man who found everything he ever wanted inside the game, fights to stop them from ever leaving. Caught between them: Max's brother and his best friend, who don't yet know where Max is — and Max, who doesn't yet know they're up above. This is a progression fantasy about power earned the hard way, about exploration of multiple worlds and about the test that all players face, one in which they have to choose one of the answers to their predicament: Rise and fight the against the game, while risking your life, or stay in cities, work a job in a video game and wait for other players to do the work you. There might even be a third option for some people which is being content with the game world and living in it happily ever after. A fourth option exists for a special breed of players, who love the game worldnso much they will fight those who want to break out.