The Earth has changed. War is now fought in an alien virtual reality—the Game—where many of the players are anything but human.
Now part of the Black Rose guild, Alan heads to the Academy to level up and get stronger. He hopes to make allies and learn skills to win the battles to come. But with everyone pursuing their own agendas, what can one gamer do in a universe he still doesn’t fully understand?
The enemy’s at the gate, the situation getting worse by the second... and Ruslan’s employer hasn’t done a good job (to put it mildly) of securing his successes. Now the star system Unatari is under threat from the Aliens. It’s high time Ruslan came back in order to rescue everything he holds dear from imminent destruction and save Perimeter Defense - the game that has become his life.
Twelve players set off through the online world of Galaktogon, lured by the game owners' promise of an enormous payoff. The question is, who will survive to tell the tale? Which of the twelve is a potential hero - or a traitor in the making? Which of them will defend the weak and who will become the ultimate evil overlord?
A knight or a coward? Each of the twelve will have to choose his or her path. Each will keep a poker face. But if the billion-pound prize calls your name, you can't conceal your choice. And you will do everything to lay your hands on it.
"To survive in this galaxy, you need a wand in one hand and a gun in the other.”
On a little-known planet, Archmage Varic Vallenar casts a grand spell to empower himself with the magical abilities of his alternate selves. The ritual works too well, granting Varic not only the magic but also the memories from six lives.
Including their gruesome deaths.
Now, Varic has power greater than any wizard in galactic history, but he knows that won’t be enough. The enemies he faced in those alternate lives were apocalyptic in scale. Terrors of technology and magic. Nothing that he, or anyone, can defeat.
Sun-eating extra-dimensional insects, shadowy secret organizations, genetically enhanced alien super-soldiers, ruthless megacorporations, and hordes of cyborg undead all lurk in the darkest corners of the galaxy, and Varic knows that any of them can become a world-ending threat at any moment.
All these are beyond any wizard, no matter how many spells he’s mastered or how many interstellar warships he’s rallied to his cause. Hopeless, Varic finds himself trying to preserve what little he can from the coming doom.
Until he hears rumors of a mythical starship, an invincible vessel of heroes made to do battle against galactic threats. A ship called The Last Horizon.
The countdown timer continues to tick, but Earth is still not ready to repel an invasion from space. Gnat is on his voyage with the Shiamiru, all the while trying to find backup for humanity among the great spacefaring races. After all, based on what he’s already seen, he knows not to count on the good sense of his own kind. Even facing an external threat, the people of our Earth cannot see past their internal squabbles and come together to fight as one. Gnat does not expect gratitude from his leaders for taking such matters into his own hands, but when have laws and rules ever stopped our intrepid hero before?!
Lots of broken bones, a dim-witted RPG system, and a dash of magic; Skeleton in Space.
Douglas is a simple summoned skeleton, formed from an old battlefield when some ancient fossil of a necromancer raised him for a nefarious purpose.
His memories are a bit foggy, but who cares about remembering when there is walking to be done! Or stabbing cows! Douglas loves life, the simple joy of doing repetitive tasks - like battering down a large tower door - is all that's needed to keep his clacking bones satisfied.
But just after he completed his most recent task, the wizard he was fighting took out a weird crystal… and now there are stars everywhere. Will the floating, freezing skeleton find out what happened? Or will that wrecked spaceship on a collision path be the last thing going through his empty skull?
Come join Douglas the magical skeleton as he tries to live a fulfilling life in a sci-fi universe!
After failing to take down the United World Government, Alan is a wanted fugitive on Earth. With nowhere else to go he leads the Black Rose guild into the Abyss Labyrinth. But hidden agendas thrive within the mercenary guild, and Alan soon discovers larger forces at play.
The Game is a war for survival, and a solo victory is virtually impossible—Alan needs to pick a side. But what does winning even mean in the Game? Will Alan be just another sacrificial pawn, or can he find a path to success?
Would you be prepared to work for free? How would you like to bust your hump for a large corporation 60-plus hours a week without a wage or a single day off for the vague promise of some mysterious perks in the distant future?
You'd refuse point blank, wouldn't you?
But what if the job in question was playing a state-of-the-art fantasy MMORPG game? And what if this was the only thing you're really good at? Especially considering that your in-game partner is someone really special to you - and this person already lives a virtual life?
Knowing all this, would you consider the mysterious future bonus worth your while? I dare you to try it!
Once a seasoned gamer, Max has cheated fate swapping his dying body for an immortal avatar in the world of sword and sorcery MMORPGs. He joins the ranks of a new race of people: perma players, forever stuck in the virtual castles and cities of AlterWorld. Now they have to obey the ever-changing rules of their new home while learning to live together in peace, love and justice.
But freedom and immortality are a poisoned chalice. Some of Max's new friends crave power, others become traitors and spies. Soon the first screams of pain fill the virtual world as its freshly-minted slavedrivers and torturers indulge in the absence of law and order. Their crimes provide a constant flow of gold back to their real-world controllers: the power-happy governments plotting to take over AlterWorld's magic technologies and limitless resources.
What would you do? Would you step aside and watch the magical world turn into the Earth's dark twin? Or are you strong enough to step in the virtual sharks' way?
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