Online Fiction

In the bleak, not-too-distant future, most people who could fled to the virtual reality OVR World Online. Zachary "Zee" Jones will never be able to afford to become a player of the game. After committing a crime in order to save his mother's life, he was arrested and included in the Inmate Player Program. Even without perception filters to limit his pain, it was better than the alternative. He has the opportunity to earn more money in a five-year sentence then he could have in his entire life as a hospital janitor.

It's real. All of it. A realm of blasters, spaceships, and magic. A universe where people really can increase in skill and power, becoming so much more than they once were. All it takes is the locked potential of every foe you slay, their stories becoming your own. Yet there is horror as well as wonder in this magical realm, and when Val locks gazes with a beautiful girl moments away from death, he comes face-to-face with a lost tribe of people long thought extinct.

Aranos destroyed a Nightmare Beast and wounded a god. The Darkness cannot let his actions stand. Armies are marching, and the lands of the Light are scattered, disorganized, and unprepared for the battles to come. Cities lay under a pall of Corruption, their leaders serving the Darkness while pretending to follow the Light. It's up to Aranos to unite the lands and forge their armies into a force that can withstand the Darkness. To do that, though, he'll have to face hidden enemies, battle the rulers of nations, and convince the people of the Light to march under his banner.

Dahlia muss die Rechnungen ihres toten Vaters begleichen oder ihr Leben in den Lithiumminen riskieren. Und das...nein danke. Außerdem wird die Welt von der Technik regiert, und die Gamerin ist fest entschlossen, die virtuelle Welt, von der ihr Vater so besessen war, zu erkunden und dabei reich zu werden.

Classic movie buff Bailey "Mink" Rydell has spent months crushing on a witty film geek she only knows online by "Alex". Two coasts separate the teens until Bailey moves in with her dad, who lives in the same California surfing town as her online crush. Faced with doubts (what if he's a creep in real life - or worse?), Bailey doesn't tell Alex she's moved to his hometown. Or that she's landed a job at the local tourist-trap museum. Or that she's being heckled daily by the irritatingly hot museum security guard, Porter Roth - a.k.a. her new arch-nemesis.

The slippery online ecosystem is the perfect breeding ground for identities: true, false, and in between. The Internet shorthand IRL - "in real life" - now seems naïve. We no longer question the reality of online experiences but the reality of selfhood in the digital age. In The Secret Life, the essayist and novelist Andrew O'Hagan issues three bulletins from the porous border between cyberspace and IRL.

Eddie Hunter's pretty happy with his stay in Light Online so far. Even with a major raid coming up, he's still making progress on getting his castle built. His business ventures in the game are performing admirably, and the testing he's been doing has recently been going quite well. With other settlements to create, a forest elf town to find, a settlement quest still to finish, and the king's quest beyond that, Eddie's staying busy. Unfortunately the NPCs in the game are far too much like real people, so treachery and backstabbing are also within their grasp.

Lucas "Luke" Patterson, an ordinary geeky college student, gets a summer job at Vortex Industries. His summer job is to test a new virtual reality game using the Vortex Capsule, a machine capable of fully immersing you into virtual reality. His first session is life-changing, and he quickly becomes engrossed in a new fantasy world. Things are going great until a rogue hacking group attacks the servers that host the game, trapping all the players inside.

Laid-off teacher Olivia Crawford feels lost without the everyday, personal interactions with her students. Attracted by the salary and the potential for a career change, she considers an offer to become a beta player for a new Jane Austen virtual world within the VR universe of Allworld Online. Swallowing her fear, she accepts the position…and the invasive neural implant that will give her access to the virtual realm.

Magic is dying in the land of Valka. With only two virus nodes remaining, dragons have emerged in great numbers to spread corruption to every corner of Beta. With no allies left, Illume is forced to return to Valka. He plans to call in every favor, summon every ally. The Cryomancer will bring every ounce of strength to the distant shores.

Bye-bye is back! Just a week since the 1st Dive came to an end, Bye-bye and his friends find themselves in Root City, a city built up around the World Tree itself. This sprawling metropolis is filled with potential and danger in equal measure. Barely logged in and just starting to put plans in place for the month-long dive into the World Tree Online, they are quickly entangled in a quest with far-reaching consequences, should they fail. They are also in charge of ensuring Duchess of Hammerton survives the next week to make it home.

Log-in or die. Those are the only choices left for Clay Hopewell. Infected with the ZERO virus, he has less than 24 hours before he bites the dust. With no cure available, there's only one option left: digitally reincarnate himself in the most advanced virtual reality game ever, the mysterious and newly released Arcane Kingdom Online. But cheating death and gaining immortality isn't that easy. If Clay survives the risky cognitive upload process, he'll still have to contend with a fantasy world teetering on the brink of crisis.

The car crash was the last thing I remembered...then I woke up here. Where "here" was felt like an impossible nightmare. I died, but this wasn't what I'd expected to find when they said I'd meet my maker. The afterlife is just like a video game, except I didn't start in a noob world like everybody else. I started out on one of the most challenging dungeon worlds meant only for ancient souls who've been dead much longer than I have.... Welcome to Epoc.

At 43, I’m supposed to have everything figured out, and if you’d asked me six months ago, I’d have said I did: head of my own tech company, beautiful fiancée, amazing future all planned out...life was perfect. Or, at least, I thought it was. So now I’m in New York after selling my company and fleeing San Jose, and for the first time in as long as I can remember, I have nothing to fill my day - no meetings, no reports, no launch parties - and that’s how I manage to get hooked on Warpath 4 and somehow find myself sexting with a guy almost 20 years younger than me.

Recently deceased and squishy as hell, Alan, a newly minted Illusionist, is forced to flee for his life. He needs time to deal with his loss, both in-game and IRL, but first he'll have to escape his crazy ex, the treacherous Firebrand, Thalia Daceran. On his way to safety and revenge, he'll team up with Titus, the Imperial spymaster, as well as a crew of pirates, commandos, and even a shapeshifting Mimic with a taste for blood. His path leads to Wyrdtide, a gaslit city hidden in mists and governed by dark demigods. But even with Alan dead, the world marches on.

Illusionist and novice spy Alan Campbell just got out of one relationship only to have another woman walk into his life: the Lady Camilla Favonius of the Imperial Inquisition. He's close to broke and left without orders. She wears plate armor in the field and around her heart. Is the lady just what the Plague Doctor ordered, or will his efforts to get a job and woo her only leave him jaded...or dead?

Alex can’t wait to dive into the latest cutting-edge VRMMORPG: Dungeon Core Online. It boasts an ever-changing, ever-growing dungeon with an AI so advanced, it feels practically human. Funny huh? Forming a two-man dungeon party with his best friend, Fel, Alex is keen to sample everything DCO has to offer. From delicious fried Dicken to a fiery whiskey brewed from demonic corn, the friends eat and drink their way through the chaos that is DCO. Gaming is supposed to be fun after all, and leveling is always a little better when you’re tipsy right?

After breaking his arm during the first try-out of last season, Robby is determined to make the football team this year. Even if he does make the team, he's not sure he'll have the skills necessary to lead the team to victory.

The wait is over! Welcome to the Pacchi Festival! As Shinshioka launches into the much-awaited week-long event, Seiki and his friends race to solve the mystery of the recent treasures from the Shussebora Cave. Having gone against what appears to be the most powerful clan in the game, they now try their best to balance progression with just the right amount of politics to keep everyone out of trouble. However, amid the dazzling allure of the activity-filled festival, with its own promise of lucrative rewards, danger lurks in many forms....

With a new class unlocked, Clay has been chosen to compete in the infamous Solmini Summoner Tournament. No big deal, barring the mortality rate for contestants. The plan is simple: compete, survive, and find allies in the growing conflict across Illyria. But with warring factions and political intrigue dominating the desert capital, one false move could spell disaster for Clay and his friends. Let the trials begin.