An NPC's Path

Virtual worlds promise boundless freedom — but a game is only a game if you can quit. After being murdered and trapped in the body of an undead NPC, John Doe is cursed to die over and over at the hands of other players. The only way out is the legendary Scroll of Rebirth. But first, a helpless plague-ridden corpse must become a real killing machine.

Trapped in his undead character's body, John's only hope remains the Scroll of Rebirth — but his chances are slim. As an undead outlaw with no friends and plenty of enemies, he must tread a razor's edge, relying on fickle allies whose true identities are never certain. In a game where assuming another person's identity is trivially easy, who can John really trust?

Months of full VR immersion have turned John's cumbersome walking corpse into a swift killing machine. He's earned the patronage of a Lord of Chaos and acquired his own crypt — but reaching the level 100 needed to escape his virtual prison still feels impossibly far away. Time has run out for playing by others' rules. John's new plan: earn all the remaining XP in one fell swoop by killing the terrible Lord of Decay himself.

Facing real-world threats from criminal overlords, John is coerced into rendering a service inside VR. But spook agencies play by far harsher rules — and for them, the absence of choice is no excuse. To earn his freedom, John must log in, become a necromancer, evade malefic hunters, pass an elimination test, and locate one specific person. The real question isn't how — it's why him?

Every game is only part of something much bigger. Human nature doesn't change, and people will always find ways to hurt others — even through a virtual world, with very real consequences. John Doe is a necromancer and guardian of the dead inside the game, but in reality a sleuth forced to follow a trail of clues. Worse still, his employers' interests extend well beyond the game itself.