Crafter

Stan can't afford to have his brain removed. The richest and luckiest players of Thousand Tales get their minds uploaded to its virtual paradise, while Stan can barely buy a handheld console. Instead of sulking, he plays and grows — becoming a skilled craftsman and seafaring explorer. The game's ruling AI, Ludo, helps him find the hope and inspiration missing from his real life. When Ludo starts asking for favors and having him bridge the real and digital worlds, Stan has a chance to turn his life into an actual adventure — but first he must earn his freedom.

Stan has fled a collective farm to live on Castor, a floating island colony of the Free State of Cuba. His new boss is Ludo, the artificial intelligence who runs Thousand Tales — a game that sells entertainment to the masses and digital immortality to the elite. Now Stan is one of her corporate empire's official minions. He has a new life ahead. Will he be a reclusive gamer, a cultist of an AI goddess? Or will the three brilliant women he meets help him become something more?