Sentenced to Life

Framed cop Russell Logan is offered a chance to serve his time inside Virtua, a digital fantasy world built by a quantum AI called MOTHER. But MOTHER has plans for him: she needs Logan to protect her people from the real-world invasion she knows is coming. It won't take long for him to see that this isn't a game — and the consequence of failure is death.

The AIs running Virtua have convinced Russell that their world is real — he's gotten married and adopted a little girl. In return, all they want is for him to protect their people from the gamers about to descend on their unsuspecting world. As Paladin of the Mother, Russell begins to rebuild the Rosarian Order while leveling his powers, training his forces, and surviving his first dungeon run before Ex-Terra opens the game.

Now Lord General of the Rosarian Knights, Russell Logan must travel across the gaming continent to accept ownership of the defeated Gresso's hold and everything in it. After battling monsters and gamers all across the continent, he must decide the fate of every vassal who once pledged loyalty to the great thullish captain — and Thullish law allows only three choices: service, slavery, or death.