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Devon Walker has one chance to turn her life around.

A half-wit ogre, a legion of overgrown jungle beasts, and a power-tripping AI are trying to stop her.

Relic Online is the hottest new game out there, and it's Devon Walker's best hope for escaping her hard-knock life. Thanks to her rocking achievements in other games, she's been hired as a salaried player. Even better, her new position comes with cutting-edge implants that turn RO's virtual reality into a full sensory explosion. Her only task? Drive the game's creator AI to the outermost limits of its creativity.

Sounds easy, right?

But when Devon logs in, her expectations shatter like an ice golem hit with a sonic blast. Wearing nothing but a cloth tunic and ragged pants, she spawns inside a ruined city overgrown by steamy jungle. With zero skills and nothing in her inventory but pocket lint, she immediately runs afoul of the city's guardian, a stone golem the size of an apartment building. The encounter does not go well.

And Relic Online is just getting started with her.

A giant telepathic parrot with a rather foul mouth, a horde of smelly goblins, and a tyrannical demon priestess...

Welcome to Devon Walker's "new normal."

During her first weeks in the deeply immersive VR game, Relic Online, she's hacked out a home from a choking jungle, gathered a tribe of loyal followers, and earned a wisp stalker who insists she's some kind of champion.

But Relic Online isn't some wussy kids' game, and there will be no easy-street cruising for Devon. Like a monk racking up combo points, the system opens a fresh offensive by crippling her most powerful ability. Following through, it strangles the village food supply, sends demons bursting through rifts in the earth, and delivers a final, devastating throat punch by exploiting Devon's worst fear.

The players have discovered Devon's home. Now everything changes.

Devon has faced off with half-mad zombie frogmen, a demon war priestess, and a thousand-year-old curse.

But can she survive another attempt to cook dinner?

You know, sometimes it would be nice to catch a break. Devon, a professional gamer, has a settlement to grow into a city, a character she'd love to focus on leveling, and some kitchen cabinets that really need restocking.

Unfortunately, the fate of the Relic Online game world is at stake, torn asunder by battling creator AIs. Demons rise through planar rifts, rampaging across the physical realm. The ancient city of Ishildar holds power that might turn the tide. If only Devon, the brave heroine chosen as the city's champion, could finish her epic quest line to gain control of the place.

The in-game events would be challenge enough if she weren't confronted with disasters in the real world. After a horrifying mountain bike crash, Devon's friend, Tamara, needs her support. Emerson, a programmer from the gaming company, can't unravel the troubling actions of the demonic AI, Zaa, without Devon's help.

And yeah, there's the little problem of a raid force of players coming to demolish Stonehaven, the only true home Devon has ever known.

No problem, right?