Locked away in a padded room, Gambit watches as the world goes to hell. Blood rains from the sky. Screams echo through the city. Monsters tear through reality. The world transforms overnight into the GREAT GAME, an apocalyptic battleground where monsters hunt, dungeons materialize, and the System destroys everything humanity once knew. All for the entertainment of the unseen audience.

The climb through the ranks often ends with a knife in the back. Slum-dwelling orphan Garrett Walker scrounges for scraps in the wildlands beyond the walls that guard society, salvaging valuables from the ruins of fallen civilization. Offered the opportunity to compete in the Warden Academy entrance trials, Garrett seizes the chance for a better life. However, the academy holds dangers a street rat is ill-equipped to handle and he’ll have to grow stronger while relying on his wits to survive.

Betrayed by his former gang and thrown into the Rendhold Underprison, Dantes has spent the last five years scraping by. A bastard of human, orcish, and elvish blood, he's lived on the periphery of the periphery, lying, cheating, and stealing to survive.

Orcs and elves come streaming out of portals. People lose their grip and are transformed into afflicted. If this is a zombie apocalypse, it's a pretty weird one. The rules are simple: kill an orc or anything else—gain life energy, reducing your chances of becoming a walking corpse. But fail—and become a zombie, AKA an afflicted.

Qing Baker thought he had problems. A dead-end job, mounting bills, and a sick younger sister. Then he wakes up in a world where magic is real, monsters are hungry, and the only way home is to level up. Thrust into Elrydisan, a realm of swords and sorcery, Qing must quickly adapt to his new reality. No tutorials. No respawns. Every fight is a struggle for survival, and death is a one-way ticket to becoming the enemy.