Light Online

Eddie Hunter is about at the end of his rope, so when he stumbles across an ad looking for people to farm in Long Term Immersion in the game Light Online, he can't believe his luck. Once hired he enters the game as soon as he can. Unbeknownst to him, though, the person that hired him is also doing illicit research on the pods that he and the other farmers are using. The research is rapidly discovered by the AIs that monitor the game and shut down, forcefully, by the company that runs Light Online. But the code that runs those pods has been altered, and until it's fixed Eddie and the others can't log out. Although the devs assure him that it won't take long to fix, Eddie's not so sure of that himself. Eddie entered the game to make money in real life, and as he tries to do that he finds himself getting entangled deeper and deeper in the game and with the people he meets there. But when he discovers a side of the game that the previous players had apparently never even considered, he knows he has to find a way to stay in the game.

Eddie Hunter isn't stuck in the game Light Online, but if he wants to keep his job, he needs to stay there. It's not a hardship for him as he increasingly believes that his in-game life is far preferable to his out of game life. Working on a hidden development quest that he discovered by accident has him becoming more and more entrepreneurial even while running his own inn, but between him and his party, the Meadowlands is rapidly developing. The goblins from the Forest of Fools have noticed the Meadowlands growing stronger as well, and start attacking out of the forest. They seem to be growing stronger as the Meadowlands do. The Meadowlands themselves are changing also, offering more challenges and rewards, as Eddie completes more of his quests. Eddie finally decides that he can't keep everything going on his own. Between running an inn, building the things necessary for his quest, adventuring, and more, he's getting to the point where important things are slipping his mind. When a dungeon is discovered in the Meadowlands, where there was never one before, he gives in and relegates himself to an assistant in running his own inn so that he and his party can test themselves against it in an attempt to grow their own power levels.

Eddie Hunter has discovered that he loves building. Creating things with his own hands satisfies him. Fortunately his job in the game Light Online allows for that. It also requires that he do all the other things the rest of the players in the game do, so he can't just build. Balancing his time between adventuring and building would be easy, if it didn't seem like there were always twenty-seven more things he felt he should be doing at the same time. To make matters worse, there's good evidence supporting a fellow player's theory that Eddie's efforts to increase the settlement level of the Meadowlands cause the game to add new content in the area. So now Eddie has even more things to add to what he's already doing.

Eddie Hunter just wants to keep building his settlement, but somehow there's always something in the way. His good ties with Freyja have made him a target for one of the other AIs in the game. One of the other less savory AIs, who isn't too picky about how he expresses his displeasure. On defense against the opponents being hurled at him, the support of his party and the other adventurers in the area is critical, and beyond his expectations. But even in the midst of the attacks he still manages to continue building, which is lucky since his current building project is the defensive walls of the castle he intends to create.

Eddie Hunter's pretty happy with his stay in Light Online so far. Even with a major raid coming up, he's still making progress on getting his castle built. His business ventures in the game are performing admirably and the testing he's been doing has recently been going quite well. With other settlements to create, a forest elf town to find, a settlement quest still to finish, and the king's quest beyond that, Eddie's staying busy. Unfortunately the NPCs in the game are far too much like real people, so treachery and backstabbing are also within their grasp.