For a typical twenty-something-year-old, life is an all-night party, where the possibilities are seemingly endless, and consequences for one's actions are rarely considered. However, for Marianne Huffman, who was thrust into guardianship over her fourteen-year-old sister, Callie, after their father found himself jailed for a DUI that took the life of an innocent family, the twenty-one-year-old now has to provide for her hotheaded sister. Marianne isn't a gamer, nor does she know what the heck a "Noob" is, but a door into the gaming world that would provide just enough to support her and her sister could be just what she needs to make a decent living. The creators of Emblem of Eridanus are seeking Beta Testers to test the latest VR space-opera game. A team-based MMORPG set in the infinity of space, Emblem of Eridanus is set to release next year, but a video game plagued with bugs and something... else... the team behind the game is desperate to figure out what's wrong before the higherups scrap the game entirely. Transported to a world beyond belief, Marianne takes on the role of a Medic, forms a team of ragtag newbies, and dives into Eridanus, where bonds of friendship form and a budding romance sweeps Marianne off her feet. Deep, in the far reaches of space, a stygian presence lurks, awakened by the merging of virtual reality and the real world. Nourishing itself with the essence of the gamers daring to enter the VR world, an entity of unknown origin slithers between worlds to birth an age of darkness.