(Book 1 is complete! Releasing chapters at least every weekday/ 5 x per week!) Rick Prophet is going nowhere fast, watching his simple dreams of financial stability and starting a family recede further into the distance with every passing week he’s stuck running courier jobs for his shady boss, Hector. When Hector’s top fighter pulls out of a Simulated Reality (SR) tournament match with a lot of money riding on the outcome, he offers Rick a chance to fight in the SR game Ruckus Online. But Rick has more than one dark secret. Will his past prevent him from even competing—let alone winning?  Can he overcome what’s been done to him and rise above his previous mistakes? And what about his mysterious trainer, or the enigmatic AI assisting him in exchange for who-knows-what? Can either of them be trusted when his chips are down? It’s not enough to be a fighter. Can Rick master the game, collecting and assembling the right combination of stat boosts and skills from defeated opponents to make his avatar unbeatable? It’s a game of survival, and his future is at stake. If Rick wants to win, he needs to know when to cooperate, when to retreat… And When to Fight.