The Butcher of Gadobhra

Butcher of Gadobhra, Volumes 1,2 and 3 are available on Amazon and Audible. Volume 4 will be leaving RR in the latter months of 2026. (Amazon Rules, not by my choice. Amazon pays the bills, and I still have two girls in college.)

https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B0FFT9SDHJ?maas=&ref=

In the dystopian world of the future, life is rough when you live at the bottom. Jobs are nonexistent. Far too many people live in poverty, crammed into huge buildings called Habitats. With no jobs in the real world, many people can only find work online in VR worlds as servants to the very rich. And it's getting worse. The old internet is unusable and hacked to pieces. The new system needs AI to run things, but all but one of them were destroyed. The last sentient AI is ordered to create a new game world so the rich can have a playground and the corporations that rule the world can have a new global marketplace. 

Everyone wants a piece of the new game. The guilds are competing to be the first to find the dungeons and kill the biggest monster. The corporations are claiming land and building their online marketplaces. Ozzy and his friends just want a paycheck.

Four friends sign five-year contracts as virtual serfs in a small village, and can't go adventuring at all to gain money. They don't have many choices. They can work as a blacksmith, barmaid, and shepherd for all those years....or they can cheat and find ways to take advantage of the system and carve out a section of the game world for themselves, and earn a fortune in the real world.

When they give you a mop and not a sword, you have to find the loopholes and change the rules.