The Warhog Paladins by Jer Patch

SPFBO10

Mia Lark is running out of options. Without a neural implant, she'll be shut out of the Corporate jobs on her home planet, but without the cash to pay for it, she's desperate to find a way in. There is one way to score that implant and pay it back later: the game planet Revivium. It sounds easy enough: enter the game, earn enough Bitz to cash out, and exit before the game finds a way to kill her. Once she's in-game, though, Mia realizes Revivium is anything but simple. A realm-wide quest is a great opportunity to score her Bitz and punch out, but she finds a magical artifact that links back to a forbidden quest line: the Helm of the dead leader of the Warhog Paladins. The helm's friendly AI, Hex, Leads Mia on an entirely different quest, to find the main guildhall where she can discover what became of the old Warhog Paladins--a quest that could get her killed in Revivium, where Game Over means death...