Book excerpt: You'll never become the main villain if you're not willing to die a bunch as the hero. Arnold O'Connor is a gamer who just lost his office job to AI. Short on cash, he can appreciate the irony of taking a job at an indie gaming company looking to train their monster AI. But Anachronism Interactive isn't looking for just any players to copy from, they're interested in hardcore gamers. After being run through a series of psychological tests while hooked up to a brain scanner, Arnold finally gets a chance to check out the game these scientists have been making. Already questioning his sense of reality after all the mind games and brain twisters, Arnold finds himself immersed in a world that's both utterly real and disconcertingly incomplete. As each iteration of the company's flagship game releases, Arnold is drawn farther and farther into the alternate reality. And as the game world becomes more real, the real world begins to fade away entirely. His only hope of escape lies in ultimate victory. Pixelate is a LitRPG fantasy series that follows the adventures of Arnold O'Connor as his digital self, delving into the secrets of a world that feels as real as his own body. The Pixelate series will appeal to fans of classic JRPGs, World of Warcraft, and Lord of the Rings Online. It touches on themes of self and reality, style vs. stats, and how to kill dragons through the superior application of math.