NPC Carrow lives a simple life in the small town of Highspring. She talks to the other villagers, tends her shop, and generally enjoys the quiet pace of things in her home... well, quiet when there aren't any Adventurers around, anyway. The strange breed of people always bring chaos with them when they come to visit, but at least Carrow managed to make a tidy little living by buying and selling their wares. She's perfectly fine with the way things are, day after day after day being the same; she's never even thought about wanting anything more.

Until, one morning, something is different.

The Adventurers who appear seem to be having some problems, to start with, saying something Carrow doesn't understand about a "level reset" and "glitches". But that's the least of Carrow's problems, because when a dragon attacks Highspring and Carrow picks up a sword, a whole new world opens up to her. Suddenly, she isn't Trader Carrow any more--she's Adventurer Carrow, and she's about to be swept up into things she never even dreamed possible.

Unbeknownst to her, the virtual reality game Age of Acadia has just launched, bringing with it massive updates, including the AI that grants Carrow and other NPCs like her sentience--and a host of unexpected glitches that throw the players for a loop. Carrow and the player Adventurers she teams up with have to rely on each other to survive in a world where the lines between "player" and "NPC" suddenly aren't as clear-cut.

And for Carrow, this isn't a game at all--this is her life.