Bullied at school and home, Ash finds respite from his unhappy life in virtual reality games. One night, he spends his meager savings to help a stranger, who thanks him with a copy of an old fantasy game called The Glass Realm. While exploring the game, Ash meets a seemingly humble shopkeeper named Ruby. But from the start, Ruby seems different from the other townsfolk -- especially when she and Ash stumble across an in-game quest designed not for the player but for Ruby to solve. When Ruby begins developing powerful abilities that can rewrite the very code of the game, they realize she is far more than a preprogrammed side character. Following the quest left for her in The Glass Realm, the pair discover that Ruby is a sentient AI who's been hidden inside the game. Ruby's developer originally built her as a superweapon, then stole her from his employers and his her away, hoping to keep her safe. That safety vanishes when Ash and Ruby are targeted by the powerful shadow organization that funded her development. Caught in a deadly game that blurs the lines between real and virtual, Ash and Ruby must flee for their lives. If they lose this game, they just might doom the world.