National Security Incident: Alternis Season 1, Episode 1

The battlefield has gone digital. And national survival could be one combo move away.
Game designer Tandy Kahananui has been developing Alternis for nearly a decade, perfecting its monsters and dungeons. But she never imagined her game would be co-opted as the basis for an ambitious top-secret project to keep the world from plunging into war, where nations compete digitally for real-world resources. Team USA has been consistently losing, and the government needs a secret weapon to help them climb the leaderboard. When Tandy is conscripted into playing a key role and fighting for the future of her country, she quickly realizes she is in way over her head...and not everybody is playing by the rules. Can she help Team USA hold its own? Can she even survive?
This is episode 1 of 10 in Alternis, a serialized novel by Andrea Phillips, Maurice Broaddus, Jacqueline Koyanagi, E.C. Myers.