Soul Bound by Douglas Reay

Who'd want to be a hero?

Technology advances like juggernaut. Hard to steer, impossible to stop, and heedless of those it crushes. At least that's what it felt like to Nadine when competition from expert systems destroyed her career as a singer. It is 2045 and, like everyone else in her remote village, she does her best to forget things were ever better and concentrate on surviving year by year, month by month.

So when a group of pranksters that Nadine made friends with during her university days contact her out of the blue, and persuade her to start playing an online game which makes use of newly released immersive virtual reality technology, all she wants is to have a fun time together as they explore an alternative version of 17th century Venice full of stylish assassins and androgynous poets, noble vampires and venal nobles, socialist necromancers and prophetic nomads. If there's one thing she doesn't want, it's to put a big glowing target over her head by trying to be a hero. But...

Sometimes you don't get a choice.