VirtuaVerse

Among hackers and those operating outside the law, older "retro" technologies like telephone modems and magnetic hard drives are prized because while the abandoned infrastructure to support this obsolete tech still exists, they are effectively "off the grid" and cannot be easily tracked, making them ideal tools for smuggling and piracy. The dominant form of entertainment is "augmented virtual reality" , a hybrid of augmented reality and virtual reality that allows users to perceive holographic projections that are used for a variety of purposes, including omnipresent advertisements and graffiti. A recent advancement in AVR is "permanent reality," a brain implant that allows people to interact with a worldwide, persistent AVR environment – the titular "VirtuaVerse" – that is administered by Xenon, an artificial intelligence housed aboard the International Space Station. While permanent reality is marketed as a way to "optimize the user experience," the game's protagonist, Nathan, a computer engineer and enthusiast for retro hardware, considers it to be a form of surveillance and an invasion of privacy, eschewing the implant in favor of an old-fashioned, over-the-ear AVR headset. The player takes control of Nathan and has to collect items, talk to NPCs, and solve puzzles in order to advance in the story. Later in the game, the player can toggle Nathan's AVR headset, which allows them to see the augmented virtual reality, revealing different hotspots in the game's world. The message warns that the VirtuaVerse is nothing more than a distraction and will eventually rob people of the ability to perceive reality outside of AVR, threatening the survival of humanity. The Technomancers offer their assistance to prevent this from happening, but registration for the BBS they use to communicate is closed, leaving the Blade unable to access it. The Blade devise a multi-part plan to disable the VirtuaVerse: contact the Technomancers in-person in the town of Satnajoskull and request their help; obtain a copy of the source code for the permanent reality chip's firmware in order to find a vulnerability in the VirtuaVerse and create a malware program to exploit it; use that exploit to seize control of every permanent reality chip on the planet and harness them into an enormous botnet that will flood Xenon with data in a distributed denial-of-service attack; and, while Xenon is distracted by the DDoS, board the ISS and shut him down. Nathan is selected to carry out these tasks because his lack of a permanent reality implant means that he will be difficult, if not impossible, for Xenon and the authorities to track. Nathan travels to the jungle settlement of Nuwaka to contact the Cypher Master, the reclusive programmer who created the permanent reality firmware. After learning that the Cypher Master has used technology to ascend to a higher plane of existence, Nathan eats a psychotropic fruit in order to commune with him. The Cypher Master informs Nathan that he no longer possesses the source code to the permanent reality firmware, having sold it in his youth to the company that created Xenon, but he secretly made a copy and arranged to have it hidden in a location unknown even to himself. By retracing the steps of a digital archaeologist who had earlier searched for the source code, Nathan is able to find and retrieve it. In Satnajoskull, Nathan meets with the Technomancers and shares the Blade's plan for the assault on Xenon.