Cyber (The Game is Life Book 7)

## Cyber - Synopsis (Chapter Breakdown below this)

Loredana Cyber steps forward to claim her birthright and serve as CEO and leader of Cyber Incorporated but learns that Glen Dranton has convinced the board to leave him in charge.

Glen offers Loredana a generous yearly allowance and tells her that she will never run the company. Loredana walks out from the meeting and disappears.

Two years pass and Loredana has changed her name, rejected any money from Cyber Inc. and now works in a computer store as a salesperson. She makes friends with the computer repairman, Ivan Thorne. He reveals that he knows her secret and, after showing her that he has created the world’s first true virtual reality software, asks for her help in launching it. She agrees and they begin to work on a product.

Together, the two create and market, SOAR, a ten minute VR ride which allows people to experience flying. The ride is experienced by placing a piece of tape—called a ‘ticket’—on the back of the neck which facilitates entry into the vr simulation. After ten minutes, the experience is over and a new ticket must be purchased to ride again.

The cost is twenty dollars per ticket. Within six months, Loredana and Ivan generate a billion dollars in sales.

Glen Dranton learns of Loredana’s creation and believes that she will threaten Cyber Inc’s business but no one shares his fear.

Six months later his concerns are taken more seriously when Loredana buys a console company, redesigns the main product which is a console called the ‘Lava Unit’, and begins to give it away for free.  It does not take long for everyone to own a Lava unit. It replaces all consoles and also links wirelessly with every other nearby unit in effect creating a new and improved internet which people are able to use for free. The Lava console can also run VR games.

With phase one of their plan complete, Loredana and Ivan begin to introduce virtual reality games for the console and consumers snap the technology up like crazy.

Soon everyone is playing inside the virtual world that has been created. People no longer go to theme parks when they can visit better ones from their own home. People can also design their own vr games with a free tool and share them with others. Soon there are thousands of games for people to play.

Sensing that she could be a serious threat, Glen hires someone to kill Loredana. The attempt is foiled when she is saved by a mysterious man who can summon a doorway of light and wears gloves with 7 red pop bottle caps attached. Loredana believes that this is Cooper but that does not make sense. How could she have been saved by a fictional character from Shawn Whitehurst’s books?

Eventually, no one wants to spend time in the real world, opting instead to live inside the virtual reality simulation, which has been named, TRANSITION.

Loredana approaches Shawn Whitehurst and buys the theme park rights for his series, the Game is Life. Ivan, Loredana, and Shawn then work together to create a reality inside their virtual universe that exactly matches Shawn’s fictional world. It is one selection of what becomes tens of thousands of realities available to players inside Transition. People find the virtual world based on Shawn’s books boring, and none visit. Loredana does not seem upset about this.

Society begins to crumble. People refuse to work. Water, electricity, garbage removal—all aspects of normal life fall into decay as there is no one to make sure jobs are performed. The governments of the world attempt to force people out of Transition and back to work, but this leads to violence and revolt. The people demand access to their game world and there is nothing the government can do to stop them from going back in.

Loredana recovers every animatronic robot from Cyber Inc theme parks and we learn that they are more than robots placed around the parks to amuse people. Each unit contains the consciousness of a dead Cyber ancestor. Ivan finds a way to transfer Loredana’s father, grandfather, and the rest of her long dead family members into the vr world.

She keeps them locked in a zone that can not access any others, but they find a way to get out. They then begin to kill players inside the vr world, which also somehow kills them in real life.

A group calling themselves PURITY believe that Transition is dangerous and that vr addiction will destroy humanity if left unchecked. Members of Purity vow to never enter the game. As society shrinks, these people band together and form towns where they can be safe. The Lava consoles emit waves that pull people into the vr when they go to sleep, but Purity finds a way to protect their members from being sucked in against their will. Those not protected all get yanked into Loredana’s virtual world, though.

The ancestors plan to capture and control the gamers, but Loredana and Ivan manage to thwart their plans and transfer most of the innocent gamers to a hidden safe zone inside Transition. The zone can not be found or entered by the ancestors. The safe reality is the Game is Life book theme park that they created earlier.

The world population shrinks from 6 billion to 500 million. Purity is led by a man they call, The Light, but we know is Glen Dranton. Loredana reconciles with Glen and allows him to use a gigantic bunker that she created as his new stronghold (it can accommodate ten thousand people) and tasks him with filling it with people and keeping them safe on the real world. He assures her that he will.

Loredana then goes inside Transition to make certain that the majority of people are safe. Then she disappears.

At the end of the book, the world is decimated; reduced to a small population banded together to try and rebuild while avoiding the threat of being pulled into a vr prison should they go to sleep unprotected.

The thousands of game worlds inside Transition are sparsely populated by the few hundred thousand players who could not be saved by Loredana, and the ancestors hunt them down, using them for evil purposes while they work on finding the reality where the majority have been hidden so that they may acquire all the individuals for some purpose that we are unsure of at this point.

And billions of people safely exist inside the VR world in a zone that resembles their home reality from before Loredana introduced the game. None of the souls know that they are inside a vr program. They think that it is real life, and they live as they did at the beginning of the story.

Normal lives.

## Chapter Breakdown

Cyber

Glenn Dranton boots Loredana from taking control

Two years later - Loredana working at small computer company.

Ivan Thorne - reading an ebook, gives her a copy of the Game to read

Admits he is "working on something"

They have coffee, talk about book and VR.

Ivan says he has made VR product & will show her that night at his place

Loredana goes to Ivan's, learns what he's made.

Ivan dropping hints that he knows who she is, shows her the code, she can read it.

She thinks it looks boring, but not horrible

It's just a simple field in the code, but...true VR

Talk about authentic VR vs what's out now, he has programmed it all

Shows her Magic tape (proximity transmission tape)

10 minute duration on the tape

Offers her a ride

Loredana puts tape on & experiences the field

It is so real, she sees huge potential

Ivan admits he knows her identity, offers 50/50 partnership to build VR parks

Loredana is interested

Shawn is in a coffee shop writing, goes through his visualization issues

Visualizes theme park

Loredana gives misinformation to Cyber Inc lawyer

Sees actual The Game is Life book by George R Knight - only book in existance

Wonders if Ivan is from Book Thores but thinks not because 'e' at the end of his name

Evan reports to Glen - 4 months after the last chptr - Evan watching her

He tells Evan to keep an eye of her

He has more info than the 'pros'

Learns about Loredana's new project

Loredana introduces new Vr ride to influencers, they love it

Six months after release, Soar is the biggest thing out there, 8 billion $ earned

Ticket burns out after 10 minutes

Loredana meets Glen, says he knows she is @ 4B in sales now

Tells her he wants her back, she says get fucked, knows it was Glen that stabbed her

Glen tells waiter to go ahead and kill her

\*we learn Glen is responsible for her father's death\*

Yuri meets Glen, recap of board meeting, Park business is fine

Yuri says Soar is not competition, Glen disagrees

\*Soar is disappearing, no longer for sale, Glen questions why

Obsessed with Soar, Glen thinks she is coming after him & Cyber Inc

Yuri disagrees, thinks Glen is paranoid

Yuri tells Glen to leave her alone, Glen agrees to leave her be

Loredana says she will make something better - news blurb

Assassin makes a stab at Loredana, she is saved by Cooper

\*7 bottle caps

Loredana tells Ivan she might have been saved by Cooper

Ivan feels guilty

She agrees to have a body guard, and tells Ivan he needs one too

Shawn meets Ivan & Lore

Shawn is suspicious of Thorne, guesses the E

Lore offers to buy theme park rights for 10M, he accepts

Glen views what he thinks is VR - it is AR and he is not pleased

Years since Soar

Glen never played Soar, pissed they can't create VR

Think it will do well without any VR competition

\*learns the tickets were plain pieces of tape as far as they could tell\*

Moriko & Lore meet

Moriko and all animatronix people agree to leave Cyber, come work for her, 2M each

Yuri tells Glen Animatronix team left

Glen doesn't care - but he should as so much relies on their expertise

Upset they left to go work for Lore

He feels the hurt (Glen)

Says to get them back - can't lock it all down

Moriko delivers a ton of Animatronix to Lore, she is super happy they got them all

Lore is so happy to see Purple Fox - we do not know why

Loredana offers to buy Lava games - half their share for half price

Refuses to tell investors her plans

Says she would be hostile but is offering a good deal as the shares they hold onto will grow as the company grows

Loredana announces a new console - Magma Lava software leader

Ivan made the Magma - giving Magma free

Demand is impossible to keep up with but she is fine

15 new games in 6 months

Discusses VR & wants to make it last longer than 10 minutes - no problem

Explains why Soar was only 10 min - unlimited time means people wouldnt exit

Explains MMORPG vs Campaign

Addiction - Loredana wants to avoid that, Ivan says not possible

Magma replaces everything

Only the World-VR platform

People who want to be wired in need a Magma

Loredana offers Shawn a job consulting with park development

Magma was given away to get rid of all competition

They are all about to be very rich

\*They tell Shawn they saw Cooper\*

Loredana & Ivan in office

Ivan says he can not do what she wants and have sim kick people or time out

Will have to rely of people behaving

Magma units are so connected forming a constant network

Free will is important inside and out

\*No way to shut Magma grid down\*

Loredana shows Ivan the figures

She explains why a Cyber was to always be in charge - the characters contain essences of ancestors and that Clever Fox is her dad

Lore tells Ivan she wants to transfer them into this new VR world

Ivan, Shawn, Lore eat  - Ivan goes to work

Lore & Shawn talk - Shawn tells her the Thornes from Shadows are the same as the Game

Not much new info on Ivan - Shawn guesses he's an orphan

Both agree he is good - but dangerous re: VR

"Maybe i'm not writing the story, but instead seeing another reality and recounting that..."

Glen-Yuri - Glen has a Magma console, they discuss how good the unit is

Internet theory - the console has created a new network - faster, better

Glen says Loredana is now a competitor VR Park

Virtual world - old competitor failed (did not affect Cyber Inc business)

Glen is sure she is coming for Cyber Inc.

Heritage Project - Ivan has one large game map atm, plus private area for the Ancestors

Ancestors - original idea to let them go out of that zone

She is worried he  mess up and lose them

Henry Cyber - founder of Cyber Inc.

Code language for the Animatronix identical to Ivan's grid code to create the VR

He admits he got it from the Game is Life book (a code he saw in it)

Whoever wrote that book was more advanced than anyone now

Transition - name of VR Park

1,000 servers 100k/server 100 million players on day 1

He enters the game (Transition) for the first time Sylvia - his Spark

He goes through calibration to avatar set up, walk to  welcome centre.

He is Troy

"Games don't feel like this"

"They do now"

Ivan & Lore meeting with people, she says they have leverage against all - making the companies pay to work with them $10/month

420 Billion is where they currently sit

NPC issue - delete some - drain the system - many areas where no player is present

Mainframe? Ivan laughs - there is no Sylvia here, AI but not sentient, not that simple

Ivan has a plan to hire players to fill the roles in their spare time

Shawn comes out of the Transition

The Game comes to life in his "Park"

As large as Earth in the stories

Can keep ticket on without worrying about being sucked in

\*details sequence

Shawn disappointed his park isn't getting traffic, she isn't upset

Shawn wonders why bother to make the Park then

\*Carlita, a player get an invite to be an NPC in her spare time (Benito spark)

5days/week 4-6 hrs/day minimum

Quits her job as housekeeper for Cyber Inc. to work for Transition

Working as a 50 year old overweight maid wasn't that exciting anyway

Glen goes to meet with Yuri

Everyone surprised to see Glen

Yuri Stopped going to meeting when Glen stopped coming to work (7 weeks absent)

Glen been busy playing in Transition

Transition now a problem for Cyber - Glen says "I told you so"

Online for 3 months - Cyber losing all employees to Transition - she is killing the company from the ground up

Loredana is paying them to be in the game

1st time ever Cyber Inc has a loss

Troy sees zone he can't enter but wants to

New games added quickly - how?

His spark (Sylvia) tells him about unlocking ability to design/create new zones

"Dreamers" title

HOME - locked zone

\*\*Ivan ready - Loredana enters HOME

Her father is transferred in Reunion - Ancestral Castle

Troy - solid Silver Wall - exit

Troy enters a one - plays a game

Troy leaves Game area - re enter zone area

Main Consoles - check the stats

He unlocks Dreamer Perk/Title - not sure he will enjoy creating

Tingle fade

Ivan and Lore recording tv programs, bad news

Transition addiction begins to develop, employees not coming to work

Essential services suffer

New legislation being introduced sooner than later

Businesses doing better inside with businesses

Loredana concerned it will get out of hand

Phone call, reporter asks if she agrees Transition is a problem, she agrees, says she will help if asked

\*\*Quantum batteries power the Magma units\*\* lasts 3000 years

Akira (Jennifer) pulled from game by her mom. Told she is playing too much. Little brother - Derek - Jennifer is now getting Cs and Ds instead of A's at school

News announcement - President asks people to stop playing. Jennifer says "I would never come out, i would die in there"

Lore & Ivan meet with president. She asks how Loredana plans on fixing things. "you caused this problem" laughter. Loredana tells the president to ask for her help. Lore says she can kick everyone out of the game, but it won't go well.

President doesn't care.

Loredana kicks everyone out of Transition and says things are about to get much worse

Henry Cyber watches Oscar & Loredana

Banquet idea - Desdemona goes & introduces herself & invites her, she agrees

Having all the Cyber Alpha's so close together is becoming a problem

Des - 5'8", reddish brown eyes, black pixie hair, was the Pink Penguin - around almost as long as Henry

Lore accepts invitation

Stacey & Arnie workplace freakout...

Show how upset people are to be kicked out of Transition & forced to work - made me eat a D20

Cleaned the boards

Game Park portion is now to be hidden from players \*talk about what you can and cannot take away from people - transition never went off line - not about to

Money is not much use atm

Some countries are unaffected  - for now

Tells Shawn if he needs to go live inside Transition he will be wealthy there

Do you meditate? - Shawn says no

Mapped out? No

Loredana has an idea - thinks she met another character - Desdemona, Shawn not please to hear that name

2 months after forced shut down, people still refuse to work/riot/emergency services crippled

President goes to address the people & is assassinated because she is forcing people to not play

Desdemona & Henry - she is bored already, Henry tells her it's not so bad, they should enjoy it for a bit. Des is impatient to get out and explore other zones - wants permission to break out

Knowing trouble will follow her, he allows it

Remaining world leaders able to communicate contact Loredana & Ivan - learn that Glen is helping the new President (Johnston)

30 countries present - the rest not responding

Most failed

President tries to deliver terms

Loredana does not acknowledge causing this

Before Transition people werent happy at all

President tried to tell her the requests but she refuses to listen/do anything

President wants a 12 hr time limit on play

Power sim down? it doesn't power down, stayed live

Not possible to turn sim off, only control access

she refuses to limit play of any sort

39.  Purity

Loredana leaves the feast

Many do not possess Cyber name even though related - powerful people keep their names

Desdemona is the only Thorne

They hint at being bored, wanting to leave the zone

She knows their true goal - MENTIONED

Agrees not to tell her yet...

"When millions of players are trapped inside Transition" Henry will be happy

Jennifer disconnected again by her mom

Mother frightened because kids are now dying

She breaks the Magma unit

Billy learns what happened to Jennifer's Magma unit, he tells her so units are interlaced

Jennifer decides not to go back home

Troy designing a new zone, we see him making modifications

Grey clothes

Uploads new zone - dings

he reaches rank 10 across all servers, still unable to get home

42.  Shawn, Lore/Van

Shawn freaked out, Transition is taking over the world

Reading the Game gave then the idea for Transition...World is going to end

Lore isn't too worried, nature will correct itself

Shawn is worried that Lore is not as sweet as he thought "ducks make baby ducks"

The 1/4's - can display different qualities from the other 3/4, hopes she's not like the rest of her family - reveals that her family is from Shadows

No clue how he came up with them.

All of Loredana's ancestors from the Auto are founding members of the displaced

Hopes she is a 1/4 - not like the majority

Yuri surprised to see Glen present for their meeting

No corporation left untouched, the end of corporatocrasy

Power is shifting into Transition, Yuri will enter

Company will fold, Cyber Inc bankrupt

Yuri apologizes for not listening to Glen early on

\* \* \*

Billy contacted by Jennifer's mom looking for her, Billy knows where she might be, offers to take her

Takes her to a house - disgusting, filled with kids all playing, lined up unconscious

Game House - they find Jennifer - she is dead

Billions permanently plug in and die in real life

Server merge in real life - Survivors gather. Divide

Puritans - member of Purity searching

500 Million - for survivors who want to live

Dalton travels to towns to find survivors - a woman (Daisy) and her son join him - her husband is in the house too

Abandoned

Shawn enters the "silo compound"

20 levels, holds 10k people, keep alive 1k years, livestock, fruits & veggies, 10 levels restricted to the  3 only

Loredana says most people weren't living here anyway so why not Transition

Outside world not safe

Eventually they will go permanent to Transition

\* \* \*

Glen leaves his small house behind, joins Puritans, Dream park 121 hectares

Old Cyber Inc Park now a refuge

Guard recognizes Glen Dranton's name

"The Light" is their leader... Purity

Troy (Sylvia is his Spark)

He summons a white mist - steps into home

Tribunal of Sparks, Troy's idea for Sparks to form a Society

Henry & Desdemona - he never understood how people enjoyed the simple pleasures

Simple creatures - regular people - basic

"too much variety is bad for society"

Des is bored - they all are but held in this area

Henry doesn't want to force her (lose her)

Henry is impressed & proud of Loredana

Tells Desdemona she can search for a way out on her own

Henry glad she has retained her devious edge

She can't break out

\* \* \*

Troy meets Desdemona - she is surprised to see him here...her opportunity to escape - she befriends him

Loredana on an island reality (Spark) joined by Sean & Ivan

She says Henry & others want access to the rest of the place but doesn't want to wreck things

He says she has done that ... in real life

He says yes... people died, but they still exist

Is she a killer?? or a prophet

If she continues to refuse, the Displaced will be mad - cause trouble

Desdemona created the process for storing consciousness in the Animatronix

Shawn tells her to put them off & deal with Desdemona first - she will try

Troy opens a mist covered portal, stabilizes it for 20 hours

He takes her through & the rest come too

Ivan senses a problem - they go to command centre, see Troy & Des out of Home (dreamer), they panic  - into action to put her back

After the tour Desdemona knows how to get out of Home, about the Dreamers, and how to access the hubs

She gives him a gold chain with round gold medallion - she is unsure what the symbols on it mean

She leaves - the medallion glows

Smell of peppermint - his skin glows

He tries to shut portal but it won't close

Loredana, Ivan, & Shawn appear

Ivan can't close it either

"Why are you glowing?"

She anchored herself with the medallion

\* \* \*

The Displaced go through the portal once they exit, they can not re-enter the Portal...they are fine with that

"Everything we built...destroyed"

Glen is responsible for destroying Transition

Loredana ejects Troy - locked out for good - likely sent him to a place where he has no body...she says that's filling

Sparks

- most are not anything but citizens

- some remember being servants in Transition

- there has been a quest for power

- the purple god is powerful, but not able to create others of power - send some out, hoping one would learn/develop the talent. Sylvia has . . .

Loredana enters a game, forest & dirt path - it’s not what it should be - no weapons - no enemies, they see 1 life form - meets Henry feeding pigeons

33 days since they escaped - no attack yet, she says she knows about the displaced & what they have done

\*Henry hasn’t heard of the Displaced

- She knows what Shawn told her

- Henry admits he knows the Families & opposes them

- Invites her to join the family, details his plan - control the attention of every single person in the world, using entertainment to hook them  as children using fairytales & fun, next generation would bring their offspring & keep it building

- A nice setback - her being shut out of trad Cyber Inc.

- Attention = Focus

- Control of billions = Power

- Why - he will only show her if she joins him…or leave without knowing

Des - central gaming centre

- Centres prevent burnout…

- She meets a Dreamer - infects him

- 10% players are Dreamers

- Malcode kills dreamers and the zones they create

- Moves to infect another

the 3 meet at the compound

dreamers dead 300 million and increasing

Ivan says Malcode can't be stopped & most die permanently

Why just Dreamers?

Lore knows why - Dreamers are a threat to the Displaced

Tells about Henry meeting - she said no to joining them

She is guessing with more money you can spend {relisten to strat} on this

Control the focus and thoughts then you are safe

Not with Dreamers though - creativity is the enemy of control

Plus - the Displaced have taken control from Lore & Ivan

New Message from the New Light - Troy - Glen

"May you walk in the light"

the Light meets the 3 - we learn Glen is the Light & Troy they meet in Cyber Inc boardroom again

"Not where i wanted to be"

over 400 million Dreamers dead

Loredana saved him from death

Billion+ on this planet

Idea that will strand them in Transition - she leaves Glen in charge

Tape-Placebo-Focus Pt

Breathing + Focus were all that was needed to enter

Spread message - no way to enter to minimize future generations from going in

Magma units - batteries will last 3000 years

If the 3 can't beat the Displaced why go in? They have to try

Henry hates all the zones - will consolidate down to 10

Henry still wants to bring Loredana into the Family

He wants to talk to Shawn

Kill Ivan

The 3 wait in line at a centre

Last dreamers will die within an hour

Each pick a game to play

Get ready and go in

They discuss the scope of what might exist - staggering

As Loredana went in her father Oscar watched from another line

Tanya playing game (Crystal sparx)

Finishes the Game - gets high score, wakes up in her bedroom

This is Jennifer not dead - with her family in the Game...

\* \* \*

Loredana visits with the old Man feeding pigeons

"We did it then?" he says she did

Seems she know the old Man

All players left their games to enter the Game theme park

\*Shawn doesn't remember anything

Ivan - gone

"there's nothing for you in this world" gives her 3 pop bottle caps