Post covid four and 500 million deaths, jobs were hard to find, even with a distinction in ethics. Jake left college, full of plans, but ended up working as a refuse collector, driving a boxy little garbage truck for 4 hours a day. A dead-end, make-work job from the government with no escape in sight. Then Jake discovered the plans for the latest expansion to the world's most popular on-line game, Shadow Realms in a pile of rubbish on the street. Rather than sell it, he returned it to the game's designer, Jozef Stapleton. Overcome with gratitude he offers Jake special access to the new expansion, DarkWorld, and Jake throws himself into the game. Unfortunately, the new game is only in beta state, and has a few problems, that Jake soon discovers.