Justin's parents told him playing video games would rot his brain. He never imagined they'd be right. Justin Schwartz is obsessed with ERDE. Short for Extremely Realistic Dungeon Exploration, ERDE is a popular fantasy roleplaying tabletop game which has been turned into computer RPGS, console games, movies, and books. OMEGA-DEGA’s latest iteration of the franchise is something tasty that’s been in the works for ten long years. Known as ERDE: Inside, it’s a massively multiplayer online virtual reality sandbox simulator, with a world that lives independently of its creators. In a highly publicized PR move, OMEGA-DEGA opens a contest for early beta participants. Justin, obsessed with the game, cheats the submission system and finagles a win. Unfortunately for him, someone else in the system—a hacker calling themselves Pnutxebra—has cottoned onto his trick and threatens the corporate execs at OMEGA-DEGA with a deal. Justin Schwartz goes in, but he doesn’t come out until he’s completed the Son of Schwarzvald questline. Otherwise, the whole decade worth of work done on the game gets flushed down the toilet and ERDE: Inside is lost forever.