Volunteer 01001110 01101111 01100010 01101111 01100100 01111001 awoke in a strange reality with no name, no face, no gender, and no autobiographical memory. Through a brief orientation, a virtual assistant informed them that they were in The Collective, a digital utopia owned and operated by multinational technology conglomerate Reality Inc. As a ‘volunteer’ bound by an unbreakable contract, their sole purpose was to seek and eliminate ‘invasive entities’ - trespassing metaversal threats of unknown origin composed of foreign code.
Far from a utopia, the Volunteer found themself in a dense urban enclave of perpetual night known as The Commons, where the other Volunteers live segregated from the one-percenter Citizens for whom The Collective is intended, and who the Volunteers are called upon to protect. Meeting an eccentric and possibly glitching volunteer called Camel, the Volunteer received a crash course in bounty hunting the invasive entities that unsettlingly resemble horrific monsters from humanity’s varied mythologies.
Struggling through this violent and heavily monetized existence, the Volunteer gradually improved their equipment and skills through cryptocurrency earned from completing bounties and by repurposing fragments of foreign code generated by defeating and scavenging invasive fauna, flora, and other anomalies.
Initially labeled a ‘thieving magpie’ by fellow Volunteers but ultimately choosing to embrace the moniker, Volunteer 1001110 01101111 01100010 01101111 01100100 01111001 (alias Magpie) discovered several factions at work with competing aims. Beyond the bourgeois Citizens and unaffiliated Volunteers, there are:
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- ColSec: the internal security apparatus that monitors the metaverse, composed of Security bots, Polizei bots, and the formidable Surveillance, anti-Terrorism, Apprehension, Security, and Investigations (Stasi) bots.
- The Round Table: an elite group of bounty hunters that want to “Win the Game” by eliminating all invasive entities and fulfilling their contracts.
- Antisoc: a shadowy group of hackers (or terrorists?) that want to “Hack the Game” and overthrow the rigged System.
- The Serpents: a cult-like group with unsettling power and appetite that want to “Rule the Game” and forever transcend the boundaries of the metaverse.
Not knowing who to trust, and wanting to keep their options open, Magpie dabbled with completing various missions for the Round Table, Antisoc, and the Serpents, sometimes with deadly consequences. An ocean of possibilities lies ahead, but Magpie now finds themself in a dangerous situation with a ticking clock and hard choices to make.
If one thing has become clear, it is that not all is as it seems with The Collective. Will Magpie be able to recover their memories and their true identity? Will they ever be able to fulfill their contract, escape the metaverse, and return to whatever awaits them in the ‘real world?’ What exactly is the nature of this reality?