In the future video games are played on the VirtNet, a virtual world which offers fully integrated mind and body immersion. Michael is a gamer and also a hacker--because it is more fun to break the game world's rules. When another hacker finds a way to hold people hostage inside the VirtNet, while their bodies slowly die in the real world, the government hires Michael to become their counter-hacker and figure out the hostage-taker's motives. However, to do that Michael will have to go off the VirtNet grid into a confusing maze of virtual underworlds, where the mind makes the body vulnerable. http://www.mackinvia.com/3387615 .

LEXILE 790 FIC. https://www.teachingbooks.net/qlryddx .