CYBERLIFE

The Internet is territory. Go take a piece of it.

CYBERLIFE is an online hacking game played entirely through a terminal. There is one world, shared by every player, and it keeps running while you're away. You explore the network, break into the companies that live on it, and fight other operators for control of the routes.

You start alone, safe in your localhost. Outside, every hop exposes you. Your cargo can be intercepted, your accesses can burn, and the road home may already belong to someone else.

No quests

Nobody tells you where to go. You only see the networks plugged directly into yours, and you choose every hop.

You can pay for a fast but watched transit, or try a quiet peering without knowing where it leads. As you move, you survey the passages, spot who holds them and find shortcuts. Those surveys have value: keep them for yourself or sell them.

Break into companies

Every company has its own posture: exposed services, sloppy configurations, an internal network, working hours, surveillance. You look at what answers, spot what's wrong, and pick your way in.

Small companies have an open flaw. Big ones are locked, and you need a 0-day for their sector to get in. Those 0-days are built by players and sold on the market.

Once inside, you move from machine to machine. A key picked up today may open another company three days from now, so your keyring gains value over time.

There is no detection bar. Your actions leave traces. Some get you kicked out on the spot, others are only understood long after you're gone.

The theft only counts if you get out

Taking the data isn't enough, you have to bring it home.

You decide when to exfiltrate, by which route, and how much you risk at once. Until you're back at your localhost, your loot can still be taken. An operator who holds your passage can see you coming and wait for you.

Pick your class

A class gives no numbers. It is a trade, with its own commands. The game shows you all five, and you keep one.

Infiltration opens sealed machines with no key and no noise, and knows where the loot worth taking is.

Exfiltration brings up tunnels between networks and gets the heavy cargo out where anyone else would be intercepted.

Misdirection plants decoys, sends analysts the wrong way, and pins the job on someone else.

Erasure wipes its traces behind it and can go fast and loud. It's also the one who goes to destroy files at the Agency.

The Developer builds the tools, including the 0-days the four others come to buy.

Hold the crossroads

Routes are the real territory of the game.

Take control of an autonomous system to see what goes through it, tax the traffic or shut a door. A big network opens a large part of the world to you. A small, well-placed transit can be the only way to a target everyone wants.

You can open a route for a fee, close it in a rival's face, or lure someone into a corridor you control. But closing a door costs money, and everyone sees what you do.

It's also played together: form a crew by invitation and hold routes as a team.

The Agency is watching

Every job pinned on you fills a file at the Agency. Let it grow too big and a bounty lands on you, then a raid. You can pay another player to go destroy your file, or go yourself.

Sell what you know how to do

No levels, no stats. Your strength comes from your class, what you know, your accesses, your tools and the positions you hold.

The market is for placing orders between players: have heavy loot carried, have a file cleaned, have a 0-day forged. You can also sell accesses, sell your network surveys, fence loot, or charge for passage on your routes.

Big jobs build your reputation, but your habits fill a file against you. The bigger you get, the harder it is to stay quiet.

• One persistent online world, shared by every player
  
• A network discovered one hop at a time, no map handed to you
  
• Intrusion based on observation, never on typing speed
  
• Loot that stays up for grabs until it's back at your localhost
  
• Routes that players tax, close and fight over
  
• A market of player orders: carrying, cleaning, 0-days
  
• Five classes, each with its own commands
  
• No levels, no stats, no detection meter

CYBERLIFE is played on a keyboard, but typing fast is never a skill. No cybersecurity knowledge required: curiosity is enough.