Cyberlife

The Internet is territory. Take a piece of it.

CYBERLIFE is an online hacking game played entirely in a terminal. There is only one world, shared by every player, and it keeps running while you are 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. Out there, every hop exposes you. Your cargo can be intercepted, your access 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 fast but watched transit, or try a quiet peering link without knowing where it leads. As you move, you survey the links, spot who holds them and find shortcuts. Those surveys are worth something: keep them to yourself or sell them.

Break into companies

Every company has its own posture: exposed services, sloppy configurations, internal network, office hours, monitoring. You look at what answers, spot what is wrong, and choose 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 you pick up today might open another company three days from now, so your keyring gains value over time.

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

A theft only counts if you get out

Taking the data is not enough. You have to bring it home.

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

Pick your class

A class does not give you numbers. It is a trade, with its own commands. The game shows you all five, and you keep one.

Infiltration opens sealed machines without a key and without noise, and knows where the loot worth taking is.

Exfiltration builds tunnels between networks and moves the big haul where anyone else would get intercepted.

Misdirection sets decoys, leads analysts astray and pins the blame on someone else.

Erasure wipes its traces behind it and can go fast and loud. It is also the class that destroys files at the Agency.

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

Hold the crossroads

Routes are the real territory of the game.

Take control of an autonomous system to see what crosses it, tax the traffic or close a door. A big network opens up a large part of the world. 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 to a rival, or lure someone into a corridor you control. But a closed route earns nothing, and everyone sees what you do.

It also plays as a group: build an invite-only crew and hold routes together.

The Agency is watching

Every job pinned on you adds to your file at the Agency. Let it grow too big and a bounty lands on you, then a raid. You can pay an Erasure player to destroy your file, or go yourself if that is your trade.

Sell what you are good at

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

The market is where players place orders for each other: get a heavy haul carried, get a file cleaned, get a 0-day forged. Clients of the world place orders too. So there is work even when few players are online. You can also sell access, sell your network surveys, fence loot, or charge a toll 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 you discover one hop at a time, with no map handed to you
  
• Intrusion based on observation, never on typing speed
  
• Loot that can still be taken until it is back at localhost
  
• Routes that players tax, close and fight over
  
• A market of orders between players and clients of the world: hauling, cleaning, 0-days
  
• Five classes, each with its own commands
  
• No levels, no stats, no detection meter

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