In the first half of the next century, a band of warriors is raised from infancy in ignorance of the real world. Instead, they live in a virtual-reality environment of endless battle; they all become superb soldiers. Life is good for them, with continual challenges and no pain, an endless series of adventures demanding clever ploys, fast-moving conflicts, and intuitive and original strategies. They live from triumph to triumph.But as war breaks out in the real world between Japan and China, the puppet masters who control their lives tighten the leash: their virtual scenarios become maps of reality, and their strategies are acted out by real battle units. But Cat, Trickster, Dreamer, Snake, and the others don't know it. All they have ever known is the endless settings of the virtual world.And then one day they discover the real world, their bodies held prisoner in a secret military facility on an island in the Pacific. They decide to reclaim themselves and enter the real world, the real war. And the first thing they discover is pain. Read Less