BURNED NODE
Every node starts clean.
A browser-based hacking sim where every job runs on borrowed time. Bounce your connection through proxy nodes, crack or bypass a target's defenses, grab what you came for, and disconnect before the trace catches up — because if it does, what happens next depends on exactly how hardened the target was.
Play Now — FreeEvery connection is a countdown. Get caught somewhere low-security and you pay a fine. Get caught somewhere hardened and they seize your gear — back to Tier 1 hardware. Get caught on the wrong target entirely, and you're arrested.
Arrest is permanent. Identity burned, save wiped, start over as someone new.
Story missions can be failed outright, too — not just abandoned — if the trace catches you mid-job.
The full tutorial, plus your first real contract: a journalist covering a leak got locked out of her account mid-story, and the support queue is six weeks long. Restore her session. Enough to run the whole loop once — bounce, crack, trace, disconnect — before deciding if it's worth staying.
Every other contract on the board. Every faction's reputation track. Every goodwill gig. Every ending. Unlocks from inside the game, whenever you're ready.