AIDA

A.I.D.A was a government training program developed by a mega-corporation that was abandoned due to a fatal flaw discovered during beta testing. The program was developed in order to aid a secret war against alien life forms on another planet. Despite being abandoned however, A.I.D.A continued to evolve, and spread itself throughout Earth's computer networks.

Eventually, A.I.D.A was accidentally discovered by a lone hacker, this discovery was circulated around the net and spread like wildfire instantly. Hackers and die-hard gamers alike would jack-in to A.I.D.A, treating it like the ultimate game experience and a chance to get rare data files. However, users would soon discover the flaw that led to it being abandoned in the first place: anyone who died in the game would permanently lost their personality.

This combined with out of control programs known as "bugs" and "bots" increasing at a rapid pace, would give users a 40% survival rate. The authorities grasping the danger of A.I.D.A would try to destroy it, but it was far too late. A.I.D.A has spread itself through Earth's computer networks a long time ago, make erasure impossible.

Without any options, they made it a criminal offense to access A.I.D.A, but this did not deter those seeking fortune or thrill. An underground market popped up centered around trading web money for A.I.D.A's rare data. The outlaw Hackers, who were both respected and reviled, were known as the Coded Ones.