Carl is head enforcer for the Sonder gang. His team chases other gangs out of Vegas. Tenant, his top enforcer, likes nothing better than to speed up the process by killing everyone. It was a smooth operation for years. But now someone has started killing older gang members. Important gang members. Ones with inside information on the structure of the operation. All they leave behind is a room full of blood. But wait. It's not 1967 Vegas. It's 2167 Osaka. Someone hacked Carl's dreams with a deep life simulation. He's a police detective on a high profile case. The victims are being killed in front of witnesses. Under interrogation, the killers swear they were only playing a simulation game. The central computer verifies they're telling the truth. Someone hacked their brains, just like they hacked Carl's. If Vegas is a dream, why do the victims have the same names? Why does his robot girlfriend kill the same people when she is a flesh and blood contract killer? Why does the dream seem like reality when he returns to it every night? Is Vegas really a simulation or has the violence caused a psychotic break with reality and he's imagining his future life? The clues send Carl to crime dens, simulations, and the far corners of the Earth. The killer is always one step ahead. Is he reading Carl's mind or is he a tactical genius, anticipating every step that cops and criminals would use to hunt him down? As Carl closes in on the killer's gang, the world erupts in chaos. Society disintegrates into violence. Reality changes in front of his eyes. Can Carl catch the killer before his mind completely unravels?