By the 23rd century, Earth has long since gone to shit, climate change, air pollution, chronic overpopulation and mass unemployment has taken its toll on its struggling populace.

For the teeming masses of humanity, life is bleak, there are no options, prospects or possibilities beyond winning one of the few coveted tickets on the government-administered lottery that promises the winner the chance at a job servicing the whims the worlds uber-rich. With such a grim reality, escapism is rife among the underclasses, and of all the chemical and virtual avenues available, BTL's are king.

Better Than Life users are all addicts, addicts with remarkably short lifespans, perpetually strung out between their more fulfilling virtual lives, they inevitably prioritise pursuing virtual fulfilment over trivial pursuits such as food, shelter and water, racking up vast debts on the black market in order to finance their prized BTL sticks and their recovery after hard often lethal comedowns.

This is the world that Frank has grown up in, abandoned by his parents, he has lived his entire life on welfare, educated by a smattering of state sponsored infomercials and an archived copy of the internet from centuries past.

When the news arrives that he has been rejected for the 20th time for a lottery ticket, Frank decides that he has had enough of waiting and that it's time to live his life, regardless of how real the reality.

Upon entering the virtual world contained within the BTL drive he quickly finds that it is not the utopian paradise promised to him by the BTL dealer, instead, he finds himself surrounded by danger, magic and monsters as he tries his best to survive in a surprisingly real game world that is not what it seems.