In 2756, financial conglomerates controlled the entire world. The upper classes monopolized the lower classes and refused to share knowledge with them. The people at the bottom tried to resist, but in the end they lost to the mass-produced AI combat robot armies of the upper classes. Brain-link technology had brought humanity no happiness. All it had brought was a selfish world where everyone felt deeply oppressed. Resources were desperately scarce, water supplies were severely polluted, oxygen was thin, visibility was extremely poor, and the air was saturated with radiation. The population was enormous, and humanity couldn't win a war against civilizations beyond Earth. Colonization efforts on Mars and the Moon were still underway, and neither was yet suitable for human habitation. The first thing the protagonist did after returning home was use brain-link technology to play a game. The brain-link technology used by the upper classes was different from that used by the lower classes: after being processed and filtered, most knowledge had been removed, leaving mostly entertainment.
