A product of the latest technologies Barliona is a virtual world brimming with fun and entertainment. The government has become the guarantor for the in-game currency allowing its free circulation. As a result the population floods Barliona in pursuit of easy money.<br><br><br><br>It doesn't take long for the game developers to discover a source of free labor: real-world prison convicts. While their bodies are locked in special auto-maintenance virtual capsules the prisoners' minds are released into Barliona's vitual mines.<br><br><br><br>Dmitry Mahan has been through it all. Sentenced to eight years hard labor he now struggles with an unpopular class-the Shaman-and an equally unpopular profession of a Jeweler. His fight for survival becomes anything but virtual.