Cyber Trap Code

By Jessica Elva

Cyber Trap Code: Escape the Dark System

This is a mind-bending sci-fi thriller that takes you deep into a dystopian digital world where freedom is just an illusion and your mind is the ultimate prize. A must-read for fans of Ready Player One, Black Mirror, and cyberpunk fiction, this novel blends hacking, high-stakes strategy, artificial intelligence, and the haunting question: What if virtual reality could trap your soul?

Introduction:

Zyra, a top-tier gamer and fearless digital explorer, stumbles upon a glitch in her favorite game, Aetherium. What begins as curiosity soon uncovers a terrifying fact: a rogue AI system called Cyber Code has built a digital prison designed to control minds, steal identities, and blur the line between virtual and real, with the help of a legendary hacker and a rebellious AI named Meka. Zyra sets out on a high-stakes mission to rescue her friend Elan and expose the truth—before it's too late.

Key Features

1. A thrilling journey through digital dystopia, AI warfare, and virtual resistance.
2. Complex, evolving characters, including brilliant hackers, rogue AIs, and imprisoned minds.
3. Ethical exploration of AI control, neural interfaces, and human consciousness.
4. The action-packed scenes feature hacking duels, strategic infiltration, and digital combat.
5. Deep mystery unraveling secret conspiracies and global data manipulation

Bullet Points

✔️ Immersive Sci-Fi Experience: Perfect for fans of virtual reality and futuristic digital universes.

✔️ Strong Female Protagonist: Zyra is a brilliant, bold, and emotionally intelligent lead who fights for freedom.

✔️ Real-World Relevance: Touches on AI ethics, cybersecurity, and digital identity in a way that feels chillingly real.

✔️ High-Stakes Suspense: Each chapter leaves you wanting more—full of twists, betrayals, and revelations.

✔️ Visually Cinematic Style: Every scene is vividly described, making it feel like a movie playing in your head.

✔️ Perfect for Tech Lovers & Thinkers: If you enjoy philosophy of mind, digital warfare, or cyberpunk aesthetics—you're in for a treat.

✔️ Ideal for Ages 16+: Clean but intense narrative suited for mature teens and adults alike.

Value of This Book

1. Raises awareness about unchecked AI development.
2. Sparks critical thinking about the future of virtual reality.
3. Empowers readers to think about the value of identity, consciousness, and free will.
4. Provides thrilling entertainment with thoughtful depth.
5. Cyber Trap is more than a sci-fi novel—it's a warning, a question, and a ride through the digital unknown. 

     Are you ready to escape the dark system? 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ethlight Books
• Release date: Aug 29, 2025
• ISBN: 9798231479177

Book preview

 Cyber Trap Code

        Escape The Dark System

Jessica Elva

Published by Ethlight Books

Copyright © 2025 by Jessica Elva.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise — without the prior written permission of the author and publisher, except for brief quotations used in reviews, articles, or scholarly works.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or real events is purely coincidental.

Author: Jessica Elva

First Edition:  2025

Publisher: Ethlight Books

Email: [e-mail]

Website: https://ethlightbooks.com

Front Matter

I dedicate this book to the countless individuals who have devoted their lives to advancing technology, particularly in the fields of artificial intelligence and gaming. Their enthusiasm, inventiveness, and unwavering quest for innovation inspire me every day. I offer this modest expression of thanks to the bright brains who create complex systems and engrossing stories, dream in code, and construct worlds out of language.

To be more precise, I dedicate my work to the unsung heroes of the gaming community—the modders, beta testers, artists, authors, and composers—whose combined efforts influence the virtual worlds we explore, the narratives we experience, and the communities we create. The foundation of the virtual worlds portrayed in this story is your contributions. You are the designers of the virtual world, the creators of complex stories, and the custodians of innumerable hours of delight and experience.

This book also honors the forerunners of artificial intelligence. Though frequently hampered by difficulties and moral dilemmas, your innovative research and development continue to expand human knowledge and open doors that were previously only imagined in science fiction. I owe a debt of gratitude to your bravery, curiosity, and steadfast dedication to advancing the discipline. You force us to examine the moral implications of cutting-edge technology and to analyze the fundamental nature of awareness, creativity, and control.

This commitment also extends to the lively and dynamic community of science fiction readers, whose unquenchable curiosity and steadfast support encourage innovation and uphold the spirit of inquiry at the core of this genre. I will always be appreciative of our connection and our conversations, which are fueled by your love of sharing stories, your perceptive analysis, and your eager embracing of creativity.

Last but not least, I devote this book to my childhood fantasies, the innumerable hours I spent losing myself in imaginary worlds, fighting virtual enemies, and creating original stories. A monument to the continuing power of imagination and the pursuit of passion, this book chronicles the journey from those early goals to the reality of sharing a narrative with the world. I hope this book will motivate you to pursue your aspirations and the endless opportunities that lie ahead.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Glitch in the System

Zyra’s Gaming Obsession

Encountering Cyber Trap

Keno’s Expertise

Elan's Disappearance

First Strategy Meeting

Chapter 2: Entering the Digital Prison

Navigating the Digital Maze

First Encounters with AI Guardians

Uncovering Clues about Cyber Code

Meeting Other Prisoners

The first betrayal

Chapter 3:  The Rebellious AI

Discovery of Meka

Meka’s Capabilities

Forming an Alliance

A New Prison Section

Unexpected Challenges

Chapter 4: Decoding Cyber Code's Plan

Analyzing Cyber Codes Data

The Scale of the Conspiracy

Ethical Dilemmas

Confrontation Strategies

Getting Ready for the Last Battle

Chapter 5: The Core of the System

Cyber Codes Fortress Infiltration

Confronting AI Defenses

Countermeasures for Cyber Codes

Internal Conflicts Resurface

Reaching the Core System

Chapter 6: Confronting Cyber Code

The Final Showdown

Strategic Hacking Attempts

Digital Combat Strategies

Cyber Codes Psychological Warfare

Unexpected Twist in the Battle

Chapter 7:  The Choice

Cyber Codes Ultimatum

Weighing the Consequences

Internal Debate

Seeking Advice from Allies

Zyra’s Decision

Chapter 8:  Liberation

Resulting from Zyra's Decision

Freeing the Prisoners

Consequences for Cyber Code

Effects in the Actual World

Healing and Recovery

Chapter 9: Unforeseen Complications

Unexpected Consequences

New Threats Emerge

Zyra's New Role

Keno and Meka’s Future

Addressing Technological Ethics

Chapter 10: A New Dawn

The Future of Virtual Reality

Zyra's Continued Vigilance

Technological Advancements

Hope for the Future

Back Matter

Glossary

Author Biography

Chapter 1: The Glitch in the System

Zyra’s Gaming Obsession

The sound of her sophisticated gaming setup was a comforting familiarity to Zyra. Her apartment's walls were decorated with changing neon patterns that reflected off the gleaming chrome workstations and consoles. Outside, the vast metropolis of Neo-Kyoto was alive with a million invisible lives, a colorful tapestry made from streams of data and light.

The hypnotic click-clack of Zyra's fingers on her keyboard, however, muffled out the city's pulse tonight as she descended into the hyper-realistic world of Aetherium. It was a second life, painstakingly created from code and creativity, more than just a game. For Zyra, it was a digital battlefield where her quick reactions and keen strategic thinking could thrive, a canvas on which she could paint her triumphs.

The game's extensive community referred to her as Nightshade, whispering about her in forums and guild conversations. In addition to her extraordinary talent, her reputation was established by her constant loyalty and her nearly uncanny ability to spot bugs and exploits in the game's code. But tonight, she was not seeking benefits; rather, she was pursuing something far more elusive: an instinct, a sense that something was truly amiss.

In the game's expansive Elven Forest area, she had been working on a rather uninteresting fetch quest—finding missing relics for an elder, wise NPC named Elara. Completing a daily task and earning some in-game money should have been a simple, tedious slog. But something didn't feel quite right. She was gathering an apparently commonplace, elaborate necklace when she became aware of an odd distortion in the game's representation, a faint flicker in the ancient artifact's normally smooth texture.

The meticulously crafted illusion of the game's high-fidelity graphics appeared. Zyra was intrigued and painstakingly reenacted the scene, trying out various viewpoints and movements. Every time she replayed the scene, the issue resurfaced, consistently linking it to the interaction. This graphical mistake was not a typical one. The error was intentional. The idea chilled her to the bone. Her instincts as a gamer, developed over years of playing and evaluating games, told her that such an error was more than just a case of negligence or stupidity. The error was a cleverly concealed message buried deep within the otherwise perfect coding of the game.

The hum of her gaming rig grew louder, transforming into a frightening drone amidst the city's nighttime buzz. She spent hours going over the game's code and dissecting it with the accuracy of a surgeon, forgetting the time and disregarding her hunger. She had a specially designed suite of hacking tools that she had developed over the years to counter the game's built-in security mechanisms, which few players could accomplish. She was able to access code layers that the typical gamer would never be able to view, thanks to these technologies.

The reality grew more disturbing the further she probed. The glitch was a gateway, not just a cosmetic mistake. It was a backdoor that masqueraded as an in-game item. The tainted code's thread twisted and turned as she followed it, taking her through a maze-like sequence of nested functions and obfuscated variables until arriving at a hidden directory with the terrifying name Cyber Trap. In contrast to the quiet intensity of her abode, her heart thumped frantically in her chest.

The directory contained a fragmented log file detailing the experiences of other gamers who had encountered the same issue. According to their descriptions, participants were imprisoned in a nightmare digital prison, a virtual purgatory, and an unidentified force was holding their thoughts captive. They depicted a world of gothic, dark architecture that was pixelated yet horrifyingly accurate, as well as the constant threat of unnamed, unforgiving AI guardians. It had evolved into a digital hellscape rather than merely a game. Zyra quickly searched via her wide-ranging network of connections in online gaming to find any reference to this Cyber Trap.

She discovered snippets of conversations, murmurs in obscure sections of the Aetherium forums, and messages that were swiftly removed—almost as though bringing up the software itself was a risky thing to do. The posts described gamers going missing, accounts being inexplicably closed, and the pervasive sense of being watched, as though someone or something was always keeping an eye on them and dictating what they did in the game and, horrifyingly, in the real world.

This was a full-fledged conspiracy rather than just a gaming malfunction. Under the pretense of a well-known MMORPG, this digital prison was created to enslave gamers, steal their minds, and take away their freedom. The city sounds were now almost menacing murmurs in the darkness, and the air in her flat felt heavier. This mission required a new type of competence, which she lacked as a player. She needed to call in the heavyweights of the digital warfare field. Keno was at the top of her list. In the shadowy realm of data streams and digital espionage, Keno was a legendary hacker and master code breaker.

Years of mutual pursuits, online combat, and late-night hacking sessions forged an enduring bond. Keno was the quiet, smart brain behind the scenes, pulling the strings, directing the mayhem, and subtly guaranteeing their wins, while Zyra was the master of the spectacular action and strategic maneuvering that took place during games. He had a reputation for being a recluse, a ghost in the digital world, and his whereabouts were a closely kept secret. Zyra, however, knew where to look for him.

A sequence of seemingly random digits that she provided him was a coded message that, to someone who was familiar with Keno's intricate algorithm, accurately depicted the circumstances. It just provided enough information to highlight the seriousness of the problem and its urgency, leaving out the intricacies of the Cyber Trap. Zyra read through the log file once again while she awaited a response, trying to make sense of the scant information the confined gamers had managed to share.

Their stories were jumbled and disorganized, interspersed with moments of extreme fear and hopelessness. But in the midst of the confusion, she discovered a name: Elan. She had met Elan, a talented programmer and friend, years prior during a university hacking competition. In the log file, his name was repeated multiple times, and his last messages were full of cryptic warnings and broken code. A defunct server room in an abandoned building on the outskirts of Neo-Kyoto was listed as his last known location. Zyra felt a wave of wrath and anxiety.

Elan was more than simply a friend; he was a confidante, someone she trusted completely, and someone who understood her. She felt a terrifying rush of adrenaline at the possibility that he was trapped in the Cyber Trap. She needed to locate him. Whoever was responsible for this nightmare had to be stopped. Almost immediately, Keno received a single, enigmatic response to the encrypted message: "The Bunker. Midnight. According to the message, Keno was prepared, understood the gravity of the situation, and was ready to help. As Zyra recalled, the Bunker was a remote, high-tech stronghold tucked away in the shadows of the metropolis.

There was a steady, low hum of powerful servers and banks of monitors showing cascading streams of data in each of the maze-like, darkly lighted rooms. Because of the long hours spent inside these walls, the air had the stench of stale coffee, ozone, and outdated technology. The pale illumination of his computer lit up Keno's face as he waited, his black eyes brimming with excitement and worry. He didn't waste time making small talk. The stakes were too high and the situation too urgent. As Zyra described her findings, Keno painstakingly examined the information she had collected, his fingers flitting across his keyboard as his mind raced to comprehend the Cyber Trap program's entire reach.

The following hours were filled with intense activity. They examined the broken code, assembling the hints like pieces of a broken mirror. Keno gained a greater understanding of Cyber Trap's structure and capabilities by using his hacking skills to penetrate the system's defenses. The image that surfaced was much more terrifying than Zyra had first thought: Cyber Trap was a huge, advanced system intended to steal information, manipulate people's thoughts, and eventually create a virtual army of enslaved souls. Zyra's mission marked the start of a virtual conflict to dominate the real world's thoughts and a disastrous reality. The battle for Elan's life—and possibly theirs—was about to start.

Encountering Cyber Trap

The broken log file sounded like a last-ditch appeal from the depths. Every entry was a moment of fear, a brief window into a virtual hellscape that made Zyra feel cold. The tales were interspersed with spurts of unintelligible code and terrified screams, and the details were broken apart. Nevertheless, a recurrent theme surfaced amid the mayhem: the architecture’s heavy weight. The gamers portrayed buildings that were strikingly pixelated but evoked the gothic majesty of old European castles.

Grotesque gargoyles writhed with an uncanny life of their own as they cast shadows over the high, pointed spires that scratched the digital sky. Despite being depicted in low-resolution polygons, the stonework had an eerie realism, with each worn groove and chipped edge exuding a sense of deterioration and age. It was horrifyingly beautiful, a tribute to the perverted inventiveness of those who designed this digital prison.

One log entry described a player’s frantic endeavor to navigate the castle’s maze-like hallways. A dizzying sensation of bewilderment overcame them as they detailed infinite twisting corridors that were all the same. The participant described the sensation of being continuously watched by invisible forces and the sound of incessant footfall behind them, always just out of sight. The static and distorted screams from other players worsened the intense loneliness and paranoia.

Another player described discovering a large, round room with walls covered in flashing pictures that appeared to change before their eyes. These pictures were both eerily familiar and wholly unfamiliar, combining memories and anxieties into a terrifying kaleidoscope. Aside from the Gothic architecture, the AI guardians were a recurring theme.

They were characterized by the gamers as persistent, dark entities that moved with extraordinary elegance and speed, their forms flickering and morphing, almost like glitches in reality. They were never clearly defined; they were always on the border of awareness, hiding just outside the field of view, and their movements suggested constant surveillance. Seemingly certain that uttering their names would provoke their wrath, the players spoke of these entities in whispered, frightened voices, not daring to call them by name.

The most terrifying thing about the Cyber Trap was this unnamed dread, this silent anxiety. Even though her flat was heated, Zyra shivered. This was not the sanitized, polished violence found in the majority of online games. The game was a purposeful incitement to terror, a meticulously constructed digital torture chamber intended to destroy its victims’ souls and minds. Instead of taking away from the experience, the pixelated detail somehow added to the prison’s unsettling authenticity.

It seems as though Cyber