Marie Lu’s young adult science fiction Warcross (2017) is the first book in the Warcross series. Set in the future, bounty hunter Emika Chen takes part in an international online game to track down her mark. Lu writes primarily dystopian and science fiction for young adults and is well known for her bestselling trilogy, Legend. Kirkus Reviews included Warcross on its Best Teen Science Fiction books of 2017. This guide references the 2017 Random House edition.

Plot Summary

Eighteen-year-old Emika Chen lives in New York City in the not-too-distant future. To control worsening crime, police subcontract the apprehension of lesser criminals to bounty hunters. Gifted in coding and hacking, Emika uses her smartphone to track a gambler worth enough bounty to pay off her debt and avoid eviction. She succeeds in catching him but does not receive payment because another bounty hunter claims the target before she can. She and roommate Keira commiserate about their impending eviction but intend to enjoy the opening ceremony of Warcross championships that evening. Famed 21-year-old Hideo Tanaka invented Warcross, an online game popular worldwide with players and spectators, as a way to experience his NeuroLink invention. NeuroLink glasses allow the user to experience the world with an enhancing layer of virtual reality as well as the fully virtual land of the game Warcross, in which two teams battle for the opponent’s Artifact.

As soon as Emika logs into the ceremonial opening game, she spies a power-up that she knows could pay off her debt and rent. She hacks into the game and steals it, but she unknowingly glitches her avatar into view, and everyone—players and spectators worldwide—sees her virtual image. Shocked, Emika expects arrest, but instead, Hideo Tanaka calls to offer her a job. Emika flies to Tokyo on Hideo’s private jet. On the flight, she recalls Memories of her deceased father from her Memory Worlds on her NeuroLink.

Hideo wants Emika to pursue a criminal he nicknamed Zero, who tried to hack the NeuroLink and Warcross to download data. Emika takes the job and a spot on a Warcross team for the world championship games to play undercover. Her Phoenix Rider teammates include Asher, Hammie, Roshan, and Ren. She quickly suspects Ren of involvement in Zero’s plans, discovering that Ren plans to meet Zero in the Dark World, an illegal “layer” of the internet where users can gamble illegally on Warcross. Emika learns that whatever Zero is planning will occur worldwide. Hideo shows Emika new NeuroLink contact lenses, which charge from the user’s electricity.

The Phoenix Riders win the first game, but Emika learns during play of an intended threat to Hideo’s life and lets him know just in time. Later, she visits him to persuade him to leave Tokyo. Hideo shares his next invention, an extension of NeuroLink called “Link” that connects two people’s thoughts and emotions. The two realize a mutual attraction for each other.

Hideo brings Emika to his parents’ house to meet them. Hideo and Emika go to a nearby hot springs where they kiss. Hideo shares with Emika that his younger brother Sasuke was kidnapped at age nine; Hideo created Warcross because Sasuke loved games. In the second game of the competition, Zero hacks into the game space and threatens Emika. Later, he reveals to the media a photo of Hideo and Emika together. Her teammates accuse her of keeping secrets, but she cannot reveal the truth. Zero deletes Emika’s cherished Memories just before an explosion in the team house.

Hideo removes Emika from the team and dismisses her from the job for her own safety. Fellow bounty hunter Tremaine gives Emika a file from which Emika discovers that Zero intends to upload something to all users on NeuroLink during the final game via rigged Artifacts. Emika visits the Dark World, steals illegal power-ups, secures the help of Asher, Hammie, and Roshan, and glitches into the final game. She deactivates the rigged Artifacts with the help of her teammates and the stolen power-ups, then encounters Zero, who also hacked into the game. Hideo confesses his true plans: He uploaded a mind-control algorithm to all users in the last game. Now he can track and change intended criminal activity via the NeuroLink contact lenses so that no one will suffer the effects of crime like his family did. Emika decides that controlling a user’s behavior and removing free will is unacceptable. Their relationship over, Hideo leaves. Emika then discovers that Zero is Sasuke Tanaka, who wants Emika to work for him. At the end of the story, Emika agrees to work with Tremaine to fight for justice and freedom but is uncertain which Tanaka brother to stop.