So, you've reached that sentence of the summary of My Name is Criminal. "They even have a digital Plexus of codes that connect every citizen together via chips implanted in their heads." You didn't question the self-driving cars and you could even get past the whole "lightning powers everything," but "microchips in brains" is a giant red flag.

What is the Plexus?

The Plexus is a giant network that connects (almost) all of Tersatellus. It started as a way for spies to communicate during the Tersatellan Revolution: with the chips in their brains, they could send each other messages silently, letters showing up across their eyes. Over 300 years later, it's evolved into so much more.

It's a daunting combination of telepathy and the internet. The chips are put into people's brains before birth, so it's just another bodily function to them. Almost everything is done with the Plexus, from checking the time to storing vast amounts of government knowledge.

But it's not like it does everything for them. People still walk, talk, carry their own shopping bags...Many, however, choose the option of monitoring their health with the Plexus, and the government pays them to be healthy. People have forms of social media and messaging via the Plexus to talk to someone kilometers away in real-time (without needing a phone or computer). If they don't feel like carrying shopping bags, they can order things to be delivered to their house or even their exact location.

Does that seem a little too invasive, a little too all-knowing? Or are we just kidding ourselves thinking that our own networks aren't that far off from the Plexus?

The fun of looking at fictional civilizations, whether they're utopian or dystopian, is comparing them to our own.

The Plexus has "visual reforms" available that alter a user's vision so that they can adjust what the world looks like to them--dimming everything like sunglasses, for example, or seeing the world through a rosy tint. There are billions of failsafes installed, and the Plexus is monitored 24/7 by experts for people's safety...the government promises. There are also now robots being controlled by a new part of the Plexus, driving people's cars and making their deliveries.

Sound familiar at all?

What if I don't want this?

You're not alone. People who opt out of the Plexus are called cutouts. They tend to get their mainframe (chip) deactivated or completely removed. At expensive government-sanctioned facilities, this is a painless operation. At popular, cheaper "snip shops," complications run rampant.

Since the Plexus is so pervasive, survivors are mostly cut off from conventional society. There are groups of people in Tersatellus who were even born without mainframes, but they tend to live in isolated areas, forgotten. Tersatellus has been suffering from a wave of anti-cutout sentiment as it has become more reliant on the Plexus than ever due to the Mechs (robots).

Rejected, cutouts will often turn to a life of crime if they don't have a solid plan and support system in place before their operation. There are criminals who still have the Plexus and there are cutouts who aren't criminals. However, "cutout" and "criminal" are regarded as synonymous these days.

Some of them embrace it.

Which is where people like Rat come into play.