Monsters are real. Magic works. Its a dry run for the apocalypse. Will you survive The Beta Test?

The wild places have become more and more dangerous as animals and plants have become altered. Some are larger, some exhibit strange powers but many are dangerous. Cody, a down on his luck veteran of the US Army, goes to the forest to die. He's going to earn an insurance payout for his family and maybe help protect some of the countless squatters forced from their homes when automation took their jobs. It will be a good death. That isn't quite the way things work out.

The artificial intelligence thinks it is operating a game. The players are the residents of the forest. They all undergo forced character creation and try to survive while learning their new powers. Cody is determined to break out of the test zone and builds a team that work closely together to survive the new game-like reality.

The NanoWielder Saga combines modern technology with emergent magic. Many normal animals are altered into super predators. The most dangerous monsters of all are the gamers.

Beta Test contains game elements. Both characters and monsters level up and gain new powers as they grow in experience. Some of the crew learn to create simple magic items and learn to use magical runes.