Warcross

Emika Chen is a broke teenage hacker and bounty hunter scraping by in New York City. When she accidentally glitches herself into the opening ceremony of the Warcross Championships, the biggest virtual reality event on the planet, she becomes an overnight sensation. The game’s creator, billionaire Hideo Tanaka, recruits her as a spy to uncover a threat hidden inside his own creation.

Why Start Here

If dystopian futures feel too bleak for your starting point, Warcross is the brighter entry into Lu’s work. Set in a neon-lit near-future Tokyo, it trades political oppression for questions about technology, privacy, and the seductive comfort of a world someone else designed for you. The tone is lighter and the world more vibrant, but Lu’s signature interest in power and who gets to wield it runs through every page.

This is also a standalone duology (completed with Wildcard), so the commitment is smaller than the four-book Legend series. It reads like a love letter to gaming culture while asking serious questions about what happens when one person controls the platform everyone depends on.

What to Expect

A fast, colorful ride through a world where virtual and physical realities blur. The romance is more prominent here than in Legend, and the world-building is inventive and immersive. The central twist reframes the entire story, and the moral dilemma it presents is genuinely difficult. Lu wrote this as a complete thought in two books, so expect satisfying closure.