Sharon: The story’s protagonist. Vain, competitive, and accustomed to standing out, Sharon possesses enormous self-confidence and exceptional gaming talent. Now she must discover how much those skills are really worth when losing a match means dying. 

Brooke: Sharon’s former teammate and a support specialist. She may not possess the raw individual talent of some of her companions, but she has something just as important: the ability to adapt, keep a cool head, and become whatever the team needs her to be. 

Ingrid: Reliable, efficient, and particularly fond of explosives. Ingrid doesn’t tend to overcomplicate things: when a situation calls for overwhelming firepower, she usually has the answer. 

Jade: A high-performance athlete and an excellent gamer. Her physical conditioning, discipline, and gaming experience make Jade one of the most well-rounded members of the program—someone prepared for both the physical demands of combat and the split-second decisions needed to survive it. 

Kl4ws: A gaming champion: young, athletic, arrogant, and extraordinarily skilled. He seems like the perfect candidate for the GAMER Program, but proving that he is the best isn’t his real motivation. Kl4ws has a far more important goal: securing a safe place for his parents to survive the end of the world. 

Markus: Kl4ws’s childhood friend and the best marksman in the group. Friendly, dependable, and extraordinarily accurate with a weapon, Markus seems made for long-range combat. His albinism, however, can become a dangerous limitation when he is forced to fight under the sun. 

Wendell: One of the pioneers of professional gaming. For years, he ranked among the very best—until a new generation led by Kl4ws and Sharon pushed him aside. Now he shares a squad with the players who represent the end of his glory days, and he has no intention of forgetting it. 

William Michaels: The first great professional gamer and the oldest member of the group. William has more than experience on his side: he was one of the first to realize that video games were developing skills that might someday prove useful beyond the screen.

And he carries a secret that may prove he was right.

Reolf: Influencer, gamer, and the emotional leader of the group. His greatest skill doesn’t appear on any leaderboard: Reolf has the charisma to turn strangers with incompatible personalities into people willing to fight under the same banner. 

Mat: The most intelligent gamer in Group 1. He may not be the most skilled player or the most impressive fighter, but when a problem seems impossible to solve, Mat is usually the one who finds an option everyone else overlooked. 

Joe: An influencer known for his explosive temper and his tendency to confront problems head-on. His aggression can get him into trouble, but it also makes him a dangerous fighter. If there’s a solution that involves shooting first and asking questions later, Joe has probably already tried it. 

Pat: The classic jack-of-all-trades. He isn’t the best player in any particular discipline, but he doesn’t have any glaring weaknesses either. Versatile, dependable, and capable of filling different roles, Pat is the kind of teammate whose value becomes obvious when everything starts going wrong. 

Jürgen: A surprisingly ordinary gamer surrounded by exceptional players. He isn’t particularly strong, athletic, or gifted. He joined the program hoping to prove that all those years spent with a controller in his hands had actually been worth something.

Surrounded by people far better than he is, Jürgen must discover what he can contribute when the real war begins.

Lewis: Jürgen’s best friend and protector since long before the GAMER Program existed. His reason for becoming a soldier is much simpler than saving humanity: stay beside his friend and do everything he can to make sure Jürgen comes home alive. 

Gabe: Lewis’s brother and a genuine gaming prodigy. His extraordinary powers of concentration and natural ability to master almost any virtual challenge make him one of the most promising members of the program. 

Nester: He joined the GAMER Program almost by accident and managed to graduate by cheating. When a battle begins, his first instinct is usually to find somewhere to hide.

Cowardly, opportunistic, and completely out of place among soldiers, Nester nevertheless possesses one surprisingly useful quality during the apocalypse:

He is remarkably difficult to get killed.

Karlfried: A shooter specialist known as the “One-Man Army.” He doesn’t need to draw attention to himself or boast about what he can do. Usually, all you have to do is wait until the battle is over and see who ended up at the top of the kill count. 

Quantum: A fraud with enough charisma to convince people otherwise. He lied his way into the GAMER Program to secure a safe place for his family. His teammates know the truth, but they have chosen to protect him.

Serge: Strong, resilient, and far better with his muscles than with a controller. He is easily distracted and usually serves in a support role, but when his gaming skills aren’t enough, his considerable physical strength tends to provide a much more direct solution. 

Maziel: Nester’s brother and inseparable companion, although anyone watching them argue might assume otherwise. Together, they can be surprisingly useful.

The real challenge is getting them to stop fighting with each other long enough to prove it.

Dr. Bushnell: Co-creator of the GAMER Program concept. A brilliant sociologist, narcissistic and utterly convinced that he is the smartest person in any room. To Bushnell, the program isn’t merely a chance to save lives—it is also the ultimate opportunity to prove that he was right all along. 

Dr. Baer: Co-creator of the GAMER Program and Bushnell’s perfect counterpart. Friendly, approachable, and far better with people, Baer played a crucial role in turning a seemingly ridiculous idea into an actual military project. 

Dr. Aida Mika: The scientist responsible for developing the DSM-1 exoskeletons that give gamers the physical capabilities they need to confront creatures far stronger than any human being.

Intelligent, reserved, and difficult to read, Aida knows considerably more than she is willing to reveal.

Lt. Edium: The man responsible for preparing Group 1 for war. His job is to accomplish something that seems impossible: take people who spent years training to fight in virtual worlds and turn them into actual soldiers. 

Captain Cyrus: A legend among the soldiers. Cyrus has earned a reputation for being able to take on Sheitans almost single-handedly and live to tell the story.

When the time comes to take the gamers onto a real battlefield, Cyrus will be the one responsible for turning their training into experience.

Lt. Ricco: Charismatic, seductive, and a notorious womanizer, Ricco can seem like a man who never takes anything too seriously.

But when one of his comrades—or an innocent person—is in danger, the real soldier emerges: someone willing to risk everything to save them.

Private Velásquez: A young soldier with a fierce personality and an iron will. Velásquez doesn’t need to search for reasons to fight. She hates the Sheitans with a passion and treats every encounter as another opportunity to prove it. 

Corporal Paxon: Troubled, insecure, and absolutely terrified of the Sheitans. Paxon is far removed from the image of the fearless heroic soldier charging toward the enemy.

But fear doesn’t always make someone useless.

When the moment comes, Paxon has a way of making himself necessary.