A summary of Sergei Lukyanenko’s "Competitors" Automatic translate

"Competitors" is a 2008 space opera novel by Sergey Lukyanenko. The book is written in close connection with the real-life online browser game Starquake (starquake.ru): the fictional universe and game mechanics are not just a backdrop, but the very system in which the characters find themselves. This makes the book an intriguing experiment in genre — a science fiction novel where literature and gaming are deliberately and meaningfully intertwined.

A Strange Announcement and "Star Hour"

Thirty-five-year-old Moscow journalist Valentin Safonov notices a handwritten notice on a lamppost: "Pilots wanted for orbital bombers, space fighters, and technical support ships." He’s immediately disconcerted by the completely dry paper among the wet sheets of paper on the same lamppost. After confirming that the piece of paper won’t burn or get wet, he tears it off and calls the number listed late at night. He receives a response — "Star Hour" agency, Ogorodny Proezd, Building 5 — and is invited to come right away.

In the office, he’s met by a girl named Inna — a smart jacket with mocking eyes. She introduces Valentin to the Starquake website, says something vague about "being sent into deep space," and suggests going through the door at the end of the hallway: a heavy one with three locks and a retinal scanner. Valentin steps through the doorway and finds himself in a different courtyard than the Moscow office.

Bun

A small metal room, a flickering lamp above, and beyond the glass wall — black space and unblinking multicolored stars. This is no trick or prank. Valentin is on an orbital platform, nicknamed "Plyushka" by its inhabitants for its distinctive shape, reminiscent of a sweet bun. The Inna who opened the door for him in Moscow remains on Earth: her double was recruited a year ago and now greets the new arrivals.

Inna explains: two years ago, she walked through this door in the office and ended up here. The platform belongs to an unknown creator — possibly the entrepreneur Arkady Samoilov, who opened an agency and skillfully lured people into "game vacancies." Neither she nor anyone else on the platform was told where the door led. Valentin becomes the forty-second, three hundred and sixteenth recruit — that’s how many people have passed through the archway in total. Currently, there are about sixteen thousand living on Plyushka.

Valentina is fitted with a "comm" — a communication bracelet that serves as a phone, wallet, and ID card. A starting account of 1,500 credits is deposited. Life on the platform is possible: synthesizers produce food, clothing, and fuel; luxuries such as CDs, books, cigarettes, and even cats (which are worth a fortune here) are occasionally dropped off from Earth.

The first days: the ship and the instructor

Valentin is assigned to an instructor, Lena, nicknamed "The Driver." A former Moscow taxi driver with shoulders like a swimmer’s and a tongue as sharp as a razor, she meticulously describes Valentin’s typical journalistic career in a few sentences, without missing a single painful detail. He’s angry, but he’s forced to admit she’s right. From the very first moment, they develop that rare mutual respect that springs from mutual bluntness.

Together, they descend into the main hangar — a vast hall filled with dozens of ships of the most bizarre shapes: horseshoes, disks, cylinders, cones. Valentina is given a small fighter on a Sylvan hull — a small cigar-shaped craft with short wings, minimal armament, and modest equipment. The driver begins training: how the thruster works, how to control the weapons, how to read the ships’ analog indicators.

Life on Plushka is a constant process of resource extraction from asteroids and planets, trade, and clashes with pirates. There’s a Patrol — a volunteer group that maintains order, but, like Earth’s police, it can’t keep track of everything. Money is spent on ship upgrades, fuel, and repairs. Some get rich, some die — through carelessness or at the hands of others.

Seekers

At the same time, Valentin learns of the existence of a group calling itself "The Seekers" — a kind of philosophical club with a militant bent. It is led by two people: Zinovy Pilyuchenko, nicknamed Zyama or the Master, a charismatic organizer, and Roman, a doctor of science specializing in artificial intelligence. The Seekers are convinced that Plyushka is a virtual reality, that there is no real space, and that they are all uploaded consciousnesses, held captive by the unknown designers of this "game."

At a general meeting, Zyama announces the capture of a "suppressor" — a weapon capable of extinguishing stars. The program was discovered in the platform’s backup memory, where it was apparently once written by the creators themselves. Roman outlines a plan: extinguish the stars one by one — first the one around which Plyushka orbits, then the stars near the largest alliance and clan bases. If the world is virtual, the designers will be forced to intervene and either destroy everyone, offer negotiations for a return to Earth, or begin rekindling the extinguished stars, thereby proving the unreality of the universe. If the world is real, the reaction to the catastrophe will still force the creators to appear.

Roman himself publicly admits that after two years of research, he can’t say for sure whether this world is real or not. This moment provokes an outburst of anger in the crowd, but Roman holds his ground and insists: this is precisely why the experiment is necessary.

Expeditions and selection

Valentin flies with the Master to distant planets, including a planet covered in black snow. At first, he views everything with journalistic cynicism, trying to keep his distance. But Plyushka leaves no room for observers: here, you either act or die. Among the pilots, technicians, and traders, he gradually finds his place.

The extinguisher is activated. One by one, the stars begin to dim. Panic grows among the platform’s inhabitants: for many, this is not an abstract philosophical experiment, but a threat to everything they have built here over the years. Some people rise up against the Seekers with weapons in hand, others support them — and all this unfolds against the backdrop of the now-familiar raids, trade conflicts, and inter-clan skirmishes.

The answer to the great question — is Plyushka real? — never comes in the form of clear and unambiguous knowledge. Lukyanenko deliberately leaves the reader in the same zone of uncertainty as the characters: between faith in the reality of the world and suspicion of its illusory nature. Valentin survives — and that’s no small feat, considering that of the more than forty thousand recruits, far from all made it to the finale.