A man discovers that he can control the world and change it to suit his desires as if he were a god. The events unfold in the troubled Free City, where every day there are shootings and armed assaults.
The scene is dominated by tough guys in sunglasses who are always surrounded by pretty girls and expensive cars. But there are also simple blokes like Guy who live in the city.
He wakes up every day in his snow-white apartment, orders the same type of coffee at the cafe, and along with his security guard friend Buddy enjoys going to work at the bank.
There’s only one thing Guy misses: someone to love. Despite his fairly ordinary life, Guy is always involved in adventures. Armed thugs in sunglasses rush into his bank every day and order everyone to get on the ground.
Employees and customers obediently comply, carelessly continuing to chatter about their business until the robbers leave. Meanwhile, a daring girl in glasses lands in one of the Free City alleys, where she meets a masked man. He hands her a map with the location of a certain secret level. After getting what she wants, the girl gets rid of the informant.
Leaving the alley, she begins to imitate the phrases of passersby and hum a song. As she walks down the street, she bumps into Guy, who is surprised to recognize the tune of her favourite song. Fascinated by it, he tells Buddy that he has finally found his beloved. Despite Buddy’s protests, the hero sets out to follow her, but is hit by a train on the way.
So, it turns out that Guy is a non-playable character in the computer game Free City, but is completely unaware of it. The daring girl from the virtual world is the gamer, Millie Rusk, playing under the pseudonym Molotova Girl.
She stares annoyedly at her laptop screen advertising Free City 2. All the while she’s trying to find evidence in the game for a lawsuit against its creator.
After an encounter with Millie in the game, Guy’s behaviour changes drastically. He decides for the first time to order a cappuccino instead of the standard coffee, which almost disrupts the virtual world. After all, all NPCs drink standard coffee. Later, his bank is attacked again by thugs, but he pays no attention to it, constantly thinking about the mysterious girl.
Suddenly he notices her silhouette on the street and wants to go after her, but Buddy tries to talk his friend out of it. The guy jumps up from the ground and lunges straight at the robber to take off his glasses.
The little girls, playing as the robber in reality, are decidedly surprised by the NPC’s behavior, and annoyingly punch him. But Guy acts against the pre-programmed code and accidentally shoots the player, taking away his score.
All the non-player characters freeze in shock, and the hero runs out into the street looking for his beloved. When Guy puts on his glasses, he starts seeing Free City through the game interface.
He now notices the names of the other characters, their missions, and the items they need to collect during the game. Taking advantage of the first aid kit that the other NPCs can’t see, he experiences a burst of strength, and his wounds from the fight with the thug heal.
While Guy explores his new world with childlike delight, in reality, Keyes and Mauser, employees of Soonami Games, try to unravel the mystery of the NPC’s strange behaviour.
They conclude that Guy’s code has been hacked by a professional hacker who is not easy to trace. The guys decide to enter the game to clean up the mess. Keyes opts for a moustached policeman look, and Mauser puts on a fluffy pink bunny skin.
Meanwhile, Guy enjoys life and, having collected virtual money, buys himself the sneakers he’s been dreaming of for a long time. Behind the tracks, he sees a virtual door with a signpost and he almost gets hit by a train again.
The tech support staff stops him and reprimands him for hacking the NPC character’s skin. He is threatened with a lifetime ban if he continues to disrupt other characters’ missions.
Predictably, Guy has no idea what these aggressive guys are talking about and decides to just run away. During the chase, the hero discovers that his new sneakers can leap into the air and flies away from his pursuers onto the roof of a building.
Then the technicians activate “God mode” in the game, and now the whole world around them adjusts to them. They catch up with Guy at the very top, but he jumps down and, with the help of his tricked-out suit, lands safely on the ground.
Although the saboteur is destroyed, the online game statistics show that the number of players has not changed. Mauser thinks this is a temporary glitch in the system and advises his partner not to tell their boss Antoine about it.
He is busy creating the Free City sequel and may fire his subordinates over the bad news. It turns out that he and Millie once worked together and created a unique “Lifestyle” game in which players could watch their characters develop independently, like artificial intelligence.
They decided to team up with the big Soonami Corporation, expecting their game to be world-famous, but things turned out differently. Upon returning from work, Keyes finds Millie in her apartment.
The girl is disappointed that her former partner continues to work for Antoine. In her opinion, he has stolen their game code and inserted it into Free City, turning their highly intelligent game into a dumb shooter.
Keyes disagrees and thinks Antoine legally bought their game and just shelved it. And the source code for their game is completely different. Millie is determined to prove her case in court and tells Keyes that she has found irrefutable evidence.
She asks the guy to help her sneak into the secret level, but Keyes refuses her and tells her to leave because he doesn’t want to lose his position in the company.
After the unpleasant conversation with her former partner, Millie decides to break into the Free City secret stash on her own. Using the informant’s map, she navigates directly to the hideout and establishes surveillance on the characters who are guarding the cache.
Suddenly Guy appears behind her back, using his glasses to track her. His appearance is detected by the guards of the building and they open fire on the players.
With the forces being unequal, Millie decides to escape through a portal. The enamored character follows her and they end up at Molotova Girl’s headquarters.
Guy wants to help her in her missions, but Millie decides that she is facing an inexperienced player. She advises Guy to first level up his character by participating in bank robberies, stealing cars and beating up innocent bystanders.
However, the hero decides to choose a different path, because for him the world around him is real, and he does not want to hurt anyone. At first, Guy’s successes are not great: he is killed several times while trying to help other people.
But he is not discouraged, and, and he is trying his best over and over again, being reborn each time. And it pays off.
The guy earns more levels with lightning speed and ease, doing only good deeds and helping NPC characters. The player’s atypical behaviour immediately attracts the attention of the gaming community, and he becomes a global star nicknamed “The Guy in the Blue Shirt.”
He is being discussed on talk shows and streams, and children cosplay his image and quote his catchphrases. During one of the missions, Guy arrives at the bank, where he meets the offended Buddy. The security guard tells Guy that he should go back to his normal life and stop playing the hero.
At this point, robbers break into the bank, and Guy decides to show Buddy that he can control his own life. He takes away the robber’s sunglasses and hands them to Buddy, but he hesitates to put them on.
Meanwhile, in reality, Millie asks Keyes for help again and finally convinces him to help her. After locking himself and his laptop in the staff bathroom, the young man remotely lets Molotova Girl into the stash.
Inside, Millie effortlessly finds a video that helps uncover Antoine’s lies. The guards instantly teleport into the room and open a barrage of fire on the thief. Millie is trapped and loses the video, but Guy arrives at her rescue in epic fashion. In the meantime, he has managed to level up and is now ready to fight on par with his beloved.
Upon hearing that his friend is talking to the guy in the blue shirt, Keyes is surprised, as he doesn’t detect the other player’s presence in the game. Nevertheless, the heroic couple fights back against the thugs in full force, acting as a unit.
Firing back at their opponents, Guy and Molotova Girl fly out of the building on a motorcycle. In reality, the flamboyant owner of Soonami Antoine is preparing to launch the sequel to the famous shooter.
After hearing about the popularity of the guy in the blue shirt, he tells the team to change his skin to a villain and move him to a new part of the game.
Hearing this, Keyes tries to influence his boss, because he promised that Free City 2 would keep the same characters because changing them would bring a lot of bugs. The tech coyly suggests that Antoine create an original game rather than copy the old one. The boss, however, has no intention of getting so worked up.
He is sure that given the success of the first part of Free City, the sequel will bring him a lot of easy money. In the game, Guy shows his sweetheart his hideout, where he has collected different types of vehicles and weapons.
Millie is amazed at how quickly he has levelled up and begins to develop a liking for the player. The guy takes the girl to the waterfront, a secret place with no missions or dangers.
During the walk, it turns out that he and Millie have a lot in common. The guy looks like the man of her dreams, who makes funny jokes and seems to read all her thoughts. Meanwhile, Keyes is obsessed with finding out who the guy in the blue shirt is. In the course of his investigation, he is surprised to find the hero in the NPC database.
The young man rushes to tell Millie, not even realizing that the girl has already fallen for a nonexistent man. A romantic moment arises between them in the game and they kiss affectionately. But Keyes bursts in and ruins everything. Millie learns the shocking truth from her friend.
The guy is not a hacker under an NPC skin, but a highly evolved artificial intelligence that thinks he’s a living human being. In other words, Guy is direct evidence that Antoine has implemented the source code of their game in Free City.
Suddenly, Keyes remembers that Antoine is launching Free City 2 in a few days. Going to the site, they see that there is not a single legacy mission.
This means that the second part of the game is not an upgrade, it will completely replace the first. This means that the entire Free City 1 virtual universe, including the artificial intelligence, will be permanently wiped from all servers.
Keyes and Millie decide to confront Antoine together and find evidence of his theft with the help of Guy. Molotova Girl returns to the game and tells Guy the whole truth that his world is not real.
She tells him that he is just a non-playing character who was created to make the game seem more interesting to the users. Having said that, the truth breaks Guy’s heart.
Millie asks the hero to help her find a way to save the world, but he is too upset and leaves her. He goes to his favourite beach and tries to throw a rock into the sea, but it hits a protective barrier.
After seeing confirmation of his beloved’s words, Guy has a nervous breakdown. After another rebirth, Guy comes to Buddy for advice. He says that the only things that matter are feelings of friendship and love, even if they are not experienced by a real person. After his words, Guy decides to act.
Taking advantage of the fact that Buddy knows all the guards in town, they easily sneak into the secret hideout. There they meet a player, who turns out to be a fan of Guy and hands him the video with the evidence he needs.
Meanwhile, the owner of Soonami Games is angry about the skyrocketing popularity of the guy in the blue shirt. He has become such a discussed character that users have lost interest in the release of Free City 2 and pre-sales of the sequel have plummeted.
He tells Mauser to restart the servers to reset the NPCs. The hero hands the video to Millie and they watch it together. Millie recognizes the build of her game with waterfalls and beautiful scenery. Guy informs the girl that he is familiar with the place.
At the same moment, however, he discovers that all the players around him have frozen. Mauser restarts the servers and the game shuts down. When it comes back online, Guy has lost all his memories. As usual, he wakes up and goes to work.
On the way, Millie runs up to him and tries to wake him up. She shows him the video and asks him where he has seen this place. But Guy doesn’t remember anything. It would seem that Antoine has won and justice will never be served.
But Keyes finds a loophole in Guy’s code. He explains to Millie that restarting the game didn’t erase the NPC’s memories, it would have required destroying the servers physically. His intelligence remains in place, but they need to find a way to access it. Keyes tells Millie that Guy is based on a character he once developed for their game.
The point of his life was to find love. And Keyes has taken all desired characteristics from Millie. So when Guy met the girl of his dreams in Free City, his actions began to differ from the programmed algorithm. She awakened him and can do it again.
Millie immediately returns to the game and grabs Guy from the bank. She returns his sunglasses and kisses him passionately. Vivid memories of the girl flicker in the artificial intelligence’s mind. He then reveals to Millie that he saw the scene from the video in the reflection of the blinds in his apartment.
When she sees the familiar waterfall, she realizes that Antoine has hidden the original build by making it invisible, but has forgotten to erase all the reflections. Keyes assumes that the original build is over the horizon.
Now it remains to figure out how to get beyond the surf line, where Free City characters are denied access. They realize that Antoine will soon find out about their plans and turn all of his resources against them.
Overhearing their conversation, Guy offers to deprive the villain of these resources. He gathers all the NPC characters of the game on the waterfront and persuades them to go against the programmed algorithm.
He asks if they’re tired of being just background, of being mugged and beaten. Guy suggests that the characters become free and rule Free City, making it a safe and peaceful place.
The enthusiastic NPCs support the hero and embrace him. Meanwhile, the news that the guy in the blue shirt is not a player, but an artificial intelligence is rapidly spreading across the internet.
And all the streets in the game are deserted, because the NPCs have gone on digital strike and no longer obey anyone. Antoine becomes enraged and orders Mauser to destroy Guy and Molotova Girl, played by Millie.
The technician turns on God mode and tries various ways to deal with the heroes, but Keyes suppresses all his attempts. Antoine fires his subordinate, feeling no remorse for stealing his source code. Keyes gives his boss a parting gift and launches a code that builds a bridge to the horizon. The furious Antoine tells Mauser to ban absolutely all players.
Millie, as well as the others, are shut out, and Keyes is left alone. And Keyes, leaving the company building, discreetly turns on streaming. The game introduces Dude, an unfinished, muscular version of Guy, who was developed for Free City 2. He mercilessly beats the protagonist and his strength points fall off.
Buddy comes to his friend’s aid and distracts the bully’s attention. During the fight, Guy manages to get his glasses back and activate his superpowers. However, Dude still outmatches the protagonist in strength, so Guy plays a trick. He puts the glasses on him, diverting his attention, while he and Buddy escape to the sea.
Antoine starts destroying the servers with an axe, despite Mauser’s attempts to stop him. Free City begins to collapse and Buddy disappears. Despite all obstacles, Guy manages to make it to the horizon. Under the cheering of the streaming audience, he finds himself on the secret island.
Just before Antoine is about to destroy the last server, Millie catches up with him and offers him a deal. – You have the right to our code, all the profits. Just give me the rest of Free City. Let me build my world there.
After getting the rights to release the game franchise, Antoine eventually agrees to take the deal. Some time passes. Without the support of Keyes and Mauser, Free City 2 suffers from endless bugs and fails catastrophically. Antoine is arrested for stealing and causing damage to the game.
Using their source code, the trio of developers create Free Life, where all can just observe the lives of the characters. The guy and all the other characters from the previous game are moved there.
Millie enters the virtual world to say goodbye to Guy, but he manages to find the right words to say himself. He admits to Millie that his code is a love message that someone left for her in reality.
The girl finally realizes how Keyes feels, and quits the game. She catches up with Keyes on the street and they make out in the middle of a busy freeway. Meanwhile, in Free Life, Guy is reunited with Dude and Buddy, and they continue to live their own free lives. Have you ever fallen in love with a virtual game character?