/lit/ - Literature

Is there any way to write a book that uses a VR (or neural-link style VR) game as a secondary world without descending into either 1. litrpg trash or 2. Ready Player One trash? I want my next novel to have a secondary world setup, and a cyberpunk story sounds interesting, but I don't think I've really seen it executed in an inspiring way. I liked the internet stuff in Hyperion, but that was such a small part of the book. Any other recommendations I can check out with that kind of setup?