Thank you extremely fucking much. I am always looking for good scifi.

(I strongly recommend the works of Greg Egan and Sam Hughes, if you aren't already familiar.)

There was a similar story in Heavy Metal once upon a time (illus by Corben I think). Desperate people in a nightmare maze running from monsters for years... decades. Turns out it's all a synthetic reality for rehabilitating terrorists. When they finally pop the protag out of his sensosuit he's introduced to an eden of lush jungles and big-tittied women. I won't reveal the punchline.