Black Tower's Desperate Trial: Becoming a Prisoner of Death

In 2077, the brain-computer interface game Deep Sleep launches.

Lu Chen signs a lucrative closed beta testing agreement.

Three seconds later, he discovers he can never get out.

The System says: Clear all 1,000 levels, and you can go back.

He wants to go back. His younger sister is waiting for him in the hospital.

So he starts climbing.

On the first level, someone dies the instant the lights go out.

On the fiftieth, the person he trusts most dies for him.

On the hundredth, he discovers that no one has ever reached the end.

A purge kills a batch of people every thirty days. Betrayals happen every day. The day his teammates turn their blades on him, he can't even remember what he's done.

On the eight-hundredth level, he starts to lose track of whether he's Lu Chen or something else.

On the nine-hundredth, he finds the answer.

On the thousandth, he clears the game.

The moment the door opens, researchers in the real world scream for the gateway to be shut down.

But it's already too late.

His phone screen is still flashing:

Pandora Gateway: Residual activity detected.

He glances back.

Perhaps this nightmare has only just begun.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.