[Main plot: Ensemble cast, no romantic pairing for the protagonist]
[Subplot: Urban romance + future hackers + electronic information warfare]
Hard sci-fi with no System, not a light read
The vast, boundless sea.
The Consciousness Realm was a mothership carrying dozens of "brain-dead" people. They had been transformed into "biological information beings," neither born nor destroyed, neither dead nor alive.
To gain control of this one-of-a-kind technological mothership, nations resorted to every means at their disposal, from threats and inducements to violent seizures...
Pirates, gangs, storms, typhoons, and underwater volcanoes all took their turns on the stage.
To protect this paradise, Nanli Island, more than a hundred courageous scientists gave everything they had...
After a failed experiment, Chen Xi joined an interstellar research team, studying how to awaken brain-dead patients in a "hospital for the dead" at sea. These patients, too, lived entirely different double lives...
It started off very well, not at all noisy. It's rare to find a book that tells a story so gently and slowly. Just a quick note: I hope the ending doesn't feel rushed or disjointed. I reread many chapters. The novel's structure is as follows: Xiao Chen finds a job that involves watching and analyzing the dreams of many people.