Humanity did not evolve naturally. Humans are experimental subjects deployed by the advanced civilization known as the Star Cage. The universe is a series of nested, iterating instances. Whenever a civilization reaches a certain threshold, it is pulled into an Iteration Space to complete science-fiction missions set by higher-dimensional civilizations. Failure means the civilization is erased; victory unlocks access to the next layer of the universe, until the "True Universe" is within reach.
The protagonist, Lin Shen, was a low-level maintenance engineer in the interstellar age. When he is accidentally dragged into the Iteration Space, he is forced to fight for survival in science-fiction instances featuring interstellar warships, alien ruins, mechanical kingdoms, quantum illusions, and more. Step by step, he uncovers the origins of humanity, the truth about the Star Cage, and the ultimate secrets of higher-dimensional civilizations.
