In 2030, the Age of Technological Erasure began.
The government issued its final ultimatum: all data, devices, and memory modules from the old era had to be formatted. Everything from the past was wiped away. People’s consciousness was reset, history was overwritten with new data, and everyone received a new identity code. The streets grew quiet, the flow of information became uniform, and no one questioned anything or resisted. At least, not on the surface.
But I was an exception.
I was born long after Technological Erasure had been completed. Everyone followed the rules of the “New Era.” Their memories had been updated, like a machine after a reset. But I had no chip, no number, and no data updates. Newborns received new identity codes the moment they emerged from the womb...
And I... had two identity codes. It felt as if an invisible tide were crashing through my mind. I saw memories that weren’t mine, heard voices from things I’d never experienced, and felt an indescribable sense of being torn apart... Who was I?
When I was fifteen, I was sent to a mental hospital. It housed a group of “madmen” who often muttered to themselves, sometimes lucid and sometimes raving. Some said... they were being “corrected.”
“They’ve altered everything...” an old man with grizzled white hair whispered to me, an unusual light flickering in his eyes. “But data always leaves traces.”
It is indeed rare to see such a highly literary novel like Tomato , and to be honest, reading this book is like reading the plot of a game, and I feel that it should be quite suitable for being made into a PC game.