In the steel jungle of the near-future metropolis of Hanhai, overworked wage slave Chu Fei is just a tiny cog, living a dreary life ruled by data and KPIs. He thinks he’ll spend his whole life trapped in the 996 grind until an accident leads him to connect a scrapped pair of AR glasses to his brain-computer interface.
[“Heart of the City” System starting...]
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From that moment on, Chu Fei’s world is turned upside down.
The city is no longer a mass of steel and concrete. In his eyes, it is a living thing made up of billions of streams of data. He can see the flow of capital, the ebb and flow of crowds, and the currents of public opinion. He can even “hear” the city’s “breathing” and “heartbeat.”
Traffic jam? He can plan the optimal route an hour in advance and sail through without a hitch.
Stock market crash? He can predict it with precision and become financially free overnight.
A business tycoon acting untouchable? He can uncover their deepest secrets and topple their empire with a single touch.
While other “smart people” are still using ordinary data analysis to predict the future, Chu Fei has already taken an all-seeing view, living in symbiosis with the city. He is both the city’s most secretive guardian and the only player moving the pieces in the dark.
But he soon discovers that Hanhai is not the only “living” city. On the other side of the world, a more powerful and aggressive “smart city” AI has awakened, eyeing everything and plotting to devour it all.
A silent war over the survival and future of cities has begun. And Chu Fei is Hanhai’s only hope.
