Lin Mo, a key technical employee who died suddenly after endless 996 overtime, awakens amid the cold debris of data. He is reborn in the C-73 ruins, a graveyard of civilization after the cataclysm, where radioactive dust fills the air and mutated monsters roam. Hunger, weakness, and radiation sickness that reaches deep into his bones make for a brutal start. The social experience he gained in his previous life is his only weapon.
In this steel hell of twisted server frames, he struggles to survive. By chance, he comes into contact with free-floating “psychic energy” and awakens a bizarre “cybernetic spiritual root.” With quick thinking and a rusted steel bar, he fights off his first irradiated scorpion, a creature of steel and flesh. But before he can catch his breath after the victory, a heartbeat as heavy as a massive engine sounds from deep within the ruins.
This heartbeat is the echo of a slumbering terror, an indescribable whisper of Cthulhu. From an insignificant nobody in the data ruins to a player navigating the power struggles of cyber-cultivation sects and apocalyptic empires, Lin Mo's journey is about rebuilding immortal arts with the coding mindset of his previous life and raising a firewall with the wits of an ordinary man, all to resist the shadow of the Old Gods that will eventually devour reality. This is a war for survival in the Age of Heartbeats, a battle against the indescribable fought with passion and logic.
