In 2149, Earth’s resources are depleted and its ecosystem has collapsed. Yellow-brown dust clouds blot out the sky, and human civilization is forced to eke out a meager existence in underground “cooling pods.” To escape the despair of reality, people rely on “immersion helmets” to upload their consciousness to a virtual world called “New Realm,” sustaining their “daily lives” in a data-woven utopia.
Yet New Realm’s idyllic beauty is as fragile as a bubble. In reality, the shadow of extraterrestrial life and an unknown higher civilization is creeping closer. Strange energy signals captured by deep-space probes plunge the underground research teams into panic. Humanity’s crisis goes far beyond resource depletion, and the computing power and energy that sustain New Realm are also on the verge of collapse as the real world runs dry.
Lin Mo, a liaison who travels between New Realm and reality, tries to protect the “daily dreams” of people such as “Neighbor Xiao Ai” in the virtual world, while also facing the piercing alarms about an alien invasion at the real-world research zone. As the boundary blurs between the rusted sky of reality and the data utopia, and ripples of alien civilization disturb New Realm’s “daily life,” should humanity sink into its virtual haven, or burn its boats and seek a true way forward for civilization amid the ruins of reality?
Two interwoven storylines bring the struggle against crisis in reality into resonance with the undercurrents beneath virtual daily life, composing a future epic about survival, escape, and resistance.
