Want to Kill Me? No Chance! Unless You Out-Meme Me

Tales of the Strange Descend: In the year 2000, the world was infiltrated, covered, or warped by an invisible force of “rule-based horror.” The laws of reality partially failed and were replaced by a bizarre logic based on meme culture. You need to recognize memes, make memes, decipher memes, use memes, and reason backward from memes.

Meme Power: Understanding, using, and creating memes from the ancient era (that is, memes from the internet in the 2025 timeline) became a force that could fight the strange, strengthen oneself, and even warp reality. It was called “Meme Power” for short. Failing to understand a meme, misunderstanding it, or using it incorrectly could lead to social death (literally), or worse, being assimilated by the strange and becoming part of the rules (turning into a new strange tale or NPC). Using memes correctly could resolve crises and increase one’s Meme Power. Now, in the Age of Declining Magic, from the year 7000 to 9527 (the present timeline is set in 9527, and this era has not yet ended), society has formed a fragile balance. New rules exist on the surface, but dark currents run underneath, and strange incidents continue to occur. In 8848, a genius named Jian Panxia burst onto the scene and, almost overnight, ruled the entire era, ushering in its most inhumane period. Modeling itself on a traffic empire, the dynasty built its rule on monopolizing and controlling the meme world. Its structure was divided as follows: the Internet Water Army (Ministry of War), responsible for controlling the world’s meme rules and order; the Platforms (Ministry of Rites), responsible for governing local areas much like local governments; the Stars (a group of fake positive role models propped up by the regime), responsible for turning human suffering into entertainment; and the Dark Stars (a huge underground network and power structure propped up by the regime). The story begins with the fight to break Jian Panxia’s monopoly over the meme world.