The Zodiac Death Game: A Prison of the Subconscious

Just after stepping out of prison at twenty-four, Qi Xia was dragged into the bizarre Zodiac Death Game by a black envelope embroidered with the Rat totem. Each day, twelve players of different backgrounds must enter an instance tied to one of the zodiac signs’ taboos. In Rat Alley, what he steals isn’t a key, but the memory of his hit-and-run. In the Ox Field, what he tills isn’t land, but a promise to the dead that he failed to keep. In the Tiger Prison, what he escapes isn’t a guard, but the guilt he has hidden for three years. Fail an instance and you’ll be trapped there forever. A reset of the cycle turns eliminated players into puppets, while each fading mark on the crescent-shaped scar over Qi Xia’s left chest reveals another cruel truth: the players are all fragments of his personality, and the game is a subconscious rescue program running while his brain is dead. When the final Court of Judgment, the Year of the Pig, lights up, he won’t be facing the System, but the self who fled the scene after the accident. In this game with his very consciousness at stake, will he succumb, or awaken?