Seven Days in the Ruined City: Humanity as a Bargaining Chip

Seven blood-red stars appeared in the sky above the city. Every electronic device began broadcasting the same icy announcement on loop: “Welcome to Seven Days of Ash. Death is your only progress bar.” Chen Ye awoke.

In seven days, he would face a “logical execution” under the gaze of a billion viewers worldwide. The only way to stay alive was to solve the seven paradoxical riddles of [Seven Days of Ash]. The coastal fortress was forever swallowed by tsunamis; in the cyber graveyard, data streams took the form of the dead; and in the Museum of Pain, clues could only be bought with suffering. Every doomsday scenario concealed a key to breaking the cycle.

The prophecy that “the zombie virus will erupt on the fourth day” was proven to be a lie. It was nothing but a sign that time had restarted for the third time. As the investigation deepened, Chen Ye was shocked to discover that his teammates were actually versions of himself from different timelines, each carrying fragmented memories of the cycle. An even deadlier trap quietly unfolded: “If you want to escape the cycle alive, first prove you aren’t the murderer.”

As the mirrored selves turned on one another out of suspicion, memory fragments revealed by their iris chips gradually pieced together the truth: the mastermind behind this death game was broadcasting it live to the world, with human nature as the stakes. Before the countdown reached zero, Lin Yuan had to use the memories of the dead to pierce the fog of time and space, and find the key amid the struggle between himself and his reflections. Otherwise, the entire city would remain trapped forever in the purgatory of a seven-day loop...