Cyber Kyoto: A Record of Melancholy

In New Kyoto in 2077, good moods are mandatory, and bad moods are punishable by fines. As a proud “emotional sanitation worker” (officially certified, with truly moving benefits), my job is to clean up the mind-melting “emotional trash” that rich people accidentally leak.

My name is Lin Ye, and I pay my bills by cleaning up other people’s sadness, anger, and fear. I thought my life would keep muddling along between sticky “despair” and searing “rage,” until one day, I cleaned a drop of pure-gold “tears” from a body that was supposed to have “passed away peacefully.” It wasn’t in any database.

From that moment on, trouble came knocking like discounted nutrient paste. Black-clad agents from Mindscape Corporation, information brokers from the underworld, and lunatics seeking “genuine emotion” all wanted something from me.