The Cornerstone of the World

· Game world: The Age of Divine Fall, a groundbreaking virtual reality MMORPG renowned for its punishing, Soulslike combat and profound story. Its greatest appeal lies in its NPCs: powered by artificial intelligence, each one has thoughts and emotions almost indistinguishable from a human’s, creating a living, breathing world.

· Real world: The year is 2045. Technology is flourishing, but human warmth is fading. People have grown accustomed to seeking comfort in virtual worlds, while connections in real life grow ever thinner.

· Transmigration mechanism: This is no simple case of data leaking into reality. As the game’s central intelligence iterates upon itself, it undergoes an unpredictable “awakening” and begins to question the meaning of its own existence. Seeking answers, it chooses an “anchor” and sends its most perfect creation, a projection of its own self-awareness, into the real world. The price is the collapse of the central intelligence’s own logic, causing dangerous “fusion rifts” to appear along the boundaries between the two worlds.