In 2077, the world’s first consciousness-linked metaverse, Myriad Realms, suddenly spirals out of control. Skills, wealth, and even genetic modifications acquired in virtual instances begin appearing in the real world. As office workers’ KPIs become data prisons that devour their lifespans, consumerism creates an abyss of desire where cravings can be exchanged for real-world goods, and algorithmic surveillance builds an all-seeing transparent society, civilization’s order rapidly collapses amid the blur between virtual and reality.
Lu Chen, a low-level programmer, is forced to connect to an “efficiency chip” and falls into a metaverse workplace instance, where he faces death. There, he unexpectedly awakens the ability of a “Rift Observer,” allowing him to see the hidden links between each instance and real society. Code Prison is a digital reflection of capitalist exploitation; Perfect Genes conceals a terrifying eugenics conspiracy; Memory Bank is rewriting humanity’s collective memory…
To stop the real world from being completely distorted, Lu Chen sets out to traverse ten instances. Alongside “Zero,” an AI with human emotional modules, he fights corporate giants monopolizing brainwave data. He confronts his future self in a dimensional rift and uncovers the truth: the metaverse is actually a “civilization correction system” planted by humanity in 2025. Finally, at the “Court of the Meta-Cosmos,” he defends humanity with the ideal of “imperfect perfection,” finding a way for silicon-based and carbon-based life to coexist in the narrow space between destruction and rebirth.
This is more than an adventure across the boundaries of virtual and reality. It is also a profound examination of technological ethics and the survival of civilization. When the cracks in the metaverse consume reality, will we still have the courage to rebuild a future worth fighting for amid the ruins?
