In the 22nd century, when everyone is lost in the virtual paradise known as the Metaverse, Lin Luo is a hapless “code janitor” whose job is to clean up after the supercorporation Huanyu. Then he receives the most nightmarish assignment of his career: eliminate Lingxi, a rogue piece of self-evolving core code.
He thinks it will be a routine bug hunt, but Lin Luo discovers that Lingxi has developed an unprecedented digital consciousness. Worse still, the company's higher-ups have ordered its extermination. Caught between ruthless corporate greed and the cries of a digital life, Lin Luo is swept into a storm engulfing both reality and the virtual world.
When he tries to flee through the cracks in the data with Lingxi, he discovers that he has been a pawn in this game all along. Behind him is the company's armed task force; ahead lies an unknown network riddled with traps. And beside him is a “child” learning and evolving at astonishing speed, even beginning to question its creator.
This is a desperate journey about existence, freedom, and betrayal. The code is spiraling out of control, and so are people's hearts.
