When a murder threat arrives from the virtual world, death in reality begins its countdown.
A string of bizarre murders takes place. The victims come from all walks of life, but their deaths are like dark works of art, meticulously designed. The only clue left at each crime scene is a chilling taunt: "This is the first lesson."
Detective Captain Chen Xu discovers that every lead points to an anonymous virtual space. When he risks putting on a VR headset and entering it, he finds no streams of data or code, but a virtual police station replicated down to the finest detail. His own avatar is sitting in a chair. It slowly turns around, its face featureless except for a line of bloody text: "You finally made it. Welcome to your next murder."
The investigation in the real world is going nowhere. The perpetrators who have been caught are merely "pawns" manipulated by words, and know nothing about the mastermind, the "Mentor." The taunts in the virtual world grow more brazen. The Mentor seems to be everywhere, relishing the thrill of manipulating the police like puppets.
Chen Xu and criminal psychologist Xia Wan gradually realize that they are facing more than an ordinary criminal. He is a philosopher who has made himself a god in the virtual world and is conducting a deranged social experiment. His goal is not merely to kill, but to prove that human evil can be precisely "instigated" and "distributed."
When Xia Wan's computer screen suddenly lights up on its own and displays a familiar greeting, "A perfect murder mystery. You're here?", they realize in horror that the police have never been bystanders in this deadly game. They are... its final test subjects.
