Despair Iterated

(No romance, behind-the-scenes faction, symbiotic evolution, strange tales)

When the world began to rot, she chose to become the most reasonable tumor.

On a rainy night, Chen Shi died in the alley on her way home. The next second, she was “born” from her own headless corpse: no memories, no past, only a survival instinct as cold as ice.

This world was sick. “Ghosts” lurked in the shadows, hunting humans according to bizarre rules. Screams, knocks at the door, reflections in mirrors, even your own breathing could become a death sentence.

While others died in terror, Chen Shi survived by calculating her odds.

She soon discovered that the most terrifying thing wasn’t the monsters roaming the streets, but the cheap apartment building she had rented. It was itself a living amalgamation of rules, digesting its tenants.

And she had become the most unusual “parasite” inside it.

She used rules to fight rules and fear to feed fear. When the building tried to digest this anomaly, it failed to realize that what it was staring at wasn’t prey, but an abyss.

Now the monster is remaking itself into her strongest fortress and sharpest weapon. Order grows upon the throne, and rules are being reconstructed in her veins.

The city is rotting in the dark, and other “cleaners” prowl the shadows. But Chen Shi knows that to survive, she must be more unreasonable than every “ghost” and colder and more efficient than every rule.

“Welcome to a world of despair. Here, the one who lives longest isn’t the kindest, but the one who makes the most sense.”

Despair Iteration: a story about using absolute logic in a world where the rules have collapsed, with the power of absolute reason