Noncompliant Signal

In 2047, the System keeps the city’s pulse beating. This perfect algorithm plans the optimal path for everyone, even matching them with romantic partners, promising a frictionless life. Yet at Lin Su’s coming-of-age ceremony, when the System announces his “perfect” 94.7% match with Su Yuwei, all he feels is a silent suffocation. At the same time, a glaring “strongly not recommended” match score of 41.3% with its outspoken critic, Chu Yao, and a mysterious “noncompliant signal” project draw him into the cracks beneath the System’s polished surface.

Lin Su gradually discovers that, even as the System pursues utmost efficiency and harmony, it is secretly “pruning” the unevenness of human nature: eliminating differences and homogenizing personalities until humanity becomes a set of smoothly running parts. Guided by Chu Yao, he begins listening to the voices the System labels “errors,” but which are real: a spontaneous wrong note, a poem that doesn’t rhyme, a wooden bird with one wing larger than the other. These faint “noncompliant signals” become the starting point of resistance. In the end, the System gradually compromises and learns from humanity, exploring the unknown future alongside them.