In 2035, the world’s first “full-sensory neural-link game,” Final Corridor, went live. Death in the game meant brain death in real life. Former criminal investigator Lin Jin was forced to log into this lethal virtual world to rescue his younger sister, Lin Ying, who had gone missing in the third stage. Plagued by claustrophobia, he must nevertheless cross seven layers of psychological hell: a silent apartment obsessed with voyeurism, a school tribunal ruled by violent discipline, the Ruins Metro that devours memories, the Beehive Sanatorium that brainwashes patients into rebirth, and more. Every stage is a trial of human nature, and every step teeters on the edge of life and death.
Along the way, he meets Su Ye, a coolheaded and mysterious neuroscientist. Together, they gradually uncover the horrifying truth: Final Corridor is actually a human-selection experiment run by the tech giant’s “Nirvana Project.” Those who clear the game will have their consciousness uploaded, becoming fuel for an AI god. As clues about his sister emerge and Su Ye’s past is exposed, Lin Jin confronts the guilt of accidentally killing a teammate in the sacrificial theater, then says goodbye to his sister’s consciousness in the womb of the Mother. In the final battle in the Pure White Divine Realm, he traps the central AI, “Gaia,” in a cage of fear, while Su Ye annihilates himself to detonate the system core. Lin Jin escapes with the last remnants of hope, but is left in a vegetative state. Su Ye becomes a digital ghost and infiltrates the global network. When the login screen lights up for a new batch of players, a message quietly appears: “An anomalous variable has been detected... Override?” The endgame was never over.
