(Invincible from the Start | Modern-Day Imagination | Urban Supernatural | Urban Powers | Rule-Based | Lovecraftian Elements | Team Growth | Two Couples | Ensemble Cast | Light Mystery)
As the code of the dimensional firewall begins to disintegrate, the Old Gods’ tendrils tear through the city’s neon lights. Every supernatural phenomenon is a program that can be rewritten.
Armed with a phone that can rewrite the rules, Chen Zhilan thinks he is a lone wolf guarding order. But in the cold world of code, he finds himself caught up in a tender emotional resonance.
The patch of an overworked employee who died on the job wails in an office tower. Resentment festers in the suburban graveyard of shared bikes. A fog of forgetting is erasing every human bond…
As the truth behind urban legends comes to light, the administrators close in, and the faceless Old Gods bring their reckoning as foretold, the only way forward is to wield code as a blade and emotion as a shield, rewriting the crumbling rules and suppressing the awakening Old Gods.
“Rules were never cold shackles. They are the line that protects the living.” This time, they will use mortal bodies to install one final patch of salvation in the human world.
The setting of this book is really eye-catching. It combines the Cthulhu-style old god threat with code rewriting rules, and uses a programmer's perspective to deconstruct urban supernaturals. It's quite interesting. The protagonist Chen Zhilan holds a mobile phone that can rewrite the rules, and fights side by side with his teammates in the cold code world. The core conflict of "using code as a blade and emotions as a shield" is also quite tense. However, Shuangwen's sense of routine is still a bit obvious. The pace of the plot is sometimes fast and sometimes slow, the development of some dungeons and urban legends is a little hasty, the supporting characters are relatively weak, and the line of team growth is not fully established. Although the setting of the rule system is novel, some of the logical details are not handled solidly enough, which occasionally leads to drama. Overall, it is a qualified urban supernatural novel that can satisfy readers who like Cthulhu elements and imaginative settings, but it is still a long way from being amazing. It is suitable for leisure reading, so don't have high expectations.