[Cyberpunk Mystery] + [Human Nature Experiment] + [Hard-Boiled Noir]
“In San Francisco, pain is the last luxury.”
A strange illness had appeared on the streets of San Francisco. Tens of thousands of people stood by the roadside like statues, wearing perfect eight-toothed smiles. They didn’t eat or drink, sleep or rest. The police called them “the Insensate.” Doctors called it “happiness overload.”
But I knew they had simply sold their pain.
I’m Chen, a “debt collector” at an underground clinic. I can see the emotional balance above every person’s head. The balance of those well-dressed elites is in the red; that of the Insensate living on the streets is infinite.
This world has gone mad. Some people sign away their emotions just to live in luxury homes. Others have their pain nerves cleanly severed in pursuit of immortality. And my younger sister Yutong, missing for three years, is deep beneath the sea, 300 meters down, bearing the pain of 4.3 million people across the entire city.
“Big brother, don’t come. But I’m afraid you won’t.”
While everyone in the city is lost in false bliss, I’m the last person who can feel pain. Not because I’m lucky, but because someone has been hurting in my place for too long.
Pain is proof that you’re alive. Numbness is more terrifying than death.
