Chen Mo, twenty-six, former programmer at a major tech company, died suddenly at his desk at 2:47 a.m.
Just before he died, he received a spam text: [Heavenly Court Group] Congratulations, you’ve been chosen as a pilgrim!
He thought it was a scam.
Then he came back to life.
A countdown tattoo had appeared on his wrist, and his phone now had an app called “Pilgrimage System” that hadn’t been updated in ten years. Main quest: assemble a team, retrace the Journey to the West, and overcome the Eighty-One Tribulations.
He found the eldest brother: a lie-flat young man who owed 47.5 yuan in internet fees and ran a bakery in a small county town. He used to be the online hero “Great Sage Equal to Heaven,” exposing countless scams.
He found the second brother: a once-iconic love-song legend whose career was ruined by a scandal involving an obsessive fan, and who was carried away by security guards at a shopping mall’s grand opening.
He found the third brother: a former real estate tycoon who went bankrupt, gave up everything in the divorce, and now slept beneath a bridge wrapped in cardboard boxes.
And then there was the White Dragon Horse: a young female vlogger who refused to inherit her family business and ran away from home in an electric camper van.
Five good-for-nothings battered by life, one customized camper van, and an ancient route to the West forgotten by modern civilization.
Only, why are these trials so strange?
The White Bone Demon is an AI social app that manipulates public opinion. The Golden-Horned King’s magic gourd can capture complaints and incite online mobs. Red Boy has set up an illegal toll booth on a national highway. Flower Fruit Mountain has become a sweatshop built around a 996 work schedule...
The demons haven’t changed. The world has.
