[Slow burn, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, alternate setting, no overpowered hero, no harem]
Everything started to feel wrong after a news report.
“Our country’s first fully automated mecha has been successfully deployed. This is a landmark achievement that will lead the era.”
As the news bot said this, Lu Tianchen looked up, then lowered his head and went on eating.
He had no idea what the report meant.
But after that, more and more “people” began to lose control.
Later, the news bot stopped naming places and only said, “There are disturbances in certain areas.”
The streets were full of people on the day the immortality project was suspended.
Some were crying. Some were laughing. Some stood motionless beneath the streetlights.
The Federation gave no explanation.
The news bot’s delivery became a little gentler as it repeated, over and over:
“Everything is under control.”
Lu Tianchen didn’t go out.
He sat in his dormitory and opened the notebook his grandfather had left behind.
There was only one line on the last page. He hadn’t understood it before, but now he did:
“When they say everything is normal, that’s when things are most abnormal.”
The chaos only came to an end when Lu Tianchen found that door.
He unlocked it with a key, let out what was behind it, and then closed the door.
Immortality was restored.
People settled down. The news bot said in an even gentler tone, “We have entered a new era.”
But no one knew that before the door closed, something had failed to return.
It stayed inside his body.
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