Crafting Secret Identities in Interstellar Films

Shi Xiapei, a young human woman living in a remote star system, has spent most of her life with no family, no savings, no partner, and no pets. So far, her only companion has been an outdated, mass-produced survival capsule home.

Her only distinguishing feature is the enormous medical debt she incurred after a serious childhood illness, a sum she would have to spend her whole life scrimping and working to repay, barring any unexpected developments.

Now the unexpected has arrived.

A film project, audacious even by the standards of this fanciful interstellar age, has approached her, hoping she will become a distinguished... anonymous extra.

An extra is fine, as long as the pay is good. After going over the contract again and again, Shi Xiapei happily climbs into the company's ultra-high-end immersive pod.

And here's what makes this project special: to guarantee buzz, the guests' memories will be blocked, and they will be dropped into a virtual environment controlled by scriptwriters and calculated in real time by an AI brain. They will act in brand-new character identities, and the audience will vote to choose the stories they like best.

A plan this adventurous is bound to have surprises. For instance, one extra turns out to be immune to memory suppression. Or rather, a