To raise enough money for her seriously ill mother's hospital fees, Ke Ni went to a broker and, on his recommendation, became a tester for prohibited sleep codes.
Each code paid a million. Ke Ni only had to test three.
It sounded like a quick way to make a fortune, so, amid the broker's urging, Ke Ni signed a death liability waiver.
She entered the sleep pod and entered the code. Ke Ni saw a world completely unlike the public sleep codes.
A burning sun, a warped blue sea, and a vast fortune hidden in a lonely castle...
(The Doomsday Castle)
A cornfield beside abandoned railway tracks. A blue-glowing flashlight illuminated blood-soaked earth in the dark...
(The Murder Site)
An expedition team lost its way in the desert. Fortunately, they found an oasis. Unfortunately, it was too small to sustain ten people until the rescue team arrived. There were too many people. There should be fewer...
(The Desert Oasis)
After collecting three million, Ke Ni left the studio and entered an anonymous phone booth to call the police. Anyone capable of creating sleep codes this warped had to be a sociopath.
Besides, there was another five hundred thousand to be had as a whistleblower's reward.
But the other end of the line didn't begin with a police officer's formal greeting. Instead, Ke Ni heard a cold, mechanical voice, so familiar that it was identical to the NPCs from the three prohibited sleep codes.
"Sleeper: Ke Ni."
"Welcome to Z's new world: virtual reality."
Ke Ni hung up. Outside the anonymous phone booth, everyone was staring through its opaque glass, grinning silently.
She looked down at the coin in her palm. The lord's forehead was marked with the letter "Z". She was trapped inside a sleep code.
Z was a genius who created sleep codes. Amidst a chorus of praise, his ideas grew increasingly bold and outrageous.
At last, a wealthy man died of a heart attack brought on by fright while inside one of Z's sleep-code worlds. Z was stripped of his license to create them. He didn't care. He turned to the less regulated underground market, where plenty of thrill-seekers awaited his new codes.
But even in the underground market, a sleep code needed at least one tester to pass before it could be released. Z's codes were too terrifying. Every tester was left in a state of mental emptiness, so his codes didn't meet the standards for sale.
Patient waiting always brings satisfying results. At last, Z found the perfect tester.
Ke Ni, a money-hungry young woman.
And money was the one thing Z had plenty of.
He just wanted more people to experience his creations.
"Miss Ke Ni, I'll give you lots and lots of money."
"Deal."
#The story of an obsessive mad genius and a greedy, brave woman
#A story of how they change each other
Theme: People should have the courage to go all in.
