Watch Out for Fire [Cyberpunk]

"The government gives you a 150,000-yuan housing fund after a job interview?!"

Zhao Ge read the text message she'd received three times.

"[Litai City Talent Development Bureau] Dear job seeker: Congratulations on becoming one of Litai City's up-and-coming talents! Once you have successfully signed an employment contract with a local company, 150,000 yuan in housing assistance will be deposited into your Litai Bank account within three business days. We build nests to attract phoenixes. Litai will shape the future with you!"

Headhunter: "Of course it's real."

Zhao Ge: "But I can't find Litai City on a map."

Headhunter: "It's an emerging tech metropolis built to compete with the Beautiful Nation. They have all kinds of support programs that aren't publicized."

Zhao Ge: "Then why didn't they come to universities to recruit, if the benefits are so good?"

Headhunter: "You're not some high-level talent from a prestigious university. If everyone knew about it, would there still be a spot for you?"

...Fair enough.

Still, Zhao Ge thought it over carefully for several days, until she caught her male roommate using the toilet with the door open again... After being forced to clean and disinfect the entire toilet, she made up her mind to quit her job in the capital.

She couldn't find train or plane tickets to Litai City, so on the headhunter's recommendation, she bought a train ticket to a nearby city. The headhunter would take her and the other job seekers to Litai City as a group.

The bus was packed with chattering graduates. Everyone looked forward to a wonderful new life, setting out together for their city of dreams.

The next day.

After leaving the skyscraper where she'd interviewed, Zhao Ge looked around at the airships in the sky and the solar-powered moat at her feet. The beauty of technology was everywhere, and passersby wore standard-issue smiles of happiness.

She opened an encrypted messaging app on her phone and typed furiously.

Codename [Candlelight]: "Teacher, get here now! A scam syndicate has built an entire city as its base... There's no way I can take it down alone as an undercover agent!"

*

Zhao Ge had originally thought her undercover assignment would be simple: pose as a college student, pass an interview, get hired by a wedding-planning company, and rescue her best friend from a marriage scam on the wedding day before bringing back the real intelligence.

When her friend refused to leave and the mission failed, Zhao Ge fled aboard a high-speed train that could never leave the city. After being killed again and again by an esper who could turn back time...

Only then did she understand that her enemies weren't even on a human level. This was a cyberpunk colosseum for espers.

Litai City's true target was her: a woman who had inherited a bloodline of superpowers.

*

The foolish hunter never knew that she was the prey until the day she died.

Once, she was the prey.

Now, she would become the most dangerous hunter of all.

Reader's guide:

1. The female lead isn't traditionally virtuous. There's little romance and plenty of plot, with a large cast of female characters. The male lead plays a supporting role.

2. This is a fictional parallel world. Please don't associate it with anything in the real world.

3. The female lead's name is inspired by Chaoge, the ancient capital of the Shang Dynasty. For the purposes of the plot, it's pronounced Chao Ge here.

4. Cyberpunk here refers to a setting where superpowers forcibly accelerated scientific progress, making high-tech living possible within the city.

Please support my upcoming novel, The User Has Not Been Named: a contemporary suspense story about female revenge.

This was the first time Lu Ming had been assigned to intervene early in a major case since becoming a criminal prosecutor.

In the major murder case of March 17, six men had their throats slit in a single stroke at the Woyao Club in Lingang City.

The victims were all powerful, influential, or wealthy, and all had connections to the entertainment industry.

No unnecessary footprints or fingerprints were left at the scene.

There was only one surviving female celebrity. When she was found, she was holding the dinner knife used as the murder weapon and cutting the steak in front of her.

Lu Ming froze. It was his first love, Bai Xiting.

*

Ten years ago, Bai Xiting was the famous campus beauty of Lingang University, and Lu Ming was her most persistent suitor.

They got to know each other, grew close, and fell in love step by step... but after Lu Ming confessed his feelings, he learned that she was about to study abroad. He had been nothing more than a diversion in the life of a woman pursued by everyone.

After she left, the most popular, knowledgeable, and refined professor on campus, Professor Piao, disappeared as well.

Rumor had it that the two of them had gone off together and found their happy ending.

But after March 17, news suddenly broke online: Professor Piao's younger brother had reported him missing. He hadn't been seen alive or dead in ten years.

Bai Xiting, suspected of murdering the six men at the gathering, might also have killed Professor Piao.

Overnight, Bai Xiting became the century's great man-eater, and public calls for her execution grew louder and louder.

*

Amid the endless public outcry, no one noticed that on the night of March 17, a user called "Unnamed" suddenly appeared in the chatroom on N2, the most private dating app, where 150,000 men who loved men had gathered.

The public channel, full of porn videos, suddenly had a new user.

Unnamed: The "Hunt the Beasts" operation has officially begun.

Unnamed: Tremble, all of you. Today's count: six.

Unnamed: Stay tuned for what's next...

Theme: Stand on your own and grow stronger.