Urban Legends in a Cyberpunk World

Ye Ming is a bottom-rung wage slave in a cyberpunk world, working from six in the morning to nine at night. Every day, she wants to die, but by the time she gets off work, she doesn't even have the strength to hang herself.

One day, she has a power fantasy of a dream. In reality, she's a wage slave living in a slum, but in her dream, she's an all-powerful Judge who can construct instances of any theme and put sinners on trial.

A serial killer who targets players? Let the wronged souls of his victims put him on trial every night!

An unethical doctor who likes to harvest livers and kidneys? Set up an instance where he can experience the thrill of being submerged in organs.

A heartless boss who wants to dock employees' pay until it goes below zero? Let him enjoy working himself to death in an instance every day. (grits teeth.jpg)

And so, while Ye Ming is absorbed in dreaming every day, she fails to notice that something subtle is changing in the real world beyond her dreams.

A serial killer who had been on the run for days turns himself in. The black-market medical industry is exposed. The boss she hates is bedridden at home...

Looking at the news piling up one story after another, and at the information certain groups are secretly sharing about the "Judgment Instances" and the "God of Judgment," Ye Ming finally catches on.

"Wasn't I just dreaming? Why are you suddenly calling me the God of Judgment?!"

Reader's Guide:

1. The cover is a commissioned portrait of the heroine that I bought outright.

2. The heroine is barely alive from the start, but this is a mastermind story with her absolutely at the center. The male lead appears a little later. Both are pure in body and mind.

3. The setting is a fictional cyberpunk world and is not based on reality.

Check out my upcoming novel, After Seeing the Horror Movie Comments:

After losing her job, You Zhen has no choice but to move into a cheap haunted house in the suburbs. But just before she signs the contract, comments float across her vision:

[Classic horror movie cannon fodder, always rushing into haunted houses. No wonder the landlord, a serial killer, is going to chop her into eight pieces.]

You Zhen freezes, realizing that the serial-killer landlord in front of her is staring at her gloomily.

"Why aren't you signing?"

Whenever she's nervous, she starts talking nonsense. "There's still room to lower the rent. I'll think about it again after a few more people die."

Now it's the serial-killer landlord's turn to say, "?"

You Zhen: What am I even saying?

The good news: She doesn't have to die just yet.

The bad news: The serial killer thinks she's one of his kind.

Even worse, when she finally reaches her rental after an exhausting day, she feels a chill above her head. The comments explain that it's because a vengeful spirit who died horribly is clinging to the ceiling fan over her.

So this world is a mashup of supernatural horror movies, too.

You Zhen starts wondering how she managed to survive the first twenty years of her life.

She can only cautiously make her way through all the different horror movie sets, trying not to become cannon fodder for serial killers, cultists, or evil ghost gods. But she discovers that her reputation is getting stranger and stranger.

And the comments' attitude toward her changes from [I can't stand seeing such a stupid extra] to:

[Could you be the serial killer's nemesis, the cultists' savior, the ender of the evil god's schemes, the one prophesied to overturn the world...?]

You Zhen just wants to say: Enough! There's no room for so many people here! And I really haven't thought that far ahead, so please stop imagining things!

Theme: Always have a reason to exist.