Mask Trap Door

In 2140, the brain-like cognitive assistance chip "Xixin" has been implanted in all people. It improves focus, enhances memory, and keeps you in a "socially optimal" mood. The crime rate in Xinya City is zero, and everyone is peaceful, obedient, and full of reason. Lu Chen is an ordinary mask engineer at Fab-7 of Xixin Technology. During a routine 3nm process mask review, he discovered a set of logic gates that should not exist in the redundant area of ​​the G-layer layout. This is not a process deviation, but a pair of cyber scissors that trim the human will day and night - it accurately suppresses the fear, anger and doubt of the entire city to a low threshold of 15%. When the "perfect society" is built on the physical pruning of synapses, when deep brainwave calibration attempts to erase his last memory of resistance... Lu Chen has no superpowers, only an old burn scar on the ring finger of his left hand, and the professional instinct of a process engineer. Now that your emotions are under control, use professionalism to draw circles. This is a story about how hard-core workers followed the microscopic wiring under the extreme ultraviolet lithography machine to completely dismantle a huge system.