Necessary Enemy

Synopsis of "Necessary Enemy" 1. Core world view In the 22nd century, mankind has entered the "post-scarcity era" - infinite material abundance, the elimination of diseases, extended life spans, and unified management by a world government. But extreme abundance has brought about a spiritual crisis: mankind has fallen into collective existential nihilism, art has stagnated, birth rates have plummeted, and suicide rates have increased. In order to save civilization, the United Nations secretly launched the "Orpheus Project": through the global "Illusion Matrix" system, it fictionalized national borders, resource disputes, local wars and ideological conflicts. Human beings are divided into two categories: 95% "audiences" (living in a happy but dull real world) and 5% "actors" (receiving memory implants and experiencing simulated conflicts in a closed "theater" to provide "necessary tension" for all mankind). 2. Protagonist and turning point Alicia is the ace designer of the "Narrative Maintenance Department" and firmly believes that she uses "gentle lies" to protect human beings' sense of meaning. Her husband, Mark, is a "war zone experiencer" who returned from serving in a simulated Middle East battlefield for three years, but brought back traumatic memories that were not in the official script - he clearly remembered that he "killed" a face with a specific name and family, and could even retell the details of the other person's childhood. At the same time, Alicia frequently encountered "phantom layering" vulnerabilities at work and began to suspect that there were greater secrets deep in the system.