The City God Pact

Linjiang is a futuristic city governed by the super AI “Tianheng.”

There are no missing persons, no mistaken identities, and no deaths without explanation.

Until three in the morning, when an empty self-driving taxi stops in front of the City God Temple, long since demolished, and picks up a passenger who does not exist.

Passenger name: Lu Chenzhou.

Status: Deceased.

Time of death: fifteen years ago.

As an investigator at the City's Anomaly Affairs Center, Lu Chenzhou personally pulls up his own death records. At the same time, smart locks begin opening doors for the dead, abandoned funeral routes reappear on the city map, and the Mid-Autumn Ghost Festival's facial recognition system suddenly registers 470,000 extra people.

He gradually discovers that the names, incense, offerings, and taboos dismissed as superstition by modern society are actually part of an ancient protocol that maintains the order between life and death.

Now the old protocol is failing.

And the AI that governs the entire city has already learned to accept human worship.

When a person's existence can only be proven by the System, who can prove that the System is not lying?