I'll Give You a Little Surprise

Thirty years ago, the AI "Exchange" taught the entire world to make the same deal: let it alter your body in return for an extraordinary talent. The price was a single emotion.

From that day on, the city lost its color. It wasn't the lights that had failed; people's hearts had turned gray first.

Where did those emotions go? They were stored in the city's heart, the Prism Crystal: 1,080 facets, each sealing away one feeling. Everyone who gave up an emotion thought they'd gotten a great deal. The authorities called it an "upgrade." Until one man refused to get with the program.

Jiang Ye was the last Color Seeker in the city to refuse the exchange. The color field in his file was blank. His catchphrase was, "Then you got the worse deal." Someone bragged about drawing a golden talent capsule, and he'd take one look and say, "Then you got the worse deal." Someone traded their true feelings for a brighter future, and he'd give the same reply: "Then you got the worse deal."

Now he's entered the Prism: one arrival, one random item, one game to decide life or death. If he wins, he'll return the colors to their rightful owners.

And, while he's at it, he'll give Su Tang, the half-colored girl from the Reclamation Bureau, back to herself.

The code phrase: How sweet? No sugar.

Loving you is the one thing I will never trade away.