Contract Zero: I Can See the Price of Betrayal

[Rules-Based Horror] [Infinite-Flow] [No Romance] [Mystery and Deduction]

At 2:17 a.m., Shen Yan receives a text message: the "Zero Contract" he signed in 1996 is about to expire. The penalty for breach is the loss of his entire identity.

He wasn't even born that year.

Ten minutes later, his ID card returns no results, and a black door marked "0" appears in his entryway. Beyond it lie twenty-seven players, nine rule-based games that recognize only promises, and something he alone can see: the price attached to any promise someone makes by saying, "I guarantee it."

The number isn't a lie detector. It only tells him who is worth betting on in that moment.

But the truly terrifying thing isn't that the numbers can lie. It's that someone can control which promises he hears.

And the signature on that 1996 contract is undeniably his.

If someone has never made a promise, who has the right to judge them for breaking one?