[Desert Adventure] [Urban Supernatural Powers] [Mystery and Horror] [Golden Finger] [System in His Mind] [Secrets of the Previous Generation] [Treasure Hunt in an Ancient City] [Survival Games] [Information Advantage] [Eerie Atmosphere]
Ji Yunzhou is an ordinary film and television directing graduate, until one day he wakes to find an invisible theater inside his mind, where one hundred thousand silent spectators are watching his life. Even more terrifying, a number appears on his right wrist: Current Anticipation: 34%. If it drops below 10%, he will die. With no way out, he has to make his life exciting and full of twists if he wants to survive. To raise his anticipation, he follows clues to his father’s disappearance twelve years ago and ventures into the deserts of the northwest. His father, Ji Yuanshan, once led a desert archaeological expedition. His final transmission contained only one sentence: “When Black Sand City appears, don’t let them open the secret manual.” In a small town on the edge of the desert, Ji Yunzhou meets Shen Wangtang, the daughter of his father’s old friend; Chile, a mysterious guide from the desert tribes; and a shadowy band of tomb raiders tracking the ancient city’s coordinates. When he finally enters the Black Sand City, which shifts with the sands, he discovers that the audience in his mind is no mere illusion. They are connected to a ritual performed at the city’s altar a thousand years ago, and his father disappeared to seal away a sacrifice that links the worlds of the living and the dead. The audience needs a story, and the ancient city needs a sacrifice: they are one and the same. Ji Yunzhou must find a third path between staying alive and protecting the city’s secret, or the expectations of one hundred thousand spectators will become a calamity that devours reality.
