On the night his death sentence is confirmed, a dying nobody taps into a shady new app. Six yuan buys a starving girl a miracle—and buys him two extra hours of life.
The rain outside sounded like a billion steel needles hammering against the neon shell of the city.
Traffic roared, sirens wailed, someone downstairs was screaming over a lost bet—but in Lu Jin's ears, all of it was drowned out by his own ragged breathing.
His D-rank budget apartment had about as much soundproofing as wet paper. Every curse from the drunk next door, every low hum of the maglev line passing under the building, crawled straight through the moldy walls.
He barely noticed.
Lu Jin was curled into the corner of a damp, musty sofa. His fingers clamped so hard on the armrest that his knuckles had gone bone-white, veins bulging under skin that looked almost translucent.
His spine felt like someone was cracking it open one vertebra at a time with a metal rod.
That was what accelerated gene-sequence collapse felt like.
On the coffee table, his personal terminal glowed faintly, painting his bloodless face in a sickly blue.
A diagnostic panel floated on the screen:
[Patient: Lu Jin (Citizen ID: D-9527…)][Diagnosis: Accelerated Cellular Degeneration Syndrome (ACDS), Late Stage][Estimated Remaining Lifespan: 89 days][Recommendation: Terminate treatment and apply for euthanasia. D-rank citizens enjoy a 10% discount.][Note: The death of a D-rank citizen will not affect overall societal sequence evaluation.]
"Ha…"
The laugh scraped out of his throat like sandpaper and broke apart into a violent coughing fit.
He covered his mouth.
When the spasms finally passed, there was a bright splash of red in his palm.
"Even dying comes with a discount," he rasped. "The world's really gone to hell."
He grabbed a crumpled tissue, wiped the blood away, and was about to toss it when the terminal buzzed lightly.
No call. No notification.
Just… a new icon forcing its way into the center of his screen like a virus.
Black background. A silhouette of a girl standing on a pile of ruins, head tilted back to stare at the stars.
App name: [Deep Space Echo].
"A virus?" Lu Jin snorted.
He tapped the icon with his thumb and muttered to himself, voice full of dry self-mockery.
"Nice try. If you're hoping to steal my account, you've got garbage taste. Everything I own isn't worth eight thousand. I can't even afford a grave."
He was already half a corpse. If some hacker wanted to play tricks on him, fine. Watching this scam try to squeeze money out of a dead man might be his last bit of entertainment.
He pressed down on the icon.
A soft hum rippled up his finger.
It wasn't the screen lighting up.
It was a current—thin as a thread—shooting from his fingertip into the back of his skull.
Ghostly blue text flashed across his retina.
[Neural link established.][Cognitive interference module loaded: All bystanders and monitoring devices are unable to perceive the true interface.][Only you can hear the echoes of the deep.]
"…A brain-computer interface?"
For a heartbeat, Lu Jin forgot to breathe.
The blue text flickered—and then, as if someone had torn open a window in front of his eyes, another world slammed into his vision.
It was too clear.
So clear he could almost feel the dryness of the air on his own skin.
The "camera" floated above a field of gray-yellow ruins. Broken rebar and jagged concrete jutted into a stained, low sky like the ribs of some dead titan.
Sand and dust rode the wind in sharp, twitching waves, peppering the view with grainy static.
In the corner of that dead landscape, something small was curled up on itself.
A girl.
Sixteen, maybe seventeen. She wore an oversized lab coat so filthy you couldn't tell what color it used to be. Her bare feet were black with grime and cuts. She hugged her knees under a half-collapsed slab of concrete, trembling.
Lu Jin unconsciously leaned closer.
In high definition, every streak of dirt and dried blood on her face was crystal clear. Her eyes, though—eyes like cracked glass marbles—were flat, dull, emptied out.
The eyes of someone who had already stopped expecting to live.
A minute ago, that was me, Lu Jin thought.
His heart clenched, a sharp, ugly twist.
A crimson warning flashed in the corner of his vision.
[Alert! Observed subject's life signs dropping rapidly!]
A status bar unfolded on the side of the feed:
[Name: Li Xing][Hunger: MAXIMUM][Body Temperature: 34.2°C (hypothermia)][External Injuries: Left thigh laceration (infection risk: extreme)][Life Countdown: 29 minutes 58 seconds]
The girl's body finally sagged sideways.
Her chapped lips moved. A nearly inaudible whimper, more air than sound, slipped out and hissed through Lu Jin's terminal speakers straight into his chest.
"...Damn it."
His finger moved on its own, jabbing at the [Rescue] button.
He couldn't save himself. That was already written on his medical chart.
But maybe—just maybe—he could save one other piece of thrown-away trash.
His fingertip brushed the icon.
A crisp chime rang out, almost comically cheerful. A golden splash of pay-to-win game effects exploded across his field of vision.
[Congratulations! You've triggered a Limited-Time Offer! Newbie Welfare Mega Drop!]Dear Observer, your cloud-raised girl is about to disconnect… permanently!Want to save her? Want to be her light in the dark?
[First Top-Up "Savior Pack"]– High-Energy Nutrient Bar (Strawberry Flavor) ×1– Military-Grade Nano Hemostatic Patch ×1Original Price: ¥98Limited-Time Price: ¥6
(Friendly reminder: if you don't top up, she really will die~ Countdown: 59… 58…)
Lu Jin froze.
On the screen, the girl's breathing was barely visible.
The countdown ticked down like a dripping faucet. 58… 57…
Six yuan.
That was his food budget for three whole days.
Even if he saved her, so what? In that kind of place, she might not live to see tomorrow.
But those glassy eyes on the screen—those eyes he'd seen in the mirror earlier—were flooded with the same kind of suffocating despair.
The same quiet, numb waiting for the end.
"…What a goddamn joke," he whispered.
His lips twisted into a crooked smile, mocking the world and himself all at once.
The payment confirmation chime rang.
[Payment successful. ¥6.00 deducted.][Thank you for your generosity, O Great Savior! Initiating item drop—]
A gold pop-up burst into digital fireworks.
Wasteland, Sector A-11.
The wind knifed against the girl's skin. She could barely feel it now.
She was past cold. The chill was crawling up from her bones.
Li Xing's thoughts floated like ash. Her world shrank to the throbbing fire in her leg and the black fog at the edges of her vision.
She was ready to let her eyes close.
The air trembled.
There was a soft plop.
Something landed in the hollow of her arms.
A slim, sealed bar that smelled faintly—impossibly—of strawberries. A second object followed, drifting down in a faint blue glow: a thin, translucent patch.
Li Xing stared, stunned.
Her fingers moved like she was underwater, brushing the bar. It was solid. Warm.
Not a hallucination.
She tore the wrapper open with clumsy teeth. Sweetness—sharp and artificial and perfect—rushed up her nose.
She'd never tasted anything so good in her life.
She devoured it, barely chewing, tears mixing with the dust on her cheeks.
Warmth spread from her empty stomach in shaky waves.
Her hands fumbled for the patch. She peeled it and slapped it over the raw wound on her thigh. Cold light sank into her skin, smothering the burn of infection beneath a numbing chill.
"...Who?"
She tipped her head back, staring up into the empty, colorless sky.
Who was watching her?
Her hands came together in front of her chest in a small, awkward gesture she hadn't used since she was a child in a different world, a different life.
A prayer, offered to nothing visible.
In her dull glass eyes, a tiny flame of hope flickered back to life.
Back in the real world.
Lu Jin watched the color slowly creep back into the girl's cheeks on the screen.
Something knotted in his chest loosened, just a little.
Six yuan.
In his world, that couldn't even buy a bowl of synthetic noodles.
In hers, it had bought a life.
A faint, golden shimmer appeared at the edge of the screen. Tiny motes of light gathered at his fingertip, then swam backward, flowing up his arm and into his body.
[Received intense gratitude from "Li Xing".][Converting… Holy Resonance Energy +1]["Holy Resonance Feedback" triggered!]
"—ngh!"
Lu Jin's body jolted.
There was no pain.
Only warmth.
It slid down his spine like hot water, melting the tiny blades that had been sawing at his nerves for months.
The hollow, ice-cold void gnawing at his organs eased, like someone had hit pause on his slow-motion execution.
New numbers overlaid his vision.
[Life Countdown Recalibrated: +2 hours][Current Remaining Lifespan: 89 days 2 hours]
A semi-transparent panel unfolded in front of him:
[Holy Resonance Energy: 1 point][Effect: Minor pain relief; Life Countdown +2 hours][Acquisition Method: Intense emotional fluctuations from observed subject.]
Lu Jin's pupils tightened.
Her gratitude… turned into his life?
He stared at the girl kneeling in the rubble, hands clasped, eyes lifted in wordless worship.
His gaze darkened.
This wasn't just salvation.
This was a deal.
"Six yuan for two hours of life," he murmured, tongue running over dry lips.
"Not a bad exchange."
He almost laughed.
He was broke, dying, and somehow he'd found a way to burn money in a different world to stay alive in his own.
His finger hovered over the interface, ready to poke around more, see just how far this scam went—
The feed shifted.
In the shadows of the ruins behind Li Xing, a pair of green lights blinked on.
Then a second pair. And a third.
Low growls rumbled through the speakers, thick with rot. The sound carried a sour, meaty stench his brain helpfully supplied from memory.
Three hulking shapes crept into frame. They were the size of calves, ribs and bones warped under gray hide, eyes glowing like swamp fire.
Carrion bone hounds.
Right on cue, another window popped up, blocking half the screen.
[Alert! Your cloud-raised daughter is about to be turned into dog food!]
[Limited-Time "Anti-Wolf (Dog)" Pack]– High-Frequency Sonic Resonator (single-use)Price: ¥198
(Friendly reminder: her leg's still busted. She really can't outrun the dogs~ Countdown: 10… 9…)
Lu Jin glanced at his remaining balance.
Then at the three drooling maws edging closer to the girl.
"…Bandits," he muttered.
His thumb hit the [Pay] button.
[Glossary]
Deep Space Echo – A mysterious neural-link app that connects Lu Jin to a devastated wasteland world. Only he can see its true interface.
Holy Resonance Energy – Energy generated from intense emotions in the wasteland, converted by Deep Space Echo and used to extend Lu Jin's life and ease his pain.
Life Countdown – Lu Jin's remaining lifespan, displayed as a ticking timer. Holy Resonance Energy can temporarily push this timer back.