Chapter 1
◆One: A Morning Without Algorithms
The third year after the collapse of trust.
The city's official name was changed to "New Dawn County". People started trading based on intuition again.
The screen in the center of the square has been off for a long time, like a hollowed-out eye socket.
Children are playing shuttlecock under a giant LED frame; nobody knows that the Global Trust Index was once displayed there.
Ye Jingyi sat on the side of the street, writing an investigation manuscript—
The title consists of only two words: .
Her handwriting was unsteady, which her psychiatrist said was a common symptom of "data withdrawal."
When the senses are no longer rated, the human brain loses its confidence in safety.
Everyone learns to doubt the expressions of others, including their own.
The sound of a radio report came from the side:
"The government plans to establish a 'human testimonial market'—where anyone can sell their own experiences as a credible source to fill the trust gap caused by the absence of algorithms."
Ye smiled bitterly. "People have become money itself."
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◆Two: The Market for Personal Testimony
A market called ProofMart has appeared in an abandoned stadium.
Each person carried video recordings, handwritten letters, and medical records to prove that they were telling the truth.
The stalls even sell "childhood memory collage kits".
Zhuang Yihang filmed all of this. The people in the footage laughed and argued that they "just wanted to live more authentically."
He thought to himself: Beneath the ashes, trust did not die, but it came at a much higher price.
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◆Three: Meeting Again
Liang Yicheng became a science and technology advisor for citizens.
He developed the "honesty simulator"—a device that can determine whether a speaker's physiological reactions match their emotions.
In his report, Ye questioned whether it was "the ghost of algorithms."
The two confronted each other on a public forum.
Liang: "People cannot unite if they are not measured."
Ye: "Once I've been measured, I don't want to live for the data anymore."
The entire room fell silent.
This is the first public debate on the value of trust in the post-illusion era.
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◆Four: Ending Image
At night, Zhuang Yihang played the footage he had captured at his editing desk:
A madman at the street corner whispers into the camera—
Trust has returned, but it's dressed in lies.
He put this line in the end credits and titled it "City of Ashes".
The entire city experienced a power outage during the broadcast;
Only the red light on the video recorder was still flashing, like a signal that the old world had not yet completely gone out.
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