Severing the Chrome

The story opens in the blood-soaked pits of an underground arena, right in the middle of a brutal death match. Gao Renshu, once the legendary and unparalleled swordmaster of the ancient world, finds himself reborn in a dystopian megacity where towering mechas rule and physical martial arts are considered a pathetic joke meant for low-level street thugs. Armed with nothing but a rusted metal rod and his world-weary sarcasm, Renshu systematically dismantles a towering cyborg gladiator. He recognizes the emblem on the arena walls: the Vipera Conglomerate, the futuristic descendants of the very sect that murdered him centuries ago. Alternating between Renshu's cold, calculating perspective and that of Sova Lin - a corporate double-agent posing as a street hacker - the narrative follows Renshu as he hunts the corporate elite. He soon shocks the underworld by paralyzing a rampaging Veyr-stalker alien monstrosity using nothing but precise qi strikes to its hidden acupuncture points. But Renshu is operating under a lethal misunderstanding. Thanks to his optical implants, he believes the Star Network's physical AR overlays are a Virtual Reality spiritual trial, and the "points" he's earning are Dao merits rather than a massive corporate bounty on his head. What happens when this sarcastic phantom blade realizes the "simulated" enemies he's been carelessly slaughtering carry very real, world-ending consequences?