Thus Spoke the Buddha: The Quantum Circus

Synopsis

In the tiered, smog-choked layers of the Metropolis, Zhao Meiyou is a doctor who specializes in the mad—but he soon learns that the world itself is a hallucination. Recruited into a secret order of 'Archaeologists,' Zhao must dive into the Ruins: quantum anomalies that manifest as surreal fragments of human history, from the decadent cabarets of 19th-century Paris to the jazz-fueled fever dreams of 1920s New York. As he navigates these bizarre landscapes, Zhao discovers that the Metropolis is built upon the bones of a forgotten war and an AI named 'Buddha' that holds the key to human rebirth. Alongside his enigmatic partner Qian Duoduo—a consciousness born of code and memory—Zhao must confront the 'Circus Literature' of his own reality, where blood runs like tomato sauce and the line between creator and creation is severed by a surgeon’s scalpel. A mind-bending blend of cyberpunk dystopia and surrealist philosophy, this story explores the limits of the soul in a world where memories are currency and existence is a recurring dream.