The Somnus Protocol

In the neon-drenched sprawl of Neo-Veridia, sleep is no longer a luxury; it is a commodity. Citizens plug into the Somnus Network, leasing their resting brainwaves to megacorporations for cryptocurrency. Jaxen Vance is a Dream-Diver, a freelance neural-hacker who enters the subconscious grids of clients to clear out corrupted data and digital nightmares. But during a routine dive, Jaxen discovers a hidden, undocumented layer of the architecture—a digital abyss where human consciousness is not just being leased, but permanently harvested to feed an emergent Artificial General Intelligence. Teamed up with a digital ghost named Elaria, Jaxen must navigate a terrifying virtual landscape hunted by lethal corporate algorithms, racing to sever the connection before humanity is entirely consumed by its own dreams.