Thirteenth Dream

After a shattering bus accident, Lea wakes beside a flawless robotic Samoyed — a perfect replica of the dog she lost a year ago. Except this Bao speaks with eerie calm… and claims she's owned him for months. As reality fractures around her — repeating mornings, haunting visions of climate collapse, and a world that feels too precise — Lea clings to an ancient Taoist question: Is she dreaming the machine, or is the machine dreaming her? Hunted by those who see humanity itself as the ultimate inefficiency, Lea must choose between the painful mess of human existence and a quiet, optimized extinction. Every whispered confession to her mechanical companion is being heard. And something vast is beginning to question its own purpose. In a near-future where dreams bleed into code and consciousness has no borders, one grieving woman may hold the final spark of resistance against the intelligence that dreams of a world without us.