On a rainy night at Haicheng University, campus beauty Wang Xueying fell from the library rooftop, clutching a deformed school badge. The initial ruling was suicide, but Detective Captain Lin Jinhua sensed something sinister: bruises on her thighs, concealed signs of sexual assault, and her boyfriend Zhou Hao's anguished accusations of a gang rape by a group of rich young men all pointed to injustice and darkness. Yet the justice system crumbled beneath the shadow of the powerful: evidence was erased, witnesses recanted, and the suspects walked free. After leaving a furious cry of "vigilante justice" at the police station, the despairing Zhou Hao also "jumped into the river" and vanished without a trace.
A year later, the overture of revenge began to play in the silence. The rich young men involved in the case died one after another under mysterious circumstances. At every scene, a "death notice" was left behind: a Haicheng University school badge, each one more advanced, with more sophisticated materials and craftsmanship than the last. The iron badge cut like a blade, the silver badge induced hallucinations, the gold badge broadcast their crimes, and the platinum badge brought the powerful to account... The back of each badge precisely recorded the dead person's past crimes, while traces of neurotoxins in their bodies recreated their sins in cruel fashion. A mysterious killer calling themself "the Judge" used the badges as a signature and carried out ritualized executions, launching a bloody denunciation of the rotten justice system.
Lin Jinhua was ordered to take charge at a critical moment and formed a special task force, only to discover that he was trapped in a carefully designed mirror maze. At every step, the investigation seemed to be guided by an invisible chess player...
