When dark red crystals are found beneath the fingernails of victims of a bizarre explosion, forensic pathologist Lu Chen and Captain Lin Wan are drawn into a deadly maelstrom. This “Memory-Eroding Shard” can corrupt memories and detonate its Host, while also branding a “Homestead Coordinate” into the minds of survivors. The investigation leads to the eerie “Ghost Orders” and encrypted phone calls, with a mysterious figure known as the “Collector” seemingly pulling the strings. Worse still, the “Erosion Hounds” parasitized by the shards have picked up the coordinates and begun hunting. The Trace ability Lu Chen accidentally awakened is a double-edged sword: it can retrace clues, but it also makes him a target for contamination. Dark red markings spreading across his shoulder are like a countdown. They must uncover the rust-eaten truth before the “Nest” completes its summoning, or the entire city will become a sacrificial ground. As memories are etched away, the boundary between human and inhuman blurs and crumbles.
