After the Cataclysm Era, the coalition government divided the survivors into twelve "sanctuary city-states", and the outer unregulated radiation zone was called the "Ashes Zone". The protagonist Chen Ye breaks out of the ashes area filled with mutated creatures and bandits, forges his identity and enters the most chaotic 12th Sanctuary City-State (referred to as "Border City"), and gradually gets involved in resource wars, gang strife and cross-city-state conspiracies. The novel unfolds through three stages: "climbing to the bottom - dividing forces - and fighting for hegemony on the frontier", exploring the gray area of human nature and power in the end of the world.
