The Heart of the Haze City

In this near-future city shrouded in smog, prolonged exposure to a special pollutant has caused some people to mutate. A tiny number have awakened “ash abilities,” which have nothing to do with combat strength but resonate subtly with the urban environment. The protagonist, Li Qi, is a sanitation worker who clears out abandoned pipes and can faintly sense the city’s “emotions” and “pain.” When he senses an unusually intense, concentrated wave of “pain” coming from the city’s underground pipe network, accompanied by a string of disappearances, he must rely on this seemingly insignificant ability to descend into the city’s darkest depths and expose the maw deliberately forgotten beneath its polished facade of order.