In the future city of Ligang, Memory Cores can implant knowledge directly into the human brain, becoming tools that the privileged use to scale the heights of intellect. The extremist group Embers steals sealed archives of original memories, including the brutality of death-row inmates, the scheming of highly intelligent criminals, and the lifetime of wisdom, pain, and unfinished warnings left behind by Dr. Lin Zhen, the father of Memory Cores.
These dangerous memories are maliciously broadcast across the city. Unable to withstand the flood of other people’s memories, residents suffer the collapse of their own identities and die, turning Ligang into a city of the dead in an instant. The only survivor is Shi Xingyan, an ordinary System maintenance worker, but Dr. Lin Zhen’s vast memories overwhelm him, and he loses most of his sense of self. He becomes a living contradiction: his words and actions feel strange, yet he is extraordinarily intelligent; he has forgotten who he is, yet holds top-secret knowledge.
Lin Zhen’s memories keep eroding what remains of his personality, and “Shi Xingyan” is rapidly fading away. Standing alone amid the ruins, he is the disaster’s only living evidence and the key to stopping it. Torn apart by two sets of memories, he must pursue the truth: What is Embers’ goal? What really happened to Lin Zhen? Was he chosen as a vessel, or is he an unforeseen variable?
Before “Shi Xingyan” disappears completely, he must stop the memory plague, which could destroy all of humanity, from spreading beyond Ligang’s borders.
