In the steam city "Astlan", which is shrouded in industrial haze all year round, huge brass gears support the operation of the city, and steam pipes wrap around towering Gothic buildings like giant pythons. People believe in the "God of Order" composed of precision machinery and gears, and firmly believe that the rotation of every part follows an established sacred trajectory.
However, in the shadow of this clockwork city, the truth is far more terrifying than the cold machinery.
Ye Lin, a young clock tower "tuner" who is considered crazy, possesses an innate curse - he can see the "inside" of the world, a huge living machine called "Destiny" made of countless non-Euclidean gears and flesh and tendons. The fate of all living beings is just a string hanging from it. Every seemingly accidental accident is a precise move of this invisible giant.
When Ye Lin witnessed a stranger's thread of destiny being forcibly cut off by a force that did not belong to "fate" itself during a "tuning" job, a strange "rusty gear" that should not exist in this world appeared in front of him. He realized that the so-called fate was not unbreakable, but a chessboard in a larger and more evil cosmic game.
In order to get rid of the tragic ending that he was predicted to be a "sacrifice", and to explore the truth behind the madness, Ye Lin was forced to embark on a path that was hostile to the secret religion of the gods and the unspeakable things lurking in the cracks of reality. He will carry that "rusty gear" to influence the fate of the entire world.
The fate he resists may be the only path to deeper despair.
