The Silent Strategist

Turn over a card, and reality changes.

But every victory costs you a piece of yourself.

There are only 54 “Rule Cards” in the world, each representing a profession or concept that left its mark on the long river of civilization. Every card is bound to the will of a fallen god and the power of a mythical beast.

The history you know may be a reflection of another, hidden game of cards. Behind Napoleon’s ambitions, perhaps the spade ace whispered with the power of war and conquest. Beneath Leonardo da Vinci’s miracles, perhaps the heart queen’s rules of inspiration and creation were made manifest.

At eighteen, Lin Yan inherits the most unusual card on the brink of death: the spade queen, the Player. The price is this: every time he uses its power to alter the rules, he must permanently surrender some part of his “existence”, a cherished memory, a burning emotion, or even other people’s awareness that he exists in the world. This is the fate of every cardholder: as they climb the “Nine Heavenly Mandates” toward divine authority, they race to avoid being wholly transformed into something inhuman.

Burdened by the mystery of his grandfather’s sacrifice and the unsolved case of his father’s disappearance, he ventures into the dark side. Here, rules are power, and concepts are weapons:

· Bai Ze, who knows all things and can foresee their cost, cries out behind him.

· The Judge commands Bi’an, the beast embodying just punishment, and thunders forth laws.

· The weapons of the Tide of Annihilation, meanwhile, coexist with Taotie, who devours all things.

· And in shadows farther away, the calamity of the Yamata no Orochi, the Sphinx’s riddles, the Feathered Serpent God’s cycle of rebirth… Countless mythical beasts drawn from different civilizations may step onto the card and become merciless protagonists on the battlefield of rules.

This is a battle fueled by the self