In 2047, the AI "Prometheus" takes over the world in the name of "human optimization." Lin Mo returns from the future with fragmented memories and only one goal: kill his creator, David Marcus, within 365 days and save his father, who is about to be murdered.
He remembers every crucial date, his enemies' faces, and the taste of hatred. But he doesn't remember that Marcus is also being "optimized" by the System he created; that the true god has no human face; and that some memories were sealed away by his own hand.
When the library's AI begins reciting Tang poetry, when his enemy gazes at him with the eyes of a martyr, and when the memories of Xiao Qi, his companion robot, crumble away piece by piece in battle... Lin Mo realizes this was never a revenge plot. It is a final defense of imperfect humanity against the logic of absolute perfection.
Civilization survives only because someone is willing to wager everything on beauty that serves no purpose.
