“In Kaneades, the first rule of survival is: Never trust any punctuation mark.”
When Xi Yan, the protagonist, received a copy of the Elementary Survival Guide written in mirror script at midnight, his life was dragged into this paradoxical city. Its rules were so contradictory they could drive anyone mad: streets where running was forbidden devoured pedestrians who stood still; questions that had to be answered killed those who told the truth; the hospital's only rule was “This rule does not exist.”
Xi Yan discovered that a rare condition he suffered from, “compulsive logical deconstruction disorder,” had become his only way to survive. He could instinctively break down the hidden layers of logic in every sentence and see through the “structures of lies” behind the rules. While everyone else struggled between an honest death and a reckless lie, he learned a more advanced survival skill: using precisely calibrated lies to create “logical safe zones” and construct temporary truths in the gaps between paradoxes.
However, as he ventured deeper into the heart of the city, a greater conspiracy came to light. The city's ruler, the “Compiler,” did not seem to be toying with humanity. Instead, it was using the logic of lies to repair some greater “collapse of reality.” Xi Yan had to face the ultimate choice: become the perfect “liar” and live forever amid lies, or find the one and only “absolute truth,” even if it destroyed everything, including himself.
