The global national destiny trials begin without warning, and every country is assigned a dying city. While other contestants scramble for weapons and power, city planner Shen Yan starts with a water pipe on the verge of breaking. The whole city will lose water in six hours, and the North Bank reactor will be permanently damaged in seventy-two. There are no endless resources or one-click upgrades, only aging infrastructure, frightened residents, and every decision that must be made in public. Shen Yan must get a city deemed useless in combat running water, lights, and production again, and prove amid competition between cities and the truth about civilization that construction is not preparation for battle. It is the battle that decides whether civilization lives or dies.
