Elex White Locke, a young clockmaker in Graytide Town, was born with the ability to see visions of other people's deaths.
When the town's marine chronometers all stop at the same moment, a brass gear marked with teeth and a pocket watch that runs counterclockwise draw him into the vortex of the supernatural world. On the brink of death, he absorbs the traits of both the "Fate" and "Error" pathways, becoming an impossible dual-pathway Beyonder.
Fate tells him: Everything is predetermined. Error tells him: Everything can be changed.
He presses forward, torn between the two pathways, playing the roles of "Monster" and "Swindler," and stealing Fate's script through deceit. But the closer he gets to the truth, the more he discovers a chilling fact:
The "Ring of Paradox" inside him was neither an accident nor a blessing. It was a scheme spanning ten thousand years, planted by his own hand.
After reading a chapter, I realized that the protagonist is not a time traveler.