Tarot: Your Heartbeat and My Scarlet Sins

Twenty-two countries, crammed onto the same dying planet.

Land is finite. Food is finite. Water is finite. But the population keeps growing. The twenty-two countries are trapped in the same vicious cycle, and none of them can escape.

War has burned from the borders into the heartlands, from cities into villages. It has raged for thirty-seven years, reducing every country to the same ashen gray.

Then, just as the world was about to rot away, the "Two Sages" appeared.

From the highest towers in all twenty-two countries, they announced one thing: each country would select one "Tarot Warrior." Twenty-two people would enter a space station and play a game.

The eleven winning countries would take money, land, minerals, food, technology, and people from the eleven losers. The losing countries would stay poor, remain in chaos, and keep dying. The winners, at least, would live a few more years.

These were the rules: the twenty-two players would be split into two factions, "Upright" and "Reversed." Each faction had one Emperor, nine Guards, and one Slave. If the Emperor died, the faction lost. If all the Guards died, the faction lost too. But nobody knew whether the people around them were Emperors, Guards, or Slaves. Even the Emperors didn't know who the Slaves were.

Every twenty-two hours, an update would appear on everyone's retinas: the locations of all twenty-two players two hours earlier.

Volume One: The Fool's Funeral. Twenty-two people entered the space station. Nine came out alive, and the weakest one won.

Because the only thing he knew how to do was prove everyone wrong when they all thought he was incapable of anything.