The world was not conquered; it was observed. The entities known as 'They' were a higher form of life for whom our existence was a passing curiosity. When their study concluded, they departed, leaving behind the remnants of their experiment.
From the ashes, one remained: a being known only as 'He'. He did not offer salvation; He offered a transaction. He introduced humanity to the universe's most fundamental law: all things have a price. Emotions, memories, humanity itself—all could be converted into tangible power through 'Contracts'.
Millennia later, the world is divided between two philosophies: the Mortals, who foolishly hoard the worthless currency of their feelings, and the Hollows, who understand that true power lies in becoming empty enough to contain it. The truth of the past has been buried under the lie of stability.
Into this stalemate, a new variable emerges: a mortal boy whose existence is a paradox. Upon death, his consciousness returns to his birth, retaining the memories of his failures. This is not a curse; it is an asset. An infinite number of attempts to accumulate knowledge and perfect a method.
This unique attribute makes him the target of forces that have been playing this game for eons. He is a pawn with the unprecedented ability to learn the entire board. But to what end? Is he being cultivated as a tool to overturn the laws of Fate, or is he merely a resource to be harvested once his accumulated despair reaches a certain quality?
His only path to survival is to master the rules of his own existence. He must follow the echoes of forgotten truths to find the last remnant of a faction that tried, and failed, to defy the system.
For if a pawn cannot become a player, it is inevitably sacrificed.
