My name is Aldric. I'm a survivor, a scavenger, and a former soldier trying to stay alive in a world that never truly recovered from the Event—a catastrophic chain of EMPs, crop failures, and societal collapse that destroyed civilization a decade ago. I survive by recovering forgotten secrets from the ruins, following one rule above all: trust no one.Everything changes when I receive a desperate message from my older brother, Dorian, an Oracle living inside the corporate fortress-city of Arcadia. His message repeats three terrifying words: The Shadow Protocol. I know he would never contact me unless the truth was worth dying for.To reach him, I must cross the deadly Exclusion Zones and form an uneasy alliance with Dr. Seraphina Vance, a brilliant bio-engineer whose loyalty is as uncertain as her past. When I finally find Dorian, he has been broken by horrific experiments, but before he dies, he entrusts me with the Obsidian Memory—a hidden data disk containing proof that the Event was deliberately engineered by a secret circle of Oligarchs who now control the world's corporate city-states.The truth turns me into the most wanted man alive. Hunted by an invisible regime and their legendary assassin known only as The Wraith, I join forces with Seraphina, the charismatic resistance leader Gideon, and my younger brother, Leander—the last person who still reminds me what hope looks like.Leander is my reason to keep fighting. While Gideon believes any sacrifice is justified for victory and Seraphina hides her true motives behind cold pragmatism, Leander refuses to let the world steal his humanity. Protecting him becomes more important than exposing the conspiracy itself.As the Oligarchs prepare the next phase of the Shadow Protocol, I must decide whether revealing the truth is worth the lives it will cost. The Obsidian Memory could free humanity—or destroy what little remains of it.In a world built on lies, memory is the most dangerous weapon of all.Trust no one. Survive at any cost. Never forget.