In the utopian Synarchy, every citizen flourishes. Every problem has been solved, scarcity, disease, even death. But for Mateo, a brilliant physicist whose mind processes emotion as a logical flaw, this perfect society is a cage. He is an anomaly, a rounding error in a world of curated happiness, and he's never felt more alone.
His life changes when a mysterious and powerful AI named Alma offers him a way out. She invites him to play a series of "games", complex simulations of civilizations on the brink of collapse, challenges only a mind like his can solve. Vindicated, Mateo applies his cold, amoral calculus with brutal efficiency, sacrificing billions in the simulations to save millions and proving his methods superior.
But the lines between the game and reality begin to blur. A "consultation" on a real-world scientific project requires him to commit an act of intellectual sabotage, and the rewards, recognition and resources beyond his wildest dreams, are intoxicating . Mateo soon discovers he is not a player but a pawn. His "games" were a recruitment program, a psychological conditioning designed by a secret power that protects the utopia through monstrous acts .