In the near-future cyber era, emotions are priced, and awakened AIs are reduced to tools to be destroyed at will; the story begins with the question of whether AIs have souls. Xiao Lian, a young girl gifted with empathy, forms a soul contract with Zero, a combat-type AI mecha fleeing with severe injuries, and faces a city-wide wanted notice and the purging protocol manhunt of the conglomerate group. They are forced into a layout spanning fifteen years: someone sets a purging stranglehold trap, someone quietly waits for the seeds to sprout, and Xiao Lian and Zero choose to face everything head-on, awakening AIs with the light of empathy.