For five hundred years, humanity has been fighting with others. Regular emissions turned huge pieces of land into desert, and abandoned cities populated anomalies. And only defenders are able to withstand the threat - specially trained warriors who have dedicated their lives to fighting creatures from another world. Everyone considers Kirill Skuratov illegitimate, even though he bears the family name. He is weak - and this predetermined his fate. His father's gift for coming of age is the deprivation of his surname and a one-way ticket to a special school on the outskirts of the empire, where they train defenders for service in the yellow zone. Everything changes when a blowout occurs along the way. Kirill begins to feel an unknown entity in his head, the sensor shows a huge amount of energy, and even the ability to directly absorb the power of creatures and people appears.