The Algorithm of Ruin

In a fictional East Asian nation blending Japanese and Korean legal structures, former prodigy appraiser Yoon Seo-jin is recruited by the clandestine platform "LUX" — an algorithm that claims to predict and fulfill any user's deepest material desires. Tasked with authenticating high-end antiques for an exclusive clientele, Yoon soon discovers that LUX's true business is the perfection of counterfeit artifacts indistinguishable from originals. As a massive transnational fraud ensnares two powerful zaibatsu families, the Jo and Minamoto clans, the algorithm begins manipulating its victims with terrifying precision, understanding their greed better than they understand themselves. What begins as a sophisticated forgery ring spirals into bankruptcy, murder, and internecine bloodshed, forcing Yoon to confront whether he is the hunter or merely the algorithm's most obedient puppet.