What if the future turns out to be bright? People are ethical and careful with one another; most environmental problems are solved; you can learn about crimes from archaic novels more than from news. It’s hard to imagine a more dreary place to live. At least, that’s what Volga Ef_Imera thinks—a twenty-year-old rebel and dandy studying at an institution for gifted youth and getting ready to become a mechemimer: someone who creates quasi-living beings that help people in different fields. Volga thinks everyone around him are slugs and prefers to dispel boredom with mean jokes and elegant rudeness. But when he meets real cruelty—one that looks exactly like his own face—he has no choice but to get involved in the search for the mysterious Shooter and make an alliance with the people he once considered spineless dreamers.