The year is 2045. After the Global Simultaneous Default, an economic collapse that rattled every nation on Earth to its core, coupled with the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, humanity has been thrust into the Sustainable War—a conflict designed to endure forever. In this near‑future era, the downturn has not yet reached a level where ordinary people feel the existential threat that A.I. presents.
The Posthumans, individuals who have integrated advanced cybernetic augmentations, pose a threat to society. To tackle cyber‑crime committed by the Posthumans—a newly emerged class of humans—Public Security Section 9, commanded by the prosthetic cyborg Kusanagi Motoko, travels to Tokyo, a city left in ruins by an earlier war. There they encounter a refugee faction calling itself "N" and a hostile American Special Forces detachment. Section 9's mission is to neutralize cyber threats and restore order in a metropolis. As the danger of nuclear war triggered by a hijacked submarine escalates, the three‑way struggle among Public Security Section 9, America, and the Posthumans intensifies.
