Blending crime, high-stakes action, and personal reckoning, The Zeros explores what happens after the trigger is pulled… and the cost of walking away.

Once known as one of the deadliest assassins in the feared organization Karma, Pak Ling walked away from a life of violence after a mission ended in tragedy. For five years, he’s stayed hidden—trying to outrun the past he helped create.

But the past doesn’t stay buried.

When new threats emerge, Pak Ling is forced back into a world of covert operations, shadowy alliances, and unfinished business. As old enemies resurface and loyalties are tested, he must confront the choices that defined him—and decide whether redemption is truly possible.

I think this is a manga, but I’m not sure. It reads right to left like one, and the art style is reminiscent of manga, but the title looks Chinese to me and the creator Man Tsang is based out of Hong Kong. The story is set in Tokyo and Kyoto, too… If this is actually a manhua, I apologize for getting this wrong.

Anyway, I found The Zeros to be an enticing look into a world with yakuza, illicit drugs, impressive fights, and former bad guys seeking redemption.

We open up with Ling and his partner Lok infiltrating a traditional Japanese house where they joke about keeping track of how many people they kill. And they’re both extremely good killers.

However, Ling and Lok don’t account for a girl secretly hiding behind a shoji door, and she shoots Lok in the stomach. Ling takes out the girl while Lok dies in his arms.

Flash forward to the future and Ling works for the authorities now, and they’re investigating the underground drug “Molybdenum” (not to be confused with the scientific element) that grants enhanced strength and killing energy to the person who injects themselves with it. Originally Molybdenum was a computer chip you’d embed in your body, but it was soon developed into a liquid drug. People all over Tokyo are using it and dying from it.

Ling is partnered with Taec to look into this. The two don’t quite get along, but don’t quite fight with each other, either. Taec sees Ling as a rival and wants to work with him to “overcome” him.

Anyway, there’s a lot of mystery to this in terms of how this drug was developed, and who’s behind it, which ends up being Ling’s old coworkers back when he was a Jonin killer. There’s also Hina, the daughter of the head of the yakuza in charge of everything, and she’s another person of interest thrown into the mix. I won’t share anything more than that, but I found the whole manga to be equally exciting and interesting.

The action scenes are really well drawn, too.

While there is a resolution of sorts to the story in Volume 1, we get a brand-new character suggesting a brand-new adventure and mystery is about to start right up, setting things up for the forthcoming Volume 2.

I thought this was an action-packed, exciting, and beautifully illustrated manga and I’m giving it four stars, particularly for fans of stories with tech, underworld crime, and the good ol’ yakuza. Ling was a great “hero” for this story and I’m interested in seeing how he comes to terms with the loss of Lok, and I really like Taec, too. He’s a nice break from all of the gloom and trauma of the past. I’m sure he’s got a bigger story behind him, too.

Four stars.

---

The Zeros Vol. 1 is available for purchase in digital and print from a variety of booksellers and the original publisher starting September 1, 2026.