Eighteen-year-old Ryohei Arisu is sick of his life. School sucks, his love life is a joke, and his future weighs on him like impending doom. As he struggles to exist in a world that can't be bothered with him, Ryohei feels like everything would be better if he were anywhere else. When a strange fireworks show transports him and his friends to a parallel world, Ryohei thinks all his wishes have come true. But this new world isn't an empty paradise, it's a vicious game. And the only way to survive is to play.

Not every visitor to Borderland spends all their time merely struggling to survive the games. Much like Arisu, some players are hunting for the truth behind the strange and deadly world they've found themselves in. Kaito Kameyama, one such player, is documenting the atrocities on his video camera in the hope that he can eventually expose Borderland to the media back home. But does the truth even matter if everyone dies before they can share it?