The file was thin, but it weighed a ton.
Yoo-jin tossed it onto the glass coffee table in the Starforce lounge. It slid across the surface, stopping right in front of David Kim.
"Project Ouroboros," David read the cover. He raised an eyebrow. "The snake eating its own tail. Pretentious."
"It fits," Yoo-jin said, pacing the room. "Chairman Lee isn't building a new System. He's recycling the old one. He wants to loop the data from his daughter back into the network."
"She's comatose," Sae-ri pointed out. She was icing a bruise on her arm from the van escape. "How can she run a network?"
"She doesn't run it," Yoo-jin stopped pacing. "She anchors it. A human server. Dr. Oh told us the System feeds on potential. Ji-su was an S-Rank prototype. Her brain is a nuclear battery that never stops running."
He pointed to the blueprints Ghost had pulled from the stolen file.
"The Red Room. Basement Level 5 of Dragon HQ. It's shielded, air-gapped, and buried under twenty feet of concrete. That's where he's taking her."
David Kim whistled. "That's a vault. Getting in there is impossible. Even my guys can't breach a bunker in the middle of Gangnam without the army noticing."
"We don't need to breach the walls," Yoo-jin said. His eyes were cold. "We need to walk through the door."
"And how do we do that?"
"We wait for the reboot."
Yoo-jin pulled up a timeline on the screen.
"Tomorrow at noon. The transfer is complete. At 1:00 PM, Chairman Lee initiates the 'Handshake Protocol'. He connects Ji-su to the internal grid."
"So?"
"So for exactly three minutes," Yoo-jin tapped the screen, "the firewall drops to accept the new connection. The Dragon opens its mouth to eat."
"And we jump down its throat," Min-ji finished, cracking her knuckles. "Gross."
"It's suicide," Director Park moaned from the sofa. "We are a music agency, not seal team six!"
"We're both," Yoo-jin said.
He looked at his team. They were battered. Tired. But their eyes were burning.
"This is the end game," Yoo-jin said softly. "If Lee succeeds, he monopolizes the industry for another twenty years. No indie labels. No freedom. Just a factory churning out dolls. We stop him tomorrow, or we don't stop him at all."
3:00 AM. The Rooftop.
The city was asleep, but Eden was wide awake.
He stood on the edge of the roof, looking toward the dark silhouette of the Dragon HQ tower in the distance. The wind whipped his silver hair.
Yoo-jin walked up behind him. He brought two cans of warm soda.
"You should sleep," Yoo-jin said.
"I tried," Eden didn't turn around. "But I keep hearing a sound. A low frequency."
"It's phantom data," Yoo-jin said, opening a can. Click-fizz. "Withdrawal symptoms."
"No," Eden turned. His eyes were hauntingly clear. "It is her. Ji-su. She is screaming."
Yoo-jin froze.
He remembered Ji-su in the hospital bed. It counts my dreams.
"You can hear her?"
"Not with my ears," Eden touched his chest. "Here. It feels like... static. She is scared, Boss. She is alone in the dark."
Eden looked at his hands.
"I was lucky. I had you. I had Mina. I had a team."
He looked back at the tower.
"She has no one. Only the machine."
"We're going to get her out," Yoo-jin promised.
"I know," Eden said. "But I have a request."
"What?"
"When we go inside," Eden's voice hardened. It wasn't the voice of a naive AI anymore. It was the voice of a man. "Let me carry the burden."
"What burden?"
"The System," Eden said. "To destroy it, you need to overload it again. Like in the desert. But you are human now. If you connect, you will die."
He stepped closer.
"I am still code. I can take the voltage. Let me be the spike."
Yoo-jin looked at him. He saw the resolve. He saw the sacrifice.
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Yoo-jin said, dodging the promise. "Just be ready to sing."
Eden nodded. "I am always ready."
11:00 AM. D-Day.
Rain lashed the streets of Gangnam. It was a gray, miserable day. Perfect for a funeral. Or a heist.
A black ambulance pulled into the underground loading dock of Dragon Entertainment.
Armed guards surrounded it instantly.
A stretcher was wheeled out. On it lay a frail figure covered in a white sheet. Lee Ji-su.
Chairman Lee stood on the dock, holding a black umbrella. He watched his daughter pass by like she was a shipment of microchips.
"Take her to B5," Lee ordered. "Initiate the sequence."
The elevator doors closed.
Across the street, in a parked coffee truck, Yoo-jin watched the feed on a tablet.
"Target is inside," Yoo-jin said into his headset. "Phase One. Go."
Phase One was the distraction.
A block away, a flatbed truck screeched to a halt in the middle of the intersection.
The side panels dropped.
Sol and Luna stood on the platform. They wore combat boots and torn dresses.
They didn't wait for a crowd. They just started screaming.
It was their new song. Riot.
Massive speakers blasted the sound down the avenue. Traffic stopped. Pedestrians froze.
"HEY DRAGON!" Hana screamed into the mic. "COME OUT AND PLAY!"
Security guards poured out of the Dragon HQ lobby.
"Contain them!" the head of security shouted. "Shut them down!"
Half the guards ran toward the intersection.
"Phase Two," Yoo-jin said.
David Kim stepped out of a luxury sedan parked right in front of the lobby. He wore a suit that cost more than the building. He held a briefcase.
He walked right up to the remaining guards at the door.
"Delivery for Chairman Lee," David smiled, flashing his gold tooth.
"We're on lockdown!" the guard shouted. "Step back!"
"It's legal papers," David tapped the case. "A hostile takeover bid. By law, you have to let me serve it."
The guard hesitated. A takeover?
While they argued, three figures in maintenance uniforms slipped through the side fire exit.
The lock had been disabled remotely by Ghost ten seconds ago.
Yoo-jin, Eden, and Min-ji were inside.
The Stairwell.
They ran down. B1. B2. B3.
The air got colder. The concrete walls thicker.
"Two minutes to Handshake," Ghost's voice whispered in their ears. "You have to be at the B5 door when the firewall drops."
They hit B4.
A guard was patrolling the landing.
Min-ji didn't slow down. She swung her heavy guitar case.
THWACK.
The guard dropped without a sound.
"Nice swing," Yoo-jin panted.
"I practiced," Min-ji stepped over him.
They reached the B5 door.
It was a massive steel vault. No keyhole. Just a biometric scanner and a red light.
"One minute," Ghost counted down.
Inside, they could feel the vibration. A low hum that shook the floor. The server was waking up.
"Eden," Yoo-jin said. "Get ready."
Eden stood in front of the door. He closed his eyes.
"Scanning," Eden whispered. "I can hear the handshake. It is... hungry."
"30 seconds."
Yoo-jin checked his watch. His heart hammered against his ribs. He had no weapon. No stats. Just timing.
"10 seconds. Lee is initiating the link."
Inside the vault, Chairman Lee pressed a key.
Connecting to Host...
The red light on the door flickered. It turned amber.
"NOW!" Ghost shouted.
"Open sesame," Yoo-jin yelled.
He didn't hack the door. He jammed a localized EMP device—courtesy of David Kim—onto the keypad.
Zzzzt.
The lock shorted out while the system was rebooting. The heavy bolts retracted with a groan.
Yoo-jin pushed the door open.
They stepped into the Red Room.
It wasn't a room. It was a cathedral.
Rows of servers lined the walls, bathed in crimson light. In the center, suspended in a tank of clear liquid, was Lee Ji-su.
She floated, wires trailing from her head like a jellyfish. Her eyes were open, glowing with artificial light.
Chairman Lee stood at the control console. He turned around.
He didn't look surprised. He looked disappointed.
"You are persistent, Mr. Han," Lee said. His voice echoed in the vast chamber.
Guards emerged from the shadows. Six of them. Assault rifles raised.
"But persistence without power is just annoyance."
Lee pressed a button.
The tank began to bubble. Ji-su convulsed.
The screens on the wall lit up.
SYSTEM ONLINE.
HOST: LEE JI-SU.
NETWORK: GLOBAL.
"You're too late," Lee smiled thinly. "The Handshake is complete. The Dragon is awake."
A wave of pressure hit them. It wasn't physical. It was mental.
Yoo-jin fell to his knees. A screaming noise filled his head. It was the sound of a million stats crashing down on him.
Min-ji dropped her guitar, clutching her ears.
Only Eden remained standing.
He looked at the tank. He looked at the girl inside.
"She is crying," Eden whispered.
He stepped forward, ignoring the guns.
"Shoot him!" Lee ordered.
The guards fired.
RAT-TAT-TAT.
But the bullets didn't hit.
Before they could make contact, a wall of sound erupted from the tank.
SCREEEEEEEE!
Ji-su screamed. The liquid in the tank boiled. The sonic blast knocked the bullets out of the air. It knocked the guards off their feet.
"What?" Lee shouted, grabbing the console for support. "Stabilize her!"
"She isn't attacking us," Eden said, walking through the chaos.
He walked right up to the glass tank. He placed his hand on the surface.
"She is protecting me."
Eden looked back at Yoo-jin.
"Boss. The mic."
Yoo-jin struggled to his feet. He grabbed the emergency paging mic from the wall console. He threw it to Eden.
Eden caught it.
He looked at Chairman Lee.
"You wanted a network?" Eden said. His eyes began to glow, brighter than the red room. "I will give you a network."
He turned to the girl in the tank.
"Duet," Eden whispered.
He sang.
And inside the tank, Lee Ji-su opened her mouth.
And she sang back.