Sector 95—the Closed Factory Zone.

  It was a wasteland of jagged silhouettes where system maintenance had long since ceased.

  Wall textures were stripped away, leaving behind hideous, flickering gray patches, and "Loading" icons hovered over rusted container boxes like ghost lights.

  Si-woo crouched behind a container, his breath shallow.

  The coordinates from the Doctor’s chip pointed directly to a makeshift barracks at the center of the factory.

  ‘So, the Master Key is in there.’

  Near the entrance, two guards stood less than a meter apart, idly scanning the perimeter with bored expressions.

  Si-woo remained in stealth, his retinal display rapidly scrolling through his inventory.

  [SEARCHING: JUNK DATA]

  [TOTAL VOLUME: 4.2 PB (PETABYTES)]

  Si-woo scrutinized the guards' equipment.

  They weren't outfitted with high-performance processors—standard grunt specs.

  ‘Based on their average processing speed... 500 Terabytes should be enough. I only need to lock them down for 30 seconds.’

  [COMMAND: EXTRACT AND COMPRESS 500 TB]

  [FINAL FORM: THROWABLE MODULE]

  Clack.

  A dark gray cube slid out from the discharge port at the base of his rig.

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  Keeping his body low, Si-woo gave the cube a controlled shove, sending it rolling silently toward the guards' feet.

  Roll, roll, roll. "Hm? What's this...?"

  [WHIRRRRR—!]

  The moment the cube stopped, a high-frequency vibration that felt like it was tearing through eardrums erupted.

  500 Terabytes of raw trash data were unleashed in an instant, overwhelming the local area's computation and triggering a massive 'Frame Lag.'

  "Wh—at... is... th—is...?"

  The guards' movements transformed into grotesque, stuttering slow motion.

  Their frames skipped, and their voices pitched down into a distorted, digital crawl.

  Confirming they were completely neutralized, Si-woo stepped out from the shadows.

  Through his [Debugging Filter], the world was bathed in a steady green light, allowing him to navigate the lag-distorted space with perfect fluidity.

  Si-woo stepped up to Guard A, whose gaze was frozen several frames behind, and drove a steel pipe into his solar plexus.

  Without a pause, he pivoted, delivering a sharp uppercut to Guard B’s jaw.

  [SYSTEM: DELAYED DATA PROCESSED]

  "Guh!" "Ack!"

  The screams only erupted after Si-woo had already glided past them.

  The accumulated damage was applied all at once, sending the guards collapsing to the ground in a heap.

  Si-woo didn't look back as he entered the factory.

  Inside, at the center of the floor, stood a control console, and plugged into its core was the [Master Key] the Doctor had mentioned.

  Surrounding the console, five hijackers were huddled around a hologram arena, completely engrossed in gambling.

  ‘No blind spots to sneak in through.’

  Holding his breath, Si-woo activated the [Precision Scan] mode on his retinal display.

  As he scanned the hologram they were watching, he spotted a microscopic layer-overlap bug in the code.

  A cleaner’s job required a flawless understanding of bugs to eradicate them; Si-woo used that same flawless understanding to manipulate them.

  Si-woo lightly snapped his fingers in the air.

  ‘Overrun.’

  BZZZT—!

  In an instant, the palm-sized hologram arena surged upward, expanding into a massive wall of data that nearly touched the ceiling.

  A waterfall of primary-colored pixel fragments and shattered textures poured down, completely blinding the five hijackers.

  "Huh? What the hell! My eyes!!"

  Using the blinding wall of light as cover, Si-woo launched himself at the console.

  The moment his hand snatched the [Master Key] and yanked it out...

  BEEEEEEP—!

  An ear-piercing alarm instantly shook the factory.

  [WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED SEPARATION OF CONTROL AUTHORITY]

  [INITIATING SECURITY PROTOCOLS IMMEDIATELY]

  "The Master Key’s been taken!!"

  Beyond the wall of noise, the hijackers screamed, fumbling for their guns.

  Si-woo shoved the key into an empty slot on his rig and glanced to the side.

  On a nearby tray sat three brilliantly glowing blue 'High-Purity Data Cores'.

  Normally, Si-woo’s eyes would have rolled back at such a windfall.

  ‘Those cores are easily a month’s income...’

  But at that exact second, his retinal display flared with a cluster of incoming signals—reinforcements breaching the factory perimeter.

  If he wasted even one second grabbing those cores, his escape route would be permanently sealed.

  ‘...It's a damn shame, but money is useless if I'm dead.’

  Si-woo ruthlessly severed his lingering greed and tore his eyes away from the cores.

  Throwing his entire body forward, he sprinted toward his pre-planned emergency exit.

  By the time the hijackers finally burst through the noise screen and blindly fired their weapons into the air,

  Si-woo had already vanished into the pitch-black abyss of the escape tunnel.

  Master Key.

  If you enjoyed Si-woo’s "Lag Bomb" and his clean getaway, please Rate and Review! See you in Chapter 5!