"5, 4, 3...!"

  Min-su’s countdown screamed through the small room. The moment Jin-woo’s finger slammed the final 'Enter' key, the monitors crackled and went black. The underground server in Mumyeong Village had been incinerated by the self-destruct algorithm. A heavy silence filled the workshop, accompanied by the phantom smell of burning electronics.

  "Haa... Haa..."

  Jin-woo pushed his chair back, gasping for breath. Veins bulged on the back of his hands. Seo-hee, her hands trembling, clutched the external hard drive where Jin-woo had managed to save the last-second clone.

  "Chief... did we succeed? Did we get the data?"

  Jin-woo silently rebooted the monitor. Among the corrupted files, a recovered image slowly loaded. It was a log from a hidden camera filming Yuri’s hospital room. But the angle was wrong. It wasn't the CCTV on the ceiling. It was filming from the flower vase right next to Yuri’s bed.

  "This... this is an angle impossible to set up unless you're an insider."

  At Min-su’s words, Jin-woo’s eyes turned ice-cold. The hospital he trusted to protect Yuri was nothing more than a playground for 'S'. His heart felt like it was plummeting to the floor.

  Seo-hee gasped as she read through the recovered text files.

  "Chief, look at this. The final approver code for Project 'Mirror Ghost'... doesn't this look familiar? It’s not 'S'. The prefix matches the unique admin code of our Main Contractor’s logistics system."

  Jin-woo stared piercingly at the screen Seo-hee pointed to. She was right. 'S' wasn't a monster far away. He was hiding right inside the Main Contractor’s system—the very heart of the network Jin-woo and Seo-hee managed every day.

  "The darkest place is always under the lamp. While we were obsessing over external security, that bastard was cooking Yuri right under our noses."

  Jin-woo stood up and grabbed his coat. His eyes were no longer those of the joking man at the mart, nor the grieving brother. He was 'Phantom', who had finally locked onto his prey.

  "Seo-hee, scrape the entire admin log when we get to work tomorrow. Min-su, trace the final signal jump before the Mumyeong server blew up. The tail is right in front of our faces."

  Jin-woo recalled the brief miracle of Yuri’s finger moving. Now, it wasn't time for defense. It was time to stick a blade down the enemy's throat.

  Monday morning. The office atmosphere was as mundane as ever. But Jin-woo and Seo-hee’s eyes were sharp as hawks, tracking every movement of the staff. The owner of the admin code they analyzed yesterday pointed to one prime suspect: the direct secretary of Executive Director Kim, who had been dispatched from the Main Contractor.

  "Chief, now. The secretary went to the break room. I'll copy the logs while the seat is empty!"

  At Seo-hee’s signal, Jin-woo moved to access the secretary's computer. But just as he reached for the mouse, the office door flew open and Executive Director Kim barged in.

  "Section Chief Kang! What are you doing at someone else's desk? Your work attitude has been terrible lately!"

  Jin-woo froze at the sudden shout. In that split second, the secretary returned and quickly turned off the monitor. Jin-woo caught a fleeting, fishy smirk in the secretary's eyes.

  The bastard already knew. The first hunting attempt had missed completely.

  That afternoon, the office was silent, like the calm before a storm. The sound of the copier and the tapping of keyboards filled the void. Jin-woo shuffled through papers, but in his head, he was mapping the movement lines of every employee. As the red sunset signaled the end of the day, people began packing their bags wearily.

  "Chief, how about samgyeopsal (pork belly) tonight? You looked pretty down earlier..."

  At Seo-hee’s suggestion, Jin-woo nodded silently. The two left the office and headed to a worn-down alleyway nearby. Passing through the noisy market crowd, the smell of grilling meat tickled their noses. They arrived at a shabby restaurant with drum-can tables.

  "Damn it! We had him! Why did Executive Director Kim have to show up right then?"

  Min-su, who had joined them, downed a shot of soju and vented his frustration in front of the grill. Jin-woo stared silently at the cooking meat. Seo-hee was also disheartened, fiddling with her chopsticks.

  Stolen story; please report.

  "I'm sorry, Chief. I must have timed it wrong."

  Jin-woo smiled bitterly and filled Seo-hee’s glass.

  "No. The bastard is smarter than we thought. Using the Executive Director as a shield... he might be rooted deeper in the company than we imagined. Let's just eat and forget it for today. Even if life is raw and tough, at least this meat is well-done. Consider it medicine."

  Seo-hee chuckled at his terrible pun. The tension loosened, and the dinner turned into the chatter of ordinary salarymen. Min-su bragged he would teach Seo-hee hacking, and she laughed at his bluff.

  But Jin-woo knew. Now, while the enemy let their guard down, was the most dangerous moment—and the best opportunity. He quietly checked his phone under the table. Yuri in the hospital ward was still silent, but the rage in his chest burned hotter than the alcohol.

  "Chief, we're really going to catch him tomorrow, right?"

  At Seo-hee’s question, Jin-woo clinked his glass against hers.

  "Tomorrow, I won't just catch his logs. I'll rip out his heart."

  The night air was chilly after the dinner. After sending Min-su off in a taxi, Jin-woo and Seo-hee walked slowly through the night streets to sober up. Under the streetlights, Seo-hee’s face was flushed from the alcohol.

  "Chief, you know that meat joke was the worst, right? But... thanks to that, I relaxed a bit. Honestly, since my brother disappeared, every day has been a battlefield. I couldn't trust anyone, always kept my guard up..."

  Seo-hee stopped and looked at Jin-woo intently. He listened silently, hands in his pockets.

  "But being next to you feels strangely reassuring. You just look like a dad-joke uncle, but when you grab a keyboard, you look like the strongest person in the world. I... can I trust you and follow you to the end?"

  Jin-woo looked up at the night sky instead of answering. Being trusted by someone—it was a heavy, unfamiliar emotion he hadn't felt since losing Yuri.

  "Don't trust me. The moment you trust, you create a weakness. Just... think of it as using me until you find your brother. I'll do the same."

  Seo-hee laughed at his blunt reply. "Che, acting cool to the end!"

  But that peaceful atmosphere was shattered in an instant by a notification on Jin-woo’s phone. Caller ID restricted. The text was a single line.

  [S: Was the pork belly tasty? The next item on the menu is Yuri’s 'Euthanasia'.]

  Jin-woo’s eyes flipped instantly. The alcohol evaporated from his system, and every muscle in his body pulled taut. The bastard was watching them, even right now.

  "Chief? What's wrong? You look pale..."

  When Seo-hee approached in surprise, Jin-woo covered his phone screen and spoke in a voice like ice.

  "Seo-hee. Tomorrow morning, we plant a 'Trojan Horse' in the Main Contractor's server. If he enjoyed watching our daily lives, we should destroy his living room in return."

  Jin-woo’s knuckles turned white. The enemy had crossed the line. The price for using Yuri’s life as a threat was total erasure. Jin-woo walked Seo-hee to her door, then immediately turned his car not toward the hospital, but to the company’s underground parking lot.

  Tonight, Phantom’s real hunt would begin.

  The fluorescent lights in the basement parking lot flickered ominously. Inside his car, Jin-woo opened his old laptop. The blue light from the screen reflected in his murderous eyes. The word 'Euthanasia' felt like it was tearing his heart apart, but his fingers moved with cold, mechanical precision.

  "Seo-hee, are you asleep? I secured a bypass to the Main Frame. Dropping the 'Trojan Horse' now. I'll show him exactly what it costs to touch Yuri."

  He heard Seo-hee’s rough breathing over the phone as she woke up. Moments later, her connection signal appeared on the top right of his screen.

  — "Chief, are you in the parking lot? Are you crazy? If the security team catches you, it's over!"

  "If I get caught, I'll break through. The fact that he touched Yuri’s hospital network means there's already a dedicated tunnel for him inside the internal security grid. I'm going to ride that tunnel in reverse and take his head. You just make some noise on the perimeter."

  At Jin-woo’s command, thousands of fake packets slammed into the Main Contractor’s server. While the security team panicked, Jin-woo infiltrated the deepest part of the server—the heart of the 'System Administrator'—like an invisible ghost.

  The sound of his typing echoed through the silent parking lot like percussion. A drop of sweat rolled down his chin, but he didn't blink. Finally, the secret directory the bastard had hidden clicked open.

  It was full of encrypted messages the traitorous secretary had exchanged with 'S'. Jin-woo decrypted one and froze as he read it.

  [S: Synchronize (Choi Yuri)'s vital data to Hwang Jin-ho's algorithm. Before the consciousness of Test Subject 01 collapses completely.]

  "Hwang Jin-ho...? They were plugging Seo-hee’s brother’s algorithm into Yuri’s brain?"

  Jin-woo slammed his fist onto the steering wheel. Rage made it feel like the air was thinning. They weren't just using Yuri as a hostage; she was a tool for some horrific experiment.

  "Seo-hee, did you hear that? Your brother... might be alive. And those bastards are using our Yuri. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to shove these logs right into that Secretary’s face."

  A blue flame ignited in Jin-woo’s eyes. The hunt had just begun.