The first note wasn't music. It was a shriek.
Siren drew her electric bow across the violin strings. The sound blasted through the cavern like a physical shockwave.
SCREEEEEEECH.
Yoo-jin doubled over, clutching the railing of the balcony. It felt like someone had driven a heated spike into his ear canal.
[System Alert]
[Audio Damage Detected]
[Hearing Integrity: 75%]
Below in the cage, Eden stumbled back.
The boy raised his arms to shield his face. The sonic blast was so powerful it blew back his silver hair. His hoodie fluttered violently in the wind pressure generated by the speakers.
"Is that all you got, tin man?" Siren laughed. She tapped a pedal on the floor.
The sound shifted. It went lower. A sub-bass rumble that rattled teeth.
THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.
It was a heartbeat. A weaponized heartbeat aimed directly at Eden's chest.
"He can't sing over that," Olivia yelled over the noise. "She's hogging the entire frequency spectrum! If he opens his mouth, he'll just get drowned out!"
"He's taking damage," Sae-ri noted, gripping Yoo-jin's arm. "Look."
Yoo-jin forced his eyes open.
Above Eden's head, a red bar was appearing in the AR overlay.
[HP: 89%]
[HP: 82%]
It was dropping fast. Eden was trying to dodge the sound waves, moving in jerky, confused patterns. He looked like a glitching NPC.
David Kim floated closer on his platform, sipping a martini.
"Disappointing," David mused into his mic. "I heard the Korean model was advanced. But he's just a pretty face. In America, we eat pretty faces."
He gestured to Siren. "Finish him."
Siren grinned. Her visor flashed red. She raised the violin for a finale—a high-frequency burst designed to shatter eardrums.
Yoo-jin's vision swam. The pain behind his eyes was blinding. His System was overheating, trying to process the chaotic audio data.
'I need to give him an order,' Yoo-jin thought. 'But he can't hear me.'
He looked at the stage setup. The massive speakers. The loop pedals. The feedback.
Wait. Feedback.
Yoo-jin grabbed his phone. He opened the Producer App. He couldn't talk to Eden, but he could talk to the venue.
"Ghost!" he screamed into his headset. "Are you on the line?"
"I'm hacking the lighting rig!" So-young's voice crackled in his ear. "But the audio system is air-gapped! I can't touch the sound!"
"I don't need you to touch the sound," Yoo-jin gritted his teeth. "I need you to open the Bluetooth channel on Eden's in-ear monitor. Max volume."
"That will deafen him!"
"Do it!"
A second later, Eden flinched. He grabbed his ear.
Yoo-jin spoke into his phone. He didn't shout. He whispered, trusting the direct line.
"Eden. Stop trying to be music."
In the cage, Eden froze. Siren was winding up her bow.
"She is noise," Yoo-jin said. "You are the machine. Don't fight the noise. Sample it."
Eden's blue eyes snapped open. He looked at Siren.
He didn't back away. He stepped forward.
Siren unleashed the screech.
SCREEE—
Eden opened his mouth.
He didn't sing a note. He mimicked the sound perfectly.
SCREEE—
But he didn't stop there. He caught the sound in his throat, chopped it up, and spat it back out.
SCRE-SCRE-SCRE-EEE-EEE.
It was a vocal stutter. A glitch.
The crowd went silent for a microsecond. They had never heard a human make that sound.
Eden grabbed the microphone stand. He slammed it against the metal floor of the cage.
CLANG.
He looped it.
CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.
It was a rhythm. Cold. Industrial. Heavy.
Siren faltered. "What the hell?"
She played a chaotic riff to throw him off.
Eden listened. He processed. He beatboxed a distorted bass line that swallowed her riff whole.
[Target Analysis]
[Mode: Industrial Metal]
[Sync Rate: 100%]
Eden began to move. Not dancing. Thrashing.
He threw his body against the cage bars, using the rattle of the metal as percussion.
Then, he screamed.
It wasn't a scream of fear. It was the sound of a reactor melting down. Distorted, raspy, and terrifyingly powerful.
"I AM THE ERROR!"
The crowd exploded. They didn't cheer; they moshed. The violence in the music fed them.
[Crowd Hype: OVERLOAD]
[Dominance: Eden]
Siren panicked. She cranked her amp to the max. She played faster, desperate to regain control.
But Eden was closer.
He walked right up to her, ignoring the sonic pressure. He looked like a demon rising from a digital hell.
He leaned into her violin microphone.
"System," Eden whispered. "Crash."
He let out a low, guttural growl that hit the resonant frequency of the room.
HUMMMMMMM.
The feedback loop was instantaneous.
Siren's amp squealed. Sparks flew from her violin. The glass of her visor cracked.
"Ah!" She dropped the instrument, covering her ears.
The music cut out. Only Eden's heavy breathing echoed in the silence.
He stood over her, his silver hair wild, sweat dripping down his face. He looked dangerous. He looked alive.
[Winner: Eden]
The holographic text burned in the air.
For a second, nobody moved.
Then, the warehouse erupted.
"EDEN! EDEN! EDEN!"
They were chanting his name like a war cry.
On the balcony, Olivia Ray was jumping up and down. "That's my robot! Kick her ass!"
Director Park was clutching his chest, looking pale. "We are going to get sued for hearing damage. So many lawsuits."
Yoo-jin slumped against the wall. The adrenaline crashed.
Blood trickled from both nostrils now. His vision was tunneling.
"Yoo-jin?" Sae-ri was there instantly. She grabbed his face, forcing him to look at her. "Stay with me. Don't close your eyes."
"I'm... awake," Yoo-jin mumbled. "Did we win?"
"We won," Sae-ri whispered, her voice trembling. "He destroyed her."
Across the warehouse, the floating platform descended.
David Kim stepped off. He walked to the edge of the cage. He looked at Eden, then up at the balcony.
He slowly started to clap.
"Bravo," David shouted. "I haven't seen a brutality like that since '99."
He snapped his fingers.
The bouncer beside Yoo-jin stepped forward. He reached into his jacket.
Hana tensed, ready to fight.
But the bouncer didn't pull a gun. He pulled out a small, silver keycard.
He handed it to Yoo-jin.
"The boss keeps his word," the bouncer grunted.
Yoo-jin took the card. It was warm.
[Item Received: Titan Vault Access Key (Level 0)]
David Kim's voice boomed over the PA again.
"You passed the audition, Version 2. But be warned. That key doesn't just open a file."
David took off his sunglasses. His eyes were mismatched. one brown, one artificial blue.
"It opens the graveyard. If you go to those coordinates... make sure you're ready to see what they did to the ones who failed."
The platform rose back up into the shadows.
"Show's over!" David yelled to the crowd. "Drink up!"
The DJ started playing house music. The crowd went back to dancing, forgetting the violence instantly.
Yoo-jin pushed himself off the wall. He gripped the keycard so tight his knuckles turned white.
"Let's get Eden," Yoo-jin said, his voice weak but commanding. "We're leaving."
They made their way down to the cage.
Eden was sitting on the floor, staring at his hands. They were shaking.
"Eden," Yoo-jin said softly, stepping into the cage.
Eden looked up. His eyes were wide, filled with a childlike confusion.
"My chest hurts," Eden whispered. "And my throat tastes like... iron."
"That's adrenaline," Yoo-jin said. He reached out and pulled the boy up. "And blood."
"Did I do it correctly?"
"You were perfect," Yoo-jin said.
He put an arm around Eden's shoulders, supporting him.
"Let's go home. I have a drive to decrypt."
3:00 AM. The Glass House.
The living room was quiet again. The cardboard taped over the window fluttered in the wind.
Yoo-jin sat at the table alone. Everyone else was asleep, exhausted from the battle.
He held the USB drive in one hand and David's keycard in the other.
He slotted the keycard into a card reader attached to his laptop. Then he plugged in the drive.
[Access Granted]
[User Verified: Han Yoo-jin (Version 2)]
The screen flickered. A folder opened.
It wasn't a video this time. It was a map.
A 3D topographical map of the Nevada desert. A red dot blinked in the middle of nowhere.
[Target Location: Sector 4]
[Facility Name: The Incubator]
And below the map, a single text file.
Yoo-jin clicked it.
"If you are reading this, I am dead. And you are probably dying."
It was Version 1's voice. Yoo-jin could hear it in his head.
"The System isn't a game, Yoo-jin. It's a battery. It runs on human potential. When you use your skills, you aren't spending points. You are spending your life."
Yoo-jin froze.
"I found a way to disconnect it. A code that severs the link between the host and the server. But I couldn't finish it. The code is in the Incubator. Where they made us."
Yoo-jin touched his nose. The blood was dried, but the headache was a constant, low-frequency hum now.
"Go to the desert. Find the mainframe. Kill the System. Or it will kill you."
"P.S. Save Yuna. Don't let her become an idol."
The file closed.
Yoo-jin sat back in the dark.
He wasn't a producer. He was a battery. And he was running on 10%.
He looked at the bedroom door where Sae-ri was sleeping. Where Sol, Luna, and Eden were dreaming.
If he disconnected the System, he would lose his S-Rank eyes. He would lose the ability to see potential. He would be just a normal man.
Could he protect them without the System?
He looked at the reflection in the black laptop screen. He looked tired.
"Guess I have to find out," he whispered.
He closed the laptop.
Tomorrow, they were going to the desert. Tomorrow, they were going to meet their maker.