The ladder ended in a pool of darkness.
Yoo-jin hit the concrete floor with a heavy thud. The air down here was different. It didn't smell like the desert. It smelled of ozone, antiseptic, and something stale—like air that had been recycled for twenty years.
"Flashlights," Yoo-jin ordered, his voice echoing too loudly in the silence.
Beams of light cut through the gloom. They were in a corridor.
The walls were white tile, cracked and stained with age. Thick cables ran along the ceiling like black snakes.
"It looks like a hospital," Mina whispered, stepping off the ladder. She huddled close to Hana.
"Or a morgue," Min-ji muttered, aiming her flashlight at a rusted metal door.
Yoo-jin checked his System.
[Location: The Incubator (Level B1)]
[Connection Strength: 100%]
[Battery Drain: Accelerating]
His headache spiked. Being here was like standing inside a microwave. The energy was palpable, vibrating in his teeth.
"This way," Yoo-jin said, pointing down the hall. "The mainframe is in the center."
They walked in formation. Eden took the lead, his eyes adjusting to the dark better than the others.
He walked strangely. Not his usual confident idol stride. He walked with hesitation, hugging his own chest.
"Eden?" Yoo-jin called out.
"I know this smell," Eden whispered. He stopped in front of a glass observation window. "Bleach and... copper."
He wiped the dust off the glass.
Inside was a room lined with small, crib-like pods. But they weren't for babies. They were lined with electrodes and restraints.
"The Nursery," Eden said. His voice was devoid of emotion, but his hands were shaking. "This is where we learned to sleep without dreaming."
Sae-ri put a hand over her mouth. "They experimented on children?"
"Not children," Yoo-jin said grimly, reading a faded plaque on the wall. "Assets."
[Project Genesis: Batch 4]
[Status: Terminated]
He saw the reflection of his own face in the glass. He wondered which batch he had been. Was he a child once? Or was Version 2 just code poured into a grown body?
"Keep moving," Yoo-jin said. "We can't change the past."
They pushed deeper into the facility.
The corridor opened up into a massive circular atrium. In the center stood a tower of servers, rising three stories high. They were covered in cobwebs, silent monoliths of the Cold War era.
But one bank of terminals was glowing.
A single green light blinked in the dark. Waiting.
"There," Yoo-jin said. He stumbled toward it. His legs felt like lead.
[Life Force: 6%]
He collapsed into the metal chair in front of the console. Dust billowed up.
"Yoo-jin!" Sae-ri rushed to his side. "You're bleeding again."
She wiped his nose with her sleeve. The blood was dark, almost black.
"I'm fine," Yoo-jin wheezed. "Connect the drive."
He handed her the USB from Version 1.
Sae-ri slotted it into the terminal.
WHIRRR.
The ancient hard drives spun to life. The sound was deafening in the quiet room. Fans groaned, kicking up clouds of gray dust.
The main screen flickered on. Green text scrolled rapidly.
[System Boot Sequence Initiated]
[User Recognized: HYJ-001 (Prototype)]
[Welcome Home, Son.]
"Son?" Olivia read the screen over his shoulder. "That's creepy."
A video file opened automatically.
It wasn't Version 1 this time. It was an older man. He wore a lab coat and thick glasses. He looked exhausted, smoking a cigarette in this very chair.
"My name is Dr. Oh," the man on the screen said. "If you are watching this, then the Ministry has failed. And my creations have returned to the nest."
Yoo-jin leaned forward. This was the Architect.
"I created the System to save the industry," Dr. Oh said, exhaling smoke. "Music creates emotion. Emotion creates energy. I thought if we could quantify it, optimize it... we could create a utopia. A world united by perfect art."
The doctor laughed bitterly on the recording.
"But the military didn't want art. They wanted mind control. They wanted soldiers who could sing."
The image flickered.
"I built a backdoor," Dr. Oh continued. "A kill switch. It's not in the code. It's in the core."
He pointed to the screen.
"The System feeds on the host's humanity. It burns your soul to fuel the stats. To stop it, you don't need a hacker. You need a sacrifice."
Yoo-jin froze.
"You have to overload it," Dr. Oh said. "Feed it more emotion than it can process. Force a stack overflow. But doing that... burns out the host's nervous system."
The doctor stared directly into the camera.
"One of you has to die to kill the machine. I'm sorry."
The video ended.
Silence descended on the atrium. The only sound was the whirring of the fans.
"One of us?" Hana whispered. "He means Yoo-jin."
"No," Sae-ri grabbed Yoo-jin's shoulders. "We find another way. We are not doing that."
"It makes sense," Yoo-jin murmured. He stared at his hands. "I'm already at 6%. If I connect to the mainframe and push my output to 100%... I can fry the servers."
"And fry your brain!" Sae-ri shouted. "You'll be a vegetable, Yoo-jin! Just like Version 1!"
"If I don't," Yoo-jin said calmly, "The Ministry keeps using Eden. They keep making more of us. They enslave the world with a pop song."
He looked at Eden.
The boy was staring at the blinking green light.
"I can do it," Eden said.
"No!" Yoo-jin snapped. "You are not a sacrifice. You are my artist."
"I am a machine," Eden countered. "I have no soul to burn. I can handle the load."
"You have a soul!" Mina yelled. She stepped forward, tears in her eyes. "You like oranges! You got angry at the cage! You are a person!"
Eden looked at her, confused. "Mina..."
Suddenly, a siren wailed.
WEOO-WEOO-WEOO.
Red lights strobed in the atrium, bathing them in the color of blood.
[Security Breach Detected]
[Defense Protocol: Activated]
[Releasing: Subject Zero]
The ground shook.
A massive blast door on the far side of the atrium began to grind open.
"What is Subject Zero?" Director Park screamed, hiding behind the server rack.
"The failure," Yoo-jin realized with horror. "The one they couldn't control. The one they locked away."
A roar echoed from the darkness of the opening door.
It wasn't human. It was a distorted, digital screech that sounded like a corrupted audio file given flesh.
"Run!" Yoo-jin shouted. "Get to the ladder!"
"What about the kill switch?" Olivia yelled, pulling out a flare gun she had found on the bus.
"We can't initiate it while we're being eaten!" Yoo-jin grabbed his laptop. "We need to buy time!"
Something stepped out of the darkness.
It was humanoid. Eight feet tall. Its skin was pale gray, covered in black circuit tattoos. Wires hung from its flesh like veins.
Its face was a smooth, black visor. No eyes. No mouth.
Just speakers.
Speakers embedded in its shoulders, its chest, its throat.
[Target Analysis]
[Subject Zero (The Silencer)]
[Status: Berserk]
Subject Zero opened its chest cavity. A massive subwoofer pulsed.
BOOOM.
A shockwave of sound hit them.
It threw Yoo-jin across the room. He slammed into a metal railing, gasping for air.
"Yoo-jin!" Sae-ri scrambled toward him.
Subject Zero marched forward. Each step shook the floor. It raised an arm, aiming a sonic cannon at the girls.
"Hey, Ugly!"
Min-ji stepped out from behind a pillar. She held her microphone stand like a spear.
"You call that bass?" she screamed. "My grandmother hits harder than that!"
She threw the stand. It bounced harmlessly off Subject Zero's chest.
But it got its attention. The monster turned toward her.
"Run, you idiot!" Yoo-jin wheezed.
Min-ji sprinted. Subject Zero fired a blast of sound. It pulverized the concrete pillar she had just been standing behind.
"We can't fight that thing!" Olivia shouted, reloading her flare gun. "It's a walking tank!"
"It responds to sound," Eden said suddenly. He was standing in the center of the room, unmoving.
"Eden, move!"
"It is blind," Eden said. "It uses echolocation. Like a bat."
He looked at Yoo-jin.
"Boss. I need a beat."
Yoo-jin struggled to his feet. His vision was blurry. His System was screaming warnings.
But he saw the potential.
[Tactical Opportunity]
[Sonic Overload]
If Subject Zero used sound to see, then loud noise would blind it.
"Olivia!" Yoo-jin pointed to the server towers. " The fire alarm! Pull it!"
Olivia didn't hesitate. She fired her flare gun at the red box on the wall.
SMASH.
The fire alarm shrieked. A piercing, high-pitched ringing.
Subject Zero roared in pain, clutching its head. It stumbled, confused by the noise flooding its sensors.
"Now!" Yoo-jin shouted. "Hit him with everything you've got!"
Sol and Luna stepped up. They didn't have mics. They didn't have amps.
They screamed.
A harmonized, high-note scream that cut through the air.
Subject Zero staggered back.
Eden sprinted. He didn't run away. He ran toward the monster.
He jumped, kicking off a console, and landed on Subject Zero's back.
He grabbed the wires hanging from the monster's neck.
"Interface!" Eden yelled.
Blue light exploded from his hands. He was trying to hack the monster directly.
Subject Zero thrashed, slamming Eden against the walls. But the boy held on.
"Yoo-jin!" Eden shouted. "I'm opening the port! Use the kill switch now!"
Yoo-jin looked at the terminal. Then at Eden.
If he activated the kill switch now, the surge would go through the mainframe... and into Eden, who was connected to the network.
"It will kill you!" Yoo-jin screamed.
"Do it!" Eden yelled, his eyes glowing white. "I am the error! Delete me!"
Yoo-jin's hand hovered over the Enter key.
Sae-ri was looking at him. Tears streamed down her face.
He had to choose.
Save the world. Or save his artist.
[Life Force: 4%]
Yoo-jin made a choice.
He slammed his fist down. Not on the Enter key.
On the power cord.
He ripped the thick black cable out of the wall.
Sparks showered the room. The terminal went dead. The green light vanished.
"No!" Eden screamed.
Without the mainframe's connection, Eden's hack failed. Subject Zero grabbed him and threw him across the room like a ragdoll.
Eden hit the wall and slid down, motionless.
"Eden!" Mina shrieked.
Subject Zero turned toward Yoo-jin. The fire alarm had stopped when the power died. The monster could see again.
And it was angry.
It charged.
Yoo-jin stood his ground. He had no plan. No power. No battery.
He just stood in front of his team.
"Come on," he whispered.
Subject Zero raised a fist to crush him.
Then, a new sound cut through the air.
A guitar riff.
Loud. Distorted. And coming from... above?
Everyone looked up.
The ceiling of the atrium exploded inward. Debris rained down.
Through the hole in the roof, a rope dropped.
And sliding down the rope, holding a keytar and wearing a velvet suit, was a man.
He landed on top of a server rack, struck a pose, and played a power chord that echoed through the facility.
"Did someone order a cameo?"
David Kim grinned, adjusting his sunglasses in the dim light.
Behind him, armed mercenaries rappelled down the ropes, weapons trained on Subject Zero.
"Titan has entered the chat," David shouted. "Light him up, boys!"