The moment Haerin and Yuri stepped outside the restaurant, the world had fallen into that strange, unnatural silence.
But several miles away—
beneath a perfectly ordinary house—
Hui jolted.
His soft bluish glow snapped from calm to razor-sharp.
The little orb shot upward in a violent burst of light, alarms flickering through its holographic core.
The lab reacted instantly.
A dome-like shimmer surged across the ceiling—
Hui's shield activating, layering itself over the entire underground structure like a transparent barrier.
Dr. Min dropped the tools he was holding.
"Hui?"
The orb zipped to him, vibrating with frantic light pulses.
Dr. Min's eyes widened.
"No… not now."
Hui projected a rapid scatter of holographic symbols—distorted, shaking, too jagged to be normal diagnostics.
Recognition struck Dr. Min like a punch.
"G7," he whispered.
Not here.
Not near.
But close enough to ripple the digital field.
Close enough that Hui—still incomplete, still downloading behavioral networks—could sense the distortion.
Hui's glow trembled.
He flickered once, dimming before stabilizing again.
"I know," Dr. Min said, voice low, urgent.
"You did good. Increase the shielding density."
The orb immediately projected three layers of blue circuits, tightening the protective barrier like weaving glass threads around the lab's core.
G7 couldn't penetrate Hui's shield.
But Hui could feel him.
Which meant—
He was hunting.
Dr. Min wiped his forehead, suddenly aware of the cold sweat gathering there.
He hurried to his workstation and pulled up the reconstruction files.
The incomplete blueprint of Hui's full anthropomorphic form expanded across the screen—still missing nearly 30% of its neural lattice.
Physical build: Unstable.
Core processor: Undersupplied.
Defense index: Too low.
Not enough to fight G7.
Not even close.
"Damn," Dr. Min muttered.
"We're running out of time."
He opened a secondary file.
Si-Eun
Stabilized: Yes.
Progress: Minimal.
Activity: Dormant.
Response Potential: Unknown.
If Si-Eun awakened unstable…
If G7 got to him first…
Dr. Min clenched his jaw.
He didn't just need to hurry—he needed expertise he no longer had on his own.
The screen cast harsh shadows across his face as he muttered:
"If only Daniel were here…"
His hands tightened.
Daniel—the only person who matched him in engineering precision.
The only one who could predict G7's behavior patterns.
The only one who could finalize Hui's combat systems in half the time.
And the man he once drove away.
Dr. Min looked at Hui, still trembling faintly as he monitored the city.
"Hui," he whispered, "locate Daniel's last signal."
Hui immediately brightened, projecting a soft blue ripple—
No results.
Dr. Min pressed a palm to his face.
"He's either hiding… or doesn't want to be found."
Another ripple.
Hui flickered sharply—
A new hologram appeared:
A map of the city, static crawling over one corner.
G7's signature.
Like a digital stain moving slowly toward—
Dr. Min froze.
Toward Haerin.
His pulse thudded painfully.
"Hui! Track! Now!"
The orb flashed—
its glow brighter, more intense, almost panicked.
"Haerin left the lab three hours ago," Dr. Min whispered.
"If G7 sensed her… if he realized she's connected to Si-Eun…"
He ran a hand over his face, torn.
Until Hui projected something—
A tiny, shaky hologram of Haerin…
standing alone under a streetlamp…
surrounded by flickering static.
The image shattered into glitching fragments.
Dr. Min's face drained of color.
"Hui… can you reach her?"
The orb trembled.
Then—
One soft, determined pulse.
"Yes."
Dr. Min exhaled shakily.
"Go. Protect her. Don't let G7 touch her."
Hui's blue glow flared, brighter than ever—
And in a streak of light, the little orb shot upward through the emergency tunnel, racing toward Haerin with every spark of power it had.