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  Tae-yoon was so immersed he didn't even notice Da-yeon standing there.

  ‘You bastards. Trying to bypass through Port 80? Not on my watch.’

  He slammed the 'Enter' key with a heavy finality.

  Thud.

  Instantly, the red warning windows that filled the screen evaporated. A green text, [ACCESS DENIED], flashed once, and the system returned to a peaceful state. He had not only blocked the intrusion but backtraced the attacker’s path and fried their server in return.

  It was a feat that even top-tier hackers would deem impossible, executed in mere minutes.

  "Hoo..."

  Tae-yoon exhaled a long breath and leaned back. A thin layer of sweat coated his forehead.

  "Oppa... what was that just now? You said you were just... a salaryman."

  At the trembling voice from his side, Tae-yoon snapped back to reality. He turned his head to see Da-yeon’s eyes wide with confusion and fear.

  He quickly composed his face, forcing a goofy, awkward smile.

  "Ah... It's nothing. There was a glitch in the company server, and Min-su asked for help. You know your oppa is surprisingly good with computers, right?"

  He spoke nonchalantly, but the seed of doubt in Da-yeon’s eyes didn't wither easily. A normal office worker doesn't look like a soldier at war on a Sunday morning. She had seen a glimpse of a giant, cold shadow behind her brother's warm smile.

  Tae-yoon closed the laptop, thinking inwardly.

  ‘They’ve started moving. And now, Da-yeon is beginning to question my identity.’

  He had protected the peace of Sunday morning, but the weight of the secrets he carried had just doubled.

  The air in the house remained heavy. Tae-yoon sat on the edge of the bed, holding Da-yeon’s anxious hands tightly. The sharp "Phantom" was gone; only the eyes of the world's kindest brother remained.

  "Da-yeon-ah, you trust me, right? That was just me being sensitive because of a system error. Min-su and Ha-jun are waiting nearby. I'll go finish this up quickly and come back."

  Da-yeon still looked uneasy, but swayed by his sincerity, she eventually nodded.

  Tae-yoon quickly got her ready and led her outside. Min-su was already waiting in his car.

  "Da-yeon! Oppa will drop you off in a flash. Don't worry, you know my driving skills, right?" Min-su joked, trying to lighten the mood.

  The car headed toward Da-yeon’s apartment. Throughout the ride, Tae-yoon kept his arm around Da-yeon, chatting about mundane things, but his eyes were constantly flicking to the rearview mirror, checking for tails.

  After walking Da-yeon to her door and hearing the lock click, Tae-yoon got back into the car. The warmth vanished from his face instantly.

  "Min-su, let's go. To where Ha-jun is."

  They drove to a secluded restaurant on the outskirts of the city where Ha-jun had secured a table. The young genius was sitting there, a portable server rig next to him, nervously smelling the spicy stew pot.

  "Hyung, did you drop Da-yeon off safely? My heart almost exploded earlier..." Ha-jun asked, spoon in hand.

  Tae-yoon nodded silently and took a spoonful of soup. Min-su clapped his hands. "Alright, let's eat first. Tae-yoon blocked it, so what's the worry?"

  Steam rose from the pot as the three men began to eat. On the surface, it was a peaceful Sunday lunch.

  But that peace didn't last ten minutes.

  Zzzzt— Zzzzt—!

  The three phones on the table began to vibrate in a bizarre, synchronized rhythm. Min-su tried to unlock his screen, but the OS was frozen. Ha-jun opened his laptop and screamed.

  "Hyung! This is different from before! They are distorting the cell tower signals around us! They’ve triangulated our location!"

  Tae-yoon’s eyes went cold.

  The enemy wasn't just after data anymore. They were hunting them physically using Sungjin Group's capital and influence over national networks.

  "We can't hold out here. Min-su, get the car! We move to the hideout and counterattack."

  They abandoned their food and sprinted to the car.

  As Min-su slammed on the accelerator, making the tires screech, Tae-yoon (backseat) and Ha-jun (passenger seat) opened their laptops on their knees.

  "Ha-jun, switch to wireless ad-hoc security mode! Min-su, avoid main roads. Stick to the alleys!"

  Inside the speeding car, amidst the shaking, thousands of lines of lethal code poured onto the screens. Tae-yoon’s fingers stabbed at the enemy's weak points with surgical precision, ignoring the motion sickness.

  Finally, Min-su’s car screeched to a halt in front of their secret basement hideout in the redevelopment district.

  "Get out! Ha-jun, boot the main server! Min-su, set up the external firewall!"

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  They rushed into the dark, damp basement. This was no longer a skirmish.

  Six massive monitors flickered to life simultaneously. The real firepower of the Phantom and his team began to roar.

  Tae-yoon struck the enemy's core devices from the center. Min-su parried the flank attacks. Ha-jun twisted the enemy's attack vectors, creating chaos. The perfect coordination of three pros shattered the Sunday afternoon silence.

  Time flowed ruthlessly.

  It was past 6:00 PM. The air inside the hideout was sweltering from the heat of the high-performance servers. Min-su’s forehead was dripping with sweat, and Ha-jun’s eyes were bloodshot.

  "Hyung, their numbers are endless! Tens of thousands of zombie PCs are coming in through overseas proxies. Our bandwidth can't handle it!"

  Tae-yoon’s eyes reflected the blue light of the screen, shining coldly.

  "Min-su, abandon Server 3. Throw it as bait and herd them into one spot. Ha-jun, open the Virtual Vault I sent you. We’re going to trap every single one of them inside."

  It was a bold 'Honey Pot' strategy—sacrificing part of their own infrastructure to lure the enemy into a cage. Min-su and Ha-jun typed furiously, trusting Tae-yoon’s command.

  11:00 PM.

  Finally, the red warning lights that filled the screens began to turn off one by one. The enemy, exhausted by the unexpected resistance and counter-hacks, began to retreat.

  Tae-yoon didn't let them go. He traced their retreat and planted a 'Doom Code' into one of their Command & Control servers, bricking it permanently.

  Midnight.

  The screen finally displayed the blue text: [SYSTEM SECURE].

  "Haa... Haa... We lived."

  Ha-jun leaned back in his chair, exhaling a long breath. He looked at his two older brothers with awe.

  "Hyung... I really felt it today. I thought I was good, but... that last Doom Code? I never even thought of that. You guys are monsters."

  Tae-yoon closed the logs, speaking briefly. "You did good. We couldn't have stopped it without you."

  It was a hard-fought Sunday night. Their faces were haggard, but their eyes burned with the triumph of having slapped the face of the giant monster, Sungjin Group.

  But Tae-yoon knew. Tomorrow was Monday. The second act of the real war was waiting.

  1:00 AM.

  The air in the hideout was heavy and stale.

  Min-su and Ha-jun were sprawled out, exhausted. Empty water bottles and caffeine drink cans littered the floor like shell casings.

  "Ugh... Is it really over?" Min-su groaned, his gray t-shirt soaked with sweat.

  "Hyung, that reverse flow attack was legendary. Sungjin's security team is going to be mourning tomorrow morning."

  Tae-yoon didn't answer. He took off his glasses and slowly wiped them with his shirt tail. Dark circles hung heavy under his eyes, but his gaze remained sharp.

  While the others relaxed, his hands found the keyboard again.

  "I kept watch until 1 AM just in case of a backdoor. No movement. But it's not over. We need to clean the logs now, or the evidence will evaporate. We need to catch their real tail."

  "Hey, take a break," Min-su nagged. "You rode a rollercoaster all day. Crying with Da-yeon in the morning, fighting Sungjin at night. Are you a robot?"

  Tae-yoon shook his head. Clack, clack.

  "I need to check something. There was... something foreign mixed in their attack pattern. It wasn't a brute force script. Someone was conducting it from behind. I need to read his rhythm."

  Tae-yoon scrolled through the battle logs rapidly. His dynamic vision scanned the red danger zones faster than a machine.

  ‘Here. And here.’

  He paused at a specific timestamp.

  When the enemy bit the bait server, the infiltration method felt strangely familiar. It wasn't a program; it was human. A chaotic, brilliant rhythm.

  ‘I’ve seen this style before.’

  His memory palace spun. Then, at the very end of the log, right before the successful defense, his finger stopped in mid-air.

  [ SYSTEM ALERT: Unknown External Interference Detected / Defense Mechanism Activated 0.003s ]

  "...What is this?" Tae-yoon muttered.

  "What's wrong, Hyung?" Ha-jun rolled his chair over.

  "Look at this. Right before we launched the final counterattack. The enemy tried to pierce a gap in my firewall. But... the attack bounced off."

  "Didn't you block it?"

  "No. I was controlling the central server. Min-su, was it you?"

  Min-su shook his head, yawning. "I was cutting the external network. If not you, then Ha-jun?"

  Ha-jun looked puzzled. "I was opening the vault... Maybe it bounced due to lag?"

  Tae-yoon stayed silent. It wasn't lag. It wasn't an error.

  It was a clear intervention.

  Someone had erected a thin, invisible shield in front of Tae-yoon’s server for a split second, deflected the fatal blow, and vanished without a trace. A ghost helping a ghost.

  ‘Someone else was watching this battle. Someone very close.’

  A chill ran down his spine. Friend or foe? If an enemy, why save them? If a friend, why hide?

  Tae-yoon copied that single line of log data and saved it into a deep, encrypted folder named: [Unknown_Trace].

  "...Let's move on. It might be a glitch."

  He lied to reassure his team, but a massive question mark was branded into his mind.

  2:40 AM.

  "Let's go. We need to sleep. The real war starts today."

  Min-su drove him home.

  "Thanks, Min-su."

  "Go to work safely tomorrow. Park will kill you if he sees those dark circles."

  Tae-yoon stumbled into his apartment and collapsed onto his bed without even washing up. Consciousness faded instantly.

  Monday Morning.

  Birds chirped. Warm sunlight filled the room. The world was peaceful, as if the cyber war last night had been a hallucination.

  "......"

  Tae-yoon opened his eyes, feeling incredibly refreshed. His body felt light, his mind clear. He smiled at the ceiling.

  ‘Ah, what a sweet sleep...’

  He turned his head to look at the wall clock.

  The hour hand was pointing past 9.

  09:10 AM.

  "AAAAAAACK!!!"

  The scream of a man realizing his doom shattered the peace.

  The hero who saved the digital world last night was gone. In his place was a salaryman facing the catastrophe of 'Tardiness'.

  "Crazy! I'm crazy! Why didn't the alarm go off?!"

  He had forgotten to set it before passing out.

  He sprinted to the bathroom. He nearly slipped on a toothpaste cap, surviving only by grabbing the doorframe. He washed his hair in 30 seconds, threw on a shirt while his hair was still dripping, and pulled on socks—one black, one navy blue. He stuffed his tie into his pocket and burst out the door.

  "Taxi! Taxi!"

  But an empty taxi on a Monday morning was a mythical creature. It did not exist.

  Tae-yoon began to run.

  "Haa... Haa... My legs...!"

  His unathletic body screamed, but he pushed on. He saw the bus stop. And he saw Bus 402 closing its doors and pulling away mercilessly.

  "Wait! Driver! HEY!!!"

  He waved his arms, but the bus left him in a cloud of exhaust.

  Tae-yoon collapsed, hands on his knees, gasping for air.

  "Ah... seriously... the universe hates me..."

  He leaned against the guardrail.

  Then.

  "Meow."

  He looked up. Sitting on top of the wall, near the site of the truck accident, was the chubby stray cat. It looked down at the sweat-drenched Tae-yoon with a look of utter judgment.

  "...Hey, Boss. Are you laughing at me? Hyung saved the world yesterday. Don't laugh."

  The cat flicked its tail and looked away, as if saying, 'Save your excuses for your Team Leader.'

  Tae-yoon chuckled breathlessly and found a leftover sausage in his pocket.

  "Here. Eat this and keep watch. I'm late anyway, but you should eat."

  As the cat ate, Tae-yoon caught his breath. The street was full of people. It seemed normal.

  Suddenly, the cat stopped eating. It looked toward the rooftop of a commercial building across the street and let out a sharp, warning cry.

  "MEOW-!"

  Tae-yoon’s eyes changed instantly. That wasn't a beg for food. That was an alarm.

  He pretended to wipe sweat from his forehead, casually turning his head to glance at the rooftop in his peripheral vision.

  Glint.

  A tiny flash of light reflected off glass.

  A camera lens? Binoculars? A scope?

  ‘I’m being followed.’

  Tae-yoon immediately crouched down, pretending to tie his shoelaces, moving into the building's blind spot. It was brief, but the sensation of being watched was unmistakable. Was it the 'Third Party' from last night? Or Sungjin's hitman?

  "...Thanks, Guardian. You're worth every penny."

  He whispered to the cat. When the next bus arrived, he boarded quickly, sitting in the back. He pretended to look out the window blankly, but his phone camera was secretly recording the rooftop he had just left.

  Act 2 wasn't starting with a fanfare. It was starting with chaos, tardiness, and a hidden observer.

  09:40 AM.

  Tae-yoon burst into the office, panting like a dog.

  Bang!

  "KANG! TAE! YOON! MANAGER!"

  Team Leader Park’s voice boomed. But it lacked its usual murderous intent. The entire office stared at the disheveled, sweaty mess that was Manager Kang.

  "Oh, Team Leader! I am so sorry! On my way here... the spirit of Bukhansan Mountain was too strong, and I got a cramp in my leg...!"

  Tae-yoon bowed 90 degrees, offering a pathetic, servile smile. Park clicked his tongue and crossed his arms.

  "Bukhansan my foot... Hey, Manager Kang. I know you worked hard resolving the Sungjin issue last week. The higher-ups are praising you."

  Park paused, putting on a stern face.

  "However! Punctuality is basic! 9:40? Does it make sense for you to arrive later than the CEO?"

  "No, sir! I have committed a mortal sin! I will buy three alarm clocks starting today!"

  Park chuckled at Tae-yoon’s antics.

  "Fine. Go sit down. And... drink this."

  Park tossed a bottle of cold vitamin drink onto Tae-yoon’s desk.

  "Team Leader... You are the only one for me! Loyalty!"

  Tae-yoon scurried to his seat. As soon as he sat down, a chill radiated from the next desk. Assistant Lee Hyun-ah was glaring at him sideways, arms crossed.

  "Manager. You said you were a scout? Do scouts not scout the time? Look at you, you smell like sweat."

  Her words were sharp, but her hand was sliding a wrapped sandwich and an iced Americano onto his desk.

  "You didn't eat breakfast, right? Your stomach growling is in surround sound. Eat this and work quietly."

  Tae-yoon clasped his hands together in mock adoration.

  "Oh! Assistant Lee! You are a wingless angel! Were you Nightingale in a past life? And I am the wounded soldier?"

  "Shut up. Eat and write your report before the Team Leader explodes again."

  Hyun-ah turned away, blushing slightly. Tae-yoon grabbed the coffee and sucked it down. The cold caffeine hit his bloodstream, reviving him.

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