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  ?? ?? ?? ??? ? ???? ??. ?? ????? ? ??? ??? ? ????? ??. ???? ?? ?? ??? ?? ??? ????, ??? ???, ??? ?????.

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  ??? ???? ?? ??? ?? ???? ? ?? ?? ??? ????.

  Yoon Mi-ra’s desk.

  No chair, no laptop, no personal cup, not even a rolling pen.

  As if a person named ‘Yoon Mi-ra’ had never existed in this office from the beginning, it was cleaned up chillingly neatly. A perfect erasure without even a common post-it left behind.

  “Uh? What is this?”

  Yoon Se-jin, lacking tact, opened her eyes roundly while stirring mix coffee.

  “Is Ms. Mi-ra on leave today? Why is the desk so clean? Did she flee by night or something?”

  No one answered. Instead of an answer, anxious whispering lay low on the office floor.

  ‘Fired?’ ‘Something happened yesterday.’ ‘Heard main contractor audit came?’

  Small and thin rumors floated like dust riding the air conditioner breeze.

  Team Leader Cha Do-il was stuck in the Team Leader’s office since morning, not showing even the tip of his nose.

  The door was firmly closed, and blinds were lowered. Through the crack, acrid cigarette smell crawled out like a snake.

  Continuous chain smoking.

  That was a very clear signal that Team Leader Cha was scared out of his wits right now.

  Jin-woo sat at his seat and turned on the monitor.

  With a face that nothing happened.

  With the expression of the world’s most carefree salary thief.

  With hand movements like playing Minesweeper while clicking the mouse.

  9:58 AM.

  Exactly 2 minutes before the storm makes landfall.

  Drrrk— Wiiing.

  The sound of the automatic door opening broke the office silence. And soon followed the sound of shoe heels hitting the floor tiles.

  Clack, clack, clack.

  Regular, arrogant, and unstoppable rhythm.

  People’s gazes headed to the entrance in unison as if drawn by a magnet.

  Navy suit angled like a knife.

  White shirt with sharp ironing lines.

  Beyond cold gold-rimmed glasses, dry eyes with not even 1 bit of emotion mixed in.

  It was Choi Kang-seok, the Main Contractor Security Audit Team Leader.

  He didn’t look for or wait for Team Leader Cha, who should have come out to greet him at the entrance. As if guidance was unnecessary, his gaze pointed to a single coordinate from beginning to end like a compass needle.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Kang Jin-woo.

  Choi Kang-seok approached straight to Jin-woo’s desk without hesitation. Behind him, the office air split like the miracle of Moses.

  “Are you Section Chief Kang Jin-woo?”

  Low and flat voice. More intimidating tone because it lacked emotion.

  “I am Choi Kang-seok from the Main Contractor Security Audit Team. Let’s talk for a moment. Have something to hear.”

  The office air sank noticeably. Typing sounds stopped, and silence flowed to the point even the water purifier sound was heard loudly.

  Da-yeon held her breath holding a stack of papers next to the copier. Her fingertips were trembling.

  Jin-woo didn’t take his eyes off the monitor.

  Instead, he slurped a sip of completely cold paper cup coffee loudly. Slurp.

  And very slowly, lifted his head as if doing neck exercises to look at Choi Kang-seok.

  “Wow… for the Main Contractor Team Leader to visit here personally.”

  Jin-woo smiled, raising one corner of his mouth crookedly.

  “Was our company such a rumored security gourmet restaurant? Coming without reservation.”

  He deliberately rummaged through his desk drawer and bluffed.

  “Team Leader Choi, since you came, want a cup of coffee? The mix coffee here is really… amazing. The throat feel is art. Ah, two sugars is the national rule, what’s your preference?”

  Choi Kang-seok’s brow furrowed minutely, about 0.1mm.

  It was a very short moment. He was a person trained not to reveal emotion, but he had no immunity to a subcontractor section chief’s brazen jokes. Jin-woo didn’t miss that momentary crack.

  Instead of answering, Choi Kang-seok put down the black tablet he was holding on Jin-woo’s desk.

  Tuk—

  It was a light plastic sound, but the meaning contained within was a heavy declaration of war.

  On the screen floated the ‘debris of logs’ Mi-ra failed to transmit yesterday, and which Jin-woo had manipulated, explicitly.

  Recovered traces.

  Pieced-together data.

  Crude evidence hastily stitched together to frame Jin-woo, visible to anyone.

  “This is not a situation for jokes, Section Chief Kang.”

  Choi Kang-seok spoke stiffly.

  “Yesterday there was a serious intrusion attempt on our server, and the source was confirmed to be Section Chief Kang’s terminal. IP, MAC address, access time, everything.”

  Someone inside the office swallowed a breath, “Gasp.”

  “Ms. Yoon Mi-ra has already finished explaining at the HQ Audit Office and is currently under protection according to internal regulations. She said she only followed instructions.”

  His gaze fixed on Jin-woo as if nailing him down.

  “Now it’s Section Chief’s turn to explain. What these logs mean.”

  Jin-woo looked down at the tablet quietly. Didn’t touch it, just scanned with his eyes.

  And nodded. As if very convinced.

  “Ah.”

  Short exclamation.

  “This.”

  He slowly placed his hands on the keyboard. Like a pianist choosing keys before starting a performance.

  And pressed the Enter key lightly. Tok.

  “Team Leader.”

  Jin-woo said. Playfulness had completely disappeared from his voice.

  “You recovered this log grinding the recovery team, right? Must have stayed up all night.”

  “That is correct. Recovered perfectly.”

  “Hmm.”

  Jin-woo tilted his head.

  “Recovery skill is… a bit old-school. Can’t follow the trend these days.”

  At that moment, Jin-woo’s monitor screen inverted.

  From white mode to dark mode.

  White code began to pour down like a waterfall on the black background.

  [System Override: Active]

  [Log Analysis Start...]

  Yoon Mi-ra’s account access record.

  Backdoor installation traces stealing Kang Jin-woo’s account.

  Chat logs Mi-ra believed she deleted.

  And—

  Decisively, the ‘work instruction’ messenger packet delivered to Mi-ra from Choi Kang-seok’s personal work account.

  [From: Choi_KS (Choi Kang-seok) / To: Yoon_MR]

  “Handle it within today. Plant it on Kang Jin-woo’s PC, leave only the log. I’ll watch your back.”

  That explicit sentence was stuck huge on the large monitor.

  The office became quiet as if in a vacuum state.

  Typing sounds, breathing sounds stopped. Only the air conditioner running sound hummed.

  Choi Kang-seok’s pupils shook like an earthquake.

  This time it was certain. Defense was breached.

  “Th… This is fabrication.”

  Choi Kang-seok stuttered in fluster and countered quickly.

  “Such illegal hacking data has no legal effect, let alone—”

  “Effect?”

  Jin-woo smirked. It was a sneer.

  “So.”

  He pushed his chair back, drrrk, and stood up very relaxedly. Looked down at Choi Kang-seok with hands in pockets.

  “These packets earlier.”

  Jin-woo tapped the monitor with his finger. Tok tok.

  “Already flew to HQ Audit Office, Legal Team Leader’s email, and… Chairman’s Secretariat CC 5 minutes ago. Transmission Complete popped up.”

  Jin-woo scratched his head and made the world’s most unfair expression.

  “Because I’m an old man. Finger joints are stiff.”

  Behind the sly smile, a cool blade flashed.

  “My finger slipped a bit and pressed ‘Send All’? Oh my, what to do.”

  Choi Kang-seok’s jaw muscles bulged. Face turned red and blue.

  The office air now dropped below zero.

  “Now.”

  Jin-woo tilted his head to the side and shot a look straight into Choi Kang-seok’s eyes.

  “Shall we verify now?”

  He whispered very low and threateningly.

  “Who that great… Invisible Administrator… really is. Whether it’s you, or someone else behind you.”

  Woong—!

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