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  "...Who are you?"

  Jin-woo dropped the honorifics. There was no point in playing the clumsy, joke-loving Section Chief Kang anymore.

  — "A partner, if you're smart. Let's just say I have a personal debt to collect from 'S'. Clear your access logs and get back to the office. The system is starting to wake up. We have work to do."

  When Jin-woo returned to the office, the overhead lights were off. The vast room was swallowed by darkness, save for the corner where the eerie blue glow from Seo-hee’s monitor pierced the shadows.

  Jin-woo threw his coat onto a chair and walked toward his desk. Seo-hee was sitting there, spinning a pen with a look of grim determination.

  "You're fast," she said, not looking up.

  Jin-woo grabbed the armrest of his chair and pulled it back, reclaiming his seat. He pushed Seo-hee’s chair aside with his foot, creating a distance between them.

  "Hwang Seo-hee. That patch... where did you learn that architecture? That's not something you learn in a computer science degree."

  Seo-hee stopped spinning the pen. She turned to face him, the blue light reflecting in her eyes, making them look like deep, cold pools.

  "My brother went missing three years ago. His name is Hwang Jin-ho. He was investigating 'S' when he vanished without a trace."

  Jin-woo’s fingers paused over the keyboard. Hwang Jin-ho. The name was familiar—a brilliant white hacker who had disappeared from the scene around the same time as the 'S' incident.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  "I've spent every day since then looking for a backdoor," Seo-hee continued, her voice trembling slightly with suppressed rage. "You're not the only one staring into the abyss, Chief. I know you're hunting 'S'. And I know you can't do it alone."

  Jin-woo looked at her. He saw a cool, sharp hatred in her eyes—a mirror of his own. She wasn't just a cheerful eccentric; she was a survivor carrying her own hell.

  Wordlessly, Jin-woo split his screen and synchronized it with Seo-hee’s monitor.

  "I’ll give you Level 3 access. But if you make a single mistake, if you hesitate for even a second, I’ll wipe your drive and disappear. Understood?"

  Seo-hee cracked her knuckles and grinned, though her eyes remained fierce.

  "Don't worry. I don't break eggs on the job, remember?"

  Beep-beep-beep!

  At that moment, the silence was shattered. Dozens of black pop-up windows flooded both their monitors. Red warning text scrolled rapidly across the screens.

  [SYSTEM ALERT: Unauthorized Access Detected / DDOS Attack Initiated]

  It was a counterattack from 'S'. A massive wave of garbage data was rushing in, threatening to paralyze the entire logistics backbone of the main contractor.

  "He's fast," Jin-woo muttered, his eyes narrowing. "He tracked the patch."

  "Seo-hee, hold the perimeter! Deflect the packet flood! I’m going for the core!"

  "On it! Go, Phantom. I’ve got your back."

  In the dark office, the percussive sound of two keyboards being hammered filled the air like automatic gunfire. Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

  Jin-woo’s precise, logical code acted as a spear, piercing through the noise to find the source. Seo-hee’s daring, improvisational scripts acted as a shield, deflecting the massive attacks with creative bypasses.

  Next to them, Assistant Manager Yoon Se-jin, who had been dozing off working overtime, woke up with a start. He watched in stunned silence, his eyes darting back and forth between the two blurs of motion. Their fingers were moving so fast they left afterimages.

  "Uh... Chief? Ms. Seo-hee? Are you guys... playing a game? Why is the screen moving like that?"

  Ignoring Se-jin, Jin-woo slammed the final key. Clack!

  The attack subsided instantly. The red warnings vanished, replaced by a stable green cursor. They had won the skirmish.

  But in the corner of the screen, a small, dry data packet appeared. It wasn't an attack. It was a message.

  [Message from S: Yuri’s data is… improving. Next patch will be interesting.]

  Jin-woo’s fist clenched until his knuckles turned white. The subtle implication—that 'S' was still watching Yuri, that he knew her condition was 'improving'—was more chilling than any direct threat.

  Beside him, Seo-hee noticed his shaking hand. She placed her hand firmly over his mouse, stopping him.

  "Chief. Stop. Stay cold. It's just a probe to make you emotional."

  Feeling Seo-hee’s grip, Jin-woo barely managed to hold onto his reason. He took a deep breath, the cold rage settling into his bones.

  "You're right. He wants a reaction."

  An hour later, Jin-woo took Seo-hee to a shabby pojangmacha (street food stall) near the company. The steam from the fish cake soup rose into the cold night air.

  In the corner, Min-su was already waiting, pouring himself a shot of soju. When he saw Jin-woo enter with Seo-hee, his eyes went wide.

  "Hey, Kang Jin-woo! Who’s the rookie? And why is she looking at me like she’s scanning my hard drive for vulnerabilities?"

  "This is the one who found me out," Jin-woo said, sitting down heavily and downing a shot of soju without a toast. "She’s good. Too good."

  "Found you out? The Phantom?" Min-su nearly choked on his drink. He coughed violently, staring at Seo-hee with disbelief. "Are you getting old, Hyung-nim? Or is she just that dangerous?"

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