The command center was electric. The image of The Zenith tower, Ryu's gleaming glass fortress, was projected onto the main wall, a symbol of their cornered prey. The exhaustion and fractures of the past few days were momentarily forgotten, replaced by the sharp, focused adrenaline of the final hunt. They had him. He was trapped. Now, they just had to figure out how to get him.
Oh Min-ji was already a whirlwind of digital activity. Her fingers flew across multiple keyboards, her eyes darting between screens as she laid siege to the building's digital infrastructure. Architectural blueprints, HVAC schematics, power grids, and data line layouts filled her monitors. She was mapping their battlefield.
"The penthouse is a fortress," she announced, her voice crisp and professional, all previous disillusionment burned away by the heat of the challenge. "It's not just a residence; it's a self-contained data haven. It has its own dedicated elevator, accessible only with a black-level keycard. All the windows are reinforced, ballistic-grade glass. More importantly, it has its own independent power and data lines, completely separate from the rest of the building. He can sever his connection to the grid and run on his own backups for days. A direct physical assault is almost impossible without him knowing we're coming from a mile away."
Yoo-jin gathered his three generals—Kang for physical operations, Min-ji for digital warfare, and Nam Gyu-ri, a glowering, judgmental presence on a large monitor, for strategic and psychological oversight. A massive, detailed digital map of the building was displayed between them. This was the war council.
As expected, they immediately clashed, each proposing a strategy that reflected their own worldview.
Kang, the stoic man of action, spoke first. His plan was brutally simple. "My men can rappel from the roof. We use small, directional shaped charges to breach the main windows. It will be loud, it will be messy, but it will be fast and effective. We're in and out in ninety seconds, before he has time to react."
Min-ji immediately shook her head, horrified by the lack of subtlety. "That's far too risky. The moment the first window shatters, an alarm is tripped. Ryu isn't going to fight back; he's going to hit a kill switch. He could wipe all his servers, destroy every piece of evidence we're looking for, in the five seconds it takes for your men to climb through the window. We need a stealth approach. I can try to clone the master elevator keycard from one of the building's maintenance staff through a phishing email. Then, we create a targeted power surge to his floor, temporarily disabling his private security systems and alarms. We go in completely silent."
From the monitor, Nam Gyu-ri let out a condescending scoff. "You're both fools," he sneered. "You're thinking like soldiers and hackers. You're obsessed with the physical and digital locks on his door. You should be thinking about the lock on his mind. You don't need to get in; you need to get him to come out."
He leaned forward, his eyes gleaming. "We create a scenario. A psychological trigger. We fake a fire alarm, not on his floor, but two floors below. A real one, with smoke canisters in the hallway. We trigger the building's full evacuation protocol. We create chaos. In the midst of that chaos, we flush him out of his nest and into a trap in the hallway or the emergency stairwell, where he's vulnerable and stripped of his technological fortress."
Three generals, three completely different philosophies of war. Brute force, digital stealth, and psychological manipulation. Yoo-jin listened to them all, his mind processing, synthesizing. He was the commander. It was his job to forge a single, coherent strategy from the chaos.
He stepped up to the digital map, taking control. "Here's what we do," he declared, his voice cutting through their arguments. "We're not choosing one plan. We're using all of them, layered on top of each other."
He pointed a finger at Min-ji. "Min-ji, you are Phase One. The power surge is our primary infiltration window. It's the key that unlocks everything else. You will knock his private security systems offline, just as you planned."
He then looked to Kang. "Kang, your 'hammer' team will be positioned on the roof, ready to rappel, but you do not breach unless I give the direct word. You are Plan B, the loud option we only use if everything else goes to hell. Your other teams will move in first. They will secure the stairwells and the elevator lobby on the penthouse floor, ensuring he has no escape route."
Finally, his gaze shifted to the monitor where Gyu-ri was watching, a smug look on his face. "Gyu-ri, your fire alarm is the diversion. It's brilliant. The power surge that Min-ji creates will look like the cause of the building's emergency protocols. Min-ji, you will use that opportunity to digitally trigger the fire alarm system on the 48th floor, the one directly below the penthouse. The chaos will draw the building's limited on-site security detail downward, away from our real target."
The pieces of the plan clicked together, a complex, high-wire act of interlocking strategies.
"And who goes in?" Kang asked, the crucial question. "Who makes the primary entry?"
"I do," Yoo-jin said without hesitation. "With you, Kang. Min-ji will get us up the elevator during the blackout. We go in silent." He saw the look of protest forming on Kang's face. "This started with me. Ryu's obsession is with me. It ends with me. I have to be in that room." It was a risky, ego-driven decision, but he felt a deep, undeniable need to confront the man who had systematically dismantled his life.
The plan was set. It was dangerous, complicated, and relied on perfect timing. As they were about to disperse to begin their final preparations, Nam Gyu-ri's voice echoed from the speakers again, stopping everyone.
"One more thing, Yoo-jin," he said, a strange, intense look in his eyes. "This is a good plan. It's logical. It's well-structured. And that's why it will fail."
"What are you talking about?" Yoo-jin asked, his patience wearing thin.
"It's too predictable!" Gyu-ri snapped. "Ryu knows you. He has studied you. He will anticipate your logic, your methods. He will expect a clever, multi-layered plan. You need a wild card. An element of pure, irrational chaos that he cannot possibly account for in his calculations."
"And what do you suggest?" Yoo-jin asked, his voice laced with ice.
"I'm not staying here and watching this on a screen," Gyu-ri declared. "I'm coming with you. I will be part of the entry team."
The proposal was breathtakingly insane. To bring his most unstable, treacherous, and hateful ally with him into the heart of the enemy's den.
Kang immediately objected. "Sir, that's an unacceptable risk. He's a civilian and a liability."
"I am not a liability," Gyu-ri hissed from the screen. "I am the psychological weapon you don't realize you need. Ryu fears me. He may hate you, Yoo-jin, but he has a deep, seated intellectual respect for me, his former mentor. My presence in that room will be the one variable he did not account for. It will be the psychological blow that shatters his composure. He's expecting the producer and his guard dog. He is not expecting the ghost of his former master to come calling."
Yoo-jin was faced with a final, terrible choice. To stick to his clean, logical plan and risk it being too predictable for a genius like Ryu. Or to embrace chaos, to bring a venomous serpent with him into the enemy's lair, hoping its bite would be aimed at the right person.