The stinging reek of ozone, the hum of short-circuiting high-voltage cables, and the ear-piercing shriek of warning sirens met Gilang, Renata, Nara, and Rania as they finally blew past the heavy steel door at the top of the emergency stairwell.

"Hah... hah... my legs feel like they're about to fall off!" Nara whined, dropping to her knees and coughing softly from inhaling the thin, smoke-filled air of the corridor. The disheveled girl adjusted her slipping glasses, her chest heaving as she scanned their surroundings.

They had finally arrived on the ninetieth floor—the core network transition zone of the Ant Corp central tower.

Unlike the luxurious corporate levels below, the ninetieth-floor corridor resembled the belly of a futuristic starship. Its walls consisted of transparent panels surging with blue electrical current, and all along the hallway, thousands of fiber-optic cables pulsed softly, streaming the soul data of millions toward the absolute top floor.

"We're close," Renata stated firmly, fixing her gaze straight down the long corridor ahead. At the far end stood a gigantic steel door stamped with the red ant emblem and heavily secured by high-tier cyber defenses—the final gateway to the main server room. "The central defense system has already detected our presence. In less than three minutes, every enforcer squad from the lower floors will be deployed to lock down this corridor."

"Then we don't have a single second to waste," Gilang replied, taking the lead with his salt sword glowing in a pure white aura. "Rania, stay close behind me. We're blasting through that door right now."

Yet, no sooner had they taken a few steps forward than a gigantic holographic screen embedded in the corridor wall flashed brightly to life, displaying a blood-red security status warning.

Biuup!

Critical Warning: Access Denied. Total Lockdown Protocol Engaged.

An emotionless robotic voice echoed from the ceiling speakers: "Intruder detected in Sector 90 Network Zone. Engaging secondary quantum firewall. Isolating area in 10... 9... 8..."

Nara’s eyes went wide as saucers. She sprinted toward the local control terminal built into the glass wall on the left. Her fingers swiftly snatched a connection cord, plugging it directly into her primary tablet. She hammered out strings of emergency code with extraordinary speed.

"Damn it! Their defense system is locking down every vector from the hundredth-floor central terminal!" Nara screamed in panic, cold sweat beading on her temples. "The digital gateway to the main server room can't be opened the usual way!"

"Then how do we open it, Nara?!" Gilang barked, whipping his head back as he heard the tramp of enemy footfalls beginning to swarm up the emergency stairwell below.

Nara stopped typing. She stared down at her tablet screen, then slowly lifted her gaze to look at Gilang, Renata, and Rania in turn. A bitter, faint smile curved across her lips, contrasting sharply with the panic she had just shown.

"There's only one way..." Nara whispered hoarsely, her voice trembling slightly.

Renata furrowed her brow, catching the subtext behind Nara's look.

"You mean...?"

"That main gateway can only be unlocked manually if a bypass command is executed directly from inside this local network control room," Nara explained, pointing toward a small door labeled Local Control Room beside the terminal. "Meaning... one of us has to stay here, step inside the control room, and hold off the entire security system from the inside to force the path open."

Rania widened her eyes, clapping both hands over her mouth. "Nara... don't tell me..."

"Wait, Nara! Don't be an idiot!" Gilang snapped, surging forward to grab Nara by the shoulders. "If you stay inside that room to hold the system off, the security locks will automatically seal from the outside! You won't be able to get out!"

"If I don't stay here, we're all going to die trapped in this corridor before we even see the hundredth-floor elevator doors open, Lang!" Nara fired back, tears welling behind her glasses. She stared intently into Gilang's eyes. "I'm the programmer. I know the flaws in this system. I'm the only one who can stall their firewall so you two can make it to the top!"

"No! There has to be another way!" Gilang shook his head hard, his grip tightening on Nara's shoulders. "We go in together, we tear it down together!"

"Gilang, snap out of it!" Renata joined in, her voice trembling under a surge of emotion. The sharply suited woman looked at Nara with a gaze of profound respect and deep sorrow. "We only have seconds left. If you force Nara to come, that gate will close forever for all of us."

Nara gently pushed Gilang's hands away from her shoulders. She smiled, though tears now streamed down her dust-stained cheeks.

"You still haven't paid your attic rent from last month, Lang," Nara joked softly, trying to break the tension through her small sniffles. "Just consider this sacrifice paying off my lifetime debt to you."

"Nara..." Gilang froze, his voice choking in his throat. As a freelancer accustomed to a solitary life on the streets, losing people he considered family was the most agonizing thing in the world.

Rania lunged forward instantly, wrapping her arms tightly around Nara as she sobbed hysterically. "Nara! Don't leave us... hiks... please..."

Nara returned the embrace fiercely, stroking the young girl's head gently. "Hey, don't cry. Your job now is to go with Gilang and Renata to the top, bring your brother home, okay? Promise me."

Rania nodded weakly against Nara's shoulder.

Nara broke the hug, then stepped backward toward the local control room door. She cast one last look at Gilang and Renata, then with a swift motion, typed the final bypass command into the main terminal.

Biuup!

At the end of the corridor, a heavy mechanical rumble groaned softly. The gigantic steel door leading to the upper server room slowly slid open, pouring out a blinding, brilliant purple light from within.

"The door's open! Go! Don't waste my time!" Nara yelled with a wide smile amid a shower of sparks from short-circuiting cables overhead.

"Nara...!" Gilang choked out.

"Go, Gilang! Save the world from the grip of those corporate bastards!" Nara shouted, then with a quick shove, stepped inside the local control room and slammed the steel door shut from within.

Click!

The sound of automatic locks spinning tight echoed down the hall. Nara punched the Total Lockdown Mode button, isolating the room from all outside access.

"Nara! Open the door!" Gilang lunged forward, hammering his fists against the control room's steel door in sheer desperation. "Nara!"

Through the control room's small glass observation window, Nara waved with a broad smile, letting the monitor screen before her display the final lines of defensive code she had activated to hold back the hundreds of enemy soldiers who had just poured out of the emergency stairwell at the corridor's end.

"Gilang! We have to move now! Ant Corp's troops are already here!" Renata cried out in a raspy, anxious voice, pulling hard on Gilang's arm to keep him from freezing in front of the door.

Gilang clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white, a suffocating mix of fury, grief, and agony churning in his chest. Yet, he knew he couldn't let Nara's sacrifice go to waste.

With a heavy heart, Gilang drew a long breath, pulled Rania—still sobbing—close to his side, and locked a blazing, ironclad gaze with Renata.

"Let's go," Gilang whispered sharply.

The two of them pivoted, sprinting swiftly down the corridor past the wide-open steel door—plunging straight into the heart of the Ant Corp main server room, while behind them, the heavy thuds of enemy forces trying to batter down Nara's control room began echoing relentlessly across the ninetieth floor.