The massive steel doors slid shut behind them, cutting off the chaotic noise from the corridor where Nara was holding the line against the enemy forces. The moment they stepped inside, the air shifted drastically—cold, hollow, and thick with a low-frequency hum that vibrated straight through their chests.

Rania gasped softly, clutching the sleeve of Gilang's jacket as she looked around in wide-eyed wonder. "Boss... where are we?"

The main server room of the Ant Corp tower bore no resemblance to a conventional computer lab. It was a vast, visually boundless void lacking clear floors or walls, feeling much like standing right in the middle of a silent, digital galaxy. All around them, thousands of transparent glass quantum tubes soared upward into the darkness, pulsing with a bright, brilliant purple glow. Inside every single tube, swirling vortexes of shimmering mist drifted lazily—the harvested soul essences of millions of human beings, including Wira, trapped to serve as digital fuel.

"This... is the heart of the soul-harvesting system," Renata whispered softly, her eyes sweeping across the surreal landscape before them with a deep, chilling sense of dread.

Suddenly, the air in front of the main console flared bright. Blazing red lines of digital data coalesced into dancing streams of light particles, solidifying into a massive, three-dimensional holographic projection standing three meters tall. The figure resembled a middle-aged man in an expensive executive suit, yet his face possessed no eyes or mouth—only cascading lines of binary code racing across the skin of his features.

It was the digital consciousness of the Ant Corp CEO.

“Welcome to the hundredth floor, little intruders,” a synthetic voice echoed from every corner of the room, sounding cold, arrogant, and filling their minds like thunder. “You have traveled this far, breached intellectual property rights, and destroyed trillions of dollars in corporate assets. A completely futile effort from mortal beings.”

Gilang stepped forward, shoving Rania behind his back while his right hand locked firmly around the salt sword radiating a pure, holy white light. "Save your stock-pitch speech, you corporate bastard! Give back the souls you stole, or I'll turn this garbage projection into digital dust!"

The digital CEO sneer-laughed, his holographic face flickering unstably. “Those souls weren't stolen, Gilang. They are a 'voluntary investment' toward the advancement of eternal civilization. People out there are nothing more than worker ants for a grander system—and very soon, that system will achieve absolute perfection.”

Above the main console behind the CEO, a giant countdown display bathed in blood-red numbers blazed brightly, ticking upward at a relentless pace:

[ SOULSYNC GLOBAL LAUNCH: 94.7% ]

"We don't have time to argue with a glorified, arrogant piece of software!" Renata barked sharply, bringing up her energy pistol and unleashing a rapid volley of plasma fire straight at the CEO's projection.

Boom! Boom!

The plasma beams punched right through the holographic CEO's body, only for the data to seamlessly flow back together as if nothing had happened. The CEO waved a hand casually, triggering data manipulation across the entire room.

Zzzzt!

Instantly, dozens of razor-sharp, transparent data blades launched from the quantum tube walls, slicing toward all three of them from multiple directions.

"Watch out!" Gilang yelled.

In a split second, Gilang vaulted into the air, spinning his blade in a rapid arc to swat away the incoming data blades. The sound of clashing metal mixed with showers of digital sparks filling the air.

"Renata, shoot the main console! Don't let him keep controlling the system!" Gilang ordered mid-battle.

"Trying!" Renata shouted back, dodging a shockwave blast unleashed by the CEO's projection before aiming her pistol squarely at the core console panel in the center of the room.

Bang! Bang!

Renata's shots hammered the console's energy shield until it fractured with blue cracks. Yet, the CEO retaliated by launching a wave of digital curse energy that crashed directly into Renata's chest. The woman let out a choked gasp, hurled backward several meters before crashing hard onto the transparent floor, her chest heaving as she fought the agonizing pain ravaging her nervous system.

"Renata!" Gilang growled in fury. He lunged forward, ignoring the secondary data strikes raking across his body, and swung his salt sword with every ounce of his strength toward the CEO's holographic form.

A brilliant white flash exploded with cataclysmic force!

The holy-salt-coated slash tore right through the upper half of the CEO's projected body, causing him to grunt in pain with a deafening, distorted machine drone.

“You... cannot halt the progress of time!” the CEO's voice rose, saturated with malice. He pointed a finger at the countdown display above the console.

Gilang whipped his head toward the main screen. His heart skipped a beat.

[ SOULSYNC GLOBAL LAUNCH: 99.1% ]

The numbers were crawling upward frantically: 99.3%... 99.5%... 99.8%!

"Damn it! It's rising way too fast!" Gilang yelled in panic, rushing toward the main console and hammering his bare hands against the manual override buttons.

Yet, the controls were completely dead, locked tight within layers of high-tier digital encryption. The main screen abruptly flashed a blood-red warning message:

“Warning: Global launch protocol cannot be halted externally. System has reached critical threshold. Core destruction can only be executed from within the foundational architecture of the system core.”

Rania raced toward the quantum tube holding her brother, pounding frantically against the glass as tears streamed down her cheeks. "Wira! Wake up, Wira! Don't let them take you!"

Renata pushed herself up with immense effort, walking with a pronounced limp as she staggered toward Gilang at the main console. The woman stared at the countdown display—now hovering at 99.9%—then turned to look at Gilang with an expression of profound, peerless serenity—the exact same calm she had worn before blowing up the underground warehouse.

The virtual CEO stood before them, smiling shapelessly. “You have lost. In the next three seconds, millions of souls will be permanently absorbed, and I shall rule this new world. There is no turning back for you.”

Gilang clenched his fists until they bled, his breathing ragged with sheer desperation. "There's got to be another way... there has to be a manual kill-switch in this system!"

Renata shook her head slowly, reaching out to gently touch Gilang's shoulder. Gilang turned, finding Renata looking back at him with a soft, warm smile amid the chaotic swirl of the cybernetic void.

"There is no external kill-switch, Gilang," Renata whispered softly, her voice carrying an eerie, soothing peace to his ears. "The foundational architecture of this system was designed so... the only thing capable of corrupting that curse algorithm from the inside is a pure human consciousness."

Gilang widened his eyes, his breath hitching in his throat. "You mean...?"

"I am the chief architect of this system, Gilang. Only its code recognizes me," Renata stated, stepping past Gilang to stand directly in front of the main console core pulsing with a blinding purple glare.

The countdown display hit 99.99%.

"Don't be an idiot, Renata!" Gilang snapped, grabbing her arm in a crushing grip as overwhelming terror gripped his chest. "If you upload your consciousness into that core server, you'll melt away with the system! You won't be able to come back!"

Renata turned, locking her eyes onto Gilang's for the final time. A tiny tear pooled in the corner of her eye, blending with the purple ambient glow of the surrounding quantum tubes.

"I spent half my life building this hell, Gilang," Renata said softly, prying Gilang's fingers away from her arm slowly but firmly. "Let me close it on my own terms... and save Rania's brother, along with millions of others."

"No! We'll find another way! Renata!" Gilang shrieked hysterically, lunging forward to catch her hand.

But it was too far.

Renata slammed her palm down onto the final chief-director authorization trigger, then stepped right into the pillar of purple light at the core server console.

Boom!

A blinding flash of light exploded across the entire main server room, drowning out the digital CEO's laughter and freezing the system countdown dead at 99.99% right before it could reach absolute completion.