The scent of burning jet fuel from the luxury sedan still lingered in the air as the vehicle glided smoothly behind the iron corrugated curtains of an abandoned old warehouse on the western edge of Sector 9. From the outside, the place looked dead, surrounded by rusted cargo containers and waist-high wild weeds. Yet the moment the sliding door opened, the view inside left Nara utterly dumbfounded, making her drop her reading glasses straight to the floor.

"Whoa... insanity," Nara muttered softly, crouching to pick up her glasses while staring in awe. "This isn't a safehouse... this is a corporate-tier Batman secret base."

The room, roughly the size of an indoor tennis court, was illuminated by dozens of transparent holographic screens floating in mid-air, displaying complex charts, architectural blueprints of the Ant Corp tower, and streams of billion-dollar financial data. In the center of the room, a high-tech digital console table emitted a bright blue glow, casting light across Renata’s face, which looked cold yet bore a deep, underlying exhaustion.

Gilang stepped inside, clutching his newly bandaged left arm. His sharp eyes swept every corner of the room, ensuring there were no hidden cameras or automated traps. He let out a soft snort, then leaned his back against the iron wall.

"Nice place, Madam Ex-Director. Plush enough for a corporate fugitive," Gilang taunted cynically, casting a sharp glare at Renata. "Though, please make sure the coffee here is more drinkable than my gutter-stinking workplace."

Renata peeled off her rain-soaked suit jacket, revealing a neat white shirt underneath with her sleeves rolled up to her elbows. She stared at Gilang without a smile, then pointed toward a chair in front of the main console table.

"Sit down, Gilang. Your blood is still dripping onto my clean floor," Renata said calmly, her voice firm yet cold. She glanced at Rania, who stood rigidly near the door, trembling with fear. "And you, Rania, come here. There are things you need to see so you can understand the war we are facing."

Rania stepped forward hesitantly, approaching the holographic table with a vacant stare. Her tears had already dried, leaving behind a pale, grief-stricken face.

Renata touched the holographic panel before her. Instantly, the air in the middle of the room transformed into a giant three-dimensional projection displaying a human brain pulsating with lines of purple light.

"Do you know what SoulSync is?" Renata's voice broke the silence of the room. She paced back and forth in front of the hologram. "Out there, millions of people download it believing the app is a shortcut to wash away stress, quiet their anxiety, and find inner peace in the middle of this cruel city."

Nara snorted loudly, crossing her arms over her chest. "Ads for it are on every street corner. They claim it's powered by 'spiritual harmony waves' created by the world's best scientists."

"That's a sweet-sounding lie to cover up the most horrific evil," Renata cut in sharply. She touched the holographic button once more, transforming the brain projection into an energy flow diagram directly linked to a skyscraper bearing the red ant logo. "The app uses a special frequency of sound waves—sub-harmonics that normal human ears can't pick up. When users put on their earphones and start meditating, those waves penetrate the cerebral cortex, paralyzing conscious awareness, and synchronizing the victim's brainwaves with an ancient curse."

Gilang narrowed his eyes, sitting up straighter. "An ancient curse? Hold on. Ant Corp is a cyber-based tech startup, not a black-magic temple."

"Technology and magic have fused into one in this era, Gilang," Renata replied coldly, locking eyes with the freelancer. "The corporation patents archaic curses from underground ruins, then turns them into digital programming code that can be distributed through the Play Store and App Store. Once the victim enters a deep relaxation phase, the app siphons their soul essence—pure spiritual energy—packages it into data packets, and streams it straight to the core server on the hundredth floor of the Ant Corp tower."

Hearing this, Rania went limp, dropping to her knees in front of the holographic table while covering her mouth. "So... so my brother's soul was taken just because he wanted some quiet from schoolwork?!" Rania cried out hysterically, tears flooding her cheeks once more. "You're killing them slowly for corporate profit?!"

Renata fell silent for a moment. Her gaze lowered to the holographic floor, dark shadows seemingly flickering across her eyes. "Not just financial profit, Rania. Digital immortality. Those corporate founders have refused to die naturally. Their biological bodies are fragile, but with a fresh stock of purified soul reserves every day, they can upload their consciousness to an eternal server and rule forever."

Gilang stared intently at Renata, sensing something the woman was hiding behind her composed expression. "A very classic excuse for suited bastards. But the question is, if you're the master architect who designed this demonic system... why are you sitting here with us right now?"

The atmosphere in the room suddenly chilled. Nara glanced back and forth between Gilang and Renata, waiting for an answer that could decide whether they lived or died.

Renata let out a long breath, her gaze drifting far away to one of the holographic screens displaying a photo of a young man in a lab coat with a friendly smile.

"Because I saw with my own eyes how that system swallowed the person most precious to me," Renata whispered, her voice trembling slightly for the first time. She pointed at the photo on the hologram. "His name was Aris. He was my best friend and work partner in Ant Corp's core R&D division. He was the one who first realized that the SoulSync project was leaking soul data and killing human test subjects."

Renata clenched both fists until her knuckles turned white.

"When Aris tried to stop the phase-one launch and intended to leak it to the public, the company's CEO branded him a traitor," Renata continued, her voice heavy with suppressed agony. "Right before my eyes, Aris was dragged down to the underground server room, made into the primary human guinea pig, and... his soul was drained dry until his body became an empty shell without a life. And do you know what the board of directors said back then? They called Aris's sacrifice a 'noble contribution to corporate progress.'"

Rania sobbed bitterly listening to the story, while Gilang clenched his jaw tight. A cold fury crept into the freelancer's chest. He knew all too well what it felt like to be betrayed by a system that viewed human beings as nothing more than statistical numbers on paper.

"Is that why you were fired?" Gilang asked quietly yet sharply.

"I wasn't fired because I got caught stealing data, Gilang," Renata answered, lifting her face back up with a gaze of unyielding steel resolve. "I intentionally let the system detect my movements after I successfully downloaded all the blueprints and master access keys into this military flashdisk. I want to destroy that tower from the inside, and I need you to help me break through its physical defenses."

Gilang fell silent, staring at the silver flashdisk resting on the console table. The offer was perilously dangerous, yet on the flip side, there was no other way out for Rania or himself.

"Fine, your sad story is touching enough, Madam Director," Gilang said finally, offering a faint smirk though his eyes remained guarded. "But before we talk about blowing up a tower, let's make sure this piece of evidence you brought is actually clean instead of a ticking time bomb."

Gilang glanced at Nara, who had been silent in the corner of the console table, busy typing a rapid string of commands on her mechanical keyboard.

"Nara, how's the data scan from the flashdisk Renata gave us? Is it safe, or is there a rat trap?" Gilang asked.

Nara didn't answer immediately. The disheveled girl pulled her glasses closer to the main monitor screen. Her fingers danced faster, inspecting the binary code streams hidden beneath the military encryption. The longer Nara read, the deeper the furrow in her brow. Her breathing grew shallow.

"Something's wrong, Lang..." Nara whispered in a voice edging toward panic.

Gilang straightened up, stepping closer to Nara's desk. "What do you mean something's wrong? Is the data fake?"

"Not fake, but..." Nara pointed to a hidden red line of code nestled deep within the flashdisk's deepest directory. It appeared isolated from the rest of the data, taking the form of an extremely complex string structure that was completely inactive. "Look at this. Behind the encryption of the SoulSync blueprints, there's a hidden sub-routine planted using Ant Corp's internal security department's high-tier encryption protocols."

Renata stood up from her chair instantly, walking briskly toward Nara's screen with furrowed brows. "Impossible. I wiped every download path when I left the building."

"For real, Madam! Look at the syntax structure," Nara panicked, tapping the holographic screen. "This code is like a sleeping parasite—a dormant tracker. It's dead right now, but the moment this flashdisk connects to any primary device hooked up to an external internet network or central server... this code will automatically activate and beam real-time coordinate signals to Ant Corp's defense satellites."

Gilang snorted cynically, shooting a sharp glare straight at Renata while resting his right hand close to the salt-hilted sword on his back. The atmosphere in the room instantly froze into an ice field.

"Well, well... what an awfully interesting plot twist," Gilang spoke in a dangerous tone, eyeing Renata with suspicion. "You claim you're a fugitive hunted by the company, but why does your safe-passage data come pre-installed with their live tracker? Don't tell me this whole escape is just a fresh trap to round all of us up?"

Renata widened her eyes, staring at Nara's screen with shock that was unmistakably genuine. Her pale face betrayed real confusion. "No... that's impossible! I hacked the primary data vault myself! How could that code—"

Before Renata could finish her sentence, a sharp, high-pitched beep squeaked from the main console's USB port.

Beep! Beep!

The monitors across the entire room, previously glowing a bright blue, flickered wildly, shifting simultaneously into the color of fresh blood.

Nara widened her eyes behind her glasses, shrieking hysterically as she pointed at the main screen. "Damn it! The tracker's live! Our signal's compromised! They already know where we are!"