At eleven-fifteen in the morning, the blistering sunlight reflected sharply off the giant glass walls of the National Bureaucracy Central Archive Building—a monument of modern architectural grandeur soaring ten stories high in the heart of the city's government district. Yet, that grandeur was wrapped in an atmosphere of extraordinary tension. In the wake of yesterday's micro-quake incident and massive chaos, the building's front plaza was choked with black sedan cars bearing special government plates, heavy escorts of armed security personnel, and high-ranking officials in crisp suits rushing back and forth with panicked expressions, clutching copies of emergency documents.

Behind the glass revolving doors of the main lobby, Zulfa and Naya stepped inside with their heads bowed slightly.

Zulfa wore a full field-audit technician uniform—a high-visibility safety orange vest, heavy cargo pants, a white hardhat pulled low over his forehead, and a clipboard of inventory logs in his hands. Beside him, Naya posed as an intern audit assistant, sporting thick-rimmed glasses, a formal white button-down shirt, and carrying a heavy metal toolbox filled with bogus circuit cables.

"Stay calm, don't look directly at the security cameras overhead," Naya whispered softly, her voice barely audible amid the loud chatter of officials in the main lobby.

"I know. Just match my walking pace," Zulfa replied flatly, fighting to keep his heartbeat steady.

The main lobby was simultaneously grand and chilling. Towering white marble pillars reached upward, illuminated by a giant crystal chandelier. In the center of the room, a massive circular reception desk was guarded by four Bureaucracy Internal Security Force (BISF) officers dressed in rigid black uniforms with silver badges gleaming on their chests. Every visitor or employee entering was required to pass through a high-speed electronic ID scanner checkpoint.

Zulfa and Naya queued behind two bureaucracy officials handling emergency access permits. Cold sweat began beading on Zulfa's temples. He knew full well that if the facial scanner at the front desk detected his bone structure, the omega-level fugitive alarm would instantly scream across the entire building.

"Work ID, please," the BISF security guard at the checkpoint desk said in a cold, smile-free baritone, looking up at the official standing before them.

Once that official cleared, it was Zulfa and Naya’s turn to step up to the scanner desk.

Zulfa took a deep breath, handing over two fake IDs Captain Danu had forged the night before. He projected the weary fatigue typical of a field worker hunted by tight deadlines for a post-quake emergency audit.

The BISF guard took the IDs, feeding them into the magnetic scanner slot atop the desk.

Bik... bizzzt.

The small monitor screen before the BISF guard blinked green. The guard glanced briefly at Zulfa, looked down at the ID photo, then back up to study Zulfa’s face, which was half-obscured by the shadow of his white hardhat.

"What sector audit division are you from? Why isn't this upper-floor inspection schedule listed in today's emergency roster?" the security guard asked suspiciously, his fingers hovering over the computer keyboard.

Naya reacted instantly, stepping forward slightly while flashing a professional, polite smile strained by the mounting pressure. "Pardon me, Commander. We're from the Emergency Sector External Audit Team. This inspection call came straight down from the Deputy Minister's Secretariat following reports of a short circuit in the fifth-floor main archive room after last night's quake. It's a direct order—if we delay it until tomorrow morning, our directors will have our heads."

The guard went silent, weighing Naya's explanation. The lobby atmosphere was already in disarray due to ministers arriving for the emergency summit, making the guards far more inclined to accept urgent bureaucratic excuses.

The guard grunted softly, yanked the cards from the scanner slot, and tossed them back onto the desk. "Fine. Go finish your work upstairs. Don't wander the executive board corridors."

"Thank you, Commander," Naya said politely, snatching the IDs and signaling Zulfa to move.

The two of them walked past the checkpoint toward the maintenance elevator tucked in the corner of the lobby. The moment the elevator doors sealed shut from the outside world, Naya exhaled a long breath she'd been holding, leaning limply against the metal elevator wall.

"Oh god... my heart almost jumped out of my chest," Naya whispered softly, clutching her chest.

"Your excuse back there nearly saved us, Naya. Good job," Zulfa praised calmly, though his own palms still felt ice-cold.

The private elevator rocketed upward, carrying them past floor after floor before finally chiming to a halt on Floor Five—the self-isolated level where the Foundation Council's secret physical archive was hidden.

Ding!

The elevator doors slid open. The atmosphere on the fifth floor stood worlds apart from the opulent lobby below. Here, the air was dead quiet, sterile, and lined with dark gray metal panel walls devoid of windows. The long corridor was illuminated only by dim motion-sensor lights.

"Remember, the main archive room is at the end of the left corridor," Naya whispered, unhooking her portable biometric hacking device from her toolbox. "We have to bypass a heavy armored security door controlled by a dual biometric scanner system."

They walked swiftly down the silent corridor until they stood before a thick, handleless steel door equipped with a digital touchscreen panel, a retina scanner lens, and a fingerprint pad.

Zulfa studied the panel. "This is it. Just like Captain Danu predicted, there's no manual mechanical override on the outside."

Naya dropped immediately to her knees before the digital panel, stripping away its circuit housing with a tiny screwdriver, and plugging a jumper cable from her hacking rig straight into the scanner's internal data port.

"Let me try hijacking its validation circuit using a spoofing shock frequency," Naya said gravely, her fingers flying across the mini-device's keypad.

Bzzzt... Click!

The digital screen on the steel door panel flickered erratically, flashing lines of green scrolling code. Naya smiled hopefully. "Almost got it... validation system is proce—huh?"

Suddenly, the digital screen flashed a blinding bright red, strobing a blinding warning pulse.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

A cold synthetic voice blared loudly from a hidden speaker mounted overhead in the corridor:

"WARNING: ACCESS DENIED. BIOMETRIC VALIDATION FAILED. EXTERNAL HACKING DEVICE DETECTED."

Naya's face bleached white instantly. "Damn it! Their encryption uses a quantum-layered security protocol! My device can't crack it!"

Before they could yank the cable free, a red strobe alarm light spun in the corner of the corridor, broadcasting a silent alarm that linked automatically to the primary security desk downstairs.

"Zulfa! The alarm tripped!" Naya panicked, scrambling to her feet while hastily packing away her gear.

Zulfa stared at the locked steel door before him, while from the right end of the corridor, the heavy thud of BISF security troops' combat boots began echoing closer at a full sprint.