"This way, fast! Avoid the main corridor!" Mr. Darma urged breathlessly, tugging at Zulfa's arm to whip a sharp turn into a narrow, rusted service tunnel hidden behind the prison's waste disposal pipes.

The thud of dozens of heavily armed guards' boots and the wail of emergency sirens continued to echo deafeningly down the isolation cell block. The spinning white strobe lights projected their racing shadows wildly against the damp concrete walls. Zulfa wrapped an arm around Mr. Darma's weakening frame, making sure the old man didn't stumble across the slick tile floor.

"Hang in there a little longer, Mr. Darma! We're almost there!" Zulfa cried out, pushing through a billowing cloud of hot steam hissing from a wall-pipe crack.

After a winding sprint through the suffocating labyrinth of underground service tunnels, Mr. Darma finally halted before a heavy, handleless steel door marked with a high-radiation warning symbol.

The old man felt along the wall to the right of the door, pressing a hidden button wedged behind a rust plate until the steel door slid open sideways with a soft hiss of refreshing cold air.

"Get in! Inside, fast!" Mr. Darma ordered, shoving Zulfa through before following him into the chamber, then slapping the closure button before the guards could approach the area.

Click—Boom!

The thick steel door sealed shut, instantly dampening the screaming alarms and the marching bootbeats of the guards outside. The atmosphere inside the room plunged into sudden silence, standing in stark contrast to the chaos of the cell block moments before.

Zulfa panted heavily, leaning against the metal wall for a moment to steady his scorched breath. He swept his gaze across the room, and instantly, his words of praise choked in his throat.

They were no longer in the gloomy prison corridor. They now stood on the threshold of a colossal, futuristically architected control room buried deep within the earth's belly—a massive chamber built with curved transparent glass walls, showcasing an underground vista both breathtakingly grand and utterly terrifying.

At the center of that magnificent space, dozens of sophisticated computer consoles featuring glowing holographic displays flared with purple-blue light. Suspended along the main wall hung a towering holographic screen dozens of meters wide, rendering an interactive three-dimensional map of the entire city up above. The map was choked with glowing coordinate nodes and pulsing energy lines snaking from underground up to various vital corporate tower nodes.

"Incredible..." Zulfa murmured unconsciously, his eyes widening at the scale of technology concealed beneath the prison. "This isn't just a regular control room. This is the primary operational heart of the entire dimensional energy harvesting system."

Mr. Darma limped toward the main console, staring up at the holographic screens with a gaze full of loathing. "Precisely, Zulfa. From this very place, The Foundation Council regulates the dimension breach rate, channeling pure energy from the earth's core to every corporate skyscraper towering across the surface."

Zulfa stepped closer to Mr. Darma, pointing toward the rapidly blinking red dots on the primary holographic map. "Those red dots... what do they mean? Why are they pulsing faster?"

Mr. Darma's face bleached white, his wrinkled hands beginning to tremble violently. "That's the final phase indicator... The Total Purge is underway. Those dots mark the energy conversion zones where every single citizen in the upper districts will be permanently sacrificed within hours."

Before Zulfa could respond to that horrifying warning, the sound of calm, cold, and intimately familiar applause suddenly echoed from a high observation deck across the room.

Clap... clap... clap...

Zulfa and Mr. Darma whipped their heads around in unison toward the sound source.

Atop the glass walkway overlooking the main holographic map display, several figures clad in expensive formal suits stepped slowly down a spiral steel staircase. At the very front strode Vian Pratama with a thin, cynical smirk, flanked by three arrogant-looking middle-aged men wearing exclusive gold lapel pins—the core elites of The Foundation Council.

"Welcome back to our control center, Engineer Arditama," Vian Pratama greeted in a calm, mocking tone, his voice echoing across the grand control chamber. "I must admit, your method of breaking out of an iron cell using a toothbrush and a wire was a genuinely creative spectacle. You truly inherited your grandfather and father's stubborn brains."

Zulfa clenched his fists tight, glaring daggers at Vian with a burning, hate-filled gaze. "Vian... so you intentionally let us walk right in here, didn't you?"

Vian halted midway down the platform, smoothing his light-gray suit casually. He glanced briefly at Mr. Darma before returning his gaze to Zulfa. "Naturally, Zulfa. Why would we bother hunting down a fugitive who walks right into the tiger's den of his own accord? Your presence here... simply completes the final puzzle piece we needed."

One of the gray-haired council elites beside Vian stepped forward, looking down at Zulfa with profound condescension. "Vian, is this young man the final descendant of that rebellious engineering family?"

"Correct, Mr. Council Chairman," Vian answered politely to the old man beside him. "And right now inside his jacket pocket, this young man is carrying an antique audio cassette tape belonging to his father, who tried to shut down our project decades ago."

Zulfa reached into his jacket pocket by reflex. He realized their arrival at this location had been tracked from the very beginning by the secret council's surveillance system.

"You will never win this," Zulfa growled with a voice shaking with rage, stepping forward to face Vian and the council elites. "Your entire rotten conspiracy about energy harvesting and human sacrifice has been exposed!"

Vian Pratama let out a soft chuckle—a cold laugh mirroring the absolute madness of a power fanatic. He swept his arms wide toward the giant holographic screen before them, where red energy lines now choked the entire surface city map above.

"Exposed to whom, Zulfa? To the millions of citizens up top who are currently sleeping soundly under the control of our illusion?" Vian smiled broadly. "Look at that main screen... The final phase of our grand plan is executing this very second. There is nothing left that can stop us."