The core Strategic Triangle team—Jungkook, Minji, and Tae-Hyun—locked down in the DARS command center. Minji immediately tasked Cassandra with a radical new directive.
"We can't track the money; it moves too fast and too clean," Minji declared, pointing at the algorithmic traces. "We have to track the source of the pattern. Whoever created this algorithm is not just a hacker; they are a financial architect with access to databases deep enough to weaponize my original, deceased ID. That kind of access is not common."
Tae-Hyun began his dive, attempting to find the back door they used to access the database where Minji's identity was stored. He used Cassandra's profiling to filter out all known cybercrime signatures, looking only for the signature of hyper-efficiency.
"The ID reactivation suggests a breach in a national-level database, potentially linked to a major credit or citizen registry," Tae-Hyun theorized. "I need a precise vector. I'm taking the algorithmic footprint of the Level-2 Anomaly and teaching it back to Cassandra—not to predict where they'll move next, but to predict the single point of origin for the algorithm itself."
Minji focused on the system's human flaw. "The syndicate is too confident. Their hubris is the flaw. They think the system is perfectly invisible. They have a central command, a server farm, a control point. If we can find the physical location where the laundering algorithm is being run, we can disrupt the operation and force the ghost ID offline. The weakest link in a system designed for perfection is the upkeep. They are leaving digital breadcrumbs related to upgrades, security patches, or error logs. That is where we will find the author."
The Zurich Anchor and the Rival Author
Thirty hours later, the coffee had turned cold and the silence was broken only by the hum of the servers. Tae-Hyun found it.
"Found it," Tae-Hyun announced, his voice hoarse with fatigue. "The algorithm is maintained remotely, but the server running the core laundering loop is housed in a private data center in Zurich, Switzerland."
"Zurich," Jungkook repeated, grim. The heart of global banking secrecy.
"But more importantly," Tae-Hyun continued, "I found the digital handshake used for maintenance. The author uses a unique encryption standard—something I've never seen. It's mathematically perfect, but the style, the architecture of the code… it's familiar. It's layered. It's written to create traps and loopholes for a specific type of logic. It reminds me of the most paranoid, self-referential code I've ever seen. It's like the author was obsessed with creating the perfect, unreadable mechanism of self-defense."
Tae-Hyun paused, looking directly at Minji. "It's the digital equivalent of Rion Kai's character flaws."
Minji felt a chill far colder than the office air. "It can't be. Kai is ruined."
"The real Kai, yes," Jungkook countered, seeing the connection. "But this code was built over years. What if this syndicate leader isn't related to Kai, but is someone from your original world—someone who was just as obsessed with the original novel's plot, but drew a different conclusion? Another transmigrator."
The implication was terrifying: an inter-dimensional shadow war. Someone else had read the book, grasped the underlying mechanics, and decided to exploit them instead of fixing them.
"If that's the case," Minji whispered, staring at the Zurich coordinates, "we aren't just fighting an algorithm. We are fighting a rival player who knows the rules of the game just as well as I do, perhaps better—and they've already weaponized my identity."
Operation Ouroboros
The seventy-two-hour window was narrowing fast. Jungkook initiated the infiltration plan. Due to the sensitivity of the mission and the need for absolute secrecy, they couldn't involve a large team.
"Tae-Hyun, you're the digital strike team. Minji, you are the weapon," Jungkook stated. "I will handle the logistics and the physical support."
Minji's Mission (The Weapon): Minji worked feverishly, her coding fueled by fear and anger. She wrote a bespoke virus named 'Ouroboros'—a snake devouring its own tail, designed as a narrative counter-attack to target the 'authorial flaws' in the syndicate's code. It had to rewrite the ghost ID's status back to permanently inactive in every registry it had touched.
"Ouroboros is complete," Minji finally confirmed. "It's a surgical strike. It needs physical access to the server room to be deployed via a localized intrusion device. It cannot be launched remotely; the encryption is too strong."
Tae-Hyun's Mission (The Digital Strike Team): Infiltrate the high-security Zurich data center and deploy the Ouroboros device. His plan was audacious: impersonate a high-level maintenance technician during a scheduled, routine system check Cassandra had predicted.
Jungkook's Mission (The Cover): Provide the cover and the exit. He used Dusk Industries' extensive (and legitimate) global network to create a flawless financial and political alibi for the trip—a last-minute merger discussion in Geneva, making the Zurich stop a brief, undocumented detour.
The three of them stood ready at the private jet hangar. Jungkook, sharp in a bespoke suit, carrying a briefcase containing their fake diplomatic clearances. Tae-Hyun, carrying a seemingly innocuous equipment case containing the Ouroboros device. And Minji, dressed as Jungkook's technical consultant, her eyes fixed on the task ahead.
"Minji," Jungkook said, just before boarding the jet. "If this rival transmigrator is indeed the architect, they will be expecting us to fight the money. We are going to fight the story. They thought they wrote the rules for this new world, but they forgot one thing."
"What is that?" Minji asked, her voice steady.
"We have the best damn writer on the planet," Jungkook finished, a hint of his old competitive fire returning. "Let's go rewrite their perfect algorithm."
The fate of Dusk Industries, Minji's identity, and the stability of their unscripted reality was now flying toward the heart of global secrecy. The silent, terrifying digital war was about to go operational.