Minji, Jungkook, and Tae-Hyun, along with two operatives, boarded Jungkook's private jet under the cover of a fake business trip. Minji had never imagined leaving the confines of Seoul, the setting of the novel. Now, she was flying across the world to a remote location that held no fictional resonance whatsoever.
The pressure was immense. Jungkook watched Minji, admiring her transformation from a bookish strategist to a courageous operative willing to risk everything for a future she created.
As they flew over the Atlantic, Minji stared out the window at the vast, featureless expanse of ocean.
"The novel... it never mentioned the Atlantic," Minji whispered, her voice barely audible over the drone of the engines.
Jungkook moved to sit beside her, placing a reassuring hand on hers. "That's the point, Minji. We are entirely off-script. Everything you do now is real, entirely your own. No borrowed lines, no pre-written fate."
She took a deep breath. "And that terrifies me. In the book, I always knew the next twist, the next betrayal. Here, I'm just... betting on my instinct. What if my brilliance fails when the stakes are this high?"
"It won't," Jungkook insisted, meeting her gaze. "Your instinct is your brilliance. You've outsmarted a thousand pages of plot; a few armed mercenaries are just a tougher chapter. We're in this together. No matter what happens, you have built your own life, Minji. And I'm ready to fight for it right beside you."
A faint smile touched her lips. "Then let's write a better ending."
Minji realized that, for the first time, her actions were driven purely by instinct and her own brilliance, not by memory. This was the true test of her new life.
The data bunker was located in a converted military facility, guarded by mercenaries. The exterior was virtually impregnable. The mobile command center was set up two miles away, hidden by dense woodland.
Inside the command center, Minji monitored the tactical screens, her expression sharp and focused.
"Tae-Hyun, confirming all stealth protocols are green?" Jungkook asked over the secure comms.
Tae-Hyun's calm voice crackled back. "Affirmative, CEO. We're ghosts in the machine. No thermal signatures, no kinetic spikes. Perimeter breach initiated. We are inside."
Minji leaned in closer to the screen. "That's too easy, Jungkook. A facility this secure, built by a syndicate this paranoid... they wouldn't rely on mere external guards. There has to be a deeper security layer."
Jungkook nodded grimly. "I agree. Tae-Hyun, proceed with extreme caution. We're running blind on the interior architecture."
Tae-Hyun and his team, using sophisticated stealth technology and years of corporate espionage training, successfully breached the perimeter. Minji and Jungkook remained in the mobile command center nearby.
However, the syndicate had installed a kinetic countermeasure the team hadn't anticipated: a time-delay magnetic pulse generator deep within the bunker, set to wipe all digital activity and incinerate the main vault if unauthorized entry was detected.
A tense beat of silence was broken by a sudden, urgent transmission.
"CEO! Minji!" Tae-Hyun's voice was strained, laced with disbelief. "We triggered it. It's not a simple firewall. It's a kinetic countermeasure—a Magnetic Pulse Generator. We have visual confirmation on the timer display."
Minji's eyes scanned the schematics frantically, pulling up thermal readings. "A pulse? That will fry your equipment—and you! What's the window, Tae-Hyun?"
Tae-Hyun reported the discovery: "Five minutes. That's all we have. Five minutes to inject the worm, or the entire vault—and the evidence of the fraud—is destroyed, killing the investigation and trapping my team. The generator is too deep; we can't disable it remotely! It's a physical race!"
Jungkook's jaw tightened. "Unacceptable! Tae-Hyun, is there any way to reroute to the main terminal? Anything faster than the direct vault access?"
"Negative. It's an isolated network. I need to be at the vault. CEO, permission to accelerate to maximum speed. We're going in hard, we'll try to outrun the clock."
"Do it!" Jungkook commanded, gripping Minji's hand so tightly it was painful, yet comforting.
Minji, her mind racing, saw a flaw in the countdown. "Tae-Hyun! The pulse has a charge time! Even after the timer hits zero, there might be a two-second lag for full discharge! Use that window! Go for the zero-second spike!"
"Understood, Minji. Going for the spike. We'll see you on the other side. Time left: 04:15."