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.
"Are you scared?" Jungkook asked her quietly as the jet leveled out over the dark ocean.
Minji looked out the window at the vast, unwritten sea. "Not of the danger, strangely. I knew the plot of danger. I'm scared of the unknown, Jungkook. The silence after the last page. The story is over. Everything we do now is unscripted. It feels like stepping off a cliff."
"Then we fly," he said, reaching for her hand. "The truth is, even in the story, I was always flying blind. I just had the illusion of control. Now, we have each other, and we have the data. That's a better foundation than any fictional script. We write the ending now."
As they flew over the Atlantic, 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. It was a cold, desolate place in the middle of nowhere, perfect for a final, high-stakes confrontation.
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, watching the tactical feeds.
"We have a clear path to the vault, CEO. The perimeter defenses were exactly as our intel predicted. No surprises yet," Tae-Hyun reported, his voice crisp.
"Be careful, Tae-Hyun. That place is too quiet. I don't like it. This is their last stand," Jungkook warned over the comms.
"Understood, CEO. We are moving to the inner vault door. Opening it now," Tae-Hyun replied.
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. The moment Tae-Hyun's team touched the server rack, the countermeasure alarm blared silently on the comms channel.
Tae-Hyun reported the discovery: "CEO, we have a critical situation! Repeat: Critical! They installed a secondary defense: a high-yield magnetic pulse generator. The countdown is active! We have five minutes to inject the worm and neutralize the timer, or the entire vault—and the evidence of the fraud—is destroyed, killing the investigation and trapping my team. This wasn't in the original blueprints!"
"Five minutes? That's impossible! Tae-Hyun, how long to reach the core circuit? It takes three just to reach the core! Minji, what is the failure sequence of a kinetic MP generator? There has to be a back door! Think!" Jungkook shouted, the color draining from his face.
"Three minutes, twenty seconds, minimum, CEO! We are trapped between the vault and the MP generator. The floor is vibrating!" Tae-Hyun's voice was strained, the metallic screech of the generator audible in the background.
The fate of Minji's identity and Jungkook's company now rested on a five-minute physical race against a magnetic pulse, in a country that had no bearing on the original plot. The tension of the unscripted zone was far more terrifying than the predictability of fiction. The next move was entirely hers.
"Jungkook, listen to me. Breathe. This is outside the book. We can't rely on memory. We have to assume they secured the coding," Minji said, her tone suddenly sharp and clear, cutting through the panic. "A magnetic pulse generator—especially one tied to a kinetic trigger—is designed to fry the hardware first. It relies on massive, instantaneous power."
"So what? We can't shut down the whole facility! That'll trip every alarm!" Jungkook countered, running a hand through his hair.
"We don't shut down the facility. We target the weak link in the power delivery. Tae-Hyun, look for a redundant thermal regulator near the main input feed. It will be shielded, but it's the fastest way to cause a catastrophic internal short," Minji commanded, her voice regaining its focused, strategic edge. "You must find the heat sink—it's always oversized for rapid discharge. If you short the power, you disable the pulse, not the data. It's a race against the fuse, not the clock!"
"Understood, Minji. We are running to the input panel now. Three minutes remaining on the pulse! Wish us luck!" Tae-Hyun confirmed, his footsteps pounding away from the vault.
"We don't need luck, Tae-Hyun. We have Minji," Jungkook muttered, leaning over the console, his eyes wide with fear and absolute faith.