## Chapter 296 – 30. Emergency
30. Emergency
The security of what was believed to be the best in the Korean Peninsula had been breached.
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) itself was already heavily secured, dealing as it did with national secrets, but the Abyss within, veiled and hidden, had been brutally penetrated.
“Good morning, Director!”
“Oh… good morning.”
“Have a great day!”
“…You too, Prodo, have a great day.”
“Yes, sir!”
A colleague from another department, whom she passed in the hallway, greeted her cheerfully.
It was an expression they could only wear because they didn’t know the situation.
The fact that the Abyss had been breached, and countless secrets leaked as a result, was a strictly guarded secret even within the NIS.
The vast majority didn’t even know it existed in the first place.
Therefore, the atmosphere at work was the same as always.
Swallowing a sigh, she headed towards her destination.
An inaccessible area reached by taking the freight elevator to a specific floor and then entering a secret code.
Whoosh.
As soon as she entered the code, the inside of the elevator turned bright red.
WARNING!
WARNING!
WARNING!
Holographic warnings surrounded her.
“Tch. Can’t they change this? It’s always like this…”
Grumbling, she entered her access authorization number.
Beep.
The WARNING! hologram in front of her eyes turned into a flat display, and the authorization details and time were displayed in a list.
Authorization Number: 207703-5090KCUF.F-651235432
Authorized Area: Z Floor, Corridor 31 A to D, A Floor, Corridor 1 A to C, B Floor, Corridor 3 F to I
Authorization Period: 7 hours 56 minutes 21 seconds
Authorized Actions: Data Acquisition, Report Compilation, Situation Report
The display showed specifically where she could go, what she was authorized to do, and how long the authorization lasted.
If she tried to go to an unauthorized area, stayed beyond the authorized period, or performed unauthorized actions, she would be immediately sanctioned.
– Access Granted.
– For security, your consciousness will be forcibly shut down until you reach the designated area.
– Starting countdown.
“Sigh, ha…”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
– 5
– 4
– 3
The moment the cold, mechanical countdown reached 0, she inhaled again.
The air tasted slightly different from before.
Opening her eyes, she stood blankly in a corridor that was both familiar and strange.
“….”
She turned her body this way and that, looking around.
A space that served only as a passageway, with no elevator in sight.
This place, reminiscent of the backrooms that were once popular in horror stories, was the Abyss and core of the NIS: the ‘non-existent area.’
“I can’t… ever get used to this.”
She had clearly reached the non-existent area via the elevator and ‘walked’ here.
It was just that her consciousness had only now awakened.
‘Z, 31’
At the end of the corridor, an alphabet indicating the floor and a number indicating the corridor were written.
Her mission today was to compile the results of the detailed inspections conducted over the past two weeks and submit the final report.
“Let’s see… how many times do I have to lose consciousness?”
She hadn’t even started properly, and she was already sighing.
+++
“So… it’s come to this after all.”
Having completed all other tasks, she entered the Director-General’s office on the A floor to deliver the final report.
The Director-General, who oversaw all Abyssal matters, including the Great Mages, under the NIS, was, as always, leaning back in his chair, showing only one side of his body, as he scanned the report she had submitted.
“The route used for the hacking is presumed to be that of missing agent V… Report 3,211 cases, external exchange documents 227 cases, research papers 1,021 cases, etc., leaked. The leaked data is biased towards materials related to the Goryeo Group, but the overall number is not significant. Documents in various fields across the project have been leaked, and the concepts of enhanced humans, including Great Mages, have all been compromised.”
“…”
The atmosphere was suffocating.
It was actually hard to breathe.
The Director-General was not only the power behind the Abyss but also the strongest Great Mage the NIS had ever produced.
An ordinary person would have fainted from the pressure of simply facing him.
“So, you’re saying that the most important and confidential things have all been compromised.”
“…I apologize.”
“What do you have to apologize for? V opened the gates.”
Even at the Director-General’s words, Director Han Chae-young could not raise her head.
This was a project that had been running for a long time, seeking the right opportunity, but this hacking incident threatened to bring it all to the surface.
“Have you identified the mastermind?”
“Not yet….”
“I see. I suppose not. Those who committed such a massive act wouldn’t have failed to erase even a single trace.”
“We have a strong candidate.”
Han Chae-young handed over an additional document.
“The time when V lost contact and the time when several other agents lost contact are almost identical. Considering the time difference in regular reporting between agents, it is highly likely that they were either eliminated or captured by the same individuals.”
“Hmm… The biggest project team is Prestige, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
Among the various teams that V was relaying information from, quite a few lost contact at the same time.
And among them, the team closest to an opponent capable of committing such an act was Goryeo Prestige.
A large-scale project to infiltrate an agent, brainwashed and trained for a long time, into Prestige as a secretary, and finally to have them become a close aide to the owner’s family.
The number of personnel mobilized on-site wasn’t that large, but considering the funds and time invested, and the effort to penetrate Prestige’s defenses, it was a massive undertaking.
That team, along with V, had lost contact.
The Director-General, after reading the document, pressed his temples and sighed.
“This is the worst. If the data has been passed to Goryeo, it’s the worst of the worst.”
“…”
“Everyone will be up in arms about this. I have no idea what excuses to make.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Even the CSA caused a scene this morning. They were incredibly arrogant.”
As if the emotions of that moment had suddenly resurfaced, anger appeared on the Director-General’s face.
“Do they still think they’re the old America? Damn white trash.”
Gritting his teeth, he turned his leaning body to face her directly.
“…!”
Han Chae-young, who had been slightly lowering her gaze, flinched for a moment.
It was a sight she had seen several times, but she couldn’t help but be startled every time.
“Not that I like comparisons, but we’re much better off than those guys. At least our country hasn’t been split in two, has it? Or is it three?”
“…”
Half of the Director-General’s face showed the reinforced bones of the enhanced frame, the eyeball the size of a ping-pong ball filling the inside, and other muscle and flesh tissues.
The sight of various mechanical devices and wires running haphazardly over it was too grotesque even for the eyes of someone familiar with it.
Moreover, it wasn’t just his face.
Hidden by his clothes, his entire right half was like that.
He knew that, so he always showed only the intact half of his body.
“There’s a video conference in two hours. Time to appease those useless foreigners. I’ll gloss over it for now, so Director Han Chae-young, find out exactly who is behind this.”
“Yes, Director-General.”
“Depending on who’s behind it… we may have to bring ‘Winter’ forward.”
“…Yes.”
+++
Thursday, April 1st.
“I would like to introduce a very special guest who has graced us with their presence. CEO Go Mu-yeol!”
He stood up and waved his hand to the applause.
The already loud applause and cheers grew even louder.
These guys here have all been heavily brainwashed at the training center. They’re so happy just to see me, a member of the owner’s family, that they’re practically crying, so this level of reaction is actually mild.
“We would be honored if Young Master would say a few words of blessing.”
He nodded casually and went up to the podium.
The people in front of him were trainee knights who had finally completed the hellish process of about 20 years and were becoming ‘official knights.’
It felt like a graduation ceremony.
The reason I’m here out of the blue is for several reasons, but the biggest one is, of course, because of Baekseol.
All these guys are Baekseol’s classmates.
Originally, she was supposed to be here with them for the knighting ceremony, but she dropped out last year when she became my exclusive knight.
Well, thanks to that, Baekseol received a ceremony just for her, like an early graduation, but still, this is an important event that only happens once in a lifetime, so it would be a shame to miss it. I should let her attend if possible.
‘You’re pretty much free anyway, so please do this for me. Just go and talk some nonsense and give out the knighthoods. And isn’t your slave from this class? Perfect. Let her see her classmates for the first time in a while.’
The second reason is Go Min-ji’s request(?).
Absurdly, Go Min-ji, who thinks I’m free, told me to handle the knighting ceremony for her for just one week.
Compared to her, who is busy with the handover of the Incheon branch, I am free, so I have nothing to say, but it feels unfair and absurd.
‘Oh, I’ll take care of you later, you little brat. Just go. It’s something only our bloodline can do.’
Still, I readily accepted, thinking of Baekseol.
It’s definitely not because Go Min-ji said she would take care of me.
‘There are three knighting ceremonies this week… Each place produces about 100 people, so that’s 300 people a week….’
Of course, there may be weeks when no knighting ceremonies are held at all, but overall, about 90 to 100 places produce knights throughout the year.
The training centers that produce knights then go through a five-year production and manufacturing process to produce trainee knights and enter 15 years of training.
Since there are countless such training centers scattered throughout the continent and the Korean Peninsula, nearly 10,000 people are produced each year, even though the process takes a total of 20 years.
‘It’s dizzying when you think about it in numbers.’
