Chapter 22 -  The Obsidian Syndicate and the Lost Blueprint

The Deserted WarehouseThe scene cut directly to an absolute, pitch-black, and desolate zone situated far outside the industrial grid of sियोल. Inside the massive, hollow concrete vacuum of an abandoned manufacturing warehouse, the atmosphere was thick with a suffocating layer of terror and cold, calculated violence.Sitting rigidly in the exact center of the dusty concrete floorboards was Lee Min-juh, his powerful frame slouched comfortably inside a plush velvet armchair he had ordered brought to the clearing. Dressed immaculately in his high-end executive suit, his face was masked by a terrifying, bone-chilling corporate coldness. Standing like unmoving stone pillars directly behind his shoulders were two towering, fearsome elite syndicate bodyguards, their hands locked over their weapons.On the hard ground directly in front of Min-juh's boots, a man—Suho—was kneeling helplessly inside his own blood tracker. His entire body was badly injured, covered in deep red abrasions, and tightly bound in heavy iron wire cords.Min-juh held a gleaming, customized silver firearm casually in his right hand. Moving with slow, lethal precision, his long fingers casually swirled and swung the weapon through the empty air, the metal chassis beautifully catching the dim moonlight filtering past the cracked roof layout."Hah..." Min-juh let out a dry, bitterly cold, and terrifying chuckle past his lips, his voice echoing menacingly inside the warehouse vault. "Because of your uncoordinated database error, my own system was forced to execute a sudden detour loop and leave Han-eun entirely alone next to Kang Ha-joon's coordinates at the parking lot terminal [Ch. 19]. Well... luckily her biological brother Kim Jae is present at the tower, so his protective pride won't let her frame clear out alongside anyone else so easily [Ch. 19, 20]... But the critical question my mind is tracking right now is, what on earth happened to your loyalty charts, Suho? Weren't your parameters able to digest the grand mercy and freedom my hands gave your life years ago, that your loose mouth was actively going to report to Kang's face registry and leak every single drop of data about Hanu and my secret playground files [Ch. 17, 18]?"Min-juh stood up gracefully from his plush velvet chair, adjusting the charcoal lapels of his suit vest with absolute billionaire elegance [Ch. 15]. Moving with slow, calculating power, his heavy leather boots began rigidly circling Suho's bound, trembling frame."Hmm?" Min-juh leaned his head down slightly, his deep voice dropping into an intensely low, menace-rich frequency. "Tell my ears the truth, Suho? Why did your code launch an extraction attempt?""Exhale..." Suho took a deep, agonizingly painful breath through his teeth, spitting a thick glob of fresh red blood straight onto the concrete floorboards. "Huh... Lee Min-juh! Do not dare let your arrogant mind think Kang Ha-joon's system won't find out the true reality about your syndicate files. Your hands may choose to destroy my registry and kill my body today... but Kang will mandatory find out every single piece of the dark history regarding how Hanu died on that provincial cliffside 15 years ago [Ch. 9, 16]! And the absolute biggest, most monumental truth is that Hanu is completely, definitively not dead at all inside this registry... Kang Ha-joon doesn't even possess a single pixel of data to know that the Kim Han-eun currently working as a Team Leader right inside his own chief design floor is actually his long-lost Hanu [Ch. 16, 17]!"The Cliffside DeceptionThe exact milestone second those words left the victim's mouth, Lee Min-juh's dark eyes dilated wide with absolute, venomous malice. He halted his boots flat against the concrete, stepping directly inside Suho's immediate personal space as he leaned his kerrdak profile down, his piercing gaze locking dead into his bloodshot eyes."Oh... is that the parameter your brain is tracking?" Min-juh whispered smoothly, his tone laced with a terrifyingly serious, quiet gravity. "Then your feet are more than welcome to go march straight into his boardroom and tell his radar the whole story! But alas... your fragile system can't do that. Your vocal cords will mandatory only go and share data with his ears when your body successfully survives this clearing, right? If your individual eyes hadn't witnessed every single drop of the tragedy that executed on that cliffside that day, your frame wouldn't be kneeling here today inside my execution block. And have your memory logs completely forgotten the archive? You were the exact accomplice who helped my hands manipulate the local database and make every single family member believe that Hanu—that is, Kim Han-eun—was genuinely, legally dead. You were my elite classmate since the old playground days, Suho... that is the definitive only reason why my mercy left your build alive that day.""You forcefully compelled my hands back then, Lee!" Suho shouted out helplessly and angrily, his voice cracking with raw panic under his suffocating radar. "Your threats forced my system to execute all of that fake reporting database yourself! And my mind knew perfectly well that your corporate assassins had their weapon scopes aimed directly at my neck coordinates... But listen to my vocal cords carefully for one final parameter today... Your dark soul doesn't deserve her presence! She has liked Kang Ha-joon's identity ever since their childhood playground days [Ch. 17]. And the exact milestone day her brain gets her true identity back and her old buried memory archives violently resurface under this sky... your eyes will see the wreckage! Her system will mandatory never, ever come back to your arms!"The exact milestone fraction of a second the statement hit his ears, Lee Min-juh's anger reached an absolute, cataclysmic peak parameter.His eyes turned a violent, bloodshot shade of crimson red color, and his supreme billionaire composure completely, permanently snapped into pure, unadulterated monstrous fury [Ch. 15]. Without dropping a single additional millisecond of delay into the vacuum, Lee Min-juh smoothly raised his silver hand, aimed the weapon straight at the center of Suho's chest casing, and executed a sudden, ruthless gunshot directly into his vitals!BANG!!!The thunderous, deafening explosion violently shattered the quiet warehouse vacuum, echoing against the concrete walls. Suho's frame instantly collapsed completely flat onto the hard concrete floorboards, his body logs permanently shutting down as his blood pool widened.Min-juh stood perfectly still, his back straight as he look-tracked the barrel of the weapon, taking a deep, cold, and slow executive breath through his teeth to stabilize his breathing charts."Hah!" Min-juh let out an arrogant, cutting chuckle, his face turning completely dark and calculating under the moonlight. "Did your loose mouth honestly think it could successfully reveal my hidden playground secrets? Now your registry is permanently gone from this database... and very soon in the timeline, my hands will send that arrogant Kang Ha-joon straight down after your soul too. Kim Han-eun belongs strictly to my registry, and her heart will always mandatory be mine alone! My system will absolutely never let her presence belong to any other man's arms... ever again in this life!"Min-juh smoothly adjusted the lines of his charcoal suit jacket, turning his broad shoulders around to walk toward the exit gates without casting a single pixel of backward attention onto the corpse. Reaching the threshold, he raised his long fingers, executing a kerrdak, stern command signal toward his fearsome guards standing rigidly near the wooden doors."Take his frame away out past these coordinates and permanently dispose of the remains," Min-juh commanded in a low, cold frequency."Understood, Mr. Lee," the bodyguards bowed politely through their teeth, moving their boots forward to lift the dead weight.Lee Min-juh marched out past the entryway, his heavy leather boots clicking rigidly against the gravel as his silhouette vanished entirely into the darkness of the city night, leaving a heavy trail of total suspense, fear, and impending war behind him under the black Seoul sky.