The sky was screaming.
Purple lightning tore through the digital atmosphere, striking the ground with the force of artillery shells. Each strike deleted a chunk of the map.
"The server is destabilizing!" David screamed over the roar of the code-storm. "Mason is purging the cache to free up memory for the real-world upload!"
"He's deleting us," Min-ji gripped her bat, watching a nearby building dissolve into static.
"We need to move," Yoo-jin shouted. "N3KO! The bridge!"
High above in the VIP box, the 8-bit cat avatar was typing frantically on a holographic console.
"I'm trying!" N3KO's synthesized voice crackled. "But there's no path! The Spire is floating in a null-void. If you step off the Arena, you fall forever."
"Create a path!"
"I need raw material! I can't code matter out of nothing!"
Yoo-jin looked around. The Arena was huge, made of light and user data.
"Use the stage," Yoo-jin commanded.
"What?"
"Deconstruct the Arena!" Yoo-jin pointed at the glorious white floor they were standing on. "Cannibalize the fortress to build the road!"
"That's our only shield!" Sae-ri gasped. "If you tear it down, the purple lightning will fry us!"
"We don't need a shield if we're moving fast enough," Yoo-jin looked at Zeus_Prime. "Can you run?"
Zeus, the E-Sports champion, hefted his greatsword. "I speedrun jumping puzzles for breakfast."
"Then lead the way."
Yoo-jin signaled N3KO.
"Execute."
CRACK.
The massive white coliseum of the Arena shuddered. The bleachers dissolved. The walls turned into streams of flowing light.
Like a magic carpet unspooling, the light shot out into the void, forming a narrow, shimmering bridge toward the distant Golden Spire.
"Run!"
They sprinted.
It was a race against deletion. As they ran, the bridge behind them disintegrated, the code being recycled to build the path ahead.
BOOM.
A bolt of purple lightning struck ten feet to their left. The shockwave nearly knocked Luna off the edge.
"Sol!" Luna screamed, slipping.
Sol grabbed her sister's cloak. "I got you!"
They scrambled back up, legs pumping.
"Incoming!" Eden shouted.
From the dark clouds swirling around the Spire, shapes emerged. They weren't soldiers. They were gargoyles made of obsidian and gold.
[Guardian Unit: The Critics]
[Level: 85 Elite]
There were hundreds of them. Flying monstrosities with sharp quills for fingers.
"They're going to swarm us!" David yelled.
"Zeus! Hera!" Yoo-jin barked. "Clear the sky!"
The Olympus Guild didn't hesitate. They were professionals.
Hera, the mage, stopped running for a split second. She slammed her staff down.
"Ice Wall!"
A ramp of ice shot up from the bridge.
Zeus hit the ramp at full speed. He launched himself into the air.
"Blade Storm!"
He spun like a golden buzzsaw. He cut through the flock of gargoyles, shattering them into pixels.
"Nice air time!" Min-ji cheered.
But more gargoyles swooped down. One of them dived at Yoo-jin.
Its quill-fingers aimed for his eyes.
BANG.
A bullet took its head off.
Yoo-jin looked back.
Standing on the dissolving rear of the bridge was Kai. The traitor assassin.
He held a glowing sniper rifle.
"Don't get the wrong idea," Kai shouted, chambering another round. "I just want to kill Mason more than I want to kill you."
"I'll take it!" Yoo-jin yelled back. "Keep moving!"
They were halfway to the Spire. The golden palace loomed massive in front of them. It was beautiful and terrifying, rotating slowly like a clockwork heaven.
But the bridge was thinning. N3KO was running out of material.
"I'm out of blocks!" the cat hacker yelled. "The bridge ends in fifty meters!"
"What?"
Yoo-jin looked ahead. There was a gap. A massive, terrifying gap between the end of the bridge and the Spire's landing deck.
"It's too far to jump," Sae-ri measured the distance. "Even with zero gravity."
"We don't jump," Yoo-jin's eyes scanned the Spire. He saw the massive ventilation fans spinning on the side of the tower.
"We fly."
"We don't have wings, Boss!" Min-ji yelled.
"We have wind," Yoo-jin pointed at the fans. "And we have capes."
He looked at Sol and Luna. Their silver cloaks were cosmetic items, designed to look cool on stage.
"Twins! How strong is the fabric physics on those cloaks?"
"It's high-grade silk mesh!" Sol said. "Why?"
"Link arms!" Yoo-jin ordered. "Everyone! Grab onto Sol and Luna! Make a chain!"
"You're insane!" David shrieked.
"N3KO!" Yoo-jin shouted. "When we hit the end... overclock the fans! Suck us in!"
"Roger that!"
They reached the end of the bridge. The void yawned beneath them—an infinite drop into nothingness.
"Jump!"
They leaped.
For a second, they were falling. The terror of the void clawed at them.
"Now!"
Sol and Luna spread their arms. The silver cloaks snapped open like wings.
N3KO hacked the Spire's fans. The massive turbines reversed direction. Instead of blowing out, they sucked in.
WHOOOOSH.
A gale force wind caught them. The cloaks ballooned, acting like parachutes.
The chain of people—Zeus, Kai, Starforce, and the hackers—swung upward in a violent arc.
"Hold on!" Eden gripped Min-ji's hand with his metal fingers. "Do not let go!"
They soared across the gap.
They crashed onto the landing deck of the Spire.
They tumbled, rolling across the gold plating.
"Ouch," Sae-ri groaned, rubbing her shoulder. "My HP dropped by 10% just from the landing."
"We made it," Yoo-jin stood up, dusting off his suit.
He looked up.
They were at the base of the Admin Tower. The door was a giant gate shaped like a music box.
But they weren't alone.
Standing in front of the gate was a woman.
She wore a sleek, white combat suit. Her hair was pulled back in a severe bun. She held a datapad in one hand and a sword in the other.
It wasn't a generic NPC.
[Chief of Staff: Director Park]
[Status: Uploaded Consciousness]
Mason's right-hand woman. The one who managed the schedules. The one who buried the scandals.
"You are late," Director Park said, adjusting her glasses. "The Chairman is in a meeting."
"Director Park?" Yoo-jin stepped forward. "I thought you were in Seoul."
"I am everywhere efficiently required," she said coldly. "My mind was digitized to oversee the transition. I am the Firewall."
She tapped her datapad.
Behind her, the music box gate opened. But it didn't reveal a hallway.
It revealed a stage.
And on the stage stood an army.
Not gargoyles. Not soldiers.
[Entity: The Trainees]
[Level: 50]
Hundreds of faceless, unfinished avatars. They looked like mannequins. They moved with jerky, synchronized twitches.
"These are the rejected drafts," Director Park explained. "The failed idols. The ones you discarded, Yoo-jin. Mason recycled them."
Yoo-jin felt a chill. He recognized the movement patterns. Some of them moved like trainees he had cut years ago.
"You turned them into mobs?" Yoo-jin's voice shook with rage.
"Waste is inefficient," Director Park raised her sword. "Clear the schedule. Eliminate the intruders."
The mannequin army surged forward.
"Zeus! Front line!" Yoo-jin ordered.
"On it!" The Olympus Guild formed a phalanx wall.
"Kai! Snipe the Director!"
Kai fired. Bang.
The bullet hit an invisible barrier around Director Park.
[Skill: Non-Disclosure Agreement]
[Effect: Blocks all incoming damage.]
"She has Admin immunity!" Kai cursed.
"Of course she does," Yoo-jin gritted his teeth. "She's the ultimate manager. She controls the rules."
"How do we beat her?" Min-ji smashed a mannequin with her bat. "We can't hurt her!"
"We don't hurt her," Yoo-jin watched Director Park typing commands on her datapad. She was micromanaging the army—buffing their speed, debuffing Starforce.
"She's multitasking," Yoo-jin realized. "She's running the army, the firewall, and the upload all at once."
"So?"
"So we overload her," Yoo-jin smiled grimly. "We give her too much work."
He turned to N3KO.
"Spam the chat," Yoo-jin ordered.
"What?"
"Flood the zone with data! Pop-ups! Friend requests! Error reports! Drown her in paperwork!"
N3KO cackled. "Now you're speaking my language."
The Phantom Guild hackers unleashed hell.
Suddenly, Director Park's view was filled with windows.
ERROR 404.
User 'PussySlayer69' wants to be your friend.
WARNING: GRAPHICS DRIVER OUTDATED.
CLICK HERE FOR FREE VIAGRA.
"Inefficient!" Director Park swiped frantically at the pop-ups. "Cease this clutter!"
Her barrier flickered. She was losing focus.
"Now!" Yoo-jin pointed. "Sae-ri! Distract her!"
Sae-ri ran forward. She didn't attack. She pulled out a script.
"Director!" Sae-ri shouted. "I have a contract dispute! Clause 4, Section B!"
"What?" Director Park instinctively looked down. A manager's reflex.
The barrier dropped for a millisecond.
"Eden! Fastball Special!" Min-ji yelled.
Eden grabbed Min-ji. He spun her around and threw her.
Min-ji flew through the air like a missile. She bypassed the mannequin army.
She slammed into Director Park.
CRASH.
They tumbled to the ground. The datapad skittered away.
Director Park tried to reach for her sword, but Min-ji pinned her arms.
"Your meeting is cancelled!" Min-ji headbutted her.
Director Park's avatar glitched.
"Schedule... conflict..."
She shattered into white cubes.
The barrier fell. The mannequin army stopped moving. They stood still, reverting to T-poses.
"Path clear," Eden announced.
Yoo-jin walked past the frozen army. He picked up the datapad Director Park had dropped.
[Access Card Acquired: Executive Level]
He looked at the Music Box Gate. Beyond it lay the final elevator.
"Top floor," Yoo-jin said, his face hard. "The Chairman's Office."
"Wait," Kai stopped him. He looked at his sniper rifle. It was flashing red. Low battery.
"I'm out of ammo," Kai tossed the gun away. He pulled out a microphone.
"What are you doing?" Yoo-jin asked.
"This is the final stage, right?" Kai smirked. "I'm not going in as a sniper. I'm going in as Center."
He fixed his hair. Even in the apocalypse, his visuals were perfect.
"Let's show Mason what a real supergroup looks like."
Yoo-jin nodded.
"Starforce x Eternity," Yoo-jin opened the gate. "Debut Stage."
They stepped into the light.