The internet didn't just explode. It melted down.
Yoo-jin sat in the dusty leather chair, watching the view counter on David's tablet spin like a slot machine.
[VIEWS: 1,402,891]
"It's been thirty minutes," David whispered, his face illuminated by the blue light of the screen. "It's trending #1 on Twitter, Instagram, and three different conspiracy forums."
"The comments are a war zone," Min-ji scrolled through her phone. "Half of them think it's a deepfake. The other half are comparing the timestamp to their own photos of the tower."
Sae-ri leaned over Yoo-jin's shoulder. She smelled like rain and cheap coffee.
"Look at this one," she pointed.
User: TruthSeeker99
"The silver guy isn't CGI. Look at the reflection in the puddles. Ray-tracing that accurately would take a render farm Zenith doesn't have. This is real footage."
"They're doing the work for us," Yoo-jin murmured. He felt a strange satisfaction. Not pride, exactly. But the feeling of a well-executed plan. Like watching dominos fall.
"Good job, fans," he whispered.
Director Park slammed a laptop shut on the desk.
"Don't celebrate yet," she warned. "The Ministry isn't stupid. They have their own troll farms. Look."
She opened a new window.
A flood of identical comments appeared under the video.
User: PatriotKR
"Fake news. Terrorist propaganda. Report this account."
User: Citizen123
"Disrespectful to the brave soldiers who died. Shame on Starforce."
"Bots," Yoo-jin said instantly. "They're trying to bury the signal with noise."
"It's a Disinformation Campaign," Park nodded. "Standard procedure for damage control. They'll flood the zone with so much garbage that the truth gets lost in the algorithm."
Yoo-jin frowned. He tapped his fingers on the desk.
Algorithm. Noise. Signal.
The words triggered something in his empty mind. A phantom limb of knowledge.
"We need to boost the signal," Yoo-jin said. "We need an influencer."
"Who?" Kai asked from the couch. "Every celebrity in Korea is terrified of being associated with us right now. We're radioactive."
"Not a celebrity," Yoo-jin shook his head. "Someone who doesn't care about their reputation. Someone who thrives on chaos."
He looked at David.
"Is the dark web forum 'Red Room' still active?"
David's eyes went wide.
"Red Room? That's where the hackers and leakers hang out. It's a shark tank, Hyung. If we go there, we'll get eaten."
"Sharks respect blood," Yoo-jin said flatly. "And we're bleeding."
He stood up. He walked to David's laptop.
"Give me the keyboard."
David hesitated, then slid the laptop over.
Yoo-jin cracked his knuckles. He didn't know why he did it. It felt cool.
He navigated to the encrypted site. The background was black and red. The logo was a bleeding eye.
[ACCESS GRANTED: USER GHOST_PD]
"You remember your login?" Sae-ri gasped.
"No," Yoo-jin typed rapidly. "My fingers do."
He opened a new thread.
[TITLE: EXCLUSIVE LEAK - THE NAMSAN FILE (UNEDITED)]
He attached a second file. Not the edited video. The raw data dump from Eden's memory core. The schematics of the clone program. The blueprints of Apex.
"Whoa!" David grabbed his arm. "Hyung! That's the nuclear option! That exposes EVERYTHING! Even you!"
Yoo-jin paused. His finger hovered over the Post button.
He looked at the file name: PROJECT_EVE_GENOME_SEQ_734.pdf
"It proves I'm a monster," Yoo-jin said softly.
"It proves you're a victim," Sae-ri corrected. She put her hand over his. "But once this is out, you can never go back. You'll never be a normal person again."
Yoo-jin looked at his reflection in the dark screen.
"I never was," he said.
He pressed Enter.
[UPLOADING...]
The progress bar filled instantly.
"It's done," Yoo-jin sat back. "The genie is out of the bottle."
For a moment, nothing happened. The forum was silent.
Then, the notifications started.
Ping.
Ping.
PingPingPingPing.
The laptop speakers sounded like a machine gun.
User: HackerX
"Holy shit. Is this real code? This looks like bio-engineering specs."
User: Anon_22
"I'm running the verification. The encryption keys match the Ministry database leak from last year. This is legit."
User: K-Pop_Insider
"Wait... look at page 45. 'Subject 734: Han Yoo-jin'. He's... he's a clone?"
The room went deadly silent.
Kai looked at the floor. Min-ji bit her lip.
Yoo-jin watched the comments scroll. He felt naked. Exposed.
"He's a clone?"
"So he's not human?"
"Is he dangerous?"
"Turn it off," Sae-ri whispered. "Don't read it."
"No," Yoo-jin said. His voice was steady. "Feedback is data. I need to know the demographic."
Then, a new comment appeared. It was highlighted in gold—a moderator post.
User: SYSTEM_ADMIN
"This file is now pinned. Mirror links generated. It is currently being downloaded 50,000 times per second. Good luck, Ghost_PD."
Park laughed. It was a harsh bark of a sound.
"Well," she lit another cigarette. "You just became the most famous science experiment in history. Congratulations."
Suddenly, the lights in the warehouse flickered.
A siren began to wail in the distance. Not a police siren. An air raid siren.
"They found us," Park cursed, kicking her chair over. "They tracked the upload!"
"How?" David slammed the laptop shut. "We used a triple-bounce VPN!"
"They didn't track the IP," Eden's voice rasped from the corner.
The android was trying to sit up. His single eye was glowing red.
"They tracked the data signature. The file... contained a beacon."
"A beacon?" Yoo-jin turned.
"Mason Gold," Eden glitched. "He embedded a tracer in the original files. We just broadcast our GPS coordinates to every satellite in orbit."
Thump-thump-thump.
Heavy boots on the roof.
Glass shattered as a skylight broke. A canister dropped onto the studio floor.
HISSSS.
White smoke billowed out. Tear gas.
"Masks!" Sae-ri screamed, pulling her shirt over her nose.
"They're breaching!" Kai yelled.
The warehouse doors exploded inward.
BOOM.
Black-clad soldiers poured in. They weren't police. They were special forces. Their helmets had no visors, just smooth black glass.
"Ministry Unit 7!" Park shouted, pulling a handgun from her jacket. "Cover fire!"
She fired blindly into the smoke.
Bang! Bang!
"Don't shoot!" Yoo-jin yelled, coughing. "We have civilians!"
"There are no civilians here!" a soldier's amplified voice boomed. "Only assets!"
A soldier lunged out of the smoke, tackling Kai.
Kai went down swinging, but the soldier was faster. He pinned Kai to the ground, ziptieing his hands.
"Kai!" Min-ji swung a microphone stand like a staff, cracking the soldier's helmet.
Another soldier shot her with a taser.
ZAP.
Min-ji convulsed and fell.
"No!" Yoo-jin scrambled backward. He tripped over a cable.
He looked up. A soldier stood over him. The black glass mask reflected Yoo-jin's terrified face.
"Target identified," the soldier said robotically. "Subject 734. Secure for transport."
The soldier reached down.
Suddenly, a massive metal arm grabbed the soldier by the neck.
Eden.
The broken android had dragged himself off the couch. He was missing his legs below the knees. He was sparking. But his grip was iron.
"Get... away... from... the... Talent," Eden ground out.
He threw the soldier across the room. The man hit a stack of amplifiers and didn't get up.
"Eden!" Yoo-jin crawled toward him. "You can't fight! You're broken!"
"I am... functional," Eden said. He tried to stand on his stumps, but collapsed. "Battery... critical."
More soldiers swarmed in. Ten. Twenty.
They surrounded the team. Lasers dotted their chests.
"Stand down!" the commander shouted. "Or we terminate the backups!"
He pointed his rifle at Sae-ri's head.
Yoo-jin froze.
He looked at Sae-ri. She was on her knees, hands up, coughing in the gas. The red dot danced on her forehead.
"Don't hurt her," Yoo-jin whispered.
"Surrender, Subject 734," the commander ordered. "Come quietly, and the girl lives."
Yoo-jin looked at Eden, broken on the floor. At Kai and Min-ji, captured. At Park, out of ammo.
He slowly raised his hands.
"Okay," Yoo-jin said. "I surrender."
"Yoo-jin, no!" Sae-ri screamed.
"It's a wrap, Sae-ri," Yoo-jin looked at her. His eyes were sad and empty. "The show is over."
Two soldiers grabbed Yoo-jin. They dragged him toward the door.
He didn't fight. He didn't struggle.
He just watched Sae-ri until the smoke swallowed her.
They shoved him into the back of an armored van.
The doors slammed shut. Darkness.
Yoo-jin sat in the metal box, handcuffed.
He was alone.
Or so he thought.
A screen on the wall of the van flickered to life.
A face appeared. It wasn't Apex. It wasn't Mason Gold.
It was an old man. He wore a pristine white lab coat. He had kind eyes and a cruel smile.
"Hello, Yoo-jin," the man said.
"Who are you?" Yoo-jin asked, his voice trembling.
"I'm Dr. Oh," the man adjusted his glasses. "I'm the head of the Cloning Division."
He leaned closer to the camera.
"I saw your little video. Very creative. But you missed a plot point."
"What plot point?"
"You think you're the only successful clone," Dr. Oh smiled. "You think you're special."
The screen split.
Nine other faces appeared.
They looked exactly like Yoo-jin.
Same eyes. Same hair. Same scar on the shoulder.
"Meet the rest of the cast," Dr. Oh said. "Subjects 735 through 744. They're much better actors than you."
Yoo-jin stared at the faces of his brothers. His replacements.
"Where are you taking me?" Yoo-jin whispered.
"Back to the studio," Dr. Oh said. "We need to reshoot the pilot. And this time... we're cutting your lines."
The screen went black.
The van accelerated.
Yoo-jin sat in the dark, listening to the hum of the engine.
He closed his eyes. He tried to remember Sae-ri's face. He tried to remember Eden's voice.
But the static was getting louder.
"Cut," Yoo-jin whispered to the darkness.
But the camera didn't stop rolling.