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  There was nothing on the screen, but Tae-yoon saw it.

  ‘This isn't justice. It’s a cleanup.’

  ‘A way to organize the gaze of the public, not the evidence.’

  And then, it happened.

  His phone vibrated. Short. Sharp.

  That anonymous method.

  No number. No sender ID.

  Tae-yoon opened the screen. A single line appeared.

  [ Did you watch? The King has fallen. Is the answer you believe in correct now? ]

  Ha-jun gasped.

  "Hyung... is it him again?"

  Tae-yoon didn't answer.

  Instead, he looked at Hwang Seo-hui.

  Seo-hui was silent.

  But her eyes had changed.

  It wasn't her usual coldness. It was the expression of someone whose old memories had been violently unearthed.

  Tae-yoon didn't type a reply.

  Instead, he locked the screen.

  "It didn't end because the Chairman fell," Tae-yoon’s voice sank deep.

  "This is just the opening ceremony."

  The Hollow Crown.

  When the King disappears, the empty seat is filled instantly.

  No organization leaves a throne empty for long.

  Especially a place like Sungjin, where "power" is the very air they breathe.

  The First Son stepped into the light.

  The media hailed him as a "Young Leader," and inside the company, whispers of "Reform" began to circulate.

  But to Tae-yoon, the First Son’s face didn't scream reform.

  It screamed 'Purge'.

  The First Son organized people.

  He didn't fix problems; he removed the people who looked like problems.

  In a matter of days, executives within Sungjin were dragged out one by one.

  On the surface: "Rooting out internal corruption."

  In reality: "Silencing the mouths that could become evidence."

  And that blade eventually pointed toward the partners.

  At Daon Solution, Team Leader Park had been clutching his blood pressure medication for days.

  "This time, we're really done for... They say they're consolidating projects... They're going to rip apart all our lines..."

  Hyun-ah clenched her jaw.

  "Why now? Our company was just starting to get back on its feet."

  Tae-yoon smiled silently.

  ‘Because we are getting back on our feet.’

  A small company that starts to breathe becomes an eyesore to someone trying to hide a secret.

  Late that afternoon, Hyun-ah approached Tae-yoon’s desk quietly.

  Normally, she would have teased, "Manager, what are you hiding now?"

  But today, even her voice was different.

  "Manager."

  Hyun-ah slid a folded piece of paper across his desk.

  "This... is the working schedule. I saw it by accident."

  Tae-yoon unfolded the paper.

  It listed the partner audit schedule, personnel replacements, project terminations.

  And there, in tiny print, was a single line.

  [ Kang Tae-yoon – Priority Exclusion. ]

  Tae-yoon’s pupils turned cold as ice for a split second.

  Hyun-ah ground out the words.

  "This... is targeting you, Manager."

  Han So-hee gasped from the side.

  "Why? What did the Manager... do..."

  Tae-yoon laughed.

  The laugh was strangely calm.

  "Because I did something," Tae-yoon said quietly.

  "If I hadn't done anything, a label like 'Priority Exclusion' wouldn't be attached to my name."

  If Min-su had heard this in the hideout, he would have cursed, asking if the company even viewed people as human beings.

  But Tae-yoon nodded instead.

  "This is good," Tae-yoon said.

  "Assistant Manager Lee, thank you."

  Hyun-ah narrowed her eyes.

  "Is this the time to say thank you?"

  Tae-yoon looked up.

  His eyes had changed.

  They weren't the eyes of 'Manager Kang'. They were the eyes of a man reading the 'Board'.

  "Now... shall we become the bait properly?"

  The Bait Strategy: The Dissolution Scenario.

  Gathered at the hideout, the seven members scattered to their stations without a word.

  In war, long speeches lead to death.

  Only rhythm and roles were needed.

  Ha-jun designed the fake logs.

  If they were too obvious, they would be suspected. If they were too natural, they wouldn't be bitten.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  He mixed in mistakes that were "just barely visible."

  He left clumsy traces, but ensured those traces didn't look like 'Phantom-level' work.

  Seo-hui commented as she watched him.

  "Pretending to be barely incompetent... that's annoying."

  Tae-yoon smiled bitterly.

  "We are people who survive by doing annoying things."

  Min-su handled the reality.

  Routes, vehicles, emergency exits, communication protocols.

  He laid down safety lines starting from the vicinity of the company, preparing for the moment a 'Watcher' might attach themselves.

  Hyun-ah gathered the gaze from inside the office.

  "This audit team... their tone is strange. It's too... passive. They feel like they're just waiting for 'approval from above'."

  Han So-hee nodded at that.

  "Right. They aren't the 'Field Type'. They are the 'Control Type'. They aren't people who move on their own... they are people who move when ordered."

  Oh Se-na wrote that sentence down with her pencil.

  'Control Type = Existence of an Approver.'

  Tae-yoon rolled that word around in his mind slowly.

  ‘Approver.’

  Late that night, a stranger was spotted moving near the company.

  He wasn't part of the official audit team, yet his movement pattern focused on 'people', not 'security'.

  Especially Tae-yoon.

  And the decisive moment came absurdly easily.

  One of the watchers moved hurriedly and dropped a piece of paper from his pocket.

  Min-su picked it up first, snapped a photo, and sent it immediately to Tae-yoon.

  There was only a single line written on the paper.

  [ 2F Approval Complete. ]

  Hyun-ah swallowed hard.

  "2F...? What is that?"

  Seo-hui’s eyes sank into a cool darkness.

  She spoke very slowly.

  "If the First Son is the front... it means there is another hand behind him giving the approvals."

  Ha-jun’s fingertips trembled.

  "Hyung... then the real S is..."

  Instead of answering, Tae-yoon turned on the monitor.

  And quietly, he pulled a conclusion from his mind.

  ‘The Second.’

  The invisible existence.

  The existence without a face.

  Therefore, the existence that was infinitely more terrifying.

  The Second Shadow.

  The next day, the air in the hideout was heavier.

  It was the atmosphere of confirmation.

  Confirmation always suffocates people.

  When you 'don't know yet', there is hope. But when you 'find out', the path narrows to one.

  Seo-hui spoke.

  "Back then... during that incident, it was the same."

  Tae-yoon looked at her.

  Seo-hui didn't avoid his eyes.

  "I thought there was a 'Top Line', but people always tried to set up just one person as the culprit. Even back then... there was a Face, and behind it, another Hand."

  Tae-yoon asked low.

  "Was the notation for that hand '2'?"

  Seo-hui’s lips tightened.

  Instead of answering, she slowly nodded.

  Ha-jun stopped tapping on his keyboard suddenly.

  "Hyung... look at this."

  What appeared on the screen was a trace of 'Authority Level'.

  A form where someone accessed the system very briefly from somewhere deep, then wiped the trace.

  Just one second.

  But what that one second left behind was massive.

  [ Approver: S-2 ]

  [ Authority Level: Superior ]

  The moment he saw that sentence, the back of Tae-yoon’s neck went cold.

  Min-su chewed his lip.

  "Hey... if this is real, it means everything we've seen so far wasn't the 'First Son'... it was just 'Bait'."

  Tae-yoon nodded.

  "Correct. The First Son is the Face, and the Second Son is likely the Hand."

  Hyun-ah asked.

  "So what do we do now?"

  Tae-yoon smiled quietly.

  "From now on... we don't look at the Face. We look at where the Hand moves."

  Seo-hui added one remark.

  "Hands always leave 'Approvals'. No matter how hidden they are, an organization cannot move without approval."

  Tae-yoon nodded at her words.

  And at that moment, Tae-yoon felt it.

  This fight had deepened.

  It wasn't just a fight about shaking servers and deleting logs anymore.

  It had become a battle of 'Power' and 'Approval' that moved human beings.

  The Door of Truth.

  A few days later, Tae-yoon heard those footsteps again near the Foundation building.

  Click— Click—

  A rhythmic, flawless stride.

  And a gaze that pierced through people.

  Choi Seo-hyun.

  This time, she didn't just pass by.

  She stopped in front of Tae-yoon, blocking his path.

  There was no humor in her expression.

  "You."

  Seo-hyun’s voice was low and solid.

  "Why do you keep wandering around the Foundation?"

  Tae-yoon instinctively pulled out his 'Manager Kang' face.

  "Ah, I... the road..."

  "I'm sick of hearing that you got lost," Seo-hyun cut him off.

  At that single sentence, Tae-yoon’s lips paused.

  Seo-hyun took one step closer.

  "I don't need to know who you are.

  But... the eyes you look with aren't the eyes of a 'Salaryman'."

  Tae-yoon withheld his answer.

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