Kim Sang-jun’s gaze moved from the Record Stone to Sang-hyeok.
“What is your basis for saying Taeseong?”
Sang-hyeok kept his mouth closed for a moment.
He could not explain what had happened before his regression.
“I can’t tell you right now.”
“You’re accusing a competitor without even being able to explain why?”
“I’m certain. We just don’t have proof yet, so I’m saying we should confirm it ourselves before telling anyone outside.”
Sang-hyeok pointed at the final inspection photographs displayed on the tablet.
“When assembly was finished, those components weren’t there. Now all three units have them.”
Kim Sang-jun’s expression hardened.
“So someone accessed the prototypes after inspection?”
“It’s not as though someone from Taeseong could have walked directly into our research wing and tampered with them.”
At that, Kim Do-hyun turned to Kim Sang-jun.
“Sang-jun.”
“Yes.”
“Seal two of the prototypes exactly as they are. Use only one for repairs.”
“Understood.”
“Start by narrowing down everyone who accessed the prototypes after the final inspection. Secure the original entry logs and parts intake records as well.”
“I’ll check immediately.”
Kim Sang-jun called the head of security at once.
When the call connected, he spoke in a low voice.
“Identify everyone who entered the prototype storage area after final inspection. Lock down the storage area first, and back up the access logs and internal footage to a separate server. Do not contact anyone on the list yet.”
He intended to secure the evidence before the insider realized an investigation had begun.
While Kim Sang-jun confirmed the sealing procedure with the security team, Kim Do-hyun looked at Kim Seo-yoon.
“Can you fix it before tomorrow’s verification?”
“If we can remove the black component cleanly, yes.”
Kim Seo-yoon checked the equipment case.
Two units had already blackened around the edges after twelve reproduction tests.
Only the remaining one had not yet overheated.
“We’ll use this one. If we remove only the component that wasn’t part of the original design and test it again, it should be fine.”
“Will that cause a problem with the certification?”
“We’re not adding anything new. We’re restoring it to its original state.”
Only one prototype was now fit to be used for the verification.
Until now, they had not known the cause, so they could not risk ruining the last intact unit as well.
But Sang-hyeok’s record now showed the exact location of the component they needed to remove.
Kim Do-hyun checked the electronic display on the wall.
[Time Until Korean Player Association Field Suitability Verification]
[17:19:34]
The numbers continued counting down.
“Begin immediately.”
With that order, the conference room door opened.
Researchers moved the prototype to be repaired into the testing room.
The other two were fitted with sealing devices, and security personnel immediately took custody of the cases.
Sang-hyeok followed Kim Seo-yoon into the testing room.
The prototype was placed beneath a bright work lamp.
Recording equipment switched on, documenting everything from the moment the casing was opened.
Click.
The black shell came apart.
Directly beneath the mana stone in the center, a fingernail-sized black component appeared.
It was identical to the one they had enlarged on the Record Stone moments earlier.
One researcher sucked in a breath.
“It really is there.”
Kim Seo-yoon compared the approved design with the prototype before her once more.
There was no black component anywhere in the design.
Only traces remained showing that someone had forcibly inserted it after assembly was complete.
“I’ll remove it.”
Kim Seo-yoon gripped the black component with a pair of fine tweezers.
She applied careful pressure, and the embedded part came free.
Tap.
The black component fell onto a silver tray.
Every researcher looked at the tray at once.
The cause of twelve failed tests was no larger than a fingernail.
A researcher immediately transferred it into a transparent evidence container.
[Evidence Item 01]
[Recovered From: Interior of Ilseong Prototype No. 3]
Kim Seo-yoon examined the empty space, then checked the approved design again.
“There’s no other damage.”
For the first time, her voice sounded lighter.
“Close it back up.”
The researchers reassembled the casing.
They placed the prototype on the test stand and began with a standard diagnostic.
VMMMM.
A blue barrier spread in a circle around the stand.
[Standard Diagnostic]
[Barrier output normal]
[Prototype internal temperature normal]
The first test passed.
But the standard diagnostics had always been normal.
The real problem appeared only when monster mana touched it.
Kim Seo-yoon immediately prepared the monster-mana reproduction test.
[Monster Mana Waveform Output: 5%]
[Test Time: 3 seconds]
After adjusting the output, Kim Seo-yoon looked at Sang-hyeok.
“Can you check the inside again?”
“Yeah.”
Sang-hyeok opened <Demon Dragon’s Eye>.
Heat spread through both eyes, and the interior of the equipment appeared before him.
The space beneath the mana stone where the component had been removed was empty.
“No problem. Start.”
Kim Seo-yoon pressed the button.
Monster mana flowed from the testing unit and washed over the blue barrier.
The researchers held their breath as they watched the stand.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
The click that had always accompanied the trap’s activation never came.
The blue barrier remained steady around the prototype.
[Field Waveform Reproduction Test 1]
[Barrier output normal]
[Prototype internal temperature normal]
“It’s normal!”
A researcher’s voice rang through the testing room.
Kim Seo-yoon immediately ordered a second test.
The same monster mana covered the barrier again.
This time, the equipment stayed active as well.
When even the third test ended, the same result appeared three times on the screen.
[Field Waveform Reproduction Test 1: Normal]
[Field Waveform Reproduction Test 2: Normal]
[Field Waveform Reproduction Test 3: Normal]
The researchers’ tense shoulders dropped all at once.
One leaned back in a chair and let out a long breath.
Another checked the three results over and over again.
Kim Seo-yoon looked at Sang-hyeok before she looked at the screen.
“That’s enough. You can rest now.”
Sang-hyeok withdrew <Demon Dragon’s Eye>.
“This much is fine.”
“No, it isn’t. Your eyes are already that red.”
She sat Sang-hyeok in a chair and handed him a cooling pack.
“The reproduction testing is finished. All that’s left is tomorrow’s live verification. Rest until then.”
“I think you should rest your hands first too, Noona.”
Sang-hyeok’s gaze stopped on her bandaged fingers.
“I’m used to this much.”
“Is that supposed to be something to brag about?”
Sang-hyeok laughed as if he found that ridiculous.
A brief smile appeared on Kim Seo-yoon’s lips as well.
Sang-hyeok placed the cooling pack over his eyes.
In the darkness, he could still hear Kim Seo-yoon’s voice, which had been so clear only moments ago.
Before his regression, that voice had remained as the final contact broken apart by explosions and static.
This time was different.
Even with his eyes closed, her voice continued nearby as she gave instructions to the researchers.
Sang-hyeok relaxed the hand pressing the cooling pack against his eyes.
This time, he would definitely protect his sister.
Near dawn, Kim Do-hyun returned to the testing room.
“Are the modifications finished?”
“It passed all three reproduction tests. Now only tomorrow’s live verification remains.”
Kim Seo-yoon looked at Sang-hyeok’s bloodshot eyes.
“I’m taking Sang-hyeok to the verification site too.”
“Do that. Prepare the submission.”
“Yes.”
The researchers placed the prototype inside a shockproof case.
Click.
The lock fastened, and a red sealing sticker was attached.
[Submission for Korean Player Association Field Suitability Verification]
The next place that case would be opened was in front of a real magical beast.
***
The next day.
Korean Player Association field verification site.
Ilseong officials, industry reporters, and observers from competing companies had gathered at the testing ground.
A woman in a beige suit stood at the front of Taeseong Group’s observer team.
Yoon Chae-rin.
A member of Taeseong Group’s Strategic Planning Office and Sang-hyeok’s fiancée.
She looked at Ilseong’s sealed case resting on the verification stand.
‘So they’re going through with the verification after all.’
But to Yoon Chae-rin, either choice should have led to the same result.
If Ilseong delayed the verification, it would be treated as a voluntary withdrawal.
If they went through with it and the barrier shut down, the defect would be entered into the official record.
Either way, Ilseong would be eliminated, and the second evaluation and follow-up supply negotiations would pass to Taeseong.
‘But why are they going through with it? There’s no way they fixed it in one night.’
Yoon Chae-rin was certain Ilseong would never find the cause in time.
No matter how many times they searched the blueprints or opened the equipment, they could not possibly locate a fingernail-sized trap hidden among countless components in a single night.
Not unless they had some special pair of eyes capable of seeing the exact moment the trap moved when monster mana entered.
Then Yoon Chae-rin’s gaze shifted toward Ilseong’s technical area.
A familiar face stood among Kim Seo-yoon and the researchers.
Sang-hyeok.
‘Why is he there?’
From what she had heard recently, he had shut himself in his room and spent his days drinking.
A Conditional Awakened whose Trait had never opened.
A fiancé with nothing to his name except being Ilseong’s youngest son.
Yet someone like that was standing among the technical staff.
Yoon Chae-rin found it strange for a moment, but soon lost interest.
Sang-hyeok was only a formal fiancé tied to her by the interests of their families.
Once Ilseong collapsed, the relationship would naturally be settled.
That was all.
The Association examiner broke the seal on the prototype.
“We will now begin the First Field Suitability Verification of Ilseong Group’s Standard Mana Defense Equipment.”
The iron door of the containment section rose.
Grrrrr.
A captured low-level magical beast walked out, dragging its chains.
The demonstration player fastened Ilseong’s defense equipment around his wrist.
VMMMM.
A blue barrier wrapped around his body.
One reporter leaned forward as he watched it.
“Oh, it’s operating steadily for now.”
The reporter beside him answered.
“I heard the normal activation was always fine. Supposedly it started shutting down only after monster mana touched it.”
“Then we’ll know soon enough whether the defect allegations were true.”
The magical beast lowered its body.
Rough mana flowed from it and touched the blue barrier.
Every gaze on Taeseong’s side locked onto the barrier at once.
If the hidden component was going to activate, it should happen now.
One second.
Two seconds.
But the barrier did not shut down.
One Taeseong staff member looked down at the tablet in his hand.
According to plan, the barrier should already have disappeared.
Yoon Chae-rin narrowed her eyes.
‘Why isn’t it shutting down?’
Before she could find an answer, the magical beast kicked off the ground.
BOOM!
Its enormous claws slammed into the blue barrier.
The barrier bent deeply inward, and the demonstration player was pushed half a step back.
But the blue light did not vanish.
[First Collision]
[Barrier maintained]
[Prototype internal temperature normal]
One of Taeseong’s staff members stiffened.
“It’s normal?”
The magical beast charged again.
BOOM!
The barrier endured the second collision as well.
It blocked even a third strike, the blue light remaining around the demonstration player until the end.
[Three live collisions successfully defended]
[Barrier output normal]
[Prototype internal temperature normal]
The Association examiner entered the final result.
[Ilseong Group Standard Mana Defense Equipment]
[First Field Suitability Verification: Passed]
[Qualification for second comparative performance evaluation maintained]
“It has passed.”
The breath everyone in Ilseong’s waiting area had been holding burst out at once.
Researchers grabbed each other by the shoulders, and word spread quickly through the press seats that Ilseong had solved the defect.
Camera shutters fired one after another.
Several reporters called their newsrooms the moment the passing result appeared, while an Association official checked Ilseong’s name again on the list for the second evaluation.
On Taeseong’s side, however, a heavy silence settled over the waiting area.
Those who had come expecting to confirm Ilseong’s failure could not take their eyes off the passing result.
That single result allowed Ilseong to preserve two things.
Its place in the second evaluation.
And its position in the follow-up supply negotiations.
Two opportunities Taeseong had been certain would become theirs.
Only after confirming that both had been preserved did Kim Seo-yoon slowly unclench her fist.
Deep nail marks were left in her palm.
“Sang-hyeok.”
“Yeah.”
“If you hadn’t been here, Ilseong would have been eliminated today.”
Sang-hyeok looked at the nail marks in her palm.
“No. We couldn’t have done it without you, Noona. You’re the one who fixed the equipment.”
Kim Seo-yoon’s eyes reddened.
Watching from a distance, Yoon Chae-rin looked at Sang-hyeok again.
Not only Kim Seo-yoon, but the researchers’ gazes naturally gathered on him as well.
She did not know what had happened last night.
But one thing was clear.
Sang-hyeok had not simply come to watch the verification.
A man she had considered worthless until only moments ago.
That man stood at the center of Ilseong after it overturned the board Taeseong had arranged.
‘What on earth happened last night?’
Yoon Chae-rin left Taeseong’s waiting area and stopped in front of Sang-hyeok.
“Mr. Sang-hyeok. May I speak with you for a moment?”
Yoon Chae-rin.
She was still Sang-hyeok’s fiancée, but before his regression she had been the one to break off the engagement first after Ilseong collapsed.
As Sang-hyeok faced her, his eyes fell on the engagement ring around her finger.
But this time, he had no intention of waiting for her to make the announcement.
‘I’ll be the one to break it off first.’