For those who knew even a little about the Dark Zone, from players to internet veterans who knew all the memes circulating in the community, October of 2036 was a year of shock and terror for everyone.

Naturally, there was no one who didn’t understand the reason—except for the person who didn’t care at all about how their actions were perceived by the outside world.

Eugene, who had merely had a snake tail attached to his rear, became one of the most famous people in the world in just 14 months, a time span that was short by any standard. Throughout that period, he shattered any expectations that he might one day show a less-than-extraordinary side.

The proof of that came at the beginning of October.

"Vlogging a trip to Hawaii, sure, anyone can do that if they have the money. But buying 200 million won worth of guns in Hawaii and then training with them as part of a militia… can you really call that a vlog?"

"Only a Manifestor could pull that off."

Eugene, more than anyone else, knew exactly what it meant to be a Manifestor. Because of that, he executed content that only high-level Manifestors could do. He used his own money for it, no less. While channel managers from the highest ranks of YouSpace also sometimes spent a similar amount on video creation, the difference was clear.

There are things that can be done if you have money, and things that only a Manifestor can attempt, even if you have money. The former may touch the edges of human imagination, but the latter involves actions that were physically impossible for normal humans.

For example, wielding a minigun or standing while firing a 20mm sniper rifle. These were relatively small in scale compared to hiring hundreds of regular people for content, but that’s exactly why they felt realistic yet also surreal.

Eugene’s Hawaii trip, which caused a stir, was over long ago, but its aftermath was only just starting to burn.

But that didn’t mean Eugene was given any time to digest the impact.

"But I didn’t expect it to ramp up so soon after that."

Olivia Nyx Lorelai.

She had burst onto the scene just three years ago, quickly becoming a rising star in the fashion industry, and now, she was suddenly heading to Hawaii, then to Korea. Naturally, the short but intensely captivating video she created in Hawaii became perfect fodder for the internet.

Her followers, who had been tracking her posts and outfit suggestions daily, couldn’t believe their eyes for a moment when they saw what she was holding. It was something they had never imagined touching their hands in their lifetimes.

The next part was even more shocking. She inserted a box-shaped magazine capable of holding ten 50-caliber rounds and, without hesitation, pulled the trigger. What followed was reminiscent of Eugene’s past.

It was a certainty that the fashion world would be in turmoil.

Of course, that wasn’t the end. After finishing her brief trip to Hawaii, Olivia headed to Korea. As if she had known Eugene all along, she naturally went straight to his house and began working as a support operator once again. She crushed twenty members of the Korean national team who had infiltrated a restricted area with her bare hands.

Though no one openly said it, there were those who suspected—likely including Eugene—that Olivia too had a questionable past.

Given that Eugene’s viewers numbered in the millions, it was unsurprising that there were people looking into this "background."

"...Figures."

"Wait, another one? Nothing new again?"

Nothing came up.

It was like trying to dig in a dry well and only hitting sand. Even in the information-overloaded internet world, nothing came up, and what that meant was crystal clear. At that point, nearly everyone gave up.

But Eugene and Olivia were far from idle. While they were navigating the Dark Zone, another bait was dropped on the official Icarus International YouSpace channel, sending gamers into a frenzy.

There was just too much to consume.

The Dark Zone forum was seeing a 3 posts per second rate, and outside of late-night hours, the situation persisted for about 18 hours a day. The firepower was so overwhelming that the forum would crash and recover twice a day.

Of course, this was the situation for the viewers, but Eugene and Olivia were continuing their secret operations, the details of which would never be revealed.

In this world, there was no such thing as "fate." To create the situation you wanted, you had to make moves. Just like how you had to prepare the ingredients to cook food, there was groundwork to be done to ensure the mission in Savannah succeeded.

In just a few days, all the hidden factories traced by serial numbers from implants were completely destroyed, and the location of the new Mecha Eugene had been confirmed.

As the plan moved to the surface, the fierce debate began.

"We’ve located the area, so rather than throwing valuable military resources there, I think it might be better to simply eliminate the threat."

"I disagree. Analyzing the two Mechas currently part of the Dagger Team has already yielded incredible technological results. I think we should make contact first, check if there’s any possibility for dialogue, and then make our decision."

But the option to eliminate the threat cleanly was quickly discarded.

The U.S. was already enjoying the sweet fruits of Jin and Rain through the Archetype system, and one was better than two, two better than three. Once Omega was convinced, the remnants of Artemis in Georgia could be used to their advantage, like a web surrounding them.

It was a hopeful thought, but the Dagger Team had turned hope into success countless times, and through Shadows, they had even created situations that weren’t supposed to exist, forcing the U.S. out of its descent.

Just the fact that Jin and Rain existed proved this. Which operation would make the capture of Mecha Eugene its goal? This result had pulled the brakes on the minds of many high-ranking planners, but the teams carrying out the operation didn’t mind.

However, while countless hopes, disappointments, arrogance, and misunderstandings swirled into an unharmonious noise, somewhere unknown, a melody was being played.

"Should we remove the warhead and fuse from the missile and replace it with something like paper? No, even so, there’s not much to write down. And even if we request rescue, we’d have to crush all the drones on the way before we can reach here."

Omega was once again trying to come up with a way.

What flooded in was none other than time, and naturally, she began distinguishing very clearly between what she could and couldn’t do within the network. She was starting to get a sense of how the "cage-like" building around her was confining her.

‘…The control of this building is in the hands of a management AI that was created separately to transfer and manage the leadership functions, but considering it was created as a temporary solution, its performance is subpar, and it seems to operate based on a few pre-entered principles.’

One of those principles was definitely to prevent Omega from breaking out of the facility.

She had tried several times to break out, but the management AI responded by constantly reshaping the building, concentrating armor on expected strike points, and preventing her from even penetrating the walls. Unfortunately, Omega’s tail-transformation weapon was sealed, so high-powered attacks were not an option.

The next step was predictable—threats from the management AI. The threats were obvious, such as depriving her of physical abilities, but unfortunately, Omega had no backup body, and she had no choice but to be trapped in a cage-like space, staring at the outside.

But she wasn’t completely helpless.

"Ha."

Recently, the Artemis new network was reopened.

She didn’t know how the hidden factories had been located, but one thing was certain: they had a way of interpreting the data from Artemis’s network. The management AI didn’t seem to care much, even as all the hidden factories in Northern New York were being destroyed, as confirmed through its logs.

That meant...

Omega began to think at top speed about how humans could rescue her.

‘The first premise: the building’s center must be destroyed by an external attack. That will weaken the control… The second premise: once I escape the cage, I must get out of the area as quickly as possible.’

She had already grasped the speed at which the building could change, but this building was central to all the fortresses in Savannah.

Even if she managed to escape the cage, unless she could escape the area quickly through additional measures, she would be recaptured, and after that, any hope of a good situation would be lost.

But Omega still had a glimmer of hope.

"It’ll work out somehow."

She said that, but if she could mix dummy data into Artemis’s network, they could also send replies hidden within the dummy data, essentially using encrypted communication.

Since the management AI was focused on securing Savannah and recovering resources, the likelihood of failure was low, but she had no idea how long this could last, so contact had to be made with caution—though she suspected this was not the best choice.

She would figure it out quickly.

‘If it doesn’t work, there’s nothing I can do.’

And so, Omega began to plan her first and last operation.

Six hours before countless junk data would be uploaded to Artemis’s new network.

"Do you think you can interpret it, Jin?"

"Leave it to us. We don’t need sleep."

Meanwhile, hundreds of kilometers away from Omega, at Central Park HQ:

Someone had taken the bait.

"Somehow, it feels like time has been moving unusually fast lately. I guess it's true that time flies when you're busy and exhausted."

"Everyone seems to be working too hard, don’t you think? Especially those Mecha kids, they look even more excited than usual."

"Well, Rain and I don’t need to sleep, so..."

"Same here."

"...So that’s why it’s going so fast?"

Central Park HQ, 5 AM.

The headquarters, with various methods like optical camouflage preventing light from leaking, never turned off the lights, even at night. Though there were people sleeping, no one slept at the same time, especially those equipped with Icarus Gear.

If their stamina allowed, operators could go up to five days without sleep, functioning normally thanks to the gear’s physical adjustments. This was especially true when they needed to check updates on information every few minutes or even seconds.

The Dagger Team—myself included—was originally equipped with Icarus Gear, and since Olivia was naturally a night owl, we were checking the ever-growing Artemis junk data interpretations in real time.

While it was quite fascinating to see so many operations staff and defense department personnel participating in the hologram and reviewing the data, it wasn’t exactly a surprise.

"So, why are we using such a messy method to communicate?"

"Currently, Omega is half-imprisoned by the management AI. Normally, we would interact smoothly to achieve Artemis’s recovery goal through a Dead Man’s Switch, but it seems that Omega has become uncooperative after realizing the situation."

"Now that's a comedy in itself. From now on, we should just call Omega ‘Rapunzel.’"

It was truly like that.

By actively analyzing the junk data, many facts came to light, all connected like a chain. The first thing we realized was that Omega's situation was so bad that this convoluted method of communication was the only way we could contact her.

Perhaps to avoid detection, the message hidden within the junk data was extremely compressed. However, it wasn’t impossible to interpret, and before long, Jin and Rain were able to figure out how the situation had become this dire.

The result was exactly as Jin explained.

"Since the data is scattered all over the place, let’s try to piece it together. First… Omega has requested a rescue, and she’s presented two main premises to achieve that goal. Am I right?"

"Correct. The first is the destruction of the control tower, and the second is the recovery of Omega after she escapes the tower. And Omega—‘Rapunzel’—said she must escape the area within 1 minute and 30 seconds after leaving her ‘cage.’ While we can delay the situation a bit with a wide-area bombing, it won’t be easy."

"Considering that the control tower is sticking out right in the middle of fortified Savannah… if we naively think about it, we could provide fire support with something like an AC-130 or fire multiple Tomahawk missiles to wipe out everything around it, and then evacuate by helicopter."

"And you know that’s complete nonsense."

"Of course. Even though I used to be a Ranger, I know better than to suggest something like that."

Naturally, no one seriously considered the method just suggested—especially not the person who proposed it.

No matter how high the precision, the risk of collateral damage was always there, and it was hard to justify completely destroying the intelligence in the area while trying to firebomb the place.

Besides, while we could have carried out such an approach, the Dagger Team, strictly speaking, was more like a surgical scalpel, not a sledgehammer.

So, ultimately, the plan for extraction and recovery had to narrow down to one solution.

"Full-tone recovery."

"Looks like that’s the only option."

"Since the rookies and Olivia will be taking part as shadows, we’ll have to deploy all the remote-control pods. So we’ll need to recover five… no, six. We might even recover all of them."

"This is probably going to be the most tightly scheduled operation we’ve ever had. If we estimate about 15 seconds for the control tower collapse and Omega’s escape… by the time the missile strikes the control tower, the remote-control pods should already be on the ground."

"Before that, we’ll need to carry out a bombing around the area. If we land and there are drones everywhere, we’ll just be sending those pods to their doom."

"We’ll do the surrounding bombing and also bring some antimatter bombs with us."

Naturally, these were the geniuses of mission planning—whether I was included in that was another story. They were calculating all the variables needed for the operation in their heads in a split second.

As for me, I wasn’t sitting idly by either, so I had already envisioned how the operation needed to unfold.

First, a wide-area bombing was necessary. Savannah, now a fortress, had to be wiped out so that the remote-control pods could land safely and then escort Omega. This bombing had to coincide with the destruction of the control tower’s central section.

Second, when the remote-control pods and Omega made contact, the full-tone recovery system had to be installed remotely at the expected escape point—and by that time, a transport plane with V-shaped wings should already be airborne.

‘Since several large drones equipped with the full-tone recovery system should be waiting, remotely setting it up shouldn’t be an issue…’

If everything went as planned, this operation would likely go down in history as one of the fastest recovery missions ever. Of course, the Guinness Book of Records wouldn’t be tracking this, and operations like these could never be officially recorded.

Now, all the necessary materials for the operation would be prepared by the Defense Department, and once that was settled, the soundboard in use recorded and documented the conversation.

So, the outline of the information we needed to send to Omega became clear.

"Escape point location, contact points with the remote-control pods, operation execution date, and exact time. Anything else we need?"

"That should be enough. Just tell them to prepare themselves."

"That’s true."

Several transport planes, UAVs capable of providing fire support, dozens of missiles, antimatter bombs, several drones with the full-tone recovery system, five remote-control pods, and two shadows.

For two to three minutes at most, we would strike Savannah like a thunderbolt and disappear like smoke.

"This is what I remember Icarus being like."

"Right?"

"Looks like everyone’s ready. The only thing left is… endless simulations until the operation starts. We’re going to have to go through a lot of trial and error to match the timetable."

With that, everyone except Jin and Rain stood up. Of course, the operations and defense agents observing through holograms still had to wait to analyze the information and engage in operational discussions.

Before rushing down the hallway, the destination was already set.

"The simulation room will take about 30 minutes to input the data, so let’s stretch a bit before we start."

The simulation room for mission preparation.

It would be where we’d stay until the rescue operation began.