The crowd roared louder with every passing second.
Game 7 was on screen, but it wasn't playing like a normal match anymore.
No early aggression.
No scouting.
No hesitation.
Both players were silently racing toward 200 supply like it was preordained. Expansions went down uncontested. Economy bloomed unchecked. Units filled production queues endlessly.
It wasn't a game.
It was preparation.
A calm before a storm that both sides had already agreed would end everything at once.
An all-out war.
Ha-Eun pushed open the bathroom door.
The moment it cracked open, she saw Hye-Jin walking toward her.
Ha-Eun stumbled forward—barely upright.
Hye-Jin caught her instantly.
"What happened?" Hye-Jin asked, eyes narrowing.
The door behind Ha-Eun slowly swung back toward closing… revealing a glimpse inside,
Bodies scattered still.
Ha-Eun's voice came out weak. "They're coming…"
Outside, the crowd was still screaming at the screen.
Inside the warehouse, more Red Pulse members were slipping in through the edges.
No one noticed yet.
No one except Hye-Jin.
She pulled Ha-Eun aside. "Stay here."
Then she turned and ran back toward the Warlocks.
Chan-Sik took one look at her face.
"What happened?"
Hye-Jin exhaled sharply. "It's happening. Red Pulse. They're moving."
Silence dropped over the group.
MC ORCA swallowed. "No way… I didn't think they'd actually go for it."
Chan-Sik's jaw tightened. "Then we don't have time to think. Just be ready."
Sung-Woo let out a shaky breath. "It was fun while it lasted…"
No one laughed.
No one disagreed.
Just a quiet nod between them.
Acceptance.
Hye-Jin turned and sprinted back to Ha-Eun.
She was trying to stand again, shaking, bruised, but refusing to stay down.
"You need to rest," Hye-Jin said.
"I can't," Ha-Eun replied. "This isn't over."
"I know… but we can't do anything right now."
"They already attacked me in there," Ha-Eun said, voice tight. "You think they're stopping now? We move."
Hye-Jin hesitated… then nodded. "Yeah. You're right. We move."
They barely took a step,
When a group of Red Pulse members cut them off.
Right in front of them.
"Look what we've got here," one of them smirked. "Stragglers."
"Just because you're girls doesn't mean we won't hurt you."
Hye-Jin's eyes sharpened. "Up yours."
She moved first.
A clean kick snapped across the closest attacker's jaw—dropping him instantly.
"Get them!" another shouted.
Three rushed in.
The fight exploded into the corner of the warehouse—almost invisible to the crowd above. The match roared on overhead, drowning out the violence below.
Two worlds colliding.
One on screen.
One in the shadows.
Hye-Jin fought fiercely, grabbing a broken glass bottle mid-chaos, using it like a threat more than a weapon, striking when she had to, retreating when she could.
Ha-Eun followed despite her condition.
Slower. Heavier.
But still precise.
Still trained.
One attacker went down.
Then another.
The third hesitated, just long enough.
Enough for both girls to finish it.
They stumbled back toward the Warlocks.
Breathing hard.
Bruised.
Ready.
"Yo… what happened to you two?" Sung-Woo asked, eyes wide.
"You both look destroyed," MC ORCA added.
Hye-Jin wiped blood from her lip. "You don't wanna know."
Chan-Sik's expression darkened. "So it's started."
MC ORCA swallowed. "Then we don't have a choice."
Chan-Sik nodded slowly. "We wait for my signal. When this match ends, we move."
"Right now?" MC ORCA asked.
"Just be ready," Chan-Sik said. "This match is almost over."
On screen, both players were nearing 200 supply.
The final armies were assembling.
The crowd could feel it now.
Something different.
Something absolute.
"They're moving out," a spectator shouted.
"It's an all-out war!"
"This is it!"
Chan-Sik exhaled slowly. "I don't know what's going to happen… but it's going to happen soon."
Ha-Eun's eyes shifted.
She saw it.
Red Pulse movement.
Both sides of the warehouse tightening in.
Closing in.
She raised her hand, trying to signal Chan-Sik.
But before he could react…
The lights cut out.
Total darkness.
Chaos erupted instantly.
"What's going on?!"
"Why are the lights off?!"
"Move! Move!"
The crowd became a storm of panic.
Gunshots cracked through the air.
Once. Then again.
Screams followed.
People scattered blindly in every direction.
"We need to get out of here!" someone shouted.
Then silence.
The lights flickered back on.
The warehouse was half-empty.
The crowd had fled.
What remained was chaos frozen in place, The Warlocks.
A mass of Red Pulse members. And something worse.
Because standing at the center of it all was not where he was supposed to be.
Do-Gyun was gone from his position. Not at his computer but instead on the other side where Min was playing. Min covering his ears under his table, shocked to see Do-Gyun lying in front of him, bleeding. Unmoving. Shot.