Late at night.
The entire East District had fallen completely silent.
Outside the office building, only a few vehicles returning home late passed along the streets.
Sixth floor.
The manager's office was still illuminated.
From a distance, it looked no different from the previous few days.
As though the person inside were still quietly working overtime.
Yet the real Lucian was already standing inside the office, having entered without making a sound.
The door was tightly shut.
A faint scent of paper and coffee still lingered in the air.
The desk remained exactly as it had been when the office closed for the day.
The filing cabinets stood quietly against the wall.
Nothing in the room had changed.
Without personally analyzing its structure, no one would have imagined that another space lay hidden beneath this ordinary office.
Lucian slowly approached the innermost row of filing cabinets.
His gaze settled on the folders at the very back.
During the day, the manager had stood here, organizing the last few files.
At the time, it had seemed like nothing more than a routine task before finishing work.
But now, it was clear.
The files themselves had never been important.
What mattered was the mechanism hidden behind them.
Lucian did not reach out to move the folders.
Instead, a faint azure glow slowly emerged from his fingertips.
In the next instant, countless threads of azure mist, each as thin as a strand of hair, extended into the cabinet.
Through the wooden panels.
Through the partitions.
Through the metal supports.
Layer by layer, they penetrated the structure, eventually reaching the deeply concealed mechanical lock cylinder.
Once again, the entire structure of the lock was reflected in Lucian's mind.
Five locking plates.
A set of mechanical pins.
And a series of interlocking gears.
Every detail was exactly as he had found it during his previous analysis.
Lucian quietly studied the filing cabinet before him.
His goal was not to destroy it.
He intended to replace the key itself.
The azure energy slowly entered the lock cylinder.
Each strand precisely aligned with the surface of a locking plate.
Like a pair of invisible hands, it gently lifted each plate into position.
The first plate.
It slowly rose.
The second.
The third.
Not a single sound came from inside the lock.
The only movement was the azure energy continuously adjusting the force applied to each component.
A few seconds later, all five locking plates reached their correct positions simultaneously.
Lucian slowly turned his wrist.
The next moment, the lock cylinder began to rotate.
Click.
A faint mechanical sound emerged from deep within the cabinet.
It was barely audible.
Yet it had not come from the cabinet itself.
Instead, the sound traveled through the walls and continued all the way underground.
Immediately afterward, more mechanisms began to move.
Their sounds were deep and heavy, like machinery restarting after lying dormant for years.
Inside the walls, a series of metal locking bolts disengaged one after another.
The interlocking gears slowly turned.
The entire mechanism had no electronic controls whatsoever.
Every movement relied on the most primitive form of mechanical transmission.
Lucian remained where he stood without moving.
He simply listened as the sounds continued to travel deeper underground.
More than ten seconds later, the floor in the center of the office gave a slight tremor.
Then, an extremely fine seam appeared between the surrounding tiles.
It was almost impossible to notice without looking closely.
The next moment, a section of flooring measuring approximately two meters on each side began to descend.
The entire process was remarkably smooth.
There was barely any perceptible shaking.
The office remained silent.
No alarms sounded.
No lights changed.
Even someone in the neighboring offices would never have noticed what was happening here.
The platform continued descending.
The office above gradually disappeared behind the ceiling.
The light dimmed little by little.
Finally, a faint mechanical sound came from overhead as the entrance closed.
The opening was completely sealed.
The office returned to its original state.
It was as though no one had ever entered.
The platform continued its slow descent.
All around Lucian, only cold concrete walls remained.
The air gradually changed as well.
The scents of coffee and paper had completely disappeared.
In their place was an extremely faint metallic odor.
There was no dampness.
No smell of mold.
The air was even cleaner than that in the office above.
A few seconds later, the platform finally came to a stop.
Lucian raised his head.
A completely enclosed space lay quietly before him.
The platform ceased operating.
Silence returned.
Lucian slowly stepped forward.
The surface beneath his feet felt exceptionally solid.
The floor was not made of ordinary concrete. Instead, it consisted of a special dark-gray material cast as a single solid structure, with no visible seams.
The entire space was roughly the size of a small conference room.
There were no windows.
No decorations.
The ceiling was slightly lower than that of an ordinary office, but the room did not feel oppressive.
The walls were made of the same material as the floor, their surfaces so smooth that they were almost entirely without texture.
A single glance was enough for Lucian to determine that this place was fundamentally different from the office space above.
This material had not been chosen for its appearance.
It was designed for isolation.
It could block sound.
It could also prevent internal contamination from spreading outward.
Even if an accident occurred inside this concealed space, the contamination would not easily leak into the fifth or sixth floors.
At the center of the room stood a single rectangular conference table.
Its surface was completely empty.
Several chairs were arranged neatly around it.
Against one corner stood a row of sealed filing cabinets.
Beyond that, there were no unnecessary fixtures or equipment.
The entire room was so clean that it felt almost cold.
Lucian did not immediately move farther inside.
Azure energy began spreading across the surface of his body.
A faint blue protective barrier enveloped him like an exceedingly thin film of light.
He slowly surveyed the entire room.
No signs of life.
No hidden personnel.
No ambush.
Just as he took his second step, a faint mechanical sound suddenly came from the center of the conference table.
Click.
A square metal panel in the middle of the tabletop slowly slid apart.
A lifting mechanism rose from within the table.
The entire process was smooth and steady.
Not a single abrupt sound could be heard.
It was as though this mechanism had performed the same operation countless times before.
Finally, a metal box measuring approximately twenty centimeters on each side came to rest in the center of the table.
The box was completely sealed.
The only thing mounted on its top was a dark green crystal.
It was about the size of a fist.
Inside it, a viscous liquid seemed to flow slowly.
Pale green light continuously moved through the depths of the crystal.
In the next instant, the entire crystal suddenly lit up.
Green light rapidly spread outward.
Like ripples across the surface of water, it swept through the entire room in an instant.
The air began to vibrate faintly.
The moment the green light touched Lucian's body, Azure responded on its own.
The pale blue barrier instantly brightened.
The green light struck its surface, producing a faint sound of energy grinding against energy.
The two forces locked against each other.
Neither advanced any farther.
Several seconds later, the green radiance gradually weakened before receding back into the crystal.
The room returned to its previous stillness.
Lucian had not moved once.
He could sense it clearly.
The light that had just activated was a security measure designed to deal with intruders.
It served as both an attack and a defense.
Without Azure's protection, what would have happened to an ordinary person?
Only after the green light had completely disappeared did something change.
The entire glass wall directly in front of Lucian, which had previously been pitch-black, slowly became transparent.
On the other side of the glass, the lights gradually came on.
There was an observation room almost identical in size to the one Lucian occupied.
Bright white light illuminated the interior.
The tables and chairs were neatly arranged.
The environment was just as spotless.
A figure slowly emerged from the depths of the observation room.
She wore a sharply tailored dark-gray business suit.
Her long hair fell naturally behind her shoulders.
Both hands were still covered by a pair of pristine white gloves.
Her face showed no unnecessary expression.
She was the same manager from the data management company whom Lucian had encountered during the day.
Only now, she no longer needed to pretend to be an ordinary manager.
She stopped in front of the glass and calmly looked at Lucian.
Her gaze first fell on the contamination crystal in the center of the table, which had returned to its dormant state.
Then, her eyes shifted back to him.
For the first time, the gaze that had remained consistently composed revealed a trace of surprise.
She remained silent for two seconds before speaking softly.
Her voice came through the communication system and entered the room with perfect clarity.
"Well, I didn't expect..."
"An unexpected guest to show up tonight."
She tilted her head slightly, as though she had finally confirmed the identity of the person standing before her.
The corners of her mouth lifted into an almost imperceptible smile.
"Oh."
"So it's you."
The entire room fell silent once more.
A pane of glass separated them into two different spaces.
On one side was the secure observation room protected by the contamination crystal.
On the other stood Lucian, who had just broken into this hidden facility.
For the first time, the two of them were truly face-to-face.
Neither said another word.