His voice dropped. "They’re just using us as scapegoats. We take the fall, they take the results."
Yuna’s fists tightened further. "We can’t back out now," she snapped. "As for being scapegoats, there are hundreds of ways to avoid that."
Loco looked at her sharply. "What do you an?"
Yuna smiled faintly, her eyes dark. "This ti, I would involve Monica."
A trace of guilt flickered across Loco’s face. "That’s selfish," he muttered.
Yuna’s gaze turned sharp, resentnt burning beneath the surface.
"If we don’t act, Monica will." Her voice hardened. "And once she gains power, do you really think we’ll be able to hold onto our current position?"
Loco fell silent.
"We’ve made many enemies," Yuna continued coldly.
"But none of them move as fast as Monica. She’s the one we should fear. We must guard against her and make sure she never rises above us."
Her eyes glead with determination. "Otherwise, we’ll pay for everything we’ve done."
Loco could only nod, letting out a heavy sigh. "So where do we begin?"
Yuna finally smiled, confidence returning. "I have a plan."
..................
anwhile, Luke sat alone in a quiet hotel room, the faint hum of the air conditioner filling the space. He felt disoriented by everything unfolding around him.
Not long ago, he barely had enough money to afford a night’s stay anywhere. Now, he not only lived in a hotel but was also being protected by an invisible force, one that supplied him with enough money to survive comfortably.
His only task was simple: stay inside, study, and slowly stand on his own feet.
’It’s like I’ve been given a second chance,’ he thought quietly.
Luke was smart enough not to step outside. His parents’ resentnt toward him had grown so intense that they wanted him dead.
It would not be surprising if they had released a few "hellhounds" to track him down. ’Staying hidden is the safest choice.’
His gaze drifted to the bag of cash placed neatly on the table. There was no na attached, no explanation given. He had not asked any questions.
Yet deep down, he already knew the answer.
’It’s Lana,’ he thought with certainty.
Otherwise, who could be generous enough to give him such a large sum of money, especially when every single transfer landed in his account at the exact mont he was cornered, as if the other party knew his situation down to the bone.
That was the part that kept gnawing at him late at night.
What he truly couldn’t understand was why Lana, even after helping him so ticulously from the shadows, refused to reveal herself.
The thought lingered like a faint ache behind his temples.
Still, he rembered that kindness clearly, and deep inside he promised himself that he would repay it no matter the cost.
With that resolve burning quietly in his veins, he turned back to his computer.
Compared to others, he knew very well that he was hopeless when it ca to ghosts and the supernatural.
Even thinking about those things made a chill crawl up his spine.
However, technology was a different matter entirely. That was where his talent truly lay.
Even before leaving the Everheart mansion, he had always been buried in machines and screens, fingers dancing across keyboards while the rest of the world faded into the background.
The digital world gave him a strange sense of belonging, as if there was finally a corner of this vast world where he actually fit.
It was through that world that he learned how to play gas, how to communicate, how to survive.
He made friends there, friends capable enough to place orders on his behalf when he couldn’t show his face.
Slowly, almost unknowingly, he stepped into the darker layers of the network and learned about hacking.
From there, he learned far too many things, things that made his worldview crack and reshape itself.
It was also the reason he had co to understand that his older brother might not be human at all.
When that thought surfaced, his mind inevitably drifted to Everheart’s recent action.
His hand clenched into a fist, nails biting into his palm. ’This ti, I won’t let myself get caught by them,’ he vowed silently.
As his fingers moved swiftly across the keyboard, lines of data stread past his eyes.
After a while, he leaned back and stared at the screen, a faint but satisfied smile tugging at his lips.
Yet the mont Lana crossed his mind, his expression shifted. His fingers flew again, faster, more desperately, as if sheer willpower could force information to surface.
An hour passed in silence, broken only by the clicking of keys, but there was nothing. Not a trace of Lana.
The disappointnt settled heavily in his chest, but instead of crushing him, it hardened into sothing sharper, sothing unyielding.
’One day,’ he told himself, eyes reflecting the cold glow of the screen, ’I’ll beco skilled enough to break through even her shadows and repay everything she’s done for .’
With that determination anchoring him, he began taking on hacking gigs.
In the past, he hadn’t even dared to create an account of his own, nor could he trust others to ensure that the money reached him safely. Now things were different.
He had an account, his own na tied to it, and with each completed job, he slowly accumulated capital.
Once he had enough, he would finally repay the money that had saved him when he was at his lowest.
anwhile, far away from Luke, inside the Almond family’s mansion, Mr. and Mrs. Almond were wiping mud and gri from their faces, their movents stiff and furious.
For reasons they couldn’t explain, the past few days had been nothing short of a nightmare.
One day they tripped over nothing, the next cold water poured down on them from nowhere, sotis they were struck by sudden pain, and other tis their clothes sohow tore apart without warning.
Today, however, was the most absurd of all. They had rely been walking toward their car when they slipped and fell straight into mud. Thick, sticky mud.
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