The air conditioning hummed a low, constant drone, but the room still felt entirely too warm. It smelled of stale coffee, lemon floor wax, and the sharp, nervous sweat of the packed gallery behind us. The wooden benches were filled with reporters, law students, and curious onlookers. They had all come to see the 'Invincible Public Defender' try to save a confessed killer.I sat at the defense table. My cheap dress shirt clung to my back. Every time I inhaled, the stiff athletic tape wrapped tightly around my ribs pinched my skin, sending a dull, hot throb through my chest.Next to me, Kang Dong-Chul was falling apart.He wore a plain white button-down shirt and a dark tie, but no amount of formal clothing could hide the raw terror vibrating through his thin frame. His hands were clasped together on the polished mahogany table, his knuckles stark white. He stared straight ahead at the judge’s empty bench, his breathing shallow and fast. He looked like a man walking to his own execution

The smell of stale coffee and lemon floor wax lingered heavily in the warm air of Courtroom 302.I stopped at the center podium. My fingers gripped the edges of the polished wood. The rough grain grounded me against the sharp, hot throb radiating from my fractured ribs. The athletic tape wrapped around my chest pulled tight with every breath I took.I looked at Mrs. Park Hye-Jin sitting in the witness box. The elderly woman clutched her cheap vinyl purse, projecting the image of a frail, terrified grandmother doing her civic duty.But the glowing yellow text hovering next to her face told the real story."System," I commanded in my mind.The low electronic hum at the base of my skull shifted into a high, piercing frequency. The blue digital grid in my vision expanded, locking onto the witness.[System Prompt Acknowledged][Activating Debate Mode]The courtroom around me seemed to dim. A cascade of blue and yellow data streams poured down my peripheral vision. The System began pulling

The Gangnam District Courthouse corridor was a loud, swirling mess of moving bodies, flashing cameras, and ringing phones.I kept my head down, pushing past a group of law students. The sharp pain in my fractured ribs flared with every step, but I forced my breathing to remain steady. I scanned the crowded hallway, looking for the dark navy fabric of Han’s tailored suit.I found him near the end of the long corridor, standing in a recessed alcove near the frosted glass windows of the emergency stairwell.He wasn't alone.Standing in front of him were two men. They wore flawless, charcoal-grey Italian suits. They looked like standard corporate attorneys, but their posture was too rigid, their shoulders too broad. They didn't carry briefcases. They were fixers. The invisible handlers Titan Law sent to ensure the machinery operated smoothly.I stopped a few yards away, stepping into the shadow of a marble pillar. The smell of rich, expensive cologne drifted down the hallway, masking the

My new office in Yeongdeungpo was pitch black.I unlocked the frosted glass door and stepped inside. The heavy scent of fresh paint and old citrus cleaner greeted me. I didn't turn on the overhead lights. The flickering neon sign from the convenience store across the alley cast long, shifting shadows across the cheap linoleum floor.I threw my wet wool coat over the back of the guest chair and collapsed into my secondhand steel desk chair. The metal springs groaned loudly under my weight.I pressed the heels of my hands against my tired eyes. The metallic taste of old copper lingered in the back of my throat. My body was battered, running on cheap caffeine and pure adrenaline. I just needed a few hours of sleep before I had to call my mother in Busan and figure out how to rebuild her restaurant.Suddenly, a deafening, high-pitched siren shrieked directly inside my brain.My eyes snapped open.The dim shadows of my office vanished. The entire room was bathed in a blinding, violent red

The glowing red dot rested perfectly still against the white cotton of my dress shirt, directly over my rapidly beating heart.Time fractured into a microscopic crawl. The harsh, piercing alarm of the System shrieked through my skull, but my body moved before my conscious mind even fully processed the danger.I threw myself forward.I didn't reach for the heavy brass paperweight on the desk. I didn't try to draw a weapon. I lunged across the small space and slammed both of my hands into the thick plastic of Lee Ji-Won’s wet raincoat.I tackled the young hacker backward, driving her to the cheap linoleum floor just as the single pane window of my office exploded inward.High-velocity suppressed rounds tore through the dark office.A bullet slammed into the drywall exactly where my chest had been a fraction of a second earlier, blowing a fist-sized chunk of white plaster into the air. Another round punched through the casing of my computer monitor, sending sparks and shattered plastic r