The Price Of A Sacrifice

The First Sabotage

"Ignore B-01 for now, Altar. Focus on the primary target," Adrian commanded. His voice no longer trembled. The coldness that had just seeped into his soul made every word feel like a death sentence.

"[ COMMAND RECEIVED. SHIFTING FOCUS TO DURNEVRA CORP'S LOGISTICS NETWORK. ]"

The blue screen in front of him split, displaying a complex digital map. Red dots moved along shipping lanes and highways. Adrian stared at the screen with unblinking eyes. In his head, the algorithm of retribution began to work, dissecting the weak points of his father's medical empire.

"Display the delivery schedule for exclusive drug containers this week," Adrian said. His fingers began to dance across the keyboard, slipping through encryption gaps that had previously seemed impossible to penetrate.

"[ ACCESSING SHIPPING DATABASE... COMPLETE. ]"

"[ TARGET CONTAINER: CX-900. CONTENTS: SYNTHETIC RAW MATERIALS FOR PRODUCTION OF LIFE PILLAR. LOCATION: SECTOR 4 WAREHOUSE, NORTH PORT. ]"

Adrian gave a thin smile. Very thin. "Life Pillar. The product they were boasting about on television earlier. If the raw materials vanish, that pillar will crumble before it even stands."

"What is the estimated loss if that warehouse is destroyed?" Adrian asked while continuing to inject virus code into the warehouse's temperature control system.

"[ ESTIMATED DIRECT LOSS: 45 MILLION DOLLARS. ESTIMATED STOCK DECLINE: 12% WITHIN THE FIRST 24 HOURS. ]"

"Only twelve percent?" Adrian snorted. "That’s just the beginning. I want them to feel the same shortness of breath I felt when my lungs were submerged in blood."

Suddenly, a red warning flashed in the corner of the screen.

"[ WARNING: COUNTER-INTRUSION DETECTED. ELITE CYBERSECURITY TEAM 'THE HOUNDS' HAS DETECTED YOUR DIGITAL FOOTPRINT. ]"

Adrian did not panic. The rush of adrenaline he felt now was very different. It wasn't the kind that triggered a racing heart, but a cold adrenaline that cleared his mind to a microscopic level.

"The Hounds, huh?" Adrian recognized the name. The cyber team Dimitri paid exorbitant salaries to protect his dirty secrets. "Let's see how fast they can chase a shadow."

The screen in front of him now displayed a code war unfolding in real-time. Lines of green and red text collided. Adrian could see their attempts to lock onto his IP address.

"Altar, activate the 'Mirage' protocol. Use shell servers across three different continents as bait," Adrian commanded.

"Sir, they are beginning to approach our main firewall," Altar's voice sounded flat yet urgent.

"Let them in a little further," Adrian whispered. His eyes gleamed as he watched the enemy's movements. "Three... two... one... Now! Disconnect and send a backload to their central server."

At Durnevra Corp headquarters, several kilometers away, dozens of monitors suddenly exploded or went black. Adrian had successfully executed a counter-attack that fried their hardware for several minutes. Enough time for him to complete the primary mission.

"Now, focus on Sector 4," Adrian returned to the warehouse temperature control window. "Altar, bypass the automatic fire suppression system. Raise the temperature in the Isotope-D storage compartment to the saturation point."

"Command executed. Temperature rising: 40 degrees... 60 degrees... 85 degrees..."

Isotope-D was a highly unstable chemical. If its temperature exceeded 90 degrees without air circulation, the substance would trigger an explosive chain reaction.

"Lock down the warehouse exits. I don't want any witnesses who could extinguish the fire in time," Adrian added.

"Complete. Temperature reached 92 degrees. Thermal reaction initiated."

Adrian leaned back against the hard wooden chair. He stared at the screen, which now displayed a CCTV feed from the North Port. Durnevra Corp's giant warehouse looked peaceful under the port's floodlights, but inside, a disaster was cooking itself.

Boom!

The first explosion didn't reach Adrian's ears physically, but he could see it through the surveillance camera. The warehouse roof lifted into the air as a giant blue-green fireball soared into the night sky. The blast was so powerful it shook the surrounding cameras.

One, Adrian thought.

He saw fire trucks beginning to roar toward the location, but he knew Isotope-D could not be extinguished with ordinary water. The fire would continue to rage for hours, devouring every gram of the expensive raw materials that were the foundation of Julian's future.

"Mission accomplished, Altar. Wipe all digital traces in ten seconds," Adrian said.

"[ CLEANUP COMPLETE. CONNECTION TERMINATED. ]"

His laptop screen went dark. Adrian now sat in the silence of his hollow room. The musty smell of his dingy apartment walls felt so real, yet his mind was elsewhere. He felt a strange satisfaction. Not a warm satisfaction, but one that was cold and empty, like winning a chess game against a weak opponent.

"Success?" a voice asked inside his head. Not Altar's voice, but the remnants of his own consciousness.

"This is just the foundation," Adrian answered softly to himself.

He stood up and walked toward the small television in the corner of the room. He turned it on. The tube screen flickered a few times before displaying an emergency news broadcast.

"Breaking News: A massive explosion has destroyed a logistics warehouse belonging to medical giant Durnevra Corp at the North Port," the female reporter's voice sounded panicked. "The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, but losses are estimated to reach tens of millions of dollars. Durnevra Corp's stock was seen plummeting on international exchanges as the market opened just a few hours ago."

The camera shifted to show amateur footage from the scene. The terrifying blue fire still licked at the ruins of the building. Adrian saw a very familiar figure appear on the screen: Dimitri Durnevra, surrounded by dozens of journalists and bodyguards.

Dimitri's usually calm and authoritative face now looked pale. His sharp eyes radiated suppressed anger, but there was a flash of fear there the fear of a man who had just realized his throne was beginning to crack.

"Father looks like he's lacking sleep," Adrian murmured. He turned off the television with a single flick of his finger.

Adrian returned to his desk. The cold adrenaline that had flooded his body earlier began to recede, leaving a deepening sense of emptiness. He looked at his own hands. No trembling. No shortness of breath. It was as if blowing up a warehouse and destroying the lives of thousands of people was a mundane task for him.

"Altar," Adrian called out.

"Yes, Architect?"

"What happens if I keep doing this? If I keep sacrificing fragments of myself for power?"

The system fell silent for a moment, as if searching for the right words within its heartless algorithm. "[ YOU WILL BECOME PERFECT, MR. DURNEVRA. WITHOUT WEAKNESS. WITHOUT HESITATION. YOU WILL BECOME THE EMBODIMENT OF THE MECHANISM OF REVENGE ITSELF. ]"

"Perfect," Adrian repeated the word. "Or perhaps... completely lost."

He remembered the system's warning about B-01 before he started the sabotage. Who exactly was the subject before him? Why was there a lingering energy trace?

"Open the data on B-01 now. I want to know who you destroyed before me," Adrian commanded.

"[ PERINGATAN: DATA ENCRYPTED AT THE SOUL LEVEL. TO UNLOCK IT, YOU MUST PERFORM THE NEXT SACRIFICE WITHIN 24 HOURS. ]"

Adrian stared at the dark monitor, the shadow of his face reflected there. A face that was becoming increasingly foreign to him. His dark eyes seemed to pierce through the gloom, searching for answers behind the curtain of death he had entered.

"How much more must I take from them before I am satisfied?" he asked the silence.

There was no answer. Only the low hum of the laptop fan and the remnants of anger that had now frozen into eternal ice. Adrian knew his journey had only just begun. And with every step, he would leave a trail of destruction that could never be repaired by anyone.

Suddenly, his burner phone vibrated. A message arrived.

Mr. Revenant, Dimitri Durnevra has just issued a 'Kill on Sight' order for anyone involved in the port incident. He is truly furious. Be careful.

Adrian threw the phone onto the bed without expression. Furious? That was good. Anger would make Dimitri reckless. And recklessness was the opening an architect needed to bring down an entire building.

"Come on, Father," Adrian whispered toward the window facing the distant Durnevra mansion. "Show me how strong you can hold on, before I take everything."