The next morning, I decided to act like nothing was wrong.
If someone was watching, they'd expect fear. I wasn't going to give them that.
Min-jun was already at the café, half-buried in his laptop.
"Bro, we just got a server crash again," he said. "Traffic's blowing up like crazy."
"Is it a bug?"
He shook his head. "No. It looks… intentional."
I frowned. "You mean someone's attacking our system?"
He nodded slowly. "Yeah. Someone's trying to overload UniTrade."
[DDoS pattern detected,] Nova confirmed. [Someone wants your platform offline.]
"Can you stop it?"
[Already did.]
I watched the code on my screen flash, stabilize, and calm. In seconds, everything went back to normal.
Min-jun stared at me. "How did you—"
"Just lucky, I guess," I said, smiling faintly.
He didn't believe it, but didn't push either.
Later, I walked through campus with my headphones in, trying to think.
If someone was bold enough to attack UniTrade, this wasn't random jealousy anymore. Someone powerful wanted to shut me down.
[You've drawn too much attention, Rin,] Nova warned. [Infinite money, unchecked growth—it doesn't go unnoticed forever.]
"Yeah," I murmured. "But I can't stop now."
[Then you need to evolve. Hide your movements. Build quiet.]
"Quiet empire, huh?"
[Exactly.]
That night, Soo-ah found me sitting outside the convenience store with a half-finished drink.
"You look like you're plotting world domination," she teased, sitting beside me.
"Something like that."
"Want to talk about it?"
I hesitated, then shook my head. "Not yet. Just… a lot on my mind."
She leaned back, staring at the stars. "You know, you don't always have to fix everything, Rin. Sometimes, it's okay to just be human."
I looked at her—the warm glow from the streetlight catching in her eyes—and for a moment, all the tension, all the noise, just disappeared.
[She stabilizes you,] Nova said softly. [Don't lose that.]
"I don't plan to," I whispered.
Later, back in my room, Nova's voice returned.
[Attack logs show multiple sources. Whoever did this has deep funding and government-level access.]
"So…?"
[So this is just the beginning.]
I stared out the window, the lights of Seoul shimmering in the distance.
The money, the business, the fame—it all came so easily.
But the higher I climbed, the more eyes turned my way.
And for the first time, I realized—
Infinite money didn't make me free.
It made me visible.