Chapter 191: Confession

The police arrived later.

Nobody had already disappeared before they reached the location. Daniel was found safely inside the facility with enough evidence to confirm his identity. The defeated workers were arrested. The rest would be handled by the authorities.

Nobody watched from a distant rooftop as the police vehicles arrived.

The System appeared.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Rescue Objective Completed]

Target: Daniel Cross

Status: Safe

Additional Information Obtained.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nobody looked toward the police lights. "At least one mystery solved."

Blossom Bunny floated beside him. "Atta ta."

Nobody smiled. "Don’t worry." He looked toward the city. "We still have plenty of mysteries left."

Then he disappeared into the night.

.....

Morning arrived quietly.

Aiden was sitting inside his office. He had barely slept. The investigation into Daniel Cross and Project 05-17 had consumed most of his attention.

Toma sat nearby. She was looking through several documents.

Aiden’s phone suddenly rang. He answered. "Hello?"

A man’s voice came through. "Mr.Aiden?"

"Yes."

"This is the police department."

Aiden immediately straightened. "Is something wrong?"

"We have located Daniel Cross."

Aiden froze. "What?"

"He’s alive."

Toma looked up immediately.

Aiden stood from his chair. "Where is he?"

"He’s currently under police protection."

Aiden closed his eyes for a moment. Relief washed over him.

Then the officer continued. "But there’s something else."

Aiden’s expression changed. "What?"

"Daniel Cross has admitted everything."

Silence.

Toma slowly stood.

"Everything?"

The officer continued. "He has confessed that he worked with Eclipse Corporation for approximately five years."

Aiden’s face went pale. "For five years..."

"Yes."

"He gave them information?"

"According to his statement, yes."

Aiden slowly sat down.

The officer continued. "He has also provided information regarding the chairman’s methods of infiltrating Nathan Industries."

Aiden looked at Toma. The pieces were beginning to connect. The altered contracts, the internal employees, the hidden access, Daniel’s disappearance, the chairman’s plan, everything.

Aiden whispered. "So it really was him."

The officer replied. "Mr.Aiden, there’s enough information in Daniel’s statement to reopen several parts of the investigation."

Aiden remained silent. Then he asked quietly. "Why did Daniel finally confess?"

The officer paused. "He says he wanted to tell the truth."

Aiden closed his eyes. For a moment, he remembered Daniel sitting across from him years ago. A trusted employee. Someone he had never suspected.

Aiden’s hand tightened around the phone. "Thank you." He ended the call.

Toma looked at him. "What did the police say?"

Aiden slowly placed the phone on the desk. "Daniel told them everything."

"Everything?"

Aiden nodded. "He worked for Eclipse for five years."

Toma’s eyes widened. "And the chairman?"

"He was using Daniel and other employees to infiltrate Nathan Industries."

Toma looked toward the window. The sunlight reflected against the glass. Aiden remained seated. He had finally received the truth. But instead of feeling victorious...he felt tired.

Five years....

Five years of hidden betrayal. Five years of information leaving Nathan Industries without anyone realizing it.

Aiden looked down at the documents. Then he whispered. "How many more are there?"

Neither of them knew. But somewhere across the city, Nobody was already awake. And he had no idea that the person he had rescued during the night...had just changed the entire investigation.

For the first time, the truth wasn’t hidden anymore. It was coming out.

The morning after Daniel Cross confessed, Nathan Industries felt different.

Nobody noticed it the moment he stepped through the front entrance.

Employees were speaking more quietly than usual. Small groups had gathered near the elevators, whispering about the news. Some were staring at their phones while others were refreshing the same articles again and again.

Nobody adjusted his tie and walked past them with his briefcase in hand. He had already seen the headlines.

FORMER NATHAN INDUSTRIES EMPLOYEE CONFESSES TO FIVE-YEAR CORPORATE ESPIONAGE OPERATION

DANIEL CROSS REVEALS ECLIPSE CORPORATION CONNECTION

POLICE INVESTIGATION EXPANDS

Nobody stopped for half a second. Then he continued walking. "Well..." He glanced toward the audience. "That escalated quickly."

The System window appeared beside him.

[Breaking News Detected]

[User’s involvement: Highly classified]

[Recommended response: Pretend to be a normal employee.]

Nobody nodded. "Finally, a useful suggestion." He entered the elevator.

The doors closed.

For the first time in several days, Nobody didn’t feel like he was walking directly toward another disaster. Unfortunately, that feeling lasted approximately eleven seconds.

The elevator doors opened on the executive floor. Aiden was already waiting outside. His expression was unusually serious. "Nobody."

Nobody stepped out. "Good morning, CEO ML."

Aiden stared at him. "...What?"

"Nothing." Nobody smiled innocently.

Aiden walked beside him. "Daniel Cross confessed."

"I heard."

"He admitted everything."

"That’s generally what confessing means."

Aiden stopped walking. Nobody stopped too.

Aiden looked at him carefully. "For five years, Daniel supplied Eclipse with information about Nathan Industries. Contracts, schedules, internal documents, employee access details..."

Nobody’s expression became slightly more serious. "And he said the chairman knew?"

"Yes."

Aiden’s jaw tightened. "He said the chairman personally approved several operations."

Nobody remained silent.

Aiden looked toward the glass wall overlooking the city. "For years, I thought the problems inside this company were caused by incompetent management. Then I thought it was a few corrupt employees." His hands tightened slightly. "But it wasn’t."

Nobody watched him. "It was organized."

Aiden nodded. "And that’s the part that bothers me."

Before Nobody could answer, Toma approached them. She was holding a tablet against her chest. "I found something."

Aiden turned. "What?"

Toma showed them the screen. "There are several old internal reports that suddenly disappeared from the company archive this morning."

Nobody’s eyes narrowed. "Disappeared?"

"Yes."

Toma scrolled. "These documents were created between four and six years ago. Some are connected to legal departments, research divisions and external contractors."

Aiden took the tablet. "Can they be recovered?"

"Not through the normal archive."

Nobody leaned closer. "Who deleted them?"

Toma shook her head. "I don’t know."

The System quietly appeared.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Warning.]

[Information Removal Detected.]

[Multiple files are being remotely erased.]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nobody’s eyes widened. "They’re deleting the evidence."

Aiden immediately looked at him. "What?"

Nobody pointed at the tablet. "Someone isn’t waiting for the investigation to find the records."

Toma’s expression changed. "They’re destroying them before anyone can."

Aiden grabbed his phone. "Security." He immediately called Nathan Industries’ IT department. "Lock the archive. All departments. No one deletes anything without executive authorization."

A pause.

Aiden’s expression hardened. "What do you mean you can’t?"

Nobody could hear the muffled voice through the phone.

Aiden’s eyes narrowed. "Who has administrator access?" Silence. Then Aiden’s face changed. "That’s impossible." He ended the call.

Toma looked worried. "What happened?"

"Someone already accessed the internal system."

Nobody frowned. "From outside?"

"No."

Aiden looked toward the hallway. "From inside the building."

Nobody’s eyes slowly moved toward the elevators. "So we still have someone here."

The System appeared.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Mission Update.]

[Hidden Objective Detected.]

Find the Internal Access User.

[Time Limit: 60 Minutes.]

[Failure Consequence: Information Loss.]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nobody stared at the window. "Of course."

Aiden noticed his expression. "What?"

Nobody smiled. "Nothing. I just remembered I hate Mondays."

"It’s Thursday."

"...Even worse."

Toma gave him a confused look.

Aiden walked toward the security office. "Let’s find them."

Nobody followed.

For the next twenty minutes, the three of them moved through the company’s security systems with the IT team.

The deleted files were scattered across different departments. Legal, Research, Finance, Human Resources. None of the deletions were random. Someone was targeting specific records.

Toma pointed at the screen. "Look."

Aiden leaned closer. "There."

One file remained. Its name was almost meaningless.

Archive_0517_Final

Nobody’s expression froze.

Project 05-17.

He remembered the abandoned research facility. The photograph. The words written on the wall.

Do not reopen.

Aiden stared at the file. "That’s the project Daniel mentioned."

Toma nodded. "But why would someone delete it now?"

Nobody didn’t answer.

Because the System had already given him the answer.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Warning.]

[File access detected.]

[Unauthorized user currently viewing Archive_0517_Final.]

Nobody’s eyes widened. "He’s still inside."

Aiden looked at him. "Who?"

Nobody pointed at the screen. "Whoever is deleting the files."

The IT employee immediately traced the connection. "Sir..."

"What?"

"It’s coming from an internal terminal."

"Which one?"

The employee swallowed. "Executive floor."

Aiden’s face turned cold. Nobody looked at Toma. Toma looked back. They all understood the same thing. Someone had been watching them.

Aiden moved immediately. "Let’s go."

They rushed toward the executive floor. The corridor was empty.

Nobody slowed down. He looked at the ceiling cameras. One camera was facing the wrong direction.

Then another. Then another.

Nobody stopped. "Someone disabled the security cameras."

Aiden looked around. "Where?"

Nobody pointed toward the end of the hallway. "The archive room."

They hurried toward it. The door was unlocked.

Aiden pushed it open. Nobody entered behind him.

The room was empty. A single computer was still running. On its screen was the Archive 05-17 file. The deletion process was active.

Aiden rushed toward the terminal. "Stop!"

He grabbed the mouse. The screen suddenly went black. A second later, every light in the room shut off.

Toma gasped. Nobody immediately turned around. Something had moved in the darkness.

Aiden reached for his phone. "Nobody?"

"I’m here."

"Did you hear that?"

Nobody’s eyes adjusted to the darkness. His Night Vision activated automatically.

There. Near the emergency exit. A shadow.

Nobody moved. "Hey!"

The figure ran. Aiden rushed after him.

Nobody followed. The stranger pushed through the emergency door and sprinted down the stairwell.

Toma remained behind with Aiden. "Call security!"

Aiden nodded.

Nobody continued after the fleeing figure. He was fast. Too fast for an ordinary employee. The stranger descended three floors in seconds before bursting through a service exit.

Nobody followed him outside. The man jumped into a black sedan. The car accelerated.

Nobody stopped at the edge of the road.

"Seriously?"