The city looked strangely calm that evening.
Cars moved through the streets as usual. Office buildings remained illuminated against the darkening sky. People walked along the sidewalks, checking their phones and talking with friends.
Nobody stood on the rooftop of a nearby building,watching the lights below. Something felt wrong. He had been following the situation for days.
The strange contract and suspicious clauses. Aiden’s concerns. The Chairman’s calm attitude. Everything had been pointing toward something.
But Nobody hadn’t expected the next development to happen so quickly.
His phone suddenly vibrated.
BZZT.
Nobody looked down.
A message from an employee at Nathan Industries appeared.
Nathan Industries Internal Notice:
Emergency management meeting scheduled immediately.
Nobody’s eyebrows tightened. "What’s happening?" Before he could check anything else,another notification arrived.
Then another.
Then another.
News alerts began appearing across his phone.
Nathan Industries Faces Severe Financial Losses
Major Business Partners Withdraw Cooperation
Nathan Industries Shares Plunge
Executives Face Investigation
Nobody stared at the screen. "...What?" His expression slowly changed. "This happened overnight?"
The System appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Major Plot Event Detected]
Nathan Industries:
Critical Financial Collapse
Estimated Loss:
Severe
Corporate Stability:
Critical
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody’s eyes narrowed. "System."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Yes.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Show me what happened."
The System window changed.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Timeline Reconstruction]
Recent events:
Multiple contracts terminated.
Financial pressure increased.
Major partners withdrew.
Operational authority transferred.
Corporate assets placed under review.
Executive investigation initiated.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody stared at the information. "Operational authority..." His mind immediately returned to the clause Aiden had shown him.
That sentence. That vague wording. The one everyone had considered suspicious but not necessarily dangerous.
Nobody’s expression became serious. "...They used it. Fuk sake Aiden said he rejected it. Did some co worker deceived him!"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Probability: Extremely High.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody clenched his fist. "So the contract wasn’t just a business agreement."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Correct.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"It was a mechanism."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Likely]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody looked across the city. "They were preparing to take control."
The System remained silent.
Nobody’s phone vibrated again.
This time, the message was from Aiden.
Aiden:
They’ve taken control of several parts of the company.
Another message followed.
Aiden:
I don’t understand how they moved this quickly.
Nobody immediately called him. The call connected. "Aiden!"
Aiden’s voice sounded exhausted. "Nobody..."
"What happened?"
There was a long pause.
"They won."
Nobody’s expression hardened. "What do you mean?"
"The contract." Aiden took a shaky breath. "Their lawyers found a way to activate the clauses we were worried about."
Nobody remained silent. "How?"
"I don’t know."
Aiden’s voice became frustrated. "We thought we had time. We were still reviewing everything. Then suddenly several of our partners terminated their agreements. Financial accounts were frozen. Operations were disrupted. And before we could respond..." He stopped. "They already had everything prepared."
Nobody looked down at the city. "Where are you?"
"I’m at the company."
"Stay there."
Aiden laughed bitterly. "I don’t think I can."
"What?"
"Police are here."
Nobody’s eyes widened. "Police?"
"They’re saying I’ve been involved in financial misconduct."
Nobody’s expression immediately changed. "That’s ridiculous."
"I know." Aiden sounded almost helpless. "But they have documents."
"Documents?"
"Evidence that supposedly connects me to the financial irregularities."
Nobody’s jaw tightened. "Fabricated?"
"I don’t know."
Aiden’s voice lowered. "But I know I didn’t do it."
Nobody looked toward the Nathan Industries building in the distance. "Don’t say anything without a lawyer."
"I know."
There was suddenly noise in the background. Aiden’s voice became distant. "They’re coming."
"Mr.Nathan..."
"I have to go."
The call ended.
Nobody stared at the phone. For several seconds, he didn’t move.
Then the System appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Major Plot Development]
Aiden Nathan:
Arrested
Nathan Industries:
Corporate Control Lost
Eclipse Corporation:
Objective Complete
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody’s eyes widened. "...They actually did it."
The System displayed another notification.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Plot Status]
Eclipse Operation:
100% Complete
Nathan Industries:
Defeated
Aiden:
Detained
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody slowly lowered his phone. "So this is what they wanted." The wind moved across the rooftop. For few days, he had been watching small pieces of the puzzle.
A strange contract, suspicious clause, financial pressure and business partners becoming uncertain. And now... Everything had fallen into place.
Nobody looked toward the Nathan Industries tower. Its windows were still illuminated. But the building no longer felt like the same company.
"System."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Yes?]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Can you find evidence?"
A new window appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Investigation Mode]
Searching available information...
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
A circular indicator appeared. Nobody waited.
The System continued.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Financial Records:
Insufficient Evidence
Contract Documents:
Suspicious
Corporate Communications:
Restricted
External Influence:
Detected
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody frowned. "External influence?"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Confirmed.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Then show me the source."
The window flickered.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Source Identification]
Unable to determine.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody stared at it. "Again."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Searching...
Searching...
Searching...
[Result]
Information Blocked.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody’s expression became darker. "The higher being."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Likely.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"That son of a thing is hiding the evidence."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Correct]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody paced across the rooftop. "Then find something it didn’t hide."
The System remained silent.
Nobody stopped. "Search everything."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Specify parameters.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Contracts, Financial transfers, Communications, Corporate ownership changes. Everything connected to Eclipse."
The System window expanded.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Deep Investigation Activated]
Target:
Eclipse Corporation
Related Entity:
Nathan Industries
Related Individual:
Aiden
Time Range:
Previous 30 Days
Searching...
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody waited.
The city continued moving beneath him. He could hear distant traffic. A siren echoed somewhere far away. People were still living their ordinary lives.
But for Aiden...Everything had changed.
Nobody stared at the System. "Come on."
The loading indicator continued.
Then...
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Partial Evidence Located]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody’s eyes widened. "What?"
The System displayed a list.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Evidence Fragment #01
Unusual Contract Modification
Status:
Recovered
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Evidence Fragment #02
Unexplained Corporate Transfer
Status:
Recovered
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Evidence Fragment #03
Communication Timestamp Irregularity
Status:
Recovered
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody smiled. "There we go."
The System immediately added another warning.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Warning]
Evidence fragments alone are insufficient for legal confirmation.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody’s smile disappeared. "So I still can’t use them."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Correct.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Then we need more."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Investigation continuing.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody looked toward the distant city. Aiden was behind bars. Nathan Industries had suffered enormous losses. Eclipse had achieved exactly what it wanted. But Nobody wasn’t willing to accept the result.
He had seen too many people get hurt because someone manipulated the story from behind the scenes.
This time...He wasn’t going to simply follow the plot. He was going to investigate it.
Nobody tightened his fist. "System."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Yes?]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Find me the evidence that Eclipse didn’t want anyone to find."
The System window remained open.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Deep Investigation]
Searching...
Searching...
Searching...
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody looked toward the dark skyline. "Let’s see how perfect their victory really is."
For the first time since Eclipse began its operation... Someone had started looking beyond the surface. And this time, Nobody wasn’t searching for a mission target. He was searching for the truth.
......
Nobody remained on the rooftop, watching the System’s investigation window.
The loading indicator continued to move.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Deep Investigation]
Searching...
23%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody scratched his head. "Come on. You’re usually faster than this."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[The requested investigation involves
multiple restricted information layers.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Meaning?"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[The information is being concealed.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody’s expression became serious. "By Eclipse?"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Unknown.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"By the Chairman?"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Unknown.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody narrowed his eyes. "Or by that higher being?"
The System didn’t answer. That silence was enough.
Nobody looked toward the city. "So even you don’t know."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Correct.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Great." He sighed. "At least you’re honest."
The percentage slowly increased.
31% Then 38%.
Nobody waited patiently. For once, he didn’t make a joke. His mind kept returning to Aiden’s voice during that final phone call.
They won.
Those words bothered him. Not because Eclipse had succeeded. But because the entire operation had happened too smoothly. There should have been mistakes. Someone should have left evidence. Someone should have made a careless transaction. Someone should have said something they shouldn’t. Yet everything had been arranged too perfectly.
The System suddenly displayed another notification.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Evidence Fragment #04 Located]
Source:
Internal Contract Archive
Status:
Partially Recovered
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody immediately stepped forward. "Open it."
The window expanded. A scanned version of the original Eclipse contract appeared.
Nobody’s eyes moved across the pages. Then he noticed something. The revised contract had changed several sentences. But one particular paragraph... Hadn’t been changed at all.
Nobody frowned. "Wait." He looked closer. "That clause was already there in the first version."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Correct.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"But Aiden said it was expanded in the revised version."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Correct.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody stared at the paragraph. "Then why does the archive show the original version already containing part of it?"
The System responded.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Analysis]
Possible explanations:
Multiple contract drafts existed.Archive metadata was altered.Original contract supplied to Nathan Industries was incomplete.External interference.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody slowly smiled. "Now we’re getting somewhere." He pointed at the document. "This doesn’t prove Eclipse framed Aiden."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Correct.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"But it proves the contract history doesn’t match."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Correct.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody nodded.
"That’s enough to investigate."
The System suddenly froze. The document disappeared.
Nobody blinked. "...What?"
The investigation window turned black.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Warning]
External interference detected.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody’s eyes widened. "Again? You dumba** higher being!!!!"
The System tried to restore the information.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Recovering data...
ERROR
Recovering data...
ERROR
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody stared at the screen. "Someone doesn’t want us looking at this."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[That conclusion is reasonable.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Can you recover the deleted portion?"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Attempting.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody waited. The city wind moved through his hair.
Then the System displayed a single recovered line.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Recovered Text Fragment]
"...transfer of operational authority..."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody’s eyes widened. "The same thing."
The clause Aiden had been worried about. Operational authority.
Nobody’s expression became serious. "So Eclipse didn’t suddenly create this idea." He looked toward the distant Nathan Industries building. "They had been preparing for it from the beginning."
The System didn’t answer. Nobody took out his phone. He opened Aiden’s contact. His finger hovered over the call button. Then he stopped.
Aiden was under arrest. Calling him wouldn’t help.
Nobody lowered the phone. "I need someone who can access the original records."
The System appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Potential candidates detected.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody raised an eyebrow. "Who?"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Possible Information Sources]
Nathan Industries Legal Department
Corporate Archives
Original Contract Custodian
External Banking Records
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody nodded. "Legal department first." He looked toward the road. "But I can’t exactly walk into a police station and ask them to let me investigate their case."
The System remained silent.
Nobody smiled.
"Looks like I’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way."
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