The Nameless Room

The night sky above Grovement University looked gray, as if reflecting the secrets now beginning to surface. Behind the old library—now closed for renovation—Narey stood before a rusted metal door, almost hidden beneath wild overgrowth. A secret map from Professor Vellan, folded in her jacket pocket, marked this very door as the entrance to the "Core Zone"—the final location where the Interlink experiment was conducted.

Arka stood beside her, his face tense but determined. Anjani had been evacuated and was now under BIN protection, but the trauma she carried was living proof that what they were facing wasn't just an illegal experiment—it was the rise of a nationwide mind control system.

"Once we go in," Arka whispered, "there's no easy way out."

Narey nodded. "That's exactly why we have to enter. If we back out now, everything the victims suffered will be for nothing."

Using a stolen fingerprint scanner taken from internal university archives, the metal door opened with a long, grating creak. Beyond it stretched a steep, narrow corridor with damp concrete walls. Dim lights flickered above, giving the space the grim atmosphere of a Cold War interrogation room.

After nearly ten minutes of walking, they reached a fork in the tunnel: one path led straight to the experiment's data center, the other to the "system storage room." Narey decided to split up—Arka would head to the central system to extract the data, while she infiltrated the storage room, searching for clues about the whereabouts of Vanrah—the last known subject, whose fate remained unknown.

System Storage Room

The room was larger than she had expected. Dozens of transparent capsules filled with blue fluid lined the walls, each equipped with a small monitor displaying brain activity. Most of the capsules were empty. But one capsule at the far end glowed red.

Inside it lay the still body of a young man with brown hair, cables connected directly to his skull. His face was unfamiliar—until Narey glanced at the name on the small display below, and her blood ran cold.

"Lucas Vanrah – Status: Active. Core Interlink Subject."

Suddenly, a nearby screen flickered on, revealing the face of Professor Laksana. It wasn't a recording—it was a live broadcast.

"I knew you'd come here, Narey," he said calmly. "I even prepared this room just for you."

Narey didn't answer. Her hand gripped tightly around the stun weapon strapped to her belt.

"Vanrah isn't a victim," Laksana continued. "He's the bridge. The only human capable of holding the collective consciousness of thousands without breaking. He's the beginning of a new species: homo synchronis."

Narey clenched her fist. "He's a human being, not a server. And you're not God."

"But haven't I become something more than just an ordinary scientist?" Laksana's smile was thin and cold. "You know, the people behind all of this were willing to sacrifice an entire generation of students for just one version of humanity they could control."

The screen went black. A siren blared. The hallway behind Narey sealed automatically.

She was trapped.

But in that very moment, she noticed a small USB port near Vanrah's capsule. "Manual override available – code required." She remembered the code—it was hidden in Vellan's final notes, written as a differential equation only someone who thought like a scientist... or a detective... could decode.

Several tense minutes passed, then the screen flashed:

OVERRIDE SUCCESSFUL. SYSTEM UNLOCKED.

The capsule began to open slowly.

Lucas Vanrah coughed weakly. His muscles were limp, but his eyes began to open. Narey rushed over and gently tapped his face.

"Lucas... you're safe now. We're here to bring you home."

Experiment Data Center

Meanwhile, Arka was inside a room packed with servers and extreme cooling units. With a BIN-issued flash drive, he began copying the entire system—video recordings, Interlink network structures, and surveillance notes from the secret government committee.

But midway through the process, a warning appeared on the screen:

"ACCESS DETECTED – LOCKDOWN IN 60 SECONDS."

Without hesitation, Arka yanked out the power cable and forcibly pulled the flash drive. The entire system began to shake. Alarms blared from every direction.

He ran back toward the entrance—but it was sealed shut. In the same narrow corridor, he ran into Narey, supporting a weak and barely conscious Lucas.

"We can't use the main route anymore," Narey said quickly. "But I saw an alternate tunnel—toward the underground water disposal."

With time running out, they sprinted toward the side passage. Behind them, the sound of soldiers' boots grew louder—they had only minutes before they were either caught or trapped forever.

The Escape

The drainage tunnel was filled with knee-deep water and reeked of chemicals. They moved along the walls, guided only by the soft glow from Narey's wristwatch. Finally, after what felt like a never-ending struggle, they found a metal ladder leading up to a sealed hatch. Arka pulled out an emergency crowbar from his bag and forced it open.

When they emerged, the sky was still dark—but the air was a welcome relief compared to the suffocating depths below.

They had surfaced beyond the campus grounds, in an overgrown field near the old lake. In the distance, the sound of a BIN helicopter drew closer. Moments later, an extraction team arrived, rushing them into secure transport and taking them to a secret facility for decontamination and medical checks.

Aftermath

A few days later, Narey sat inside an internal BIN interrogation room—not as a suspect, but as a key witness. Arka's flash drive, now safely in the hands of BIN's tech team, contained everything they needed: the involvement of Division Delta, the details of the Interlink experiment, Laksana's recorded transmissions, and a long list of students who had been used as test subjects.

But one thing BIN had yet to address shocked her most: Brigadier General Ahmad Suwiryo's involvement.

Narey now stood before her new superior—Director N.R. Wibawa, recently reinstated.

"You did your job perfectly," he said flatly.

"No," Narey replied. "All I did was prove that this system can't be trusted."

"What are you planning to do next?"

Narey looked him straight in the eye.

"Seek justice. Not just for the victims, but for the future. Because if this technology survives... the world will become a place where no mind is ever truly free."