The cannery was wrapped in a deep, heavy silence. It was so quiet that they could see tiny particles of dust floating in the few weak rays of light coming through the broken windows. The panicked fear from just moments ago had faded. On Kaito's computer screen, the little GPS dots that showed the locations of Ramos's kidnapping teams had disappeared as the vehicles drove away. Their families were safe, protected because the police had shown up at just the right time—a trick they had managed to pull off using the information given to them by their mysterious enemy, Silica.

But the feeling of relief was weak and didn't last long. It was quickly smothered by the crushing weight of what was now stored on Kaito's computer.

Silica's so called gift wasn't a ticket to freedom. It was a poisonous crown. It was the entire, horrifying blueprint of Victor Ramos's criminal empire.

Evelyn was the first to break the silence. She stepped slowly toward the workbench, her eyes locked on the screen showing the detailed layouts of the penthouse. "This is it," she whispered, her voice full of a kind of shocked respect and fear. "This is where he lives. This is his command center. His inner sanctum. And she just… handed it to us."

Silva, who had just been crying tears of relief, now looked pale and ill. "She didn't give it to us. She handed us a live grenade and told us to run into his living room. Why? What does she get out of this?"

"Because we're her weapons," Ace said, his voice flat and exhausted. He hadn't moved. The bandages on his hands felt like a mark of his failure to protect them. "That's all we've ever been to her. We shook up his operations. We turned his rage against Vincenzo. We created the perfect mess for her to sneak in and steal all of this. And now that she has it, she's giving it to us because we're the ones with nothing left to lose. We're the ones who are desperate and furious enough to charge right at the king and try to kill him."

He looked at the specific notes on the screen: *Guard change at 2:15 AM. 90-second blind spot in the east stairwell camera. Panic room switch hidden under the rug in the main bedroom.*

"She's not just giving us data," Kaito said, and there was a hint of respect for the skill involved, even through his fear. "She's giving us a mission plan. A one-way ticket to a suicide run."

At that moment, the System in Ace's mind displayed a cold, factual message:

<<STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT: THE PROVIDED INFORMATION DETAILS A VERY SPECIFIC, EXTREMELY DANGEROUS PATH OF ENTRY.>>

<<SUCCESS DEPENDS ON EVERY SINGLE STEP BEING EXECUTED PERFECTLY WITH NO MISTAKES OR SURPRISES.>>

<<PROBABILITY OF COMPLETE MISSION SUCCESS (TAKING DOWN VICTOR RAMOS): 11.3%.>>

<<PROBABILITY OF MISSION FAILURE RESULTING IN CAPTURE OR DEATH: 88.7%.>>

The System's icy percentages hung in the room. An 88.7% chance of being caught and killed. It was a numbers game, and the numbers said they would lose.

"So that's it?" Silva asked, his voice cracking with frustration and fear. "We either march straight into a slaughterhouse, or we hide in here until Ramos finds a new, worse way to destroy us? Those are our only options?"

"No," Ace said, pushing himself off the wall. A new, frightening determination was solidifying inside him, making his expression hard. "Those are the choices she wants us to see. The reckless, do-or-die attack. But she thinks in binary code. In wins and losses. She doesn't think the way we do."

He walked to the screen and pointed at the financial documents. "She gave us more than a map to his house. She gave us a map to what he truly cares about." He highlighted a series of transactions. "Look. These aren't for paying employees or bribing officials. These are his personal accounts. His own private fortune. The money he keeps separate from everything else. The money he's hidden from the entire world."

Evelyn's eyes grew wide as she realized what Ace was suggesting. "We don't need to fight him physically," she said, the idea dawning on her. "We don't need to kill him. If we take this money… we won't just be damaging his business. We'll be wiping out his entire life's work. We'll be stealing his future."

"But that won't be enough," Kaito argued, though he looked curious. "He can always make more money. He'll still have his power and his connections. He'll still come after us."

"Will he, though?" Ace asked, a sharp, determined look in his eye. "What is a king without his money? What is a general without the funds to pay his soldiers? If we completely wipe out his wealth, his own people will abandon him. The police officers he bribes will stop helping him. The rivals we tricked into thinking he attacked them will sense he's weak and move in to finish him off. We won't have to destroy him ourselves. We just have to give him a push, and the dangerous world he lives in will do the rest."

The plan was incredibly bold. It was crazy. But it was also brilliant. It was a move that Silica, who was focused on a direct, violent attack, hadn't seen coming. They wouldn't use her information to stab Ramos. They would use it to disappear the very foundation of his power.

A slow smile spread across Kaito's face. It was the smile of an expert faced with a fascinating challenge. "The money transfers would have to be flawless," he said. "They'd have to happen in an instant. We'd need to move the cash through a series of fake companies in seconds and then delete those accounts. If we're even a tiny bit too slow, his tech people will notice and freeze the accounts."

"Can you do it?" Ace asked.

"With this information?" Kaito replied, pointing at the data on the screen. "With his own account numbers and passwords? It's not a question of if I can do it. It's a question of when we should do it."

The mood in the cannery changed instantly. The feeling of hopelessness was replaced by a burning sense of purpose. They now had a clear goal—one that didn't require them to be fighters, but to use their true skills: hacking, planning, and surviving.

"We'll need a distraction," Evelyn said, her mind already working ahead. "We can't just do it. Ramos will know it was us immediately. We need to do it at the exact moment when he's completely focused on something else."

"The meeting," Ace said, as the last piece of the puzzle fell into place. He looked at the files on Ramos's key people that Silica had provided. "He has a meeting tomorrow night with the leaders of his most loyal crews. He wants to talk about the 'money problems' and the fight with Vincenzo. It's at his penthouse. All his most important people will be there. It's the perfect time. He'll be trying to show how strong he is, right in the middle of his fortress, surrounded by his men."

"And that's when we yank the floor out from under him," Silva finished, a fierce grin finally replacing his scared expression. "Right in front of everyone. We'll humiliate him and show his whole organization that he's weak and that he's lost control."

The plan was set. They wouldn't attack the lion in its den. They would steal all its food, collapse its den, and let the other predators finish it off.

For the next eighteen hours, the cannery turned into a command center. Kaito and Evelyn worked together in a state of intense focus, writing the computer programs that would take apart a fortune. They designed code that would work like a precise surgeon's tool, not a clumsy hammer.

Silva took on a new job. Using the information on Ramos's employees, he started creating a fake identity. He practiced his voice, how he would stand, how he would act. His job was to be the distraction. Right before they moved the money, he would make several frantic calls to the penthouse's phone. He would pretend to be a low-level guard named "Vinnie," reporting that Vincenzo's men were launching a huge, coordinated attack on their warehouses. This would cause just enough chaos and distraction for the digital theft to happen without anyone noticing until it was far too late.

Ace supervised everything, the System in his mind providing a constant, emotionless analysis of their work.

<<HEIST PROTOCOL: STATUS - EXCELLENT.>>

<<DISTRACTION PROTOCOL: STATUS - GOOD (86% CHANCE OF SUCCESS).>>

<<OVERALL CHANCE OF MISSION SUCCESS (STEALING ALL THE MONEY): 71.6%.>>

<<CHANCE OF SURVIVING AFTERWARDS: 32.1%.>>

The chance of surviving was low. Ramos would know it was them. He would come after them with whatever he had left. But a 32% chance was better than the near-certain death of the other plan. It was a chance to fight back.

As the hour of the meeting approached, a tense calm settled over them. They had done all they could. The code was written. The scripts were loaded. Silva had rehearsed his lines until they were perfect.

They gathered around the main monitor. On one side was the command prompt for the transfer, a single keystroke away from unleashing financial Armageddon. On the other was a live audio feed Kaito had tapped into—the landline phone in Ramos's penthouse. They could hear the faint murmur of voices, the clink of glasses. The meeting was beginning.

"It's time," Ace said, his voice quiet but steady.

Silva picked up the burner phone they would use for the call. He took a deep breath, becoming the character he had created—a scared, loyal foot soldier named "Vinnie."

Kaito's finger hovered above the keyboard, ready to press the key that would start the transfer. Evelyn held her breath, not making a sound.

Ace nodded, giving the signal.

Silva dialed. They heard the phone ring through the audio feed. Someone picked up. A gruff voice. "Yeah?"

"Boss! It's Vinnie, down at the southside warehouse!" Silva's voice was pitched high with perfect, panicked energy. "You gotta send everyone! It's Vincenzo! He's here with dozens of guys! They're smashing everything! They're saying this is for the money you stole! They're gonna burn it all down!"

They could hear the commotion on the other end of the line. They heard Ramos's voice, sharp and angry, barking orders in the background. "Marcus, take half the men and go! Now!"

It was working. The distraction was perfect.

"Now, Kaito! Now!" Ace said.

Kaito slammed his finger down on the enter key.

On the screen, a single line of text appeared.

INITIATING 'KING SLAYER' PROTOCOL.

And then, the numbers began to move.

They watched, mesmerized and horrified, as digit after digit, zero after zero, vanished from Ramos's secret accounts and reappeared in a labyrinth of their own creation, before being instantly donated to a hundred different anonymous charities across the globe. It was the most money any of them would ever see, and they were giving it away in the blink of an eye. It was the ultimate sabotage. They weren't thieves. They were erasers.

The entire process took less than forty-five seconds.

And then it was done.

The screen now showed: TRANSFER COMPLETE. TOTAL MONEY MOVED: $187,430,000.

The cannery was completely silent. On the audio feed, they could still hear Ramos's meeting continuing. No one in that room had any idea that the man leading the meeting was now a king with no crown, a general with no army. He had just lost everything.

They had done it. They had broken a man everyone thought was unbreakable.

Ace looked at his friends—at their stunned, triumphant, terrified faces. They had just changed the game forever.

The first shot in their war hadn't been fired with a gun. It had been fired with a keystroke. And it had hit the target right in its heart.

Now, they had to live through the angry response that was certainly coming.

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