Seoul never slept.
Even at two in the morning, neon signs painted the streets in blue and pink while cars rushed through the city like rivers of light. Somewhere inside one of the countless apartment buildings overlooking the skyline, a laptop screen glowed in the darkness.
Its only light reflected in the eyes of an eighteen-year-old girl.
Seo Ah.
Her fingers danced across the keyboard with impossible speed. Firewalls collapsed one after another. Passwords cracked within seconds. Security cameras froze, then replayed old footage as if time itself had stopped.
To the online world, she didn't exist.
To the people who hired her anonymously, she was simply known as Ghost-the hacker no one could trace.
Yet the girl behind the screen couldn't even make eye contact with strangers.
She hated parties.
She hated crowds.
Most of all...
She hated herself.
Every morning, she looked into the mirror hoping to see someone different. Someone prettier. Someone stronger. Someone who didn't overthink every word she spoke.
But the mirror never lied.
It only reflected the lonely girl she'd become.
People often believed confidence came naturally.
Seo Ah knew better.
Sometimes, life stole it from you.
Her father had died in a construction accident when she was only four years old. She remembered almost nothing about him-only the warmth of his hand and the sound of his laughter, memories that grew blurrier every year.
When she turned six, another piece of her world disappeared.
Her mother left.
No goodbye.
No explanation.
One morning, she simply packed a suitcase, walked out of the apartment, and never came back.
Seo Ah waited by the front door for days, convinced her mother would return.
She never did.
From then on, it was just Seo Ah, her little brother Min Jae, who was two years younger than her, and their aging grandmother trying her best to keep the family together.
Seo Ah stopped expecting people to stay.
Instead, she buried herself in computers.
Computers never lied.
Computers never abandoned you.
Computers always followed logic.
By the age of thirteen, she was writing code most university students couldn't understand.
By fifteen, she'd hacked into school systems-not to change grades, but just to prove she could.
By seventeen, anonymous clients from around the world were paying a mysterious hacker known only as Ghost.
She earned enough to help pay the rent.
But no amount of money could fix the emptiness inside her.
Every night followed the same routine.
Code.
Hack.
Earn.
Sleep.
Repeat.
Until one rainy evening...
A single encrypted file appeared on her screen.
UNKNOWN SERVER DETECTED.
She frowned.
She hadn't searched for it.
It had found her.
The sender had no name.
No IP address.
Only one line of text.
"Welcome, Ghost."
Seo Ah's heartbeat quickened.
For the first time in years...
Someone had found the girl who was never supposed to be found.
ESTÁS LEYENDO
BLUE BLOOD
Ciencia FicciónSeo ah has spent her whole life hiding behind a screen. A genius hacker with no confidence, she discovers that biotech giant Hilum Ashovk has created a serum capable of erasing insecurity forever. She breaks into the company's system, steals the fo...
