World Politics Board #3
I felt a profound sense of betrayal toward the man named Kim Seong-jin. Hadn’t we shared a genuine friendship in that place? He was every bit as capable, brave, and trustworthy as my true comrades, the vampire hunters. The fact that he had returned to Earth without contacting me struck like a blade, carving deep into my heart.
But the thought lasted only a moment. I reminded myself of my faith in Kim Seong-jin once more. Premise: there was no way that guy wouldn’t reach out to me. If he hadn’t, it could only mean there was a reason. So what was the reason?
One. He had escaped, but not in a normal state. Was the corpse the problem after all? Had he returned to reality only to end up in some broken condition?
“Wait a second, Team Leader Jaaldi. That detection device—according to it, Kim Seong-jin is on Earth right now?”
“Yes. He’s on Earth.”
“Alive or dead? And his exact location?”
“...”
Jaaldi closed her mouth for a moment at my question.
“We don’t actually determine life or death. And it doesn’t pinpoint an exact location either. That detection machine only registers whether the target exists on Earth or not.”
“...”
Life or death unknown. A dark premonition suddenly flashed through my mind. That bastard Kim Seong-jin… he couldn’t possibly have been processed into canned meat and shipped back to reality, could he? He might have crossed the veil only to be caught by the butcher monsters and delivered anyway.
No. That couldn’t be. There was no way Kim Seong-jin would go down like that!
“Grong. There’s no need to worry too much. You saw him go beyond the veil yourself, and now you know he’s returned to our reality. There’s no point in wild speculation. He is on Earth right now.”
“Yes.”
I nodded. Overthinking things was one of my flaws. It could be an advantage in some situations, but right now it was an inconvenient weakness. I needed to settle down.
“Grong. Don’t worry. We already pulled all his personal data, didn’t we? If we check the CCTV around the area where the abnormal reaction was detected, we’ll locate him quickly.”
Jamtree patted my shoulder, comforting me.
“Thank you for saying that.”
Combing through CCTV footage was tedious work, but since his return to reality was confirmed, traces would definitely remain. We just had to find them.
“Team Leader Jaaldi. May we begin the CCTV review immediately?”
“Another team will narrow down the candidate sites first. We’ll start after that.”
“Understood.”
Then I would handle something else until they were ready.
“In that case, would it be all right if I browse the World Politics Board for a while? There’s a chance he might have posted something there.”
“Fine. Focus on that today.”
“Yes!”
I sat down at the computer right away. Kim Seong-jin was a fixed-name user on the Board. They supposedly had their own private messenger, but after surviving hell and returning, would he really limit himself to only that? In my experience, he would be itching to post on the board immediately.
“Grong. Is this Kim Seong-jin that important to you?”
“Ah, Senior Spandal.”
Spandal had approached while I was preparing to work.
“Of course he’s important. He’s my soul partner—the one I shared true friendship with.”
“Soul partner… Grong. I understand the sentiment, but he’s merely one of the countless victims you will save in the future.”
“Pardon?”
“You don’t need to pour your heart into every single one. If you obsess like that, it will become your weakness and increase the chance of failure during missions. So set your feelings for Kim Seong-jin aside.”
There it was again. I had expected something harsh, but she was simply worried that I would become too emotionally invested in individual victims and compromise myself.
If Jaaldi and Jamtree hadn’t been present, I would have wrapped my arms around her waist and assured her that would never happen.
“I understand, Senior Spandal. Becoming overly attached to individual victims is not good.”
“Exactly.”
“However, I believe this approach will only make my will and strength even greater.”
“Huh?”
“You could call it my conviction. I will become a stronger agent by upholding my beliefs. Do you understand?”
I spoke with such grand confidence that Spandal hesitated, words dying on her lips. So I pressed the advantage.
“Senior Spandal! Please praise your junior’s righteous spirit! Quickly!”
“Ah, yes. It’s… it’s a fine conviction. Such beliefs can certainly be helpful. But convictions like that can only be maintained if you yourself are strong enough, Grong—”
“I am more than strong enough! You know that better than anyone!”
After all, Spandal was someone who knew exactly how solid I was!
“Ah, uh, umm…”
As expected, my aggressive push made her trail off awkwardly before she retreated from the area.
“What was that? Spandal wasn’t usually like this, was she?”
“Hehe. She seems rather weak when it comes to Grong lately. It’s been happening a lot.”
“Hmm…”
Jaaldi stroked her chin while staring at me.
“Team Leader Jaaldi. As you know, Kim Seong-jin and I—”
“This is the forty-first time you’ve brought this up. Get back to work.”
“Yes.”
(Breaking News) US Decides to Turn North Korea into Scorched Earth
Scientists are using some weird function
Protect your head from radio wave attacks!!!
Why does my house still smell like medicine even after I spray air freshener?
There’s a wiretap in my ear
What do I do if a face-stealing ghost appears in China?
The board was packed with psychopathic ramblings. Scrolling through the pages revealed that over ninety percent were deranged mutterings, while the rest came from trolls stirring up drama for fun. Only an extremely small fraction were genuine users of the hidden World Politics Board. And Kim Seong-jin was not among those visible posts.
He might have left something, though. With that thought, I refreshed the page.
For a split second, the title seized my full attention. Click. My agent-level reflexes instantly opened the post.
A single-line post. Yet my heart was already pounding. The “human meat factory” undoubtedly referred to the Hanseol Meat Factory. Was this Kim Seong-jin? Or another survivor? Either way, this was critically important!
Of course, there was always the chance the poster had simply used a sensational keyword like “human meat factory” to farm attention. So I replied from a temporary account.
The post has been deleted.
The post vanished instantly! There was definitely something here. Was this really Kim Seong-jin? Then why hadn’t he contacted me? At least the fact that he had posted suggested he hadn’t ended up as canned meat—the worst-case scenario I had feared. That was a relief… but then why was he posting on the Board instead of reaching out to me?
“Ah.”
Could it be? Had that bastard Kim Seong-jin contacted the Board’s fixed-name users before talking to me?
I began constructing a theory based on that possibility. Upon returning to reality, Kim Seong-jin would have shed tears of joy and immediately tried to contact me. But then he remembered his comrades on the Board. Before requesting memory erasure from me, he would have shared information with them first—warning them to be careful even if he himself forgot. That was exactly what the Kim Seong-jin I knew would do.
In the process, the Board’s veteran users would have tried to drive a wedge between us. They would have told him something like, “That Management Bureau agent called Grong can’t be trusted. Be extremely cautious. If you must make contact, think it over very carefully.”
Kim Seong-jin was both a veteran Board user and a professional survivor. He would have nodded solemnly at their advice.
“This makes sense.”
The theory was built on my trust in Kim Seong-jin and my prejudice against the Board’s old-timers, but the logic held together reasonably well. Conclusion: the “human meat factory” post was bait thrown by the Board’s fixed-name users to initiate contact with me. The instant deletion after my response only confirmed it was deliberate bait.
Good. So these World Politics Board administrators wanted to make contact with me, a Management Bureau agent?
“Team Leader Jaaldi!”
“Did you find something?”
I reported immediately. I showed her the recorded footage of the post I had checked and its subsequent deletion, then added my deduction.
“A reasonable inference.”
“Right?”
“This seems like a good opportunity. We might be able to learn something about this secretive underground group.”
The words “secretive underground group” from Jaaldi’s mouth felt slightly off.
“A secret organization, you say. But isn’t our Management Bureau the real secret organization?”
“That’s true.”
“Now that I think about it, it does feel strange. We’re the Management Bureau, yet these people are nothing more than forum users, and we seem to be losing ground. It hurts my pride that we can’t even track them.”
“Hmm… I suppose you could see it that way. While we are a secret organization, we don’t control everything in the world.”
That was fair, but still.
“Actually, there are other underground organizations besides the World Politics Board that the Bureau cannot fully control.”
“Excuse me?”
What the hell…? There were more groups like the Board?
“The Board is merely one that has surfaced. There are others that remain completely hidden.”
“Such as?”
“For example, the witch covens or the shaman alliance.”
What the hell were those?
“Going further, there are also loose networks made up of psychics.”
Hold on. The Management Bureau existed, yet these private organizations were running around freely? What exactly was the Bureau doing? How could it not control even a single one of them?
“Well, that’s not important right now. Focus on the World Politics Board.”
“Understood. I’ll attempt contact.”
This wasn’t the time to argue.
“But Team Leader Jaaldi. If we locate them, what will you do?”
I observed her expression carefully as I spoke.
“Will you eliminate them?”
“Of course not. They are not our enemies. They aren’t really doing anything evil, nor are they particularly harmful. However—”
However?
“They occasionally expose dangerous information. That must be stopped. More importantly, we must prevent them from endangering themselves through that same information.”
I analyzed Jaaldi’s demeanor as she spoke. She wasn’t lying. It didn’t seem like she intended to treat them as enemies.
“Step outside with me for a moment. Before contact, let’s run the program once.”
“A program?”
“We need to attempt tracking first.”
Jaaldi sat down and began manipulating the program.
“By default, this World Politics Board is a highly mysterious site that cannot be traced even with the Bureau’s technology.”
“Then isn’t this useless?”
“The technical team keeps updating versions. We’ll apply the latest update and try again.”
So there was a technical team. After a short wait, Jaaldi began writing a post from a temporary account.
What the hell was this?
“Team Leader Jaaldi! What kind of post is that?!”
“It’s a test post. I’m requesting dialogue with them.”
But why did it sound so stiff?!
“I’ll write it!”
“Hmm… do not impersonate entities from the Fake Bureau.”
“Of course not.”
I ran the program and wrote a test post. After waiting a moment, the program reported an error instead of replies.
“It still doesn’t work?”
“I’ll have to tell them to raise the version again.”
“I’ll give the technical team an earful. For now, let me check further.”
“Go ahead.”
I resumed monitoring the Board. Right. I should create a fixed-name account.
I immediately registered on the site and posted.
The post has been deleted.
These bastards deleted it immediately! I was about to spam in rage when a notification appeared.
A new entry has been registered in the guestbook.
The guestbook? When I checked, sure enough, a secret post had been left.
“...A suspicious link.”
They had sent a suspicious link. It seemed to be an invitation to enter. For a moment I felt the urge to copy the link and spread it across the internet, but I quietly clicked it instead.
Flash.
A chat room appeared. A pure white chat room. There was no response from the other side yet. I typed first.
I waited for a reply. After some time passed—
A response came!
Ordinary user? Then who are you?
I am the head administrator of the World Politics Board.