Geocaching #12: Cracks in the Indoctrination
"Well, there's no reason to reveal it. We came all this way together for survival, not to have this kind of conversation."
Song Jin-seop put up a fairly defiant front, clearly showing his reluctance. He'd always had guts, that one. Even with his life literally in my hands, he was still being this uncooperative. Well, that kind of backbone is exactly what's needed to pull off something big. It's because I had subordinates like him that I survived the apocalypse. Yeah. If we hadn't met like this, maybe we could've formed a good bond in this loop too. Just like with my dear friend Kim Seong-jin and the vampire hunters. Song Jin-seop is one of my precious comrades, so I have to save him. But to save him, I need to learn as much as I can about the Fake Bureau. And if that's what it takes, I'm willing to use somewhat forceful methods.
"That stubbornness of yours will only matter if you survive and make it back."
"Are you planning to kill me...?"
"If you become a threat, yes."
"Hah, then you might as well kill me right now, you foreign monster."
"Quite brave of you. Don't you realize this place is crawling with monsters?"
"Do you really think a Bureau agent would be scared of something like that?!"
Fierce fighting spirit. That spirit feels far too suspicious to me. It's abnormal no matter how I look at it. Just as the Fake Bureau itself is an abnormal organization, the people who belong to it are abnormal as well.
"You really don't value your life, do you? Like I said, you're nothing more than a high school student, a fresh rookie who's only just become an agent."
"S-so what?"
When I pointed it out while looking him in the eye, the guy shrank back. Maybe he himself was starting to sense that something was off. How does a modern high schooler, not some ancient warrior, suddenly start shouting "Allahu Akbar" the moment he becomes an agent?
"Have you never questioned it? Why you've become such a devoted agent?"
"What are you talking about..."
"I'm asking when exactly you turned into the kind of person who'd shout 'Long live the Bureau!' and even attempt suicide bombing."
"..."
A guy who was just a high school student until recently had instantly become an agent who doesn't even value his own life. This is far too strange. These are the things I've been pondering.
"Suicide bombing? That's something only Islamic terrorists would do. Even they don't go around blowing themselves up indiscriminately. Only the chosen fanatics who've undergone long-term brainwashing do that."
"S-so what..."
"You. The Bureau people did something to you, didn't they?"
"Shut up! Trying to drive a wedge between us with that nonsense won't work!"
I shook my head.
"What would be the point of doing that to a mere rookie agent like you?"
"Then why say something like that...!"
"Because I feel sorry for you."
"Sorry?"
Good. He's getting drawn into my pace. Right now, I'm skillfully leading the conversation with this guy. This is possible partly because I know Song Jin-seop well, but it's also proof that my experience has grown considerably.
"I'm a Bureau agent. How could I just stand by and watch when an ordinary civilian like you, and a minor at that, gets kidnapped by a suspicious organization called the 'Fake Bureau' and turned into a suicide-bombing addict terrorist?"
"What...!"
"Think back. What happened after you became an agent?"
At this point, I considered pulling out the perception-altering pen from my pocket. I'd heard it doesn't work on Fake Bureau agents, but it wouldn't hurt to test it once. Of course, if it fails, his wariness would skyrocket a hundredfold. Better to save it as a last resort.
"B-bullshit! You're the Fake Bureau! You're just trying to trick me...!"
"Right. According to your education, I'm a foreign monster. But do I look like that right now? I'm speaking rationally, pointing things out logically. Does this version of me match the foreign monster you've been taught about by the Fake Bureau?"
"..."
Song Jin-seop gritted his teeth. He couldn't argue back.
"Then... what about those guys who transform into monsters?"
How should I answer this? In the Fake Bureau, even if they don't know about me, Grong, agents like Spandal are completely perceived as monsters. Though that's also a misunderstanding. Spandal and the Fake Bureau only ever meet in combat situations. At those times, she's obviously using her thorn ability, so of course she'd look like a monster.
"That's because..."
I decided to push my hypothesis. The Fake Bureau recruits ordinary people and brainwashes them into their agents. Song Jin-seop's existence supports my theory. The fact that he, who was just a high school student until recently, became a crazy agent willing to suicide bomb is all because of their brainwashing technology. Come to think of it, these bastards had even tried to extract my brain once. If they're capable of that, brainwashing would be nothing to them.
"It's because your agents' perceptions have been manipulated."
"What?"
"Do I look like a monster right now? Or are you saying I'd become one if I transformed? Do you really think you could have a conversation with a monster?"
"That's not..."
His eyes trembled with anxiety. It was clear. Song Jin-seop was wavering.
"You've been victimized by them. They forcibly injected information into you. Otherwise, there's no way you'd become an agent willing to suicide bomb in just a few months."
Though saying this makes me feel like I'm the one brainwashing Song Jin-seop.
"You can think I'm lying to you if you want. But try looking back through your own memories and thinking logically. When exactly did you become such a devoted agent?"
"..."
"Learning the secrets of the world, becoming an agent of a secret organization called the Bureau, and carrying out missions for humanity is certainly something to be proud of. But becoming willing to suicide bomb in such a short period of time is truly strange. Let alone... incinerating civilians."
Song Jin-seop's condition was getting worse by the minute. His hands were trembling, and his eyes, filled with anxiety, shook even more violently. Then he grabbed his head with both hands.
"Wait... wait... something's wrong... Back then, I definitely..."
He started muttering to himself. His mental state seemed to have taken a major hit.
"Contrary to what you think, our Bureau works for humanity. Just last time, we went to deal with vampires and ghouls. While you people were incinerating civilians, we rescued them. We're currently in the process of erasing their memories of the vampires and returning them to society."
"I-incinerating, not rescuing...?"
Song Jin-seop wavered even more at this point. Because what we did was completely opposite to what his side had been doing.
"That's right. Rescue. And do you know why we came here this time? We came to rescue the people who were captured at that suspicious hospital you guys discovered, and this is what happened."
"S-shut up! Shut up, please...! That kind of nonsense...! My head feels like it's going to split...!"
He pulled out his pistol.
"What are you doing?!"
"Shh. Quiet. I see monsters."
This wasn't a safe zone. Looking around carefully, I could see the stitched ones scattered about. Were they heading this way? The atmosphere didn't feel good. We needed to change locations.
"Looks like we'll have to move somewhere else. Song Jin-seop. Think about it. There's no point in trying to pull something on a rookie agent like you. Doing anything to a single low-level grunt won't accomplish anything. I'm trying to convince you simply because I feel sorry for your situation."
"Then I..."
"Hold on. Let's change positions first."
I'd finished mapping out our escape route. I immediately grabbed Song Jin-seop and ran. As expected, the stitched ones entered the building where we'd been hiding.
* * *
After running for a while, we entered a new building and caught our breath. I checked on Song Jin-seop's condition. The defiant, spirited appearance he'd shown earlier was nowhere to be seen. He had a haggard face, his mental state completely shattered. I hadn't even seen that kind of expression during the apocalypse.
"Like you said... I remembered something strange."
"Tell me."
"I was definitely... just a high school student until a few months ago. I was attending Daeseo High School."
Ah, right. That was the name.
"That school in Seoul?"
"You know that too?"
The hostility was gone, and he was using polite speech now. My persuasion seemed to have worked very well.
"Like I said, I'm also an agent working for the Bureau. I have that level of information-gathering capability."
In reality, the Bureau hadn't been able to identify the personal details of individual Fake Bureau agents. They'd dismissed it as impossible. Since they were treated as anomalies, there wouldn't be any personal information to begin with. What I knew was simply because I was close with Song Jin-seop.
"Anyway. So how did a high school student like you become an agent?"
"Well, you see. Something strange happened, actually."
"Something strange?"
"After experiencing that incident, I ended up like this, but last time I saw something weird."
Song Jin-seop began his explanation.
"I was walking down the street when suddenly I saw this twisted person... like, a really twisted person? He was thrashing around, so I watched him closely, wondering what was going on."
A twisted person?
"He was twisting his body like that when suddenly he started headbutting a building, over and over. He kept smashing into it until blood was coming out..."
What?! Was that the Giant thing?!
"When was this?"
"It wasn't that long ago. Ah, it was that day. You know, that day when the news came out about a building collapsing in Seoul? Exactly that day."
It was that very day! The day I took down the Star's Offspring with Gorgodio and Curas!
"It was really strange. It definitely wasn't a disabled person, it was literally just some weird twisted person, so I took a picture and posted it online?"
"And then men in black suits came looking for you."
"Th-that's right! That's what happened! I got captured like that...!"
That's right. The ghost story that appears to people who've experienced anomalies. It had been applied to him. Of course, this wasn't just some ordinary ghost story. In this parallel world, the Fake Bureau's headquarters existed. They had tracked Song Jin-seop, who posted a photo of an anomaly, and immediately sent agents.
"You were taken in for interrogation, I assume."
"Yes..."
"Chief Kim Jo-hak?"
"What?! How did you know!"
It was that bastard after all. Chief Kim Jo-hak was the one who'd interrogated me when I was captured by the Fake Bureau after surviving the vampire attack. The culprit who tried to extract my brain.
"The atmosphere must have been quite coercive, wasn't it?"
"That's right. It was scary... It was like an interrogation room from a movie. S-so I told them everything I knew. And then at the end, they made me choose."
"Choose?"
"Whether to become an agent, or disappear from this world."
That was quite a... straightforward set of options.
"They said there are many things like that in this world. And that even if they sent back someone who'd learned the secret, it would only have negative effects. So they persuaded me to become an agent. I didn't want to die, so I said I'd become an agent for now, but... after that."
After that.
"After that, my memories are a bit hazy. Or should I say strange. Now that I think about it, it was weird even to me. I received training and did some things, but... how was I able to attempt suicide bombing without any hesitation..."
I was starting to get the picture.
"Did they use some kind of device on you? Or were you exposed to brainwashing waves?"
"A device...?"
"Yeah."
"Ah, ah. I think there might have been something like that. But the details..."
At this point, I took out the perception-altering pen.
"Song Jin-seop. This is a kind of hypnotic device. It's equipment used to extract memories from people's minds."
"What?!"
"If you want me to look more closely at your memories here, press this button yourself. If you don't want to, I'll put the pen away."
"..."
"I'm giving you a choice."
Forcing it would only plant negative perceptions. Here, offering him a choice would be better. It didn't matter if he refused. I'd already learned quite a bit about the Fake Bureau. I'd already extracted everything Song Jin-seop knew. I could press it myself if needed.
"O-okay. I'll trust you. I'll press it."
"Good. Let's find out what happened to you, what those Bureau bastards did to you."
Song Jin-seop reached out and pressed the button.
—Flash!
A brief light flickered, and Song Jin-seop's eyes became slightly dazed.
"Hmm... They said it wouldn't work. Maybe the brainwashing being lifted made it work?"
That meant the Fake Bureau's brainwashing equipment probably had a function to grant immunity to our side's perception-altering equipment.
"Song Jin-seop. Remember. Back when you were being interrogated."
"Ah... It was scary... Really..."
"You said you'd become an agent. What happened after that?"
"Well, you see... They said they were going to run some kind of examination..."
An examination?
"They moved me to a place called the examination room. When I went inside, there were all kinds of strange machines. Ah, ah... Th-there were several people there."