Chapter 329
Chapter 329
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Chapter 329 - 첫 걸음
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Translator: crow
Chapter 329: First Step
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The year-end departmental shuffle at the KCIA proceeded exactly as 1st Deputy Director Kim Dae-gyu had promised.
I was appointed acting head of the Media Operations Section.
There was a reason for making it acting head again this time.
"If Section Chief Bae delivers results this round, he'll get promoted to Grade 2 and shed that 'acting' label."
Ah. That made sense.
Media operations, huh.
Handing a covert ops section to someone like me with no intelligence background? That had to mean Bae Seong-jun's "image improvement results" had caught the eye of the higher-ups.
*Felt just right.*
I started by reviewing the Media Operations Section's org chart via the personnel order.
The Media Operations Section's structure was as follows:
Grade 2 Director (position vacant).
Grade 3 Deputy Director, acting section chief—me.
Two Grade 3 Deputy Directors serving as unit heads.
Sixteen other staff.
The section was lean compared to other divisions and bureaus, but that didn't mean it was unimportant.
Its mission—propaganda to safeguard the regime—could hardly be trivial.
Botch the propaganda, and you risked tanking the regime's approval ratings and stability.
Given the stakes, the people assigned to the Media Operations Section had serious experience under their belts.
Minimum ten years, with some clocking up to twenty-five.
Veterans like these didn't take kindly to parachuted-in outsiders from above.
That attitude showed plain as day on my first day.
"I'm Bae Seong-jun, reporting as acting head of the Media Operations Section."
"Ah, sure."
The executives' reactions weren't exactly welcoming.
I ignored their sour expressions and kept smiling.
"Please take good care of me going forward."
I started off all smiles, but I had my own plans.
*To get real work done, first make them bone-deep aware that I'm the boss.*
After arriving at the Media Operations Section, I did absolutely nothing for a stretch.
"Section Chief, here's the new draft we've prepared."
Even when my subordinates brought proposals, I sent them all back with a bored look.
"What kind of thinking is that? How do you expect to get anything done?"
I didn't bother explaining why.
As I kept acting inexplicably, the subordinates couldn't hold back and rebelled as a group.
"Section Chief! We can't get any work done like this. At least tell us how you plan to run things!"
"Explaining what that means would just kill the sexiness."
"Pardon?"
"Can't you bring it back fun, cool, and sexy?"
They must have thought it was nonsense.
Of course it was bullshit.
I'd straight-up borrowed the speaking style of Japan's famously fourth-dimensional Environment Minister Koizumi Shinjiro.
Everyone was floored.
*Like it? That's the point.*
Show them how bullshit it is, and they'll internalize who's master here.
Dealing with grizzled vets sometimes called for bullshit like this.
"Section Chief, we can't work like this."
"Is that so?"
Eventually, some would charge right at me.
These were the ones never primed to bend in the first place.
"Then get out."
"Pardon?"
"Aren't you here to throw in your resignation?"
I wasn't the type to beg them to stay.
But where could a mid-career KCIA agent go if they quit?
There was the Sunlight Association for ex-KCIA folks, but it only took active-duty influencers.
Not mid-career dropouts.
I propped my feet on the desk and unfolded the newspaper.
Utterly ignoring the executive who'd come to complain.
"Not leaving?"
They hemmed and hawed, ground their teeth, and stormed out of the section chief's office.
Humiliated by my attitude, they put in their resignations.
Once a few quit, word came from above.
"Section Chief Bae, department drama will drag down your evaluation too. You need to think about that."
"No worries."
I didn't plan to keep this up forever.
Once I'd culled the thick-headed ones bold enough to challenge me, there'd be no more reason for pushback.
*Chop off the head, and the rest is easy.*
I called in the now-drained rank-and-file who'd lost the energy even for turf wars and issued orders.
Each time, they responded with crisp enthusiasm.
"Yes, sir. We'll handle it as directed."
The spines that had been so stiff at first bent with remarkable flexibility.
They'd clearly *realized* that starting trouble would only get them bled.
*Now we're ready to work.*
I decided it was time to get down to business.
My first target: the opposition New Democratic Party.
The quitters had suggested choking them via the press, but I had no intention of playing the media game their way.
"Sometimes primitive methods move hearts best."
"What do you mean by that?"
For a powerhouse like the KCIA, using a tactic everyone assumes you *wouldn't*—that's what makes people buy it as real.
My choice: wall posters.
"We scatter paper that looks crudely printed at some back-alley shop. That's the core of our op."
I fine-tuned the content too.
The hook: cash-stuffed envelopes tied to by-election nominations.
Why nominations specifically?
"It paints the opposition as just as blind to infighting over seats."
We kicked off the op fast.
The night before the by-election, we blanketed 300 flyers around the party leader's residence.
"Now we just tip the press, and we're golden."
"What are you talking about? We sit tight and play dumb."
That way, the reporters wouldn't sniff KCIA involvement.
I sat at my desk, leisurely spinning my pen.
That evening, every evening edition ran stories on New Democratic Party nomination scandals.
"New Democratic Party: Mystery posters surface amid nomination uproar."
"New Democratic Party dismisses rumors as baseless gossip."
"NDP infighting over nominations—truth or fiction?"
The posters we dropped on the eve of the election hit like a bomb.
The NDP, projected to snag five seats, limped away with a measly three.
The Media Operations Section couldn't claim sole credit, of course, but the brass was thrilled.
"Section Chief Bae, you handled this beautifully."
"Thank you, Deputy Director."
"If there's anything you want, name it."
Kim Dae-gyu's expression made it clear he meant it.
Extra budget was tempting, but what I really wanted was elsewhere.
"In that case, I'd like some personnel reinforcements."
"Reinforcements? Right, you've got holes after those exits. Who should we pull from where in the bureau?"
"Deputy Director."
"Yes?"
"I'd like to bring over some folks from the old Policy Promotion Office."
I requested Policy Promotion Office staff.
"The Policy Promotion Office? Where you worked before?"
"Yes. Their work overlaps with ours here, so I think they'd fit well."
Kim Dae-gyu peered into my eyes for a long moment, then nodded easily.
"Make it happen, then."
Truth was, after I left, the Policy Promotion Office was back on the chopping block.
No one would object to poaching from a doomed unit.
I immediately secured Section Chief Oh first.
"Section Chief, is it really okay to bring a guy like me into a core spot like Media Operations?"
"It's fine. I've already booted the complainers."
I appointed Section Chief Oh as team lead in the Media Operations Section.
Then I slotted the Policy Promotion Office transfers into key spots.
You might wonder about that.
"Why bother with the Policy Promotion crew when you could just grab Section Chief Oh?"
There was a reason I brought them in.
*Policy Promotion people are KCIA fringe—no real roots, just dispatched from powerless agencies.*
They couldn't blend with KCIA mainstream anywhere.
Bringing them in would naturally split the section into factions.
*Divided factions appeal to the ruler.*
A united front is tough to control, but split in two? A little pitting against each other crushes them.
This was how I'd demonstrate unassailable control—no room for challenges—while tightening my grip on the Media Operations Section.
Stronger hold meant easier recruitment ops down the line if needed.
I asked Section Chief Oh to observe the staff.
"You're picking candidates to join your plans, sir?"
"Not yet. Too soon for moves."
Loyalty doesn't come cheap or quick.
Section Chief Oh was a rare exception.
Most needed material incentives like cash.
"Right."
"Classify their leanings. Who's buyable with money, who's not."
"Understood perfectly."
That intel would prove a handy tool later.
And so I took my first step toward power.