Chapter 49
3. Fraternization Guidelines
Mentions between familiar usernames who frequently interact are fine, but discussion that identifies each other’s real-world identities is prohibited.
We understand that meeting up in real life is impossible, but even so, please refrain from exchanging personal information about one another. If you’re caught, it’s an immediate permanent ban. No exceptions.
-Excerpt from the Management Bureau Gallery Rules, Episode 2-
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Kim Sang-jin, who had stepped away for a moment, returned holding something in his hand.
“Take this.”
“What is it?”
“A portable EMP. Keep it with you as insurance, and if anything happens, throw it on the floor.”
“Insurance?”
“It may be a member of our team, but it’s still an entity. You always have to be prepared for unexpected situations.”
So what I was about to meet was ‘Electricity Flows Through the Brain.’
“Could I read the entity report before going in?”
“No. There is no entity report for ‘Electricity Flows Through the Brain’ at the Management Bureau.”
What kind of bullshit was that? What kind of Management Bureau didn’t have a report on an entity it managed?
“One of the conditions for ‘Electricity Flows Through the Brain’ cooperating with the Management Bureau was that we not create an entity report on it.”
“That’s a surprisingly unusual condition.”
“I thought so too, but isn’t it much better than asking us to feed it?”
“When you put it that way, I suppose going without one report doesn’t sound so bad.”
“I agree,” Kim Sang-jin said as I took the portable EMP from his hand.
The baseball-sized black sphere fit comfortably in my palm.
“Are you mentally prepared?”
“Give me a moment. I’ll report to my team before I go in.”
After sending Team Leader and my seniors a brief message saying I had stopped by the Information Team, I opened the gallery.
[I’m meeting up with that big-company office-worker oppa today]
Author: GalleryingIsEasy
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[Comments]
Comments cannot be posted on this thread.
What the fuck.
I clicked my tongue at a level of censorship I had never seen before.
This wasn’t like AhShoveItIn’s posts in the ‘Forest of the Faceless Ones,’ where only a few words had been censored.
The entire post had been censored.
And with the comment section locked on top of that, it felt like the system was determined not to let me receive even the slightest hint.
[Hey, did anyone see the post I just made?]
Author: GalleryingIsEasy
[Image censored during pre-upload review]
It suddenly censored everything and locked the comments too.
If this feature existed, use it on the bastards posting entity porn.
Why the fuck are you using it on an innocent orphan?
Head mod, unlock it while I’m asking nicely.
[Comments]
EntityFreak: Your recent posts have been one orphan two orphan three orphan Indian though
ㄴMyDadIsAMurimMaster: Looks like the post itself got blocked before it was uploaded
ManageTheManagement: Since this is preemptive censorship by the gallery itself, it is not something I have any control over.
ㄴ(OP) GalleryingIsEasy: How does it make sense that the head mod can’t do anything
ㄴManageTheManagement: If you were a gallery addict even before coming here, surely you know what kind of authority a mod actually has
ㄴ(OP) GalleryingIsEasy: Why the fuck would anyone volunteer to be an unpaid slave who deletes gore and gets used as everyone’s punching bag
ㄴGalleryingForPay: Factsㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ (User has been blocked for 10 minutes.)
The head mod was saying nothing but incomprehensible bullshit.
No sane person would ever willingly become a mod.
There were only three reasons someone became one.
They spent so much time being a gallery addict that they stood out and got forcibly conscripted.
The previous mod was such a useless piece of shit that they got impeached, dumped the position on you, and ran.
Or finally, you liked the gallery’s topic or atmosphere enough that you wanted to preserve the status quo somehow.
As a joke, whenever the holidays rolled around, people would post fake mod pay stubs complete with holiday bonuses, but obviously that was nonsense.
There had actually once been a gallery packed with notorious trolls and arsonists where the head mod paid diligent sub-mods salaries of up to one million won….
And the backlash had been so enormous that the head mod was actually impeached.
My thoughts wandered for a moment, but the conclusion was simple.
I wasn’t going to get any hints about ‘Electricity Flows Through the Brain,’ whom I was about to meet.
Not because people refused to help me, but because the system itself refused.
“I’m done reporting in.”
“I heard Team Leader Imina is usually quite lax about things like that. I suppose the rumors were exaggerated.”
“She never takes anything involving entities lightly.”
Whirrrr.
Kim Sang-jin manipulated a panel, and the door leading toward the interrogation room opened.
A fairly long corridor stretched out before me, ending in a thick door.
That could only mean one thing.
“So it wasn’t an interrogation room. It was a containment chamber. I should’ve realized the moment I heard there was such a thing as an interrogation waiting room.”
“Our coworker dislikes being treated like an entity. The functionality is similar, though.”
Similar, my ass. What I had to do had just gone from having a conversation to managing an entity….
I nearly said that aloud.
Instead, I tightened my grip on the EMP and walked into the in.ter.ro.ga.tion room.
Boom!
The double doors slammed shut the moment I stepped into the darkness.
As soon as they sealed completely—
Flash!
Every light in the room came on at once.
“Ugh!”
I hurriedly covered my eyes against the sudden brightness, then lowered my arm once they gradually adjusted.
The sight before me was fairly surreal.
And yet, compared to everything I had experienced so far, it was strangely realistic enough that I could calmly take it in without much surprise.
The containment chamber had a high ceiling.
About as high as a three- or four-story apartment building.
There was more than enough reason for that.
Because the thing in front of me was so enormous it nearly touched the ceiling.
A body made of hundreds of TVs or monitors, supported by three thick iron pillars.
Aside from one monitor where its head should have been, displaying the shape of a brain, every other screen showed a single English word.
Whirrrr.
The lenses of CCTV cameras that seemed to serve as its eyes rotated endlessly as they stared at me.
This was probably the Information Team employee with the entity name ‘Electricity Flows Through the Brain.’
The true form of the guy I knew far better as WhiteHacker.
My grip tightened even further around the EMP.
Understandably so.
This was the kind of offline meetup where anyone other than me would have already thrown the EMP and run for their life.
Forget being catfished through photo editing or lied to about someone’s gender.
We weren’t even the same species.
At this point, maybe I was getting off easy.
“……”
[…….]
“…How much have you made from NewTube so far?”
I was the first to speak.
It felt like this awkward silence would drag on for quite a while otherwise.
And the longer this meeting lasted, the later I was the one who would get off work.
Whirrrr. Whirrrr. Whirrrr. Whirrrr.
The moment it heard my voice, the thing began shaking its cameras around in a frenzy.
Bzzzt.
The display on one of its monitors changed.
[Talk casually you dumbass]
“Your mom….”
[Don’t have one]
Fine.
I admit it.
You really are the WhiteHacker I know.
“I had a lot I wanted to ask you anyway.”
The only person in a gallery supposedly made up mostly of dead Management Bureau employees who could freely move between real-time Management Bureau information and the internet.
At worst, I had expected it to be some high-ranking official at the Management Bureau.
Never would I have guessed it was an entity.
Bzzzt. Bzzzt. Bzzzt. Bzzzt.
The text on several monitors changed again.
[You get only 3 questions at the end]
[For now listen to me? No just watch]
I didn’t like its attitude of saying whatever it wanted without letting me speak, but this thing had saved my life, so I accepted it.
Not that I could do anything if I refused.
What was I supposed to do besides throw the EMP, pound on the steel door, and sob while begging them to let me out?
Better to wait quietly, ask my questions, and leave.
[Good boy]
When I nodded, WhiteHacker, aka ‘Electricity Flows Through the Brain,’ sent me a thumbs-up emoji.
A moment later, hundreds of monitors lit up with words simultaneously, combining into sentences.
We applaud your devotion to humanity
Your accomplishments thus far are remarkable
We hope you will continue your outstanding performance
After lengthy deliberation, we have determined that an appropriate reward is necessary
We will promptly select an entity that may aid you in your duties
We regret that your request for ‘You Have Two Hearts’ was rejected
We will prepare a reward of a similar class
I shall come visit you before long, my new guinea pig!
“What?”
I had been reading along just fine until the final line, displayed in bold, caught my attention.
But almost immediately, as though that last sentence had never existed in the first place, the monitors returned to displaying meaningless English words.
[Exactly what it says]
[Means reward distribution will take time]
[Are your fucking eyes broken?]
“No, not that…. Just now, the last line was in bold….”
[Last line was ‘We will prepare a reward of a similar class’]
“The monitors clearly said something about coming to see me soon….”
[Last line was ‘We will prepare a reward of a similar class’]
[Last line was ‘We will prepare a reward of a similar class’]
[Last line was ‘We will prepare a reward of a similar class’]
[Last line was ‘We will prepare a reward of a similar class’]
“…Fine.”
I should post what appeared on the last line to the gallery later.
It felt like another item was about to be added to my list of things unfairly screwing me over.
Whether the post got censored or not.
[Done talking 3 questions allowed]
[Choose carefully]
[Will answer after all 3 questions asked]
[Answers only YES or NO]
WhiteHacker emphasized that it had finished saying everything it wanted and demanded that I ask my questions.
Even though that was apparently the final item on today’s meeting agenda.
As if it had absolutely no interest in personal small talk or things like my bank-account number.
Thinking of what to ask wasn’t difficult.
I had accumulated quite a few questions already.
“Does the Management Bureau gallery want something from me?”
The cooperation they had shown me was far too devoted to be explained away as merely wanting to keep the dopamine flowing.
“Is there a problem with the Seoul-area Management Bureau?”
The Human Rights Waiver Recruitment Track, concealed entity information, and a working environment markedly different from regional branches.
“Is the ability to access the Management Bureau gallery my ability?”
Being able to access the gallery inside the Backrooms was one thing.
But I had even been able to access it in places where abilities were sealed.
Even if I couldn’t receive detailed explanations, those were the three questions whose answers would give me the clearest direction going forward.
Bzzzt.
The moment I finished asking all three questions, every one of WhiteHacker’s monitors shut off.
Something red began flowing from the cameras that seemed to serve as its eyes.
It looked too red to be oil.
Flash!
Then every monitor turned on at once.
The background of every screen was blood-red.
Unlike before, where each monitor displayed one word, all the monitors now combined to form a single word.
One enormous word appeared across the blood-colored screens.
[YES]
Crash!
A third of the monitors shattered, spilling red liquid everywhere.
“What the hell! Mr. Sang-jin! Mr. Sang-jin!”
Ignoring me as I panicked and shouted for Kim Sang-jin beyond the door, WhiteHacker used its remaining monitors to display the answer to my next question.
[ES]
Crash!
Another third shattered, staining the floor of the containment chamber red.
And despite that, WhiteHacker manipulated the monitors it had left to give me the answer to my final question.
[O]
Crash!
The moment every monitor belonging to ‘Electricity Flows Through the Brain’ shattered, its cameras drooped lifelessly downward.