IMPRINT 5

Because of the nature of the Information Security Department’s work, whenever a new recruit joins, I inevitably have to look into that team member’s mind whether I like it or not. That is my job.

If someone with the ideology of the anti-allied forces were mixed into our team, or if terrorists or spies had infiltrated, that would be a national disaster situation.

However, there were often those who felt a sense of repulsion toward that work. Most were guys whose private lives were awkward, and I had to learn about their private lives even though I didn’t want to.

Those guys always make a fuss by complaining to the higher-ups that it was an anti-human rights act every time they leave, but do they think I looked because I enjoyed it? Are they the only ones feeling unpleasant? I feel like shit too, you know?

Whew, thinking about it makes me pissed off again.

It was a daily occurrence to find out those bastards were going around badmouthing me while I was rummaging through their heads, and there were those who went around various departments dating multiple people at once, those who hit on Guides… my mouth only hurts if I talk about it.

And how is it that every single one of those guys has such a noisy mouth? They say they are dying of unfairness, but it was a laughable thing. They even claimed that I was receiving special treatment from the Center.

It wasn’t as if I were free from the realm of confidentiality. Rather, it was my head that the Director General thoroughly ransacked without leaving a single grain of dust.

Every quarter, I am confined in a special interrogation room while draped with all sorts of restraints. After dropping my guiding level to 20%, which is right before a rampage, they administer an anesthetic used only for rampaging Espers to put me into a semi-comatose state for three days.

In the meantime, someone appointed by the Director General comes and pokes through every nook and cranny of my head, and it was mostly Director Shin who played that role. So, Director Shin and I were, so to speak, in a “you know too much” kind of relationship.

For that reason, the moment Director Shin or I cross the border without the Center’s permission, we become first-class wanted fugitives, and similarly, the moment we step outside the Center without permission, a shoot-to-kill order is issued.

That is why the two of us always gather to play Old Maid. With feelings of shared sympathy.

Even for us, who know most of the Center’s secrets, there is one thing strictly forbidden. That was looking into the mind of an S-class combat-type Esper. Their work itself is the highest grade of national secret, so even if we belong to the National Security Bureau, we did not have the authority to access their information.

However, there was a great dilemma in the situation where Kang Juha could not be treated without accessing it.

“What happened to the authorization request I put in?”

First, I put in a request for information access authorization directly to the Director General.

“The authorization came through. Conditionally.”

“Conditionally?”

I knew they wouldn’t grant it easily.

“The thing we did every quarter… let’s do it every month.”

“Ah, the rummaging through my head?”

“…Yes. What should we do?”

“What do you mean, what should we do? They tell me to fix Kang Juha but tell me not to look inside Kang Juha’s brain? They’re talking nonsense, like putting a blindfold on a doctor entering the operating room.”

“That’s true.”

“Sigh… then should I ask if I can just knead Kang Juha’s brain however I want? Should I just give them a call on the hotline?”

“I’ll excuse myself from this. I’ll act as if I didn’t hear that.”

Perhaps because he was a quick-witted fellow, he knew exactly where he should step back. I had only said it as empty words too; I had no intention of actually carrying it out.

“Tell them I understand. Whether they rummage or not.”

“Yes. They say they’ll grant the authorization as soon as they get the approval.”

“What are you doing? Go get the authorization.”

“Yes sir.”

“Ah, buy a chocolate bar on your way back too. Not a healthy one with high protein content, but a mass of sugar.”

“Pardon? A chocolate bar? Are you going to eat it, Team Leader?”

“No, not me.”

When I pointed to the monitor with my chin, Juyoung made a mysterious expression, then nodded and disappeared.

༘⋆

I forgot that Kang Juha’s intelligence level was at a point where he couldn’t even unwrap and eat a chocolate bar. When I held it out while it was still packaged, he snatched it and threw it onto the floor, then started kneading it wildly with his hands. Since it happened before I could stop him, I could only stand there like a dazed person.

“Hey! That’s a store-bought chocolate bar! It’s a pure mass of sugar that’s hard to get inside the Center!”

How could you ruin it like that!

It’s funny that I’m shouting over a chocolate bar that costs only 2,000 won, but in reality, store-bought chocolate bars were items that were quite difficult to obtain inside the Center. Even more so for S-class Espers whose outings were strictly limited, they were rarer than precious wild ginseng.

If you ask why, there were convenience stores and marts inside the Center, but the biggest reason was that they did not handle ultra-processed foods like store-bought chocolate bars as sales items for the health of the employees. It was a place that recommended boiled eggs or blanched broccoli for snacks.

“Please… at least let me unwrap it. Give it to me, please… Mr. Kang Juha. Mr. Kang Juha? Can you hear me? Do you hear me?”

How convenient would it be if I could just control his brain instead.

“…I can just do that, right?”

At this stage, it was difficult to control thoughts or memories, but actions might be possible. If it’s just a matter of handing over a chocolate bar, it wouldn’t be touching the deep subconscious or something against personal beliefs, so there would be no rejection reaction.

After clapping my hands to draw Kang Juha’s attention, I immediately made eye contact. It’s not that I must make eye contact to use the ability, but it was much easier to infiltrate this way.

I felt some skepticism toward myself as I was injecting the behavioral command to hand the chocolate bar to me into Kang Juha’s brain, but…

“It worked!”

It was quite a big achievement that Kang Juha, whose eyes had gone dull, walked over and held out the chocolate bar.

“Then I’ll unwrap this and give it to—ack!”

“Who are you? What kind of piece of shit are you.”

It was something I hadn’t anticipated that Kang Juha, whose sanity returned for a split second, reached outside the bars and snatched my arm.

Thanks to that, the chocolate bar that had been in Kang Juha’s hand rolled onto the floor, and my wrist felt like it was going to break at any moment. The problem was that I had put my hand inside the bars to receive the chocolate bar.

Did my wariness disappear just because we spent a night together? It was a stupid mistake.

“Wait, let’s… let’s talk after you let go.”

If worst came to worst, I could just infiltrate his mind again and knock him out. Rather, from my position, I was grateful that he had snapped out of it because of a single chocolate bar.

Grrrr.

However, I had no choice but to freeze at the sound of the beast’s growl that followed soon after.

“Like trash… I have to… kill them all.”

Since Kang Juha was huffing and puffing while muttering terrifying words in a low voice. Eyes that had lost focus and gone dull. It seemed he wasn’t even conscious of the fact that he was spitting out words.

As soon as I saw that, I forgot the fact that my wrist was being held and pressed my face right against the bars.

“Who?”

At the same time as I threw the question, I sent a weak stimulus to Kang Juha’s brain.

“All of them… have to kill…”

“Who ordered you?”

Grrrr.

I thought he wouldn’t answer easily, but Kang Juha’s condition worsened, perhaps because that part was properly blocked off. He clutched his head as if in pain and rolled around on the floor.

Hearing the labored scream, I had no choice but to give up on accessing his brain. Instead, I picked up the chocolate bar that had fallen on the floor and peeled off the wrapper.

“Get some sugar in you.”

I made only Kang Juha’s body move and placed the chocolate bar in his hand. Since he was staring at it blankly for a long time, I kindly helped him with putting it in his mouth and chewing it.

༘⋆

From the next day, I focused on waking up Kang Juha’s mind in earnest. First, starting with giving him back his name.

“Mr. Kang Juha.”

Kang Juha seemed not to know that it was his name, but he seemed to have roughly realized that at least it was a word referring to him.

Whether the fact that he spoke when I handed him the chocolate bar was just a momentary, accidental return of reason, he did not speak again even after several days had passed.

“Mr. Kang Juha.”

I tapped the bars lightly while calling his name. Since he was still close to a beast-like state, he reacted more easily to the sound of tapping the bars than to me calling his name. Perhaps because of that, when he looked back, he didn’t look at me but stared intently at my hand.

“Is it… a chocolate bar, perhaps?”

The “perhaps” thought was immediately put into action. I ordered Juyoung to get some individually wrapped chocolates and received them within a few hours.

As expected, it was a store-bought chocolate full of sugar. Because it was individually wrapped in plastic like candy, it was much easier to unwrap than the chocolate bar I gave before.

At this level, even Kang Juha should be able to do it.

“Mr. Kang Juha.”

Tap, tap. When I tapped the bars, his gaze was instantly fixed on my hand.

When I shook the chocolate in my hand, he seemed to be suspicious at first because he didn’t know what it was, but then I saw him walking toward me.

“Do you want to eat this?”

It was just a word I threw out as a joke, but Kang Juha nodded his head.

“…Wait a moment. You want to eat it?”

Another nod.

I got excited again, and this time I pressed everything from my face to my body right against the bars.

“Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Nod.

Hmm, something is strange.

“Is Mr. Kang Juha an idiot?”

Nod.

“…Eat the chocolate.”

It seemed he was just nodding subconsciously.