Ch.118Foundation Intruders (2)

Inside the Foundation facility.

From the outside, it looks like an ordinary building, but there’s something distinctly alien about it.

Foundation personnel busily move through corridors, offices, and stairways. Yet they keep glancing in our direction.

Even though our group has shrunk by three, we’re still seven people. Plus, we’re in casual clothes, so it’s impossible not to attract attention.

“We’re drawing too much attention. Let’s move somewhere else.”

“Where to?”

“I know a good spot.”

Robin’s chosen location is the entrance to a first-floor bathroom.

Either it’s poorly placed or hardly anyone uses it.

It’s the perfect spot to review our plan one last time.

I lowered my voice, checking to make sure no employees were passing by.

“Those people earlier. Do you think they recognized you, Robin?”

“The Foundation’s security procedures aren’t that sloppy. They probably don’t even know I exist.”

“What about Daju or Riko?”

“Oh my god, I told you I have nothing to do with the Foundation anymore!”

“I worked in a completely different branch. There’s no way they’d recognize me.”

“That’s a relief.”

We haven’t been discovered yet, but it’s only a matter of time.

Everyone will start thinking something’s off, and someone will report us despite their busy schedules.

We need to finish this as quickly as possible.

“Let’s just split up and move from here.”

“Yes, I was about to suggest the same.”

We need two teams:

An infiltration team and a breakthrough team.

“First, here’s what the breakthrough team needs to do.”

Robin extends her hand, pointing to the corridor on the right.

“If you go that way, you’ll reach the Special Management Zone. Go up one more floor from there, and you’ll find the weapons storage. Move as naturally as possible and wait near the storage until the door opens.

The infiltration team will breach the central system’s security and open the storage door.”

According to Robin, some facilities within the Foundation can’t be accessed through normal authentication procedures.

Particularly for anomalous entity containment areas and weapons storage, authorization from the central system is absolutely necessary.

“This is like something straight out of a movie. The breakthrough team pushes to the target point while the infiltration team hacks the central system’s security.”

Jung Haewon neatly summarizes the plan.

“Yes, exactly.”

Robin nods confidently.

The plan itself isn’t difficult.

But being so simple means it has many vulnerabilities.

“But Robin… will we be able to wait around the weapons storage?”

“Someone will definitely report us.”

Choi Serim and Yoon Daju fire questions one after another.

“I’m thinking the same thing, Robin. It’s too dangerous.”

Dan, who had been quietly listening, adds his thoughts.

“Strangers lingering in front of weapons? If it were me, I’d definitely lock them up. Didn’t you say we’d refine the plan once we arrived at the facility?”

Despite all these questions, Robin remained expressionless in her responses.

“We have no choice. We just need to open the storage door as quickly as possible.”

“Is there really no other way?”

“No. There are far more people in the facility than I expected. There are too many variables to set up safe routes one by one.”

So we’re just going to have to improvise?

Jung Haewon is secretly quite timid, and Dan doesn’t seem particularly reliable. Riko has some strange way of thinking, according to Choi Serim.

In the end, Yoon Daju is the only one I can trust on the breakthrough team.

“Daju.”

“Yes, oppa?”

“I’m counting on you. Take care of Haewon and the others.”

The only one I can trust is Daju.

“…Oh.”

Even Yoon Daju seems surprised by this.

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah. You’re good at fighting. Quick to make decisions too.”

“Heh, that’s true. But still,”

Even in this situation, Daju playfully taunts me.

“More importantly, you need to open that door quickly, right?”

“Yeah, I’ll do my best, so you…”

Before I could finish, Daju flashed a bright smile.

“I trust you too, oppa.”

“Uh… yeah.”

For a moment I was taken aback.

As soon as I heard those words of trust, something welled up inside me.

“Oh god. So cringey.”

“Aaaaargh!”

Daju clutched her head and squirmed.

I almost burst out laughing.

“Let’s move now.”

I did one final headcount.

Me, Robin, and Choi Serim would head upstairs to the central system.

Yoon Daju, Jung Haewon, Riko, and Dan—the four of them would go downstairs to the weapons storage.

Once we pass this corridor, the two teams will split at the staircase.

“Wait a minute. Have we decided on an escape route?”

Daju asks how we’ll escape after stealing the weapons.

It might seem difficult at first glance, but there’s nothing complicated to think about.

“Yeah.”

It’s actually very simple.

“Just don’t think about it at all.”

That’s all I can tell her.

If I say more, it’ll just complicate things.

“What kind of answer is that?!”

“I’ll tell you when it’s all over. For now, just focus on what we need to do.”

Leaving behind a bewildered Daju, I climbed the stairs.

From the first floor to the second.

Then to the third.

Everywhere I look, it’s an old-fashioned building that could appear in vintage news footage.

But each room along the corridor houses technology that seems impossible for 2011.

Devices that look complex at a glance.

A supercomputer in one room displays simulation results like weather satellite thermal imaging.

Plus touch screens and displays with unbelievably clear resolution.

“Don’t stare too long.”

At Robin’s warning, I quickly looked away from the window.

I was just curious, but I must have gotten too absorbed.

Moving as naturally as possible, trying to look like people from another department or facility, we head toward the Foundation’s internal server room.

So far, so good.

We haven’t run into anyone.

[Human Resources]

[Internal Ethics Committee]

[Post-Mortem Processing]

Just as we passed the middle of the corridor with these signs on each door—

Bang—

Someone opens a door from a room not far away.

A man with a long face briefly looks around, then starts walking toward us from the opposite end of the corridor.

“Act as natural as possible.”

Robin lowers her voice.

The man addresses us as soon as he sees us.

“Oh, what’s this? New faces?”

“Ah… hello.”

I wish he’d just gone away.

The man blocks our path and keeps peering at us.

“Do you work in the server section? I hadn’t heard about any new people. And there are foreigners too.”

Riko and Robin are foreigners.

It would look suspicious if they spoke first, so I need to take the lead.

“What? Oh. Yes. I guess you haven’t heard yet. We usually work at central headquarters, but they asked us to check the servers while we’re in Korea on business.”

“Oh…”

What kind of “oh” is that?

We need to hurry and open the weapons storage.

I was about to finish the conversation and move on when the man spoke again.

“But there’s something interesting.”

“Uh.”

What now?

Did he figure it out?

My heart sank.

What made me even more anxious was not knowing what expression I was making.

What does my face look like right now?

I’ve never been told I’m bad at hiding my expressions, but I’ve never been praised for being a good liar either.

Right.

I’ll just maintain a blank expression.

I forcibly fixed the corners of my mouth and stared at him, trying not to think about anything.

“Um, what is it?”

“You’re all so beautiful. Makes me want to visit headquarters sometime.”

I felt all the tension drain away.

“Ahaha… thank you.”

“May I ask your names?”

“I’m sorry. We’ve been instructed by headquarters not to disclose personal information.”

“Ah. I understand. Can’t be helped.”

This bastard.

I’m smiling on the outside but cursing nonstop inside.

We were just trying to pass by when he stopped us, and I went through a thousand thoughts, all for nothing.

Above all, time is of the essence. I don’t have time to entertain this guy’s flirting.

“Well, good luck with your work.”

“Yes. Have a nice day.”

The man disappears down the corridor.

I finally let out a sigh of relief.

“Phew… how much further?”

“We’re almost there.”

Robin gestures toward a sign that reads [Server Room].

“And before we go in, we need to deal with the people inside.”

The server room is just a few steps away.

Choi Serim was the first to open the door and enter.

As soon as she appeared, the employees working in the server room showed confused reactions.

“Um, who are you?”

“Did you get authorization to be here?”

“Team leader, did you hear about anyone coming today?”

“No. There was no one scheduled.”

Just as the employees were starting to notice something was wrong.

Thud.

All conversation stopped.

The employees who had been tilting their heads in confusion suddenly pass by us as if nothing happened.

They leave the server room, walk down the corridor, and head for the stairs.

They all move in a line with blank expressions, which was a bit creepy, so I remained frozen with tension.

Thump, thump.

The Foundation personnel move like robots following commands.

“It’s done now.”

Only when I heard Choi Serim’s voice could I look to the side.

“Well done, noona.”

“…Yeah.”

“Noona?”

Choi Serim is sweating and biting her lip hard.

Having manipulated so many people’s thoughts at once must be a huge burden.

But even accounting for that, Serim’s condition wasn’t good.

She was trembling with her head down.

She barely managed to speak through quivering lips.

“Those people… their memories and thoughts are so horrible.”

She must have been exposed to others’ memories during the thought manipulation process.

Though they work in the server room, they’re still Foundation employees. They’ve probably seen all kinds of horrific scenes.

Having glimpsed such memories, it’s no wonder she’s in a state of panic.

“Just read my thoughts for now.”

While I was taking care of Serim, Robin quickly assessed the situation.

“Did Serim just read an employee’s thoughts? What did you see?”

“Data… death reports. Photos and descriptions…”

“Noona, don’t think about it anymore. Robin, please stop asking.”

Why keep questioning someone who’s trembling with fear?

Robin caught my eye, cleared her throat, and looked away.

“How could they… how could they do such things?”

“It’s better to forget. It’s horrible, but necessary work.”

Robin makes another unnecessary comment from the side.

She seems capable, but she’s really bad at managing other people’s mental states.

“Just be quiet. We have time, so let’s take it slow.”

After silencing Robin, I tried to think of the most peaceful images I could.

Fortunately, it didn’t take long for Serim to regain her composure.

“Are you feeling better now?”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

Now all that’s left is the hacking.

The room is filled with computer towers as tall as a person.

Each of these pillar-like devices forms part of the internal server network.

“Robin. We’re ready. What do we do now?”

“Yes. I’m almost done too.”

Robin, who had appeared to be preparing to work, pulled out a pistol and aimed it at a nearby server.

“Wait, Robin?”

Bang!

As a hole appeared in the server, alarms began blaring from all directions.

“What are you doing?!”

“Security weakens during emergency situations. Plus, we can draw security personnel here rather than to the weapons storage.”

“Then why are you only telling us this now?”

“I just got the idea.”

Robin speaks quickly while taking a seat at a computer.

It’s not just scientific technology, but a computing device integrated with useful anomalies and memes.

To access the system, we need to break through not only computer security but numerous other restrictions.

“Three minutes from now.”

Like when executing anomaly observation, a message appears in the air before my eyes.

[Emergency situation detected.]

[Switching server status to safe mode.]

[Temporarily disconnecting from internal network.]

[Backing up important data and destroying hazardous data. This process will continue until the threat is eliminated.]

“We’ll breach the system within that time.”