Ch.153Theater Voyeur (4)

The male host briefly checks the screen.

“Yes. Jung Haewon has left a comment. He says an organization called the Foundation is currently helping people evacuate.”

– The Foundation?

– Why does it sound like I’ve never heard of it before?

– ?

– What foundation? Not the government?

“Team Leader Choi Cheol-hwan. Is this organization called the Foundation safe to follow?”

“We must not fall for rumors. The government has never operated an organization called ‘the Foundation,’ and we cannot confirm what kind of organization ‘the Foundation’ is. Citizens should only trust the government. Seeking help from unverified relief organizations could be dangerous, so please continue to trust government personnel, firefighters, and military forces.”

Team Leader Choi Cheol-hwan speaks at length on the screen.

But his concluding words were the same.

“And Jung Haewon? You mentioned earlier that you’re staying in a theater. Remaining in an enclosed space is dangerous. Please evacuate quickly to an open area outside.”

“Yes. Thank you for your explanation, Team Leader Choi Cheol-hwan.”

The male announcer immediately wraps up his comments.

“It seems an unidentified group called the Foundation is evacuating citizens. Even if they call it evacuation, we don’t know their intentions or identity. For now, please don’t move hastily and wait calmly for rescue. And one more thing.”

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Has it become more impatient?

The pounding sound from outside the door grows louder again.

It creates fear to make people easier to deceive.

That’s one of its strategies.

“…Those of you inside the theater, please come out quickly and evacuate to an open area.”

The news repeats the same content again.

I wanted to get even a little information about the Foundation.

But the news simply dismissed it as a rumor.

We still don’t know. So please wait calmly.

Trust only the government and wait.

There’s no new information.

I need to make it more anxious.

So it can’t hold back from passing information.

Foundation classification code CREEP-319. Alias: Tent of Confirmation Bias.

An entity that creates visible threats while hunting people by deceiving them through various media.

The longer we resist being deceived, the more plausible lies it will create.

And plausible lies must contain some degree of truth.

The news will inevitably contain higher amounts of truth.

If we just hold out in here.

“…Dabin.”

Serim pulls on my sleeve.

Her eyes look completely unfocused.

“We… I think we need to go outside.”

“Noona.”

“They say it’s dangerous to stay in here, right? The monster keeps trying to get in from outside anyway. It’s only a matter of time before it breaks through. If we stay in here, we’ll be trapped and all get eaten.”

Serim rapidly spills out words.

Her expression is terrified. Her fingers gripping me are cold.

“So let’s get out quickly. Even if it’s dangerous right away, if we can somehow shake it off… Then we’ll have a way to escape. Right?”

“…Citizens are advised to evacuate quickly to open areas.”

That news, still repeating the same message.

News doesn’t just deceive its listeners.

The more you listen, the more it erodes your cognitive abilities. So you can’t make proper judgments.

Of course, the effect is minimal.

First, it doesn’t work properly if you’re asleep.

And even if you’re awake, it doesn’t have much effect.

“Hey. Jung Haewon.”

Jung Haewon had returned a little while ago after blocking the theater door.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes.”

Jung Haewon nods.

As expected. The effect is extremely weak as I knew.

Not only the women who have strong resistance, but even Jung Haewon, a man with relatively less resistance, is fine.

What I can think of is that Serim is unusual.

“Ah.”

Serim’s mental strength weakens when she uses her ability.

Her resistance to anomalies that affect the mind drops significantly.

It seems her mental strength weakened a bit when she put the others to sleep earlier.

I should have calculated that properly…

My mistake.

“Let’s get out quickly. What is everyone doing… We need to get out quickly… right?”

I firmly gripped Serim’s shoulders.

Looking her in the eyes, I spoke in a clear tone.

“Noona. Get a grip.”

“Quickly!”

“You’ll die if you go outside.”

“Ugh… but.”

“We just need to hold out a little longer. Please trust me.”

A moment of silence passed.

After a while.

The light returns to Serim’s eyes.

“…Okay. I understand. I’ll trust you, Dabin.”

“Thank goodness.”

We got through it safely this time, but time isn’t infinite.

That thought occurred to me.

“If you have any strange thoughts again, tell me right away.”

After urging Serim, I checked my phone again.

I need to gather information as quickly as possible. If possible, during this opportunity.

I typed in the chat again.

– You mentioned earlier that the Foundation was conducting rescue operations, and it seems they’ve now reached this area

– I just got a message from an acquaintance saying that people nearby have been safely rescued with the help of the ‘Foundation’

– The Foundation is also broadcasting on radio, and they’re saying it’s safer to stay inside the theater

They say it’s more dangerous to move rashly, so don’t move and wait for rescue

– Which side should we believe?

– I can hear sounds of monsters trying to get in from outside, so I’m wondering if we should keep holding out in the theater.

– Isn’t it better to trust the government?

– I heard monsters get stronger inside theaters. I think we should get out quickly, even now.

– Do you even know what the Foundation is?

This time, the effect was much stronger than before.

Intense reactions in the chat.

And the somewhat flustered expressions of the people in the video.

All of this shows that it’s becoming agitated.

Just as I expected.

“I’m wondering if we should hold out until the end.”

This one sentence provoked its reaction.

Jung Haewon sticks close to me, checking the video screen.

The host and expert are keeping their mouths shut,

while the chat continues to scroll up.

Every message attacks the Foundation and tells people to trust the government.

“Noona. These chats are fake too, right?”

“Yes. A response will come soon.”

Sure enough. New information came in on the news.

I held up my index finger toward Jung Haewon.

“Shh.”

“Ah. We’ve just received new information. I’d like to quickly relay this to Jung Haewon who left a chat message earlier.”

The male announcer delivers the news in a somewhat faster tone.

“We’ve determined that an organization called ‘the Foundation’ is currently carrying out various terrorist activities.”

“The strange broadcasts also appear to be the work of the Foundation. The Foundation recently revealed the beginning of a plan to exterminate humanity through broadcast hijacking. Activities such as terrorism and strange broadcasts seem to be part of that plan.”

Then footage appears.

An ordinary TV entertainment show.

Suddenly the screen distorts, and a black male figure appears on the screen.

“Citizens of the world. Hello.”

There’s no information to be gained.

The black male figure on the screen is just an image. Though a voice plays, it’s thoroughly modified so the original can’t be identified.

But I could tell who he was.

“We are an organization called ‘the Foundation,’ and we have been protecting humanity from behind the scenes of reality.”

As a member of the O5 Council that leads the Foundation, one who exerts influence over the Foundation’s major agendas.

“For a very, very long time.”

One who sees the future and thinks ahead.

“To protect humanity, we have always made the same choice. Anomalous phenomena that deviate from the norm. Anomalous entities. Isolating nonsensical concepts and preventing contact with the outside world. No matter what sacrifice it takes, preventing the collapse of the reality we perceive.”

The one I encountered at the apartment.

“But at some point, we realized. Our measures to define and protect reality were gravely mistaken. Those things outside reality could never be separated from us, and were one of the mechanisms protecting us.

As a result of our wrong choices, humanity has become infected with a disease, just waiting for a terrible end.”

He pauses briefly to catch his breath.

“The Foundation has. Made a decision.”

The one who transmitted this broadcast to the entire world a few days before we escaped from the apartment.

And the one who will be the final enemy in this story.

“From this point on. To all nations, societies, groups in reality, and all organizations in the paraverse.

The UN Paranormal Security Council,

The Global Occult Coalition,

The Librarians of the Wanderer’s Library,

We declare war on these organizations.”

The Professor.

He revealed his hostility toward all of humanity days before I left the apartment.

“The Foundation will do its best to exterminate all sentient beings, including humanity.”

The video cuts off.

The screen shows the male host and the disaster safety headquarters team leader again.

The host emphasizes in a strong tone.

“As you just confirmed, ‘the Foundation’ is nothing but a terrorist group. Please never comply with requests from ‘the Foundation’ or be deceived by them.”

The man continued rambling on about something after that, but I couldn’t really hear it.

Because I had discovered something more important.

There are facts that can be extracted even from fake news like this.

The ‘Professor’ has accepted the ending I proposed.

If his only goal was human extermination, such a broadcast would be unnecessary.

In other words.

‘Seven’ refers to the Professor, and the Foundation he leads. Or the human extermination activities led by that Foundation.

The way to defeat ‘Seven’ is to survive it.

Now if we just survive, the story will never be destroyed by ‘Seven.’

Now that I’ve obtained the necessary information, it’s time to escape from the enemy before us.

“Jung Haewon, could you leave a chat message?”

– Yes

Then I typed a message in the chat.

One sentence to properly target its weakness.

– By the way. What was the source of that video just now?

“It was a broadcast news program.”

– And what about the broadcast on this channel?

Both people in the video look at us simultaneously.

They keep their mouths shut and say nothing.

I continued typing messages without stopping.

– Isn’t this a YouTube channel run by the same broadcast news station?

– But if you just obtained this footage.

– That doesn’t make sense.