Chapter 22: I Want to See the City (5)

The cute girl who had been munching on tanghulu like a bird pecking at seeds and exclaiming “Wow! Wow!” in amazement was quite the sight.

She seemed so refined that one might wonder what her relationship was with the Chungseong Guild Master, or if she might be a hidden child from some wealthy family.

“Hehe, this is how you’re supposed to do it on the internet, right?” she asked, having riled up all the site users.

The way she grinned after throwing Kim Seongyeong under the bus made one wonder if she even understood human emotions.

The staff had expected reactions like “Wow! An Opal phone! Thank you so much! I love it!” or “I’m so touched! This is the first time I’ve received such a gift!”

The store employees belatedly pretended they hadn’t seen anything, backing away as if rewinding time.

“Um, do we have any Space Note 24s left in stock?”

“I think some arrived at dawn. I’ll go check.”

Their awkward dialogue sounded like they were acting for the first time in their lives.

As the staff scurried about, trying to hide and erase their presence, the Guild Master, having finally recovered from his shock, asked in his usual tone:

“Who taught you that?”

If it was one of the student instructors, they’d deserve to be fired.

Despite his calm question, the Guild Master was seething inside.

What kind of trash would teach this innocent child to stir up trouble like this?!

Surely those cult bastards wouldn’t have taught her such useless things?

“Monk Haein!” the girl replied.

“…You mean the young, big monk?”

“That’s right!”

…Huh.

What’s going on? Why would a monk do such a thing?

It’s true that the line between religious figures and civilians had blurred since the Gates opened, but it was unimaginable that such a garbage person could exist under Monk Jamyeong’s guidance.

There must be some reason for this.

The Guild Master tried to remain calm as he sought to uncover the cause of this mischief.

“When did he teach you this?”

By now, the girl had sensed something was off.

The Guild Master’s mood had suddenly spiked!

That meant he was either worried about something or displeased.

What did I do wrong…?

I guess a sinner like me can’t do anything right.

I’ve caused trouble again.

“On the first day of lectures…” the girl began explaining in a small voice.

She recounted everything from struggling with the laptop on the first day of class to finally setting her nickname as “Sinner” and being insulted by a student named Kim Seongyeong.

The Guild Master had heard this story before from instructor Yang Joya, but hearing it from the girl herself was different.

Before, he had thought it was just typical childish squabbling.

‘A future member of Chungseong Guild using insults about parents? There must be someone lacking in character education.’

He was so furious that he resolved to add character education to the student curriculum.

However, there was still something he couldn’t understand…

Multiple shadow clones, effective “killing,” attention-grabbing titles, and so on.

It seemed like overkill to use nuclear tactics for what should have been a simple chat room argument.

He couldn’t dismiss the possibility that this Monk Haein might be a bad influence.

Of course, this was a misunderstanding that Monk Haein would find unfair.

His only interaction on the internet was exchanging information on health community forums, and he was more accustomed to writing posts and comments than chatting.

Seeing someone harshly criticizing the girl’s parents when she was already hurting had infuriated him, so he had blurted out whatever came to mind, leading to this situation.

More than anything, the root cause lay in the girl’s perception.

“I see. I understand, but stirring up trouble like that isn’t good behavior,” the Guild Master said.

He was trying to persuade her somehow, since she couldn’t unlearn what she’d already been taught.

“Huh…? Isn’t this how you’re supposed to use the internet…?” the girl timidly replied.

“Isn’t it a place for people to vent their desires…?”

As the Guild Master and Monk Jamyeong had suspected, the girl wasn’t stupid.

She might lack common sense, but she was smart enough to remember things after hearing them once.

Through attending lectures with other students and Kim Seongyeong’s provocations, she had realized she lacked common sense.

Since she was already forbidden from going out due to Gate contamination or whatever, she had focused on the internet in her spare time.

She had been exposed to the unfiltered internet culture, which wasn’t exactly educational.

“Just because it’s the internet doesn’t mean it’s okay to hurt others,” the Guild Master said.

She had thought she’d be praised…

As she continued to be scolded, the girl began to sulk and argue back.

“No. The internet is a place where demons dwell. Everyone there is bad, so they deserve whatever they get.”

She quickly pulled up some websites to show evidence, typing away.

Posts with titles like:

[Cool knife stab on Line 11 in Hannam, upvote if you agree~~]

or

[Reasons to avoid non-virgins and date modest virgins]

or

[Nooooo!!!], [Check out how thick my poop is?], [Granny] and other posts too vulgar to even mention.

The Guild Master covered his eyes and let out a long sigh after seeing graphic images of feces and a naked grandmother.

This fucking…

It was the first time in his life he’d openly cursed at his age.

The girl was smart.

That’s why he thought she didn’t need time limits or restricted access like other children.

But the problem wasn’t the girl; it was the internet environment itself.

Internet freedom? Great.

But an unrestrained environment that made people think of it as a place where demons dwell wasn’t good.

It seemed he’d need to assign a proper teacher rather than hoping the child would learn and correct herself.

After thinking for a moment, the Guild Master looked at the girl with a resigned expression.

The girl had puffed out her cheeks, sulking, clearly believing she couldn’t be wrong.

If nothing else, her determination not to compromise on the subject of demons was evident.

The Guild Master had no choice but to try persuading her from her perspective, in a way she might accept.

“You’re right. These are demons.”

“See! They must all be possessed by Satan to be so angry!”

“So, do you plan to become possessed by Satan yourself to deal with them?”

The girl flinched.

She finally lowered her gaze, no longer bouncing around excitedly.

Come to think of it, why was I imitating what the demons do?

As expected of the Guild Master, chosen by God with amazing abilities, what insight!

The girl quickly realized her mistake and made a resolution.

“You’re right! Instead of this, we should just kill all the demons!”

Satan, demons.

Demons must die.

The internet must be destroyed.

The girl’s thoughts began to spiral like spilled ink.

Her pupils constricted as the trigger implanted by the cult activated, just as it had in virtual reality.

“…That’s why you should see for yourself what kind of people use the internet,” the Guild Master said.

He swiftly took the Opal phone from the girl’s hand.

Her cat-like, narrowed yellow pupils followed the movement.

The look in her eyes was filled with such raw killing intent that it was hard to believe this was the same innocent, cute girl from before.

Those fucking cult bastards.

What were they planning to do with such a small child after brainwashing her?

Gritting his teeth, he grabbed the girl under her arms and lifted her up.

She was so light that he could easily dangle her without using his telekinesis.

“I’ll take you to the guild headquarters. You can judge whether the internet is really a hotbed of demons and if the people who use it are possessed after that.”

Only then did the girl’s ominous aura gradually subside.

He gave up on persuading her for now.

Instead, he planned to show her that the internet wasn’t all bad, and that the people using it were just cowards hiding behind anonymity.

He considered his options.

Calling a counselor or heavily influencing her inner psyche wouldn’t be good.

If the brainwashing was that easy to undo, he wouldn’t be worrying this much.

He needed to help her gradually realize on her own that she was mistaken.

What about trying virtual reality?

These days, virtual reality went beyond mere technology, incorporating Awakened people’s supernatural abilities. It might allow the girl to fully express the emotions pent up inside her.

‘First, I need to see which keywords trigger her responses.’

The keyword “demon.”

There was no shortage of virtual reality content related to this.

Demon Slayer, Doom Divers, Escape from Hell, and so on.

Not just game titles, but content related to demons as well.

Would the girl show her brainwashed responses even to these fake scenarios?

Of course, he didn’t plan to start with such explicit games right away.

He needed to proceed step by step to find a way to control the brainwashing.

‘We’ll start with… The Hero should be fine.’

The Hero.

It was an educational promotional game made by the government, unrelated to demons.

With a very simple premise of beating up villains, he planned to see if the girl would perceive these “villains” as “demons” too.

Surprisingly, being an open-world game, it could also show her that other players weren’t demons.

“You shouldn’t become a demon yourself in trying to catch demons,” he told her.

“…Okay,” she replied.

With that, he picked up the girl and flew straight towards the guild headquarters.

The girl, lost in thought, leaned quietly against his chest, unusually well-behaved compared to before.

Her tightly closed lips and blank stare into space were typical reactions of cult brainwashing victims.

The Guild Master casually asked her, pretending nothing was wrong:

“Is there a reason you hate demons so much?”

Despite her blank expression, her response came immediately.

“If demons disappear, there won’t be any more innocent victims. Then no one will be sad anymore. The world will become happy.”

She was referring to the cult’s claim of a world completely controlled by Awakened individuals.

Anyone with normal common sense would find this strange, but…

“And if I kill demons like that, I can go to heaven when I die, right?”

This confirmed even more strongly that the girl had been brainwashed.

Her behavior during the previous lecture and her reactions today had one thing in common: the keyword “demon.”

It was clear that this “demon” keyword triggered the girl’s brainwashing.

“It seems you’ve seen demons in person,” the Guild Master probed.

Without hesitation, the girl answered:

“Of course! I’ve seen all seven demons! And I killed them myself.”

Killed.

She said this without a hint of cognitive dissonance, smiling as usual.

Yet as the conversation about demons continued, her eyes gleamed ominously.

The Guild Master gave up on probing further.

He wanted to help this poor girl as soon as possible, but haste often leads to mistakes.

For now, it was enough to break the connection between the internet and demons in her mind.

In this unfamiliar silence, as they flew through the clouds leaving a white trail behind them, a massive building appeared before them.

A monumental 60-story building made from Gate byproducts, one of only three such structures in Korea.

It was the Chungseong Guild headquarters.

—