Chapter 48: Precognition Division Conference

****

This is the Precognition Division’s central conference room. The atmosphere around was grim and unsettled.

Quite a few Precognition Division agents had died or been injured in this incident, and there had been considerable personnel shuffling and departmental restructuring. Plenty of people got promoted too, but dying is scarier.

“Greetings… Section Chief, this is Dr. Gwon. I will give a full report covering preparation, response, and follow-up measures for this incident.”

A few Precognition Division staff were standing around, but this was effectively a one-on-one meeting.

“Yes. Please explain.”

A throat-clearing cough. Section Chief Gwon began speaking.

“Then first, the precognition of the incident. The cognitohazard surrounding the city appears to have deployed its information distortion retroactively.”

Retroactive information distortion.

It meant that something that happened in the future affected the present, or the past. Because the cognitohazard had struck in the future, it couldn’t be found in the past either.

“Combined with the inherent uncertainty of precognition, this ultimately led to our failure to predict. I regret that.”

I let out a small sigh.

“The Intelligence Division eventually found the city that had vanished. It seems you could have found it if you’d cooperated properly with other departments.”

“I apologize.”

The time for making a fuss over this had already passed.

“Please continue.”

“Yes. Incident response. An incident that caused tens of thousands of casualties through an anomaly could have seriously damaged the Veil of Ignorance.”

I nodded.

“The fog’s cognitohazardous properties, the isolated location, and the fact that it wasn’t an area with heavy population flow prevented the public from learning about it.”

“How dangerous was the situation?”

“It’s true that the fog allowed us to conceal it, but conversely, if the fog’s information-eroding properties hadn’t existed, I believe we could have identified the incident before it occurred and prevented it.”

The Precognition Division Chief explained.

If the precognition had succeeded, this problem wouldn’t have happened in the first place. Ultimately, without that cognitive interference, they wouldn’t have been able to proceed with the work at all.

In other words, regardless of the scale of this incident, the Veil of Ignorance would never have been damaged. It was a somewhat strange form of time paradox.

Because any event capable of damaging the Veil of Ignorance would be precognitively detected and blocked, damaging the Veil of Ignorance was nearly impossible.

“Hmm, understood. Please continue.”

“I will now explain the efforts made to maintain secrecy. The Foundation carried out the following actions to protect the Veil of Ignorance.”

I nodded again.

“First. To minimize the fallout immediately after the incident, we generated as much noise as possible on mass media and social media. Additionally, we spread breaking news that a wildfire had occurred in the area.”

“Second. For the residents of Yulje-myeon who disappeared in this incident, we mass-filed reports of unidentified bodies, missing persons reports, and funerals.”

“Third. We manipulated the memories of the victims’ bereaved families so they would believe there was nothing suspicious about the disappearance circumstances. Additionally, we are in the process of renaming the administrative districts in the area to erase all records of Yulje-myeon.”

“Fourth. We are temporarily distributing information replicas that reduce suspicion to unspecified members of the public, centered on major cities.”

“Fifth—”

I cut off Section Chief Gwon. There was no need to keep listening to this kind of enumeration.

“Understood for now. This content is still being carried out according to protocol, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s move on to follow-up measures and management.”

Dr. Gwon nodded.

“Understood. Research is currently underway on the anomalies recovered from the site.”

I thought for a moment.

“Dr. Gwon. Do you think there’s a possibility of something similar recurring? What’s your assessment?”

“Hmm. There’s a perspective that the total amount of magic in the world is limited to a certain degree. An incident of this scale will be difficult to repeat for the time being.”

I wrote that down in my notebook. I had no way of knowing whether it was true, but it was a persuasive argument.

“What problems might arise now?”

Dr. Gwon thought again.

“With so many people gone, if anyone catches on, the Veil of Ignorance could be damaged. And since not all the monsters have been dealt with yet, something could escape from there.”

“Understood. Thank you for your input.”

“Yes.”

“You don’t have any particular knowledge about the anomalies secured at the site, do you?”

“The Director would know better than I would.”

I didn’t need an explanation for that one.

The research on the anomalies secured from that city — I’d personally participated in a good portion of it.

I nodded again this time.

“Dr. Gwon. Of course, there was a bit of… disagreement before this incident occurred. But still, I want you to know I appreciate the hard work you put into the response and the follow-up measures.”

The Precognition Division Chief didn’t answer right away. I was right and Section Chief Gwon was wrong, but I had no intention of picking a fight over it.

“…”

“Ah, and — I’ll also make an effort to ensure the Precognition Division gets its new personnel smoothly. Thank you for all your hard work with this incident.”

The conclusion was this: I was happy because I could send a lot of my chosen people to the Precognition Division, and the Precognition Division was happy because it got to expand its workforce.

Of course, whether anything would actually change without a change in the division’s leadership was another question… but I decided to trust it for now. That’s my methodology.

“Thank you.”

Dr. Gwon bowed his head.

I’d said everything I needed to say to the Precognition Division. From here on out, well… it’s in God’s hands. I slowly gathered my things and left the meeting room.

Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen Nanami all day. Did she have something busy going on?

****

Nanami frowned at the sight she failed to comprehend. A simple fortress of concrete and barbed wire, situated in the middle of a mountain.

But most of the barbed wire was installed on the inside of the walls. The steel guard towers also faced the center of the fortress.

This wasn’t a defensive line built to deal with enemies coming from outside. It was a defensive line built to deal with something that might come out of the fortress.

Near the entrance of the fortress, an employee dispatched from Foundation Headquarters was waiting for Nanami.

“Ah, you’ve already arrived. You’re Nanami from the Director’s Office of Facility 82, correct?”

“That’s right.”

“We’ve been waiting for you.”

This was the space that had been externally contained after the observation of bizarre vegetation. I’d heard the regional control had been transferred to Foundation Headquarters afterward, but they’d already built a facility like this.

“What’s your name?”

“Me? I’m Dr. Matsuda, from Foundation Headquarters’ Spatial Management Department. As you know… I’ve come to manage the anomaly ‘the Garden.’”

Dr. Matsuda smiled, but Nanami didn’t relax her expression. It wasn’t a funny story anyway.

“Ah, yes. Dr. Matsuda. Is there a reason you went through me specifically? You could have contacted Dr. Geum, the acting Director.”

“This is a military matter. And Nanami is a child of the Foundation as well. Of course, you’re welcome to return and report this to Dr. Geum.”

Nanami’s position was a bit complicated.

She was the Foundation’s creation.

Foundation Headquarters trusted Nanami, and Nanami did sit in the Director’s Office of Facility 82. But in the end, the employees of Facility 82 had never acknowledged Nanami as a leader.

It wasn’t strange that Headquarters had contacted Nanami. Especially if they didn’t want word spreading to an unspecified number of employees.

Of course, having Dr. Geum send Nanami would have been the better route. But to Foundation Headquarters, past, future, and present weren’t so clearly distinguished.

Anyway.

Dr. Matsuda turned his head.

“Please come this way.”

At the center of the facility, there was one structure surrounded by unsightly wire mesh and iron gates.

The ground around the wire mesh had been flattened with red soil and was under surveillance. Inside the mesh sat one strange sphere glowing with rainbow light, and one bizarre altar.

“Is that the path to the Garden?”

“You already know.”

“Are you going to go in?”

Dr. Matsuda shook his head.

“The Garden is still dangerous. Sections are still being cleaned up and organized here and there. I imagine we’ll be cooperating with Facility 82 to explore the relevant sections of the Garden.”

****

[Regarding Project Blue Rose]

[Filed by: Head of Research Lee Seah]

[This is complete madness.]

[You’re not conducting this research with any real understanding of it, are you? We are nothing more than monkeys scratching our backs with machine guns.]

[I urge you, even now, to halt this horrifying experiment of pitting anomalies—whose natures and properties we cannot begin to grasp—against one another.]

****

[Re: Regarding Project Blue Rose]

[Filed by: Foundation Headquarters. Per Foundation Headquarters’ request, the contents of the phone call have been transcribed by hand.]

[Thank you for your valued opinion, Dr. Lee.]

[Do not worry. Due to several repeated failures and safety incidents, the project currently conducts no experiments beyond the management of secured Foundation assets.]

[As always, we will proceed with the utmost thoroughness, mindful of the dangers of anomalies.]