Chapter 5 - Brainwash

Suddenly, an idea occurred to Drake. He abruptly tossed the book to a side and proceeded to stare at the gun on the guard's to waist with a blank expression.

Hila frowned but did not act. Everyone looked to see what Drake was up to. Drake walked rigidly towards the guard. As if to make his intentions extremely clear, he reached out exaggeratedly for the gun.

The guard instinctively drew his gun, and although Drake did not seem to have any intention of snatching it, he tightened his grip. As Drake was moving extremely slowly, the guard did not see a need to fire.

“Unload the gun and let him have it.” ordered Hila. She was keen to know Drake's motives.

The guard obliged and proceeded to do so.

Upon receiving the gun, some information popped up on Drake's interface.

«73-WASP (Small Caliber Handgun)

Grade: Grey

Damage: 28~35

Fire rate: 1.1/s

Power Output: 13

Key Components: Spring, slide, firing pin, magazine (missing)»

[Basic Assembly] automatically gave Drake knowledge about many types of machines, and the blueprints for a 73-WASP appeared in his mind.

Instantly, Drake understood how to assemble it. While in the game they simply needed to 'load' the gun after 'learning' it, he now had to perform some more technical procedures.

Everything was truly far more immersive than it had been in the game, this fact even confirmed his theory that he truly have been transmigrated into the game and this was now his actual 'reality'.

Drake began to strip the handgun and reassemble it.

The skill icon [Basic Assembly] lit up. After forty seconds, he finished the task. To a specialist, forty seconds was nothing. However, Drake was a complete newbie! He had only spent ten minutes on a book!

Shocked! Gobsmacked!

'Is this the effect of Valkyrie?' Everyone had this one thought.

“Such learning prowess! If I can analyze his brain, perhaps I can recreate..” Doctor Calebite started speaking excitedly.

'Go to hell! How much, exactly, are you obsessed with brains?' Drake cursed the deranged doctor in his mind as he proceeded to repeat reassembling the handgun.

«You have succeeded at an Assembly (Basic)

69% perfection rate, 28 experience gained.

You have succeeded at an Assembly (Basic)

73% perfection rate, 32 experience gained.»

There were many ways to gain experience in Galaxy. Apart from hunting monsters and completing quests, skills and crafting were two key sources of experience for Technology.

As Drake repeated the task again and again, he gradually became faster and faster. He was soon able to complete the task in a mere twenty seconds.

“Proceed with brainwashing now!” ordered Hila suddenly.

Fortunately for Drake, it had been enough. He had accumulated a total of two hundred experience points.

'Use all the experience to level up Class: Technical Creation!'

«Ding!

Technical Creation (Novice) has leveled up.

Level 1>2

Energy: +10

Intelligence: +1

Endurance: +1

You have gained 2 stat points

You have gained 1 talent point.»

Drake breathed a sigh of relief.

'That was close'

*

Drake was strapped to a metal seat with his eyes forcefully opened by extensions. Before him was a black screen with speakers on either side. He was unable to move at all.

“How long is the procedure?”

“Twelve hours.”

“Keep watch here.” ordered Hila before she left with some grunts. Doctor Calebite activated the procedure, and the screen lit up. It began to display all kinds of geometric shapes and patterns that morphed continuously. The vivid rapidly changing colors and harshly alternating music caused Drake much discomfort. While he wanted to close his eyes badly, he was unable to, and soon, his eyeballs turned bloodshot and swollen.

'Ah! This is so uncomfortable!'

It was a primitive method of brainwashing. The theory behind it was to overwhelm and distort the subject's thought to make it easier to feed messages into their mind.

It did, however, have the advantage of causing permanent damage to the brain, which both Drake and Doctor Calebite could appreciate.

The depraved expression on Doctor Calebite's face enraged Drake. He felt like he was a pig at the slaughterhouse.

Drake added two of his four into Intelligence.

«Ding!

You are being brainwashed (Low level)

Your Intelligence: 7

Your Resistance: 3

Brainwash Failed.»

Drake's discomfort immediately eased.

*

At the end of the twelve hours, Drake's entire body was aching, and his eyes were completely dried out.

Hila returned on schedule. The boss had assigned her the task of brainwashing Drake, so she had to ensure that everything went smoothly.

She undid Drake's shackles, revealing bruises on his limbs. Although Drake was hurting, he continued to look at the screen blankly in order to act like the part. Hila suddenly bent forward, and her face came to within two inches or his. Her moist breath fell upon his lips, but Drake was far too concerned with his predicament to be distracted.

Perfume filled up his nostrils, tickling him, and it took a great effort on his part to resist the urge to sneeze.

“Who are you?” asked Hila in a soft, hypnotic voice.

Drake decided to twitch his face instead of replying. Although Drake had never been a good actor, it wasn't too hard to act like an idiot.

Suddenly, Hila began to whisper into his ear. As her hair tickled Drake's throat, two snowy mountains came into his view through the window of he collar. He steeled his heart and began to utter a prayer he had heard from a Green Lantern movie back on Earth.

'Between the mountains is a valley, empty like the void. Atop the seas stands an island, straight as a tree. I, who have seen over a hundred gourds, will not fall for your bait!'

“From today onward, your name is Zero. The Germinal Organization is your home, your country, and your everything. You will forever be loyal to the Germinal Organization and will forever strive to help the organization achieve its goals. You will carry out your orders faithfully, and you will sacrifice yourself for the greater good when the time comes!” Hila spoke quietly in his ear in the same hypnotic voice.

“Your life belongs to the Germinal Organization. You will do whatever you are ordered to do.” he added.

“Who are you?” Hila questioned Drake.

This time, Drake knew that he had to reply. However, he did not reply immediately.

Hila shot a frown towards Doctor Calebite.

“I followed the procedure! It's not my fault—”

Suddenly Drake began to speak

“I.. am.. Zero..”

Doctor Calebite's eyes lit up.

“Valkyrie strengthened Zero's learning ability. However, as a side effect, it impaired his speech.” Doctor Calebite said in excitement.

Hila thought back to Zero's earlier behavior. He had indeed responded slowly to his surroundings.

“Seems like the experiment was not perfect after all.” Hila spoke.

“You are wrong. This is perfection! He does not need emotions.”

“..Take him to recover, I will report to the Boss.”

'I'm safe now!' Drake sighed and said to himself.

Drake could finally relax. He had come up with the idea of actikh slow lower their guard during the procedure.

'Although I didn't transmigrate to an ideal location, at least it's not so bad time-wise.'

The Valkyrie experiment was the prototype of a later supersoldier project that implemented microchips into test subjects in order to ensure loyalty. If he had transmigrated to then, it would have been way worse. They would have been able to blow him up anytime.

'At least Lady luck is smiling upon me in one regard!'