The Sound Empress: Chapter 9
Brief synopsis: Kari gets a bunch of cans to listen to. Several of the cans provide information and the last known whereabouts of Buson-min Park...
A few days later, I was sitting in the living room, watching the news. There were no words on the rioting on the news, despite me watching the television almost incessantly. While watching, I heard the doorbell ring. I say ring, because that’s what it is, but it sounded more like a buzzing sound. I got up and I peered out the window to see who was there. I didn’t peek out too far: I didn’t want to expose myself for too long, ‘less I wanted to be captured by the Korean force. After a while a courier did appear walking down the hill, back towards the center of the village. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really identify the person, as the person’s back was turned.
I walked with caution towards the front door. I didn’t want to trigger any sort of motion control which would cause something to explode. You can tell I am quite paranoid here.
At the front door, I opened it very slowly, so slowly in fact, you can hear the creaking of the door. Once the door was opened about halfway, I could clearly see a black bag, which looked very much like a garbage bag that you would take out to a dumpster. I shook the bag a little bit, just to ensure this wasn’t a decoy, and there was a bomb in there. All I could hear when I did that was the sound of bottles and cans clanking together. So this bag must have the products that Nari had accumulated over time for me to listen to.
Only one real way to find out. I would have to take the bag into the house, open it up, and reach inside to see what was in it. This is exactly what I did. I took the bag all the way up the stairs, and then I placed it onto the bed. I then turned on the phonograph, so that it would be ready to go.
Now, I carefully opened the bag. Inside, I saw a small note on the bottle on the top of the pile. I picked this up first, and read it:
Jung (aka Kari):
Here are all the products that I’ve bought from the sound dispenser machine in Ayase from the past few weeks. I have properly prepared them so that they can be played right away, but I have not actually played any of them, as I do not have the equipment to play them. So, I don’t know what messages are on them. Good luck!
Nari
Okay, so the things in here are actually sound dispenser products, not anything else. That is good. Now, to go through each of the items in the bag, one at a time.
I first pulled all the stuff out of the bag. I enumerated fourteen objects. So this could be fourteen pieces of information. Or, it could be just absolute garbage information, which doesn’t help me or even hinder me. Just so that I know what is on which item, I pulled out a few sheets of paper and a pen so that I can write down the messages.
“All right!” I said, as I grabbed the first product on the bed. “Let’s begin with this one.”
The first product, which was a can, had a plain, black color, with no icon on it. I placed it on the phonograph, then placed the needle on it. A few seconds later, the message began to play. It was of a woman, speaking very quickly, yet clearly:
“A piece of advice: do not travel to North Korea under any circumstance. The government is investigating a tip from the United States that the North Koreans, or a group in North Korea, are planning to invade.”
“Don’t travel to North Korea, huh? Hmm…”
This clue potentially could narrow down the location of where the headquarters of the Korean Origin Force is located.
Next, we had an orange bottle, with the icon of a bird singing. I swear I could have seen this bird before…
Like with the can, I mounted it on the phonograph, after taking off the can, of course. Placing the needle down on it, I heard the following:
“This message has been encrypted with a sound scrambler.”
Then a jumbled mess played for about 30 or so seconds, and then a brief pause in sound occurred. Just as the needle was about to reach the bottom, there was a brief thing said:
“End of message.”
I would sure love to know what was said in the scrambled bit. I played it again, and this time, I used my phone to record the message. I could later send the message over to Nari, who could send it to Nashi, who could potentially decode it.
Two down, twelve to go.
Continuing down the bed, the next container was a small, blueish gray can, that seemed heavy for its size. It appears that the walls of this one were quite thick, so as to prevent the product from exploding during transport. It has the following text in Japanese written on it: “The world’s fizziest drink. Guaranteed.”
As with the previous two products, I put the can on the phonograph, and then placed the needle on it. Upon playing it, I could tell a person was speaking. Only problem was that it was being played way too fast, and the person talking sounded like a chipmunk. With some fiddling of the speed control (which I installed since the last time I used the phonograph) I got a sound of a man speaking:
“Matsushimi. The world’s leader in providing the highest quality carbonated beverages for you to enjoy. Now with 50% more carbonation!
Remember, when you want good drink, buy Matsushimi.”
So this one was just an ad to buy more of this brand of drink. In other words, this one doesn’t help me in the slightest. Still, there is a chance in the future that other products from this company may have useful information for me. I wrote down the company name and proceeded to the next one.
The fourth item was a somewhat unusual design, where the top of the can was narrow, and then the base was fat, so as to improve stability when the weather is windy. This was the first time I saw this design, so chances are, this design didn’t catch on. I followed the same procedure as before, and adjusted the speed back to what it was before, and this time, we get a message courtesy of the United States government:
“From the United States to the Japanese people. We have gotten word that the emperor is in trouble. We can assure you that we are looking into this matter and we will ensure that democracy is maintained within the country of Japan.”
So the United States is also getting involved in the matter. This is good, as the United States has perhaps the best intelligence agencies in the world. At least, this is what I remember reading on the internet. I wonder if anyone there knows what I am doing here…
“Gah. No time to just sit around and think about hypotheticals. I need to get through the rest of these products!”
I set the weirdly shaped can to the side. The next product was a bottle. The logo on this one was of a serpent, going down the side. It had a light green color, and I could see through it.
Again, I went through the usual procedure to set up the bottle to be played back. This had a message regarding the weather:
“Expect this tropical season to be brewing up a ton of systems this year. The oceans have been extremely warm for this time of year, which gives tropical systems the fuel they need to become stronger.”
“Tropical systems? I seriously hope a storm doesn’t come in my general direction…”
I would soon find out that this wish would turn out to be false. For now though, the weather was fair, and so normal living conditions can continue.
Now onto product number 6. This product had some sort of weird refraction pattern going on inside of it. There appeared to be another, smaller bottle inside the bottle I’m holding. However, this was just an illusion, as when I took the cap off and looked inside, the bottle was empty.
You know the drill by now. This time, we get mostly static. A faint hint of a human voice could be heard as I played the message recorded on the bottle.
“Hmm, this can’t be right. Usually you would hear something as clear as day on the products coming from the sound dispenser,” I said to myself.
Perhaps the bottle wasn’t cleaned well enough. I took out some cleaning solution that I sometimes used for regular vinyl records. I sprayed it on, and then I used a dry, lint-free cloth to clean off the spray. Then I played the bottle back again. Again, I heard mostly static, with the faint hint of a human voice. Maybe it was a little bit clearer, but I think that was just a placebo effect from me having cleaned the bottle thoroughly.
“Maybe some signal processing would help make the message clearer, by cutting out the static and boosting the levels of the voice.” I then took my phone out again, and recorded the sound of the bottle.
I then began to wonder how durable these products are, when it comes to repeated playback. I know that if you take proper care of vinyls, they can potentially last a hundred or so plays before degrading noticeably in audio quality. That question, however, would have to wait.
Product number 7 was another small can that had a red color and had a green dragon as its logo. It apparently touted that it is a recordable can, so that if you wanted to send a message to someone through refuse, you could. Unfortunately, I don’t have the equipment to record things, only a way to play them back. So this can is useless to me.
Product number 8 is a can of tea very similar to the first can of tea I had from the sound dispenser vending machine. It had a vinyl record on the can, and it had tea in it, which had a traditional, mint tea in it, instead of the vanilla and orange tea that I had. This too had a scrambled message, which I couldn’t decipher through listening to it. I recorded the message using my phone.
Product number 9 is yet another can of tea, but this time, it had a different logo on it. It had the symbol mf on it, which I remember as being a dynamic that you see in sheet music sometimes. It was a black can, and the symbol was printed on in white. This one had another advertisement to join the Korean Origin Force, which was told in a clever way through a poem:
“There once was a man named Sur Moon
Who had great power from true runes
He was defeated by Jimmu
Back in 682 [BC]
And we want to make things right.
Join the Korean Origin Force!”
That didn’t exactly provide me with any useful information. But I have to admit, that was a well written poem.
Product number 10 is a larger can, similar in size to the cans of energy drink you would find in a grocery store. It had silver and gold stripes going around the can, which were placed atop a green background. There was a little bit of text on one of the stripes, but I couldn’t exactly tell what it said. The message, however, was very clear:
“Be on the lookout for Buson-min Park. We last spotted him in the city of Fukuoka. Treat him as armed and extremely dangerous. If spotted, contact the local police department or the nearest city or town hall.”
I wrote down Fukuoka as the last whereabouts of Park. This could be the key that I need to find and destroy this organization once and for all.
The next product had the same markings as the previous one. It appears to have more information on the person:
“Buson-min is a 54 year old male, with brown hair, 5 foot 11 inches tall, of unknown weight, and was last seen wearing a black suit and pants. He was holding a suitcase and had several bodyguards protecting him. The armament of the guards is unknown.”
This was also useful information, so I wrote this down.
Three products left in this haul. The twelfth product overall was a bottle that looked suspiciously like the bottles of nitro that you might find in a street racing movie. The bottle also had a rounded bottom, yet was perfectly stable when you placed in on a table (well, while it was filled with liquid. Not so much when it is empty.) I placed this on the phonograph, as with the previous ones. But this one did not play. This is odd. Didn’t this come from the sound dispenser as well?
I took the bottle off and I felt the exterior of it. I tried to see if there were any grooves on it. I couldn’t feel anything. But then I noticed that this bottle had a plastic wrapper around it, showing the brand. Carefully I took the wrapper off, unveiling the plastic underneath. I felt the bottle again. Now the grooves could be felt. But they felt quite shallow, and I was worried that the needle might fall out of the grooves. So I replaced the cartridge on the phonograph with one that had a shorter needle, so that the needle would be closer to the dimensions of the groove. Now I placed the needle on the bottle, and then a message began to play, albeit in the wrong direction. Reversing the direction of the mounting rod, the message began to play:
“A personal note from the emperor: we wish the best of luck to Jung Moon, who is celebrating a birthday today. We hope that his work with us is going well.”
I totally forgot about my birthday. It was the day after I got transferred to my current location by the military. This makes me 26 now. Not that I would consider a forced relocation to be a good birthday present…
There were just two more products remaining.
Unlucky product 13 was next. It had a very dark crimson color, with a giant eyeball as its logo. I found this scheme to be quite disgusting to look at. Now we go through the usual procedure. Upon placing the needle down, nothing played.
“What in the world is going on? Is my playback device dead?”
I then went through the usual troubleshooting steps: ensure that the connection to the mains is good, ensure that the circuit breaker didn’t trip, and ensure that all the components of the phonograph were in good working order. All of these checked out. Now, I tried to play the product yet again. No cigar.
At this point, I then thought it was a problem with the bottle itself. So, I tried to ensure that the grooves were clean, using water and a tiny bit of hand soap. I left it downstairs, to let it dry.
Okay, so we will revisit product 13 later. So, we will move on to the last product, which was a can with a small dent. This might have an impact on actual playback, so I should probably fix that. I grabbed a screwdriver from one of the drawers in my nightstand, and shoved it into the can itself. I then moved the screwdriver around to hit the walls of the can. This was enough to get the dent fixed. Now, I would have to be careful not to hold it where the dent was, otherwise I might cause the dent to reappear, and then I would have to redo this procedure.
Upon placing this product on the phonograph, I then heard a shriek. I wasn’t sure if it came from playing this can back, or if it was outside. I stopped the machine, and then I listened attentively to see if anything was going on outside. I didn’t hear a peep. I therefore concluded that the can was the source of the shriek.
Now that I was prepared to hear the shriek, I placed the needle back to the beginning, and then I listened to the full message. As mentioned previously, there was a loud shriek, and then a whispering voice came through:
“You are not safe…”
The shriek came back, louder.
“You are not safe…”
The shriek came back, even louder. It was almost deafeningly loud.
“And your family isn’t either.”
At that point the recording was cut off. I was confused and scared at the same time. Was this directed towards me? Or was it directed towards someone else?
Let’s consider what I have been through: I accepted a mission from the government of the utmost importance, I tried to join the force that is apparently trying to undermine the government, which went completely wrong, and now I am in hiding, with an alias that I hoped that I would only have to use once and then everything would be hunky dory. So, clearly, my situation is a bit precarious.
But what of my family? I haven’t really had any contact with my parents, Martha and Harami, since late last year for a family gathering. They were in good health at that time, so I would presume that they are still in good health. My grandparents are already dead, so I don’t need to worry about them. My sister, who is younger than me, is presently in the states, studying, and she’s doing well. So I presume she’s not the person that the can is referring to. I therefore concluded that it’s a bit of foreshadowing, that I would encounter the Korean Origin Force while I’m with my parents.
Several hours passed, and then I retrieved product 13. Hopefully it works now.
Unfortunately, this didn’t work either. It still wouldn’t play. Somehow the needle is getting stuck. So maybe the record starts with a locked groove, and it should be played in the opposite direction.
So I did that, I switched the direction, and tried to play it again. But the bottle persisted in not playing anything.
Now I was getting quite irritated. I know some records have locked grooves. But certainly the whole record can’t be a locked groove. So, to try to debug this further, I tried putting the needle in the middle of the product. There was a slight clicking sound that kept repeating, over and over again.
So the entire groove consists of a bunch of regions that are locked, and then the region repeats when you drop the needle on it. So, if I wanted to hear the entire thing, I would have to move the needle every time we reach the end of a locked groove section. Yet, each section only consists of a fraction of a second of audio. I determined that trying to record the sound off of this would be a pain for me to do. So, I placed this product back into the bag that it came in, to ship it back to Nari, and then from there, to a person who could properly restore the sound.
That was the last product for me to take a look at. So, let’s go through the results: 6 products had a useful piece of information on them, including the last known whereabouts of Buson-min Park, another 4 potentially have useful information but I can’t figure out what is being said (I referred to these as the ‘corrupt’ recordings), another 3 had information but they were not useful for me, and the last one was an empty one that could be recorded onto, but I don’t have the tools to record a message.
I should then contact Nari, to let her know of the stuff that I found out from the products she gave me. Although it’s getting pretty late, and I am getting quite hungry. I think I’ll go cook up some beef and rice from the fridge, and then I will contact Nari first thing in the morning.