Zuniga chuckled softly. "I wasn't trying to imply anything. I merely made a small conjecture."
"The medical staff here, as well as the patients, have mostly lived in Fourteenth Town for years. Their social circles are here too. With just a little investigation into their circles, one can learn about their lives, experiences, personalities, preferences... Combine those details with a few deductions, and one can tell what kind of reactions they would have under what circumstances."
"Everyone has different experiences, so they will naturally react differently to the same matter."
"For example, if Beverly Care Center had just gone through a disastrous viral leak that might have brought about the end of the world, then even if that disaster had now been resolved, their reactions should have been a thousand faces for a thousand people."
Zuniga paused.
"They had just suffered a viral calamity. This should have been the time when their emotions ran hottest—contacting their families, sitting down in a tavern, or venting in Red Alley... That would have been only human."
"But if they showed no emotional ripples at all, continued manning their posts, carried on researching the virus, and even pushed the schedule so urgently... Tell me, was that normal?"
As he said this, Zuniga controlled Rumor Kid to turn its head and glance at Angel.
Angel lowered his eyes, as though he had not noticed the gaze.
"So, I boldly conjectured that they might have been hypnotized. Perhaps even everyone in the entire Care Center had been hypnotized."
"Of course, this is only one of my conjectures. But I have always liked to live as though the worst conjecture were ordinary life."
"So even if it is a conjecture, in my eyes, it is fact..."
"The ability to hypnotize so many people at once is truly