Chapter 124
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The Disbeliever I
Shin Noa
1
By any chance, can you guess what promise Koreans absolutely never keep?
"Let's get a meal together sometime."
Indeed.
For Koreans, that proposition doesn't actually mean a suggestion to meet when genuinely hungry and increase insulin secretion together.
To interpret it strictly:
"I hereby declare once more in this place that although we may not be allies, we are at least not in a hostile relationship with each other."
That's approximately what it means.
Such sophisticated diplomatic language exists in every country.
If a Japanese person living in Kyoto asks, "Would you like some ochazuke?" it would be problematic to react with "Wow! Traditional food! Japanese people really are so kind!"
If North Korea fired a missile, the translation shouldn't be "Die, all you South Korean bastards!" but rather "L-look at me! I... I exist too!" — an automatic AI translation should occur in one's head.
"Let's get a meal together sometime" is the same.
If you respond to a Korean's statement with "Sure! Friend! When shall we meet? Tomorrow? Next week?" the other person has no choice but to seriously question whether this diplomatic relationship is worth maintaining.
And here exists a proposition universally applicable in diplomacy across all nations, transcending borders.
"The end of the world is coming soon! Everyone!"
"Hell is arriving! Ah! I can see the landscape of hell with my own eyes! Get aboard the new ark before the hellfire pours down!"
"Who am I? I am the son of heaven and the savior. Blessings will come to those who believe in this truth, but disaster will follow for disbelievers, that is my word."
It's the doomsday theory of cults.
As anyone with a mental translation function always running knows, the correct interpretation of the cult believers' statement "Someday, one day, the end will come!" is as follows: "—However, if you donate offerings, we may specially extend the deadline for doomsday."
People who fail to understand such basic diplomatic language are few in any country. The minorities alienated from international diplomacy are always destined to be exploited.
And then the Void arrived.
"Wow! The end really has come! The Cult Leader's prophecy was true! Cult Leader! What should we do now? Should we start with exciting mass suicide like you mentioned last time?"
"Eck."
The brains of the Strange had no translation function attached. Naturally, they couldn't understand humans' subtle diplomacy.
On the very day the Void arrived, cult leaders worldwide found themselves wanting to automatically greet the Strange with "Do you fucking have no sense?"
"No... Well... Look. What I mean is. Just because the end is at hand doesn't mean we necessarily have to commit suicide......"
"Cult Leader, stop talking nonsense and hurry up with your suicide."
Most cult leaders found themselves treated exactly the opposite as having no sense themselves.
But there was no need to be too sad about it. The believers weren't mean enough to ostracize their own cult leaders. They nicely pressed the 'Prophecy Achieved' achievement together.
- Breaking news. This morning around 11 AM, evidence was found of mass extreme choices carried out at a facility in North Chungcheong Province......
- According to police investigation, it is estimated that there is no clear connection between the series of mass incidents occurring recently......
- The terrorist group that occupied the Seoul subway this time has been revealed to be from a certain cult. These people, including the cult leader himself, all made extreme choices once a day......
A harsh season had arrived for cult leaders.
Since time immemorial, there had never been such an unemployment crisis. Those running cults were required to make more demanding choices.
However, as they say, heroes appear in times of chaos.
On the Korean Peninsula, there were two cult leaders who overcame numerous suicide suggestions and finally succeeded in crying out "I want to live! Together with you!"——
Entry Number One.
"All Awakened Ones must join Shin Buddhism and escape from the sin of killing as soon as possible! Those who do not are going against the will of Hwaeom! They are demons who destroy the equality of all people and shatter the peace of all things!"
"No-killing Eternal Life! Spiritual Life Hwaeom! Billion-mile Vault Stillness!"
Shin Buddhism.
A certain monk who had coiled himself in central Korea, upon seeing the zombie virus—specifically, the Udambara—beginning to spread in his city, reached a state of enlightenment.
The belief that one wouldn't die even from the Strange if one just wore a flower on one's head resonated with modern people who were already suspicious of their mental AI translator's performance. They willingly replaced their in-brain translators with more eco-friendly materials.
Shin Buddhism spread its influence at a terrifying speed, showing fierce dominance as it swept across the entire Korean Peninsula, Japanese archipelago, and Chinese continent. At one point, Korea's representative export wasn't K-pop but K-religion.
Of course, after I started stepping forward to repel the Udambara, it amounted to nothing. The monk nicely held hands with his believers and booked a one-way ticket to the other shore.
Entry Number Two.
"I understand! Brothers and sisters! I, your shepherd, will lead the way first!"
"As expected of our Chairman!"
"Mo Gwang-seo! Mo Gwang-seo!"
Mo Gwang-seo.
Like all pioneers who founded new doctrines, Mo Gwang-seo also possessed a unique history.
Mo Gwang-seo was a warrior of double excommunication who was declared a heretic by the Catholic Church and then declared a heretic again from an organization called Mary's Salvation Ark. He could truly be called an unprecedented cult leader.
Multiplying a minus by another minus makes a plus. Equipped with a mathematical brain unlike typical cult leaders, Mo Gwang-seo was convinced that he had circled around and was heading toward the correct path of faith.
The number of believers was about 210. He was a small-scale operator who couldn't even make the rankings of notorious cults on the Korean Peninsula, but Mo Gwang-seo didn't care. Jesus also left only twelve disciples (and one of them was someone who respected Brutus more than his own teacher).
Mo Gwang-seo's confidence wasn't without basis.
More precisely, he created the basis.
"Wait, what's that smell? Chairman, what is that?"
"It's ether."
"Excuse me?"
"The ether that will lead me to heaven is contained in abundance in this barrel in the form of holy water."
The latest chemical substance Mo Gwang-seo named ether was also called gasoline.
Indeed, Mo Gwang-seo proved he was on a different level from other mediocre cult leaders.
Before the believers could even give a hint with their eyes like "Hmm, the cult leader next door put on a flashy show of leaving this world, don't we have any entertainment like that...?" he took the initiative to prepare gasoline himself.
"Brothers and sisters! Since ancient times, fire has been sacred ether! Fire's essence is to purify the corrupt energy of the earth and draw closer to heaven! However, it is not easy for turbid energy to be erased, so as a soul that has pierced the six spiritualities, I will open the wind path first and lead you to that high heavenly kingdom!"
The commonality between rock stars and cult leaders was that performance on stage was important.
As soon as his speech concluded, Mo Gwang-seo doused himself from head to toe in oil.
The strong smell of gasoline spread intensely enough that even someone whose sense of smell had been paralyzed by spring pollen could detect it.
"Everyone! The same goes for all of you. You must all pierce the wind path I opened with all your might, one by one, so that souls remaining on earth can easily ascend! Thus, may the whole world be saved by glory's merciful light and love's blessing! In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen!"
Mo Gwang-seo rushed out of the building. He had completed normal compulsory education in South Korea and knew well what happens when gasoline catches fire in an enclosed space.
For reference, he had majored in film direction in college.
"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen!"
"Chairman! Chairman!"
Was it because they were moved by that outcry?
Several believers shouted "Amen!" and chased after the cult leader. Among them, a believer with outstanding running skills easily caught up to the cult leader and grabbed him in an embrace.
"Chairman! I will go with you, Chairman! I too will pierce the wind path together with you!"
"Huh- w-wait!"
Perhaps Mo Gwang-seo intended to run straight out and escape.
After escaping the believers' sight, he might have planned to detonate explosives he had prepared in advance to make it appear as if the cult leader had ascended by sacrificing himself.
Then, returning alive after a few days, he would appear to the believers as a returning Jesus who had come back from death. This is what people meant by turning crisis into opportunity.
What Mo Gwang-seo failed to calculate was that his acting was so excellent that he moved the believers too deeply.
"Let go! Let go! Wait, you can't touch there—"
BOOOOOM!
According to survivors' testimonies, an explosion occurred in the parking lot near the building at that time. No matter how much oil sunscreen Mo Gwang-seo had applied to his entire body, simply catching fire wouldn't cause such a massive explosion outdoors.
Two believers who followed the cult leader and Mo Gwang-seo himself died in the explosion on the spot. In particular, Mo Gwang-seo's body was blown to flat pieces and burned for a long time.
"The Chairman has ascended!"
"The Chairman has opened the wind path!"
"Ah, how holy. Amen......"
If the story had ended here, it would have been no different from numerous other cult organizations that emerged immediately after the Void's arrival and went through natural dissolution.
As always, misfortune came when the curtain didn't fall at the moment it should have ended.
"Huh?"
"What is it, Mr. Kim? Don't change your mind. Just hurry and apply the gasoline."
"N-no! That's not it! That! Look over there where the Chairman ascended! That......!"
"Huh?"
The remaining believers were in the middle of preparing for mass immolation in the parking lot. Someone pointed with their finger.
There was light there.
It wasn't some literary interpretation that light in the Bible means Logos. That which appeared in an outdoor parking lot near Okjeong Lake in Okjeong-dong, Yangju-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, was literally 'light.'
Tap, tap. A human shadow walked out from the center of the radiance.
"Oh, ohhhh......"
It was Mo Gwang-seo.
Mo Gwang-seo, silhouetted against the backlight, looked as if he were draped in a halo over his entire body.
Thud. The believers knelt without anyone needing to go first.
They shed tears.
"A-a miracle......"
"The Chairman! The Chairman has resurrected!"
A faint smile.
Mo Gwang-seo. No, the being that believers believed without doubt to be Mo Gwang-seo did not answer. He only wore a benevolent smile.
But for the believers whose mental brainwashing was complete, that alone was enough.
Just as heroines in light novels fall for a single head-patting gesture from the protagonist, the believers washed their tears with tears and kissed Mo Gwang-seo's front paw, swearing eternal loyalty.
"It's the Second Coming! It's the miracle of the Second Coming!"
Now the believers didn't need any 'wind path' to ascend to heaven.
This very place, this land where the returning Jesus existed, was the holy temple.
No trumpet sounds were heard, nor were any angels visible, but such peripheral details weren't important. To live as a cult member, one needed the courage to ignore life's miscellaneous matters. And the 200-some believers were truly courageous.
"Chairman Mo Gwang-seo is the returning Jesus!"
"Oh! Amen! Amen!"
"I'm saved! We're saved!"
Mo Gwang-seo won.
Where? In the religious war.
In this place called the Korean Peninsula, a solitary jar of gu where 20 gods and 50 returning Jesuses existed and waged eternal crusades, Mo Gwang-seo was selected as the last one standing.
Now Mo Gwang-seo's cult was reborn under the name 'Resurrection Church.'
"Spread this miracle far and wide!"
"We believe in the miracle of holy water and holy fire!"
"Evangelize and evangelize again! Amen!"
The believers of the Resurrection Church, with holy water—specifically, gasoline—dotted in the center of their foreheads, traveled throughout the country.
While Shin Buddhism absorbed Buddhist believers, the Resurrection Church feasted on Christian believers to great acclaim.
Of course, believers from other neighborhoods' cults fell as the most delicious prey.
"What? You're telling me to apostatize? Heresy! How dare you! Our Cult Leader received the Holy Body from the Pope, and it turned into flesh and blood in his mouth, and tears flowed from the Virgin Mary statue in our cathedral exactly 500 times, and we have photos and evidence materials!"
"Yeah, so what? Our Chairman resurrected."
"What?"
"Our Chairman is the returning Jesus, so what are you going to do about it?"
Mo Gwang-seo's resurrection didn't end with just once. Originally, the first verse was the difficult part; the second, third, and fourth verses were easy.
Every Sunday, Mo Gwang-seo was engulfed in gasoline and burned. And each time, he emitted light and walked out step by step.
With an infinitely benevolent smile.
"Ah, ahhhh!"
"Do you believe now?"
"I believeeeee! Ameeen!"
The material 'evidence' that other cults had so proudly boasted about was rendered completely powerless by a single resurrection show unfolding vividly before their eyes.
The sin of killing their own cult leader—the one they believed to be Jesus—every Sunday could be justified before the mission of evangelism. Let it be emphasized repeatedly: expecting rational reason from these people was problematic.
The heretics who attended Sunday mass and committed apostasy immediately arrested the 'false prophets' at their respective bases.
"No! You Satanic bastards! Do you think you'll get away with doing this to me!"
"Shut up! You're the Satan!"
"Wh-what?"
Competitors who were God and Jesus just yesterday transformed into Satan overnight.
The believers chastised their own foolishness for being deceived by the Antichrist all this time, and sprinkled the holy water they had received from the Resurrection Church on Satan's head.
"P-please spare me! Please, please spare me!"
"May ether purify the corrupt soul. Amen."
"Amen!"
Holy bonfires rose from all over the country. Naturally, stories of the Resurrection Church began to reach me as I operated between Seoul and Busan.
'...No, these crazy bastards.'
My eyes went cold.
Cult religions themselves weren't particularly special. The Korean Peninsula had always overflowed with cults since ancient times.
Hadn't this land been famous as a mecca of mental brainwashing material ever since Dangun hypnotized a perfectly fine bear, saying "From now on, you're not a bear, you're a human, understand?"
But the Resurrection Church was a bit different.
I was a sane Korean. Therefore, as soon as I heard Mo Gwang-seo's story, the AI translator in my head spun furiously.
A being that keeps coming back to life even when killed?
And yet human language doesn't work?
Every time it resurrects, it flashes with light and only smiles silently?
'...No matter how I look at it, that's not a person. It's just a case where a human has transformed into a Strange.'
Indeed.
Now these cult bastards, not satisfied with worshipping humans, had started worshipping a 'Strange' as Jesus.