Chapter 125
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The Unbeliever II
Shin Noah
3
Initially, I didn't pay much attention to Mo Gwang-seo and the Resurrection Church.
The anecdotes about Mo Gwang-seo and the behaviors of his followers depicted in this episode were merely about 50% embellished with my own imagination. I hadn't witnessed them directly but had reconstructed them from various people's testimonies.
Why didn't I care?
'I'm busy as hell, what cult?'
Honestly, they weren't worth caring about.
The Shin Buddhism, equally a heretical cult, was different. Though similar in "using strange entities for faith," their Udumbara posed a direct threat to human civilization.
Shin Buddhism was even hostile to Awakened ones. Urgent measures were necessary.
But the Resurrection Church?
"Awakened? What does that matter now? Jesus has returned!"
"Amen!"
"The end times have arrived, brothers and sisters. Repent now and board the salvation ark designed by our leader!"
"You! Your physiognomy shows you are truly virtuous—you must absolutely be saved!"
Aside from occasionally encountering street evangelists while walking, there was nothing particularly harmful. And street evangelism was just a side quest one might encounter on the way to work even in pre-apocalypse South Korea.
As a regressor, I had far more important main quests than that.
More importantly, Mo Gwang-seo's Resurrection Church had its own main quest.
-Everyone! I will break through the wind's path to help you ascend. You must also help others.
During his lifetime. That is, before transforming into the 'Resurrection Strange,' Mo Gwang-seo had aimed for a unique sales point in the Korean Peninsula's religious market.
-But where do you think your help is most desperately needed?
-Hmm? ...Yeouido?
-No! North Korea!
-What.
It was the Northern Advance Evangelism Theory.
-Jesus said to go out to the roads and hedges and compel people to fill the house. But why did Jesus say to compel? Did he mean to drag the unbaptized to church by force?
-Absolutely not, everyone. Originally, there are those who forceably block paths and build fences to prevent sheep who would follow the shepherd's call from reaching our home. They are very wicked Satan and demons. These are the antichrists who must be defeated, even if by 'force.'
-It is not the unbaptized North Korean brothers and sisters who are at fault, but the Kim family who erected iron fences and walls against them who bear the great sin. Since the Korean Peninsula was split in two, the 'path' has been cut and 'fences' have been erected. Jesus is telling you to restore that path of wailing and fence of blood with your footsteps.
-Ah, brothers and sisters! Our volunteering for the most difficult path here and now is not to boast that we are better than others. We simply believe that other brothers will guide the sheep in easier pastures on our behalf, and we wish to walk a slightly more laborious path of evangelism. It is faith and love for our brothers and sisters.
-Therefore, let the lightning of faith topple Satan's wall as quickly as possible, so that our footsteps may reach their fingertips. Amen.
Mo Gwang-seo's Northern Advance Evangelism Theory gained considerable response among believers. More precisely, only those who reacted to it joined Mo Gwang-seo's center.
In truth, the Northern Advance Evangelism Theory was nothing more than another 'diplomatic' epithet Mo Gwang-seo had developed.
Understanding it as "let's actually advance north to spread doctrine" would have embarrassed both Mo Gwang-seo and the JSA Guard Battalion. Mo Gwang-seo, as a citizen of a democratic nation, had simply put forth 'campaign promises' to voters.
But as I said before, the root of all evil lay with the strange entities who had not installed brain translators. In this case, the Ten Legs.
"The DMZ has fallen!"
The Ten Legs possessed a habit of reacting strongly to gatherings of over 300 humans.
Having concluded that Koreans were reasonably tasty, the Ten Legs soon became interested in the same breed of meat. The North Korean barracks, where the distinction between prison and military camp was blurring, appeared to the Ten Legs as a Michelin one-star fusion restaurant.
"Ah! Chairman Mo Gwang-seo, no, Jesus's prophecy has been proven again!"
"The fist of fire has shattered the mountain walls! Now is the time for us to spread the gospel!"
"Let us go! Brothers! To North Korea!"
The Resurrection Church actually 'advanced north.'
After absorbing all sorts of pseudo-religious heresies in the country into their sect, training them, and then continuously marching believers toward North Korea.
This new Crusade continued its march even while the national army was being annihilated.
If you ask why a Crusade appeared on the Korean Peninsula instead of Jerusalem, you either haven't studied history or are afflicted with Orientalism. Originally, the Jerusalem of the East was Pyongyang.
"Advance north!"
"God wills it!"
Kaesong, Geumcheon, Pyongsan, Sariwon.
North Korea's major strongholds were liberated one after another. The Korean Peninsula indeed seemed to have geographical characteristics that gave generous buffs to volunteers rather than regular armies.
The Crusade's secret to success was simple. The Resurrection Church treated the Ten Legs that destroyed the truce line as 'God's Apostle,' and simply followed behind after the Ten Legs finished devouring the North Korean military.
In a sense, the Resurrection Church believers were among humanity's best adapted to the apocalypse era. Cult leader was a strange entity. Vanguards were strange entities. Undoubtedly, few groups utilized strange entities as practically as they did.
And finally.
"Look over there!"
"It's Pyongyang! We've finally arrived!"
"Ah... The Lord's light fills the Eastern Jerusalem."
Pyongyang liberation!
The believers trembled. Since Dangun, had there been any religious figure who achieved such a feat besides Gungye?
Of course, there wasn't much Lord's light in Oriental Jerusalem. The Jangchung Cathedral, Pyongyang's only cathedral, had long been destroyed. There weren't many people either.
-Kreugh... uurgh!
No, they were disappearing in real-time.
The North Korean regime had desperately prepared a final soul teamfight to defend Pyongyang. And as you might guess from the fact that this proposition is expressed in past tense, they were completely wiped out, soul and all.
There were even some Chinese troops in Pyongyang. The moment they heard the intelligence that 'those calling themselves liberation forces are advancing from the south!' the Chinese people's minds suddenly regressed to the 1950s.
Indeed, though sometimes forgotten, Pyongyang and Beijing were blood allies.
So they bled together too.
-Gruuu... kuaaah!
The strongest Ten Legs roared. The Ten Legs were insanely powerful, the strongest among strange entities.
Bunkers meant nothing to the Ten Legs that pierced underground bedrock with tentacle movements reminiscent of Cthulhu.
The North Korean regime's leadership, the North Korean military's generals, and above all, the North Korean military and Pyongyang citizens all departed together to meet Comrade Marx.
The Chinese People's Volunteer Army that came down from Manchuria also belatedly recognized that they had somehow misinterpreted the intelligence. The Ten Legs liked Orientals too much to be the vanguard of capitalistic imperialism.
At that moment.
That is, at the timing when North Koreans were dying, Chinese were despairing, and the newly arrived Koreans were screaming.
Step, step.
Mo Gwang-seo walked forward.
"Chairman!"
A believer shouted. The believers who had followed Mo Gwang-seo even before he displayed the miracle of the Second Coming subtly revealed their privilege consciousness by preferring the old title, 'Chairman.'
"Jesus!"
Believers who had apostatized later also shouted. Throughout the Crusade march, Mo Gwang-seo had walked at their forefront. For such a precious person to walk toward that terrible monster! Even if the Ten Legs were God's apostle, they couldn't help but worry.
"What's that crazy bastard saying now?"
North Koreans also shouted. The Chinese weren't much different. It was a normal reaction.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, or Chairman, Jesus, and crazy bastard, Mo Gwang-seo walked forward.
Thud. And naturally, he became a Mo Gwang-seo skewer by one of the Ten Legs' countless tentacles.
"Chairmaaaaan!"
"Oh! Lord! Lord!"
It was an event as obvious as the law of gravity, but the Resurrection Church believers were horrified. How could this be! The Ten Legs was indeed God's apostle, but its name turned out to be Judas Iscariot.
This was why you had to check the true name first when summoning a servant. The Resurrection Church believers seemed to be paying the price for ignoring an old proverb.
While everyone was either bursting into tears or looking at those crying and wondering 'what the hell are those guys doing?'—
Flash—.
Once again, there was light.
-Gruuu... pa... hak!
The light shone brightly from the Ten Legs' tentacles. The city where slaughter was taking place was instantly enveloped in pure white light.
The Ten Legs spat out Mo Gwang-seo like a customer who bit into a shell while eating raw oysters.
When the light settled, all humans who participated in the urban warfare could witness Mo Gwang-seo's halo.
"...."
"...."
The battlefield fell silent.
Smiling gently.
Mo Gwang-seo, who monopolized the gazes of tens of thousands, the Resurrection Strange, simply maintained his benevolent smile as always.
-Grrr... uurgh...
And a miracle happened.
The Ten Legs that had chewed and spat out Mo Gwang-seo turned its back.
Though in human language it might have meant something like 'I won't come to this tasteless restaurant even if you pay me,' just as the strange entities hadn't equipped human translators, humans hadn't purchased strange entity translators either.
Kuung, kuuuung... The Ten Legs' massive body grew distant. Into the expressions of the North Korean military who had been prepared for annihilation just moments ago, and the eyes of the Chinese military, seeped astonishment and awe.
What on earth had just happened?
"Hallelujah!"
The Resurrection Church believers wrote the correct answer in place of their question.
"Jesus has driven away God's apostle!"
"Ah, compatriots! Praise! The Lord has affirmed our Crusade!"
"It's a miracle, a miracle!"
The Chinese military couldn't understand the Koreans' ecstasy. But the North Koreans understood.
Through a North Korean officer's translation, the Resurrection Church believers' cries were translated to the Chinese as well.
The eyes of the remaining soldiers and citizens changed.
That day happened to be Saturday, and the very next day, the Resurrection Church's special 'Mass' was held. Even the unbelievers who still doubted Mo Gwang-seo's miracle attended the live concert to see just how amazing they really were.
The Mass ended.
That day. Pyongyang returned to being the Jerusalem of Joseon.
4
The Eastern Holy Kingdom.
That was the name of the newly founded nation in Pyongyang, which had fallen into ruins.
Though internationally unrecognized as a new nation, it didn't lack competitiveness. The previous regime had been similar anyway.
Now North Korea was Rome itself. A bit too far east for Eastern Rome, but that didn't matter.
The capital was naturally Pyongyang Holy City. The head of state was Mo Gwang-seo.
Mo Gwang-seo's official title was neither king, president, prime minister, nor chairman. It wasn't even Pope.
The only title befitting Mo Gwang-seo was Jesus, and therefore the Eastern Holy Kingdom's head of state's full name was established as 'Mo Gwang-seo Jesus.'
The comedy written and starring the Resurrection Church had finally reached its climax.
"No, fuck. What the..."
Nok Do-ha's expression upon hearing the North's news was worth seeing.
"Wasn't that place a den of communists? So where did Jesus come from, Jesus? Marx defined religion as the opium of the people, didn't he...?"
"Hmm. Isn't a pseudo-religion better than the Juche ideology?"
"Fuck, better how? They're both equally trash. This country's really gone to complete shit..."
Indeed. This worldview was fantasy. How else could you explain a reality with 'Holy Empire' clearly marked on the map?
Anyway, the Ten Legs apparently remembered Pyongyang as a 'restaurant with terrible hygiene management' and avoided exactly that area while roaming around.
The Eastern Holy Kingdom's believers praised this as 'the brilliant miracle of Mo Gwang-seo Jesus Christ.'
Naturally, other North Korean regions also flocked to Pyongyang. Less because they were deceived by the Eastern Holy Kingdom's propaganda, and more because they didn't want to serve even one meal to the Ten Legs, those terrible customers.
As the apocalyptic time passed, the governments of Korea, Japan, and China collapsed in order.
Though the three East Asian nations hadn't been born on the same day, they had strengthened their brotherly bonds promising to die together, yet only the Eastern Holy Kingdom stubbornly preserved its national structure. It was indeed characteristic of a region where the very concept of international diplomatic cooperation had been castrated for generations.
While surrounding nations watched with 'Wait, why isn't that collapsing? Why isn't it really collapsing?' eyes (this too was similar to the previous regime), the Eastern Holy Kingdom gradually recognized reality.
'Huh? All our neighboring countries have collapsed?'
'Then wouldn't occupying that ownerless territory be legal now?'
The Eastern Holy Kingdom once again initiated 'Northern Advance.'
It wasn't a new pretext of recovering the nation's ancestral lands. Such nationalist thinking wasn't sexy.
The Eastern Holy Kingdom was the only regime directly recognized by the Lord. Therefore, they could officially lay claim to any territory in the world.
Now, the Second Crusade was officially proclaimed in Pyongyang Holy City.
The Crusade swept like a tsunami through the Gando region, where population per village had been forcibly suppressed to around 300 by the Ten Legs. Liberation. Liberation. More liberation.
"Today too, the holy Eastern Crusade liberated 3 villages and guided them into the embrace of our Mo Gwang-seo Jesus Christ. Let us pray for the peace of our brothers and sisters. Amen."
"Amen!"
This wasn't a conflict between nations. It wasn't even a dispute between states.
It was simply a bloody battle between the Resurrection Church that had downloaded a hypnosis app and the pitiful ordinary people resisting them.
Naturally, in this genre of fight, ordinary people were always at a disadvantage. Even someone who had never encountered 19+ doujinshi in their life could sense the clear ominousness.
If this world were inside a doujinshi, the human who first detected the 'ominousness' would have become the first sacrifice.
"Hmm..."
Fortunately, reality wasn't a doujinshi.
Unlike doujinshi that would lower average human intelligence to maintain genre strictness if it were a hypnosis work, real humans could make normal judgments.
Especially Nok Do-ha, the National Road Management Chief—if the opponent had a hypnosis app, he was the type to confiscate their phone and then preach to them about '101 reasons why you should commit suicide right now.'
Nok Do-ha, who had initially been sick of the pseudo-religious chaos, slowly changed his eyes.
"Funeral Director Awakener..."
"Yes."
"I'm just asking out of curiosity. Mo Gwang-seo's Resurrection Church. Is there no way to... use them?"
It was a kind of destiny.
The National Road Management Chief. The ruler of 'southern' Korean Peninsula had instinctively begun to pay attention to the 'northern' leader.