Chapter 27
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The Buddha I
Shin Noah
1
As I mentioned before, besides the Ten Races, numerous boss-level monsters appeared across the world.
Like the "Meteor Shower" that endlessly bombarded shooting stars across the night sky when I was running a convenience store.
Actually, the term monster, or rather "grotesque creature," was mainly used in the early stages. As you could tell from the Meteor Shower, many of these creatures were closer to phenomena than living organisms.
In the later stages, Awakeners started using not just the term "monster" but also words like "strange entity," "evil spirit," "yokai," and "Lost" interchangeably.
For reference, in Japan, boss-level monsters were separately called Angels. That is, they called them "Angels."
It was truly a bizarre usage. Because in the West, they were called the exact opposite—Demons. Later, I heard from the Puppeteer, an Awakener who had lived in Japan, that the term originated from some classic Japanese anime.
Gates were similar in this regard. Since many Gates didn't take the form of "doors," later on, terms like Void, Abyss, and Hell were used more frequently. (In truth, it was difficult to strictly distinguish between strange entities and Void.)
Today, I want to talk about one of the main culprits that sparked this linguistic shift in earnest—the so-called "New Buddha."
2
"Huh? Hey, you..."
"Yeah?"
"What's that on your head?"
That monster wasn't a living creature.
More accurately, there was debate about whether it was living or non-living.
"That thing growing next to your ear... Isn't that a leaf?"
A virus.
Where the first patient appeared remained unknown for a long time. It was likely North Korea or South Korea. Just as Busan Station's concourse was a hunting ground for Awakeners, the Korean Peninsula was also a buffet for monsters. See, balance patches definitely worked in this world!
"It's a z-zombie virus!"
People panicked in fear.
Zombies were practically essential in any apocalypse story, weren't they?
When infected with this virus, leaves and flowers would sprout from human bodies. There were even cases where weeds grew on bald heads.
Yet surprisingly, when the virus first started spreading, people's response was lukewarm. There was a reason.
"No! I'm not a zombie!"
"...Huh?"
"Look! I'm talking perfectly fine. My memory is normal and my head is normal! Fuck, I do feel weird with maple leaves sprouting from my armpits, but I don't want to die over something like this!"
It was because people infected with the virus were much more normal (?) than expected.
A person's body suddenly becoming a flowerpot was certainly strange in appearance. But if one ignored the exterior, the virus seemed to have no harmful effects.
No, actually, enormous benefits were discovered.
"Damn monster bastard! That bastard killed my mother!"
"Ah..."
"I'll definitely kill him! Even if I die, I'll make sure to take down that monster bastard no matter what!"
"Son..."
"Mother, please watch from heaven. Your unfilial son will follow you soon."
"Son!"
"Huh?"
"I'm not dead! How many times do I have to answer before you respond!"
"M-mother? But your stomach is pierced right now..."
"I don't know why, but I'm fine. Maybe it's because I took some herbal medicine yesterday?"
People infected with the virus generally "didn't die."
As long as their brain wasn't destroyed, they could survive even with severed limbs and damaged organs.
Even if life functions ceased, as long as they got sunlight during the day and consumed enough water on time, no matter how serious the injury, they could survive.
At this point, with the medical system collapsed in today's world, what was the reaction of ordinary people?
"God has helped us!"
"Me too...! I'm going to get infected too!"
A bizarre scene unfolded with people rushing to deliberately get infected.
Healers with healing abilities were already rare. And capable healers were conscripted to the frontlines, busy supporting other Awakeners.
An extra life point for free in this era where you could die at any moment? Who could resist this? It was like a lifeboat appearing on the sinking Titanic.
"Zombie virus? No. It's a blessing of life."
"Everyone, become a plant too! You won't have to struggle to find food anymore. They say you can live without any worries with just sunlight and water!"
"This is the majesty of the New Buddha. If you believe in the New Buddha, you will be liberated from all worldly desires and suffering, and gain a body that can live in a new world."
All sorts of cult doctrines even sprang up.
The zombie virus was worshipped as a new Buddha. That is, it became an object of faith called "New Buddha." It was a cult with absolutely no connection to Buddhism, but the slogan "Eternally liberated from the worldly desire of eating meat and grains by not taking life (不殺永生)" resonated with people.
Followers of New Buddhism all shaved their black hair. But unlike real Buddhists, new hair grew from the heads of New Buddhists. Weeds and flowers.
They claimed it was a process of discarding the outer skin as a human belonging to the secular world and accepting a new god.
"Oh my, Yellow Rose-nim. Did you have a peaceful night?"
"Yes. Thanks to White Rose-nim's concern, my body and mind have been purified."
New Buddhists used Dharma names. It was similar to baptismal names in Christianity. Interestingly, they called each other by tree names or flower names depending on what plants grew from their heads.
They called themselves Hwadan (花壇), meaning a group where a million kinds of flowers gathered, and called their ideology Hwaeom (花嚴). It was naming sense fitting for people living with flowers on their heads.
"...I'm going to die because of those flower freaks."
Dang Seo-rin had muttered that once. It was probably the 5th round. At that time, as Samcheon's vice guild master, I shrugged.
"Well, the world is chaotic, so people want to rely on a cult. The Yellow Turban Rebellion didn't happen for nothing."
"Vice guild master, you always make Three Kingdoms analogies. That makes you look old, so stop it."
No, what's wrong with Three Kingdoms? Kids these days all like Liu Bei. Filial sons like Cao Cao. And Sun Quan is, um... liked by psychopaths.
Seeing my expression, Dang Seo-rin chuckled.
"Anyway, I understand how people feel. Still, it's nothing but poison to us."
Dang Seo-rin was right.
New Buddha had a flaw.
It had no ill effects on ordinary people. However, when Awakeners were infected with New Buddha and about two weeks passed, once the flowers fully bloomed, they became "completely unable to use their abilities."
An extremely fatal poison (劇毒).
"Guild master, please be careful too. These days if you bring that up, you'll get bashed for plant phobia."
"But they hate Awakeners, don't they?"
That was also a valid point.
In the early stages of the Gate incident, Awakeners were treated much better. But as a backlash against Awakener supremacy, Awakener hatred emerged, and New Buddha developed these feelings into a systematic doctrine.
"Awakeners are no different from monsters, which is proven by the fact that their abilities disappear simultaneously when they receive the grace of New Buddha."
"All Awakeners must join New Buddhism and escape the sin of killing as soon as possible! Those who do not are going against the will of Hwaeom! They are Buddhist enemies who destroy the equality of all people and the peace of all living things!"
"Not Killing and Eternal Life (不殺永生)! Spiritual Life Flower Adornment (靈生華嚴)! Billion Miles Sky Determination (億里穹定)!"
They were truly troublesome cultists.
Of course, Dang Seo-rin was a capable guild master. She didn't successfully establish a multinational union guild in Korea for nothing.
She coolly solved all problems by donating a huge amount of cash to the New Buddhist Hwadan.
"Oh-ho-ho. Although Dang Seo-rin Daoist Friend (道友) has not received the Buddha's grace, she is devoting herself to saving the sentient beings, so how could we flowers treat her carelessly?"
"Thanks for understanding."
"Amitabha, Amitabha..."
Amitabha my ass. If Shakyamuni saw this, he would immediately grab a buzzer and shave off the tiger lily on that fake monk's head.
Korea was better off.
The Korean Peninsula uniquely had no "Constellation" phenomenon. Thanks to that, Awakeners were relatively quiet, and Awakener supremacy didn't have much power. So ordinary people's hatred of Awakeners was inevitably low.
But when New Buddha spread to neighboring countries, the story changed.
Along with the physical virus of disease, the mental virus of New Buddhism was also exported, and the world shook from this cult.
"Everyone! What is 'Im' (林)?!"
"Not Killing and Eternal Life! Spiritual Life Flower Adornment! Billion Miles Sky Determination!"
"That's right! 'Im' is simply the name of a flower!"
"Waaaaah—!"
In other countries where the Constellation's surveillance was absent, Awakener supremacy ran rampant. Governments were paralyzed, laws collapsed, and there wasn't even a being monitoring me. It was stranger when Awakeners with some power didn't gather and run wild.
Naturally, ordinary people who suffered every possible nuisance hated Awakeners. And New Buddhism specialized in justifying that hatred.
A K-cult that people worldwide went crazy for was born.
There was another cult active in North Korea, but since it was biased toward the north, New Buddha was overwhelming in terms of nuisance level.
"...Troublesome. Really troublesome. The number of volunteers originally coming from Japan has dropped significantly."
Dang Seo-rin rubbed the frayed tip of her cone hat with her fingers. It was a habit that unconsciously emerged when she was genuinely troubled.
You may have forgotten, but in the 5th round, instead of fighting the Ten Races directly, we retreated to Busan.
Hundreds of Awakeners from Japan were supposed to join, but the scale suddenly shrank to 20 people.
"20 is too few."
"The flower freaks are expanding their power enormously in Japan. They say they've swallowed almost half the country, from Kyushu to Kanto. I guess it's so difficult that they can't easily leave their bases. I heard India, Europe, and the Americas are also starting to go crazy in earnest."
"The future of humanity is bleak."
Whether the future became bleak because cults ran rampant, or cults ran rampant because the future was bleak, was just a chicken-and-egg problem.
The Ten Races were visible, and if you poked them with a blade, there was hope of winning, but New Buddha was truly hopeless.
How could you eradicate a virus? Virus research labs? They were busy researching infectious diseases that actually threatened human lives. New Buddha was pushed far back in the research queue.
The victims of New Buddha changed each time the rounds repeated. Sometimes Dang Seo-rin was infected, sometimes the Saintess was.
I couldn't afford to get infected, so whenever I felt a leaf-like sensation near my ear, I immediately ended my life without hesitation. Because if infected, Awakener abilities wouldn't activate? If something went wrong and even my regression ability disappeared, what would I do? I had to die quickly.
Well, with the possibility of Show Old Man existing, there was little chance of problems arising... but it didn't hurt to be careful.
Ah. For reference, the types of flowers that bloomed on the heads of the characters mentioned so far when infected with New Buddha were as follows:
Saintess — Hydrangea with pale blue color with a few drops of light purple paint.
Dang Seo-rin — Pitch-black violet. Holding a moon halo in the night sky.
Seo Gyu — Unknown.
Sim A-ryeon — White lily of the valley. Trembling and amusing.
Lee Ju-ho — Bright yellow sunflower.
Go Yo-ri — Unknown. Presumed to be narcissus.
Show Old Man — Unknown. Presumed to be clover (not four-leaf).
Oh Dok-seo — Red spider lily. That's right, the flower also known as resurrection lily or higanbana. She was so curious about what flower would bloom that she deliberately got infected to find out. She wasn't normal either.
Like Show Old Man, I also didn't know what flower would bloom. Because whenever I thought I was infected with New Buddha, I died before the flower could bloom. I died twice that way.
If I had to guess, probably a pure white lily? It's a symbol of purity and innocence. I get the feeling it would suit me.
Anyway, New Buddha was more troublesome than the Ten Races.
My strategy of leaving it alone since it didn't harm civilians—was revised only upon reaching the 17th round.
"Doctor! Big trouble!"
Show Old Man threw the door open. Since I had just fallen asleep, I frowned deeply.
"Ah, what is it? Let me sleep. I'm not old like someone, so I still need a lot of sleep."
"What? This insolent bastard... That's not it! Outside! Open the window and look outside, you rascal!"
"What kind of nonsense is this in the middle of the night..."
I opened the window.
I looked up at the night sky.
I froze, gripping the windowsill.
"...What is that?"
World Tree.
A single giant red tree covered the entire night sky, to the extent that it could only be described that way.
— An infinite regressor telling a story.