Chapter 92: The Cult (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 92: The Cult (4)
What gave him the nerve to use my name to scam people?
Then again, he probably never imagined I would actually appear right in front of him.
If my acquaintances hadn’t gotten involved, I never would have found out about this cult, and I certainly wouldn’t be here now.
“O Saram123…! Please save us!” someone shouted, their voice thick with emotion.
Several others cried out my name in a similar fashion.
— Yes, this is how it should be. Just kill that cult leader bastard and take over the order.
I heard the Demon King’s voice.
Of course, I wasn’t putting on this ridiculous show for that.
I glanced over at Ji-woo noona.
Like the others, she was prostrating on the floor, completely motionless.
I hoped this would be enough to snap her out of it.
“Your leader is a fake.”
As I spoke, the chapel fell silent once more.
One by one, people raised their heads and stared at me with blank eyes.
“Claiming he can save you by invoking my name, telling you to offer money or prayers—it’s all a lie. This is just a cult trying to deceive and exploit you. I have never wanted any of this.”
Murmurs rippled through the crowd.
One person asked with a look of immense shock, “B-But in the end, the world will face destruction… and Saram123 will only save a minority of believers…”
I cut them off.
“That’s all bullshit.”
“…”
“There’s no such thing as salvation only for those who believe in me. I’m a human, just like all of you, and a Climber trying to extend the time limit of the Nightmare Difficulty. I am not an object of worship.”
Normally, words alone wouldn’t be enough to persuade people who had fallen for a cult.
But they couldn’t ignore this.
I, the very person they worshipped, was personally denying it all.
“So, please, all of you, go back home now,” I said, looking around at the crowd.
“I will do my absolute best to prevent the world’s destruction until the very end, so please live your normal, everyday lives. And never fall for a cult like this again. That is my only wish.”
When I gestured for them to stand, the people hesitantly rose to their feet.
A moment later, one by one, they began to exit the chapel.
However, many still stood there, staring at me in a daze.
“Please go.”
Only after I spoke again did the remaining people finally leave.
Ji-woo noona also headed out, glancing back at me repeatedly.
‘Phew…’
This should be enough to snap her out of it, right?
I just hoped she would live a good life from now on without causing any more heartache to those around her.
— I truly cannot understand you.
The Demon King’s voice rang out.
— Why do you reject adoration and worship? You could simply take in all these lowly creatures and multiply your followers.
The Demon King’s nagging had become routine.
He never seemed to get tired of trying to run a body that wasn’t even his.
— It’s frustrating to watch, you lowly creature.
I ignored him and turned to the side.
The cult leader, who had been stealthily trying to crawl off the podium, froze when my gaze fell on him.
“You’re staying. Where do you think you’re going?”
“…”
I gestured to the prosecutor, who was standing near the chapel entrance, watching the situation unfold with a blank expression.
Now that I had sent everyone away, it was time to clean up.
I made the cult leader and the High Priests line up and kneel on the podium.
“…I-I was only trying to preach your greatness to the people…” the cult leader blabbered.
When I just stared at him in silence, he lowered his gaze and shut his mouth.
“From what I heard earlier, you mentioned that some high-ranking people are involved.”
I had already achieved my original goal. Even if I left it alone, the Cheonin Cult would not be able to sustain itself.
But since it had come to this, I intended to uproot it completely.
“Tell me. Who else is behind you?”
The cult leader and the High Priests only exchanged glances, keeping their mouths shut.
The prosecutor spoke up for them.
“There’s a high probability that the Climber Association is involved.”
…The Climber Association?
Why was the Association involved in this?
The cult leader and the High Priests still kept their mouths tightly shut.
It seemed they had no intention of confessing willingly.
— I can make them spit it all out in three seconds. Hand over your body to me.
I ignored him.
I pointed a finger at the gaping hole in the chapel’s ceiling.
“If you’re going to be this uncooperative, the second shot won’t miss.”
“…”
They probably didn’t think I was incapable of killing them.
Not to brag, but the fact that I had already killed two people with the Destruction Ray was well-known.
When I pressured them with a surge of bloodlust, the cult leader finally turned deathly pale and opened his mouth.
“W-We were… just following orders…”
“Whose orders?”
“The Deputy Branch Manager of the Korea Climber Association!”
After that, the cult leader spilled everything.
The truth was pretty shocking.
The ones behind the Cheonin Cult were the Deputy Branch Manager of the Climber Association’s Korea branch, a heavyweight Assemblyman whose name every citizen of South Korea would know, and several other politicians.
The details revealed that the Cheonin Cult was an organization planned and established from the very beginning by that Deputy Branch Manager.
Their objective, of course, was money and the formation of their own secret cartel.
The cult leader wasn’t the head; he was merely the tail, diligently gathering believers under the Deputy Branch Manager’s directives.
The politicians were accomplices who provided various forms of support while taking their cut of the money.
I ordered the cult leader to bring out every single piece of evidence.
Right then and there, the prosecutor began examining the bribery ledger stored on the cult leader’s laptop, along with their exchanged emails.
The more he checked, the stiffer his expression became.
“This is beyond imagination. To think it was on this scale…”
It had only been a few years since I cleared the 1st Floor of the Nightmare.
In just that short time, they had managed to establish a cult of this magnitude?
Even in a world where no one knew if humanity would be destroyed in a year, they still thirsted for money and power to this extent.
It was a truly sickening reality.
“Can you catch all of them?”
When I asked, the prosecutor replied with a grave expression.
“I will do my absolute best. However, there are far more big shots involved than I thought… Honestly, I don’t know how far I’ll be able to go… I’m sorry.”
It meant that even with evidence, it wouldn’t be easy.
I nodded.
“Then I’ll help you.”
Who knew how many other cults besides the Cheonin Cult were out there?
I figured I needed to put a stop to this once and for all while I was at it.
I turned on the Communication Window.
*
Not long after Saram123 posted the information regarding the 6th Floor, he posted yet another message—a rare occurrence.
[Saram123: I recently discovered a cult operating under the name of the Cheonin Cult, which has been exploiting my name. The figures behind this organization include Kim Ji-hoon, the Deputy Branch Manager of the Korea branch of the Climber Association, Assemblyman Baek Gyu-ho, Park Tae-min…]
It was a post targeting a single cult known as the Cheonin Cult.
And it listed the names of all the individuals entangled in it, one by one.
[Saram123: …If there are any religious groups coercing faith and money out of you by using my name, please be aware that they are all nothing but cults. Furthermore, regarding the Cheonin Cult incident, I look forward to seeing all involved parties strictly punished.]
South Korea was turned completely upside down.
— Saram123 Calls Out the Church of Saram123…
— What is the True Identity of the Cheonin Cult? Deputy Branch Manager Remains Silent…
— Political Sphere in Chaos, Public Opinion Boiling…
The Church of Salvation, the mainstream denomination of the Church of Saram123, was the first to react, startled as if they had been burned.
“…Saram123! It’s not us! Our Humanity Salvation Hope Society has never coerced an ounce of faith or money from our believers!”
It was a desperate appeal to their innocence and devotion.
From the very beginning, their stance had been to deny all other factions of the Church of Saram123, labeling them as cults.
Not long after Saram123’s post went up, the President of the Church of Salvation immediately held a live broadcast, vehemently denouncing the Cheonin Cult and crying out at the top of his lungs that they were absolutely not a cult like them.
Furthermore, he announced that, starting right this moment, they would conduct massive, sweeping audits on all branches and foundations of the Church of Salvation worldwide.
However, the ones truly feeling the heat were the Climber Association.
The situation was that Saram123 himself had officially announced that the Deputy Branch Manager of the Association’s Korea branch was the mastermind behind a cult exploiting his name.
The President of the Association released a statement even faster than the Korea branch.
“…We urge the Korea branch to convene a board of directors meeting and immediately strip Deputy Branch Manager Kim Ji-hoon of his position. Depending on the circumstances, Headquarters is even considering revoking the Korea branch’s authority…”
It was immense pressure on the Korea branch to drag Deputy Branch Manager Kim Ji-hoon down instantly.
Wait for the investigation to conclude before taking a side?
The Association’s Headquarters had no such intention.
After all, Saram123 had stepped forward himself.
The Climber Association had to draw the line faster than anyone else, declaring that they had absolutely nothing to do with this incident and that it was solely the transgression of the Korea branch.
The Association also announced that, just like the Church of Salvation, they would conduct comprehensive audits on all branches worldwide.
“…Fuck.”
At Deputy Branch Manager Kim Ji-hoon’s residence, he stared hollowly at the news on the TV.
Just why… had it come to this?
His dreams had been grand: expanding his shadowy influence using the Cheonin Cult, courting the political sphere, and forming South Korea’s largest cartel.
It had all been progressing so smoothly. Until just a few days ago.
Everything had crumbled with a single post from Saram123.
If only the Cheonin Cult had been targeted, he could have cut his losses, but the post had named every single person involved.
Bang, bang, bang!
— Mr. Kim Ji-hoon, this is the Prosecutors’ Office!
Hearing the banging on his front door, Kim Ji-hoon let out a hollow chuckle.
His only solace was that everyone else was going down in flames with him.
Baek Gyu-ho—that man might be a weathered, cunning old monster in the political arena, but even he was out of his depth this time.
Their opponent was a sacred entity against whom a war of public opinion was fundamentally impossible.
At Assemblyman Baek Gyu-ho’s office.
“Dammit, goddammit…!”
Baek Gyu-ho hurled his phone, his eyes bloodshot.
He was a six-term Assemblyman of South Korea and a figure of immense power in the current political sphere.
And that power was on the verge of collapsing like a sandcastle.
A prosecutor named Lee Tae-sung was ruthlessly spearheading the investigation, public opinion was blazing out of control, and to top it all off, international pressure was pouring in from governments all over the world.
For some reason, even China had gone berserk, demanding immediate punishment for those involved and threatening countermeasures like raw material export controls and tariffs.
There was no one on his side. He was stranded in the middle of a vast ocean.
Far from defending him, pressure to voluntarily resign was coming from all directions. The National Assembly had read the room and immediately moved to cut ties.
With public outrage boiling over and, above all, Saram123 himself stating he looked forward to their punishment, this was not an issue that could be glossed over. The entire National Assembly could genuinely be overturned.
After his resignation, the investigation would proceed at lightning speed, and naturally, Baek Gyu-ho’s destination would be a cold, hard prison cell.
He absolutely refused to go down without a fight. At least, not alone.
“These fucking bastards… You think you can all just feign ignorance?”
Surviving this long in the political arena meant knowing many dirty secrets.
Baek Gyu-ho was fully prepared to take everyone down with him in a blaze of glory.
Just then, there was a knock.
“Excuse us, Assemblyman.”
The two uninvited guests were the Director of the NIS and the Climbing Bureau Chief.
Looking at Baek Gyu-ho’s venomous expression, the NIS Director spoke as if delivering a sentence.
“Don’t do it.”
“…Do what?”
“I’m telling you not to do what you’re thinking of doing right now. Resign quietly.”
It was obvious what a cornered Baek Gyu-ho would do.
He let out a dark chuckle.
“Even a cornered rat will bite the cat if it has no escape route. Isn’t that right? Why should I die alone just to make things easy for the rest of you?”
The Climbing Bureau Chief spoke up.
“You won’t actually be dying, will you?”
“…What?”
“The escape route is already open. Resign quietly and at least save your life.”
Realizing this was a death threat, Baek Gyu-ho’s face went pale with horror.
“A-Are you threatening me right now…? You’re going to kill an Assemblyman of South Korea?”
The Climbing Bureau Chief looked exhausted.
“What can we do? The situation has come to this. Please understand that we have no other choice.”
Saram123 wanted it, so Baek Gyu-ho had to be punished. If Baek Gyu-ho went on a rampage, South Korea’s political sphere would be upended to an unmanageable degree.
Silencing him with death was simply one of their options.
“…Who ordered this?”
There was no answer.
He didn’t even need to ask. It wasn’t important.
After all, everyone except those directly involved had either implicitly agreed to this or would turn a blind eye.
Fully realizing his predicament, Baek Gyu-ho slumped into his chair in utter despair.