AFK Grinding (1)

Churches in South Korea were something like totems. No matter where you went in any city, crosses stood packed together in dense clusters. It couldn't have been any other way. In a country where psychiatry and psychological counseling carried such a heavy stigma, religion was the only thing that could fill that role.

The problem was that this very substitute — the church — had become deeply corrupt over the years. The fact that most of the cults in the country had first sprouted from inside churches was proof enough.

"We stand at a great trial this very moment. A pagan cult has planted its roots directly in front of our church."

"Amen."

"Amen."

A cross marking a church stood near Yeonok-dong as well. Its name was Saint Church.

"Already, so many of our flock have fallen into corruption and abandoned their faith! This cannot be! To think our belief was this frail!"

Saint Church was just one of the many thoroughly ordinary churches scattered across South Korea. It wasn't particularly clean, nor was it uniquely rotten. It was the kind of church that got by on lukewarm worldliness and halfhearted charity work, simply coasting from day to day.

"This is a sanctuary! Right now! Right here! If there is a pagan harvester of the goddess among us, leave at once! Otherwise, the punishment of God will find you!"

Saint Church had made exactly one mistake: its location. As the closest church to Yeonok-dong, it had quietly become the first to be exposed to the influence of the Providence Sect.

"Come out, you Satanic harvesters!"

"…"

"…"

The sanctuary fell silent under the head pastor's shouting. There had never been a single harvester from the Providence Sect in this church to begin with. The Providence Sect did not proselytize. And even when it did pursue converts or harvest souls, it targeted cults and the unaffiliated first. It never bothered going after healthy, established religions like churches, Buddhism, or Catholicism — that would have been needlessly exhausting.

In other words, the members who had left had done so purely out of disappointment with the church itself. But the pastor and the congregation neither knew this, nor would they have acknowledged it even if they had.

"…"

Koh Yohan, the associate pastor of Saint Church, stared at the pulpit in silence. He watched the head pastor carry on his sermon as if spitting blood.

No one is sitting beside Min-soo.

His gaze drifted to the youth group section. In the far corner of the seating area, a young man sat alone and adrift.

Do we really have the right to curse the members who abandoned their faith?

The youth group alone made it painfully clear why people were leaving the church. Comparison, competition, and ostentation were, if anything, even more rampant inside the church's closed-off society. He knew all too well the conversations that church members traded in private.

"Oh my! Deacon Jinsu's father, you changed your car?"

"Hahaha! My performance bonus came in big this quarter, so I splurged a little."

"Public companies really are something else."

"Oh my! Gyeongsu's mom, isn't that a Louis Vuitton bag?"

"Hohohoho! My daughter gave it to me for my birthday this year."

"Parents with a doctor daughter must feel so secure. You know, I've been thinking of selling the land I inherited to raise money for my daughter's study abroad."

"That's right! Didn't you say Miso got into a top American university? NYU, was it?"

"Honestly, why does everything go so smoothly for the people in our church?"

The adult members were too busy flaunting their workplaces, salaries, homes, and cars. Where their children went to college and landed jobs were the main topics of their conversations as well. The youth group members, raised watching these adults, were no different.

"Sungsu oppa! Did you hear? He got into Seoul National University this time!"

"Minju, congratulations on getting into med school!"

"Unni, you're getting married soon, right? Where's the ceremony? What?! A hotel? What did you get for the gifts? Chanel and Tiffany?! No way!"

The youth group was a gathering of everyone from college students to young office workers in their first jobs. Members attending prestigious universities, holding prestigious professions, high-ranking civil servants, and employees of major corporations dominated the group. They clustered together, and people gathered only around them. Not just their peers, but even the adults paid attention exclusively to the successful kids.

"Huh? Min-soo?"

"Isn't he still studying for the civil service exam?"

"I heard he failed the exam three times and fell back to civil service prep."

"He's just unemployed, really."

"Ugh, is that even living?"

"If it were me, I wouldn't show my face at church out of sheer embarrassment."

By society's standard of success, anyone not living an Instagram-worthy life was treated as a complete ghost. Neither peers nor adults would sit beside a member who had been culled from the competition.

And in every conversation that flowed through the church like this, Jesus was nowhere to be found.

"Our church is a premium church."

"Honestly, we shouldn't just accept anyone as a member no matter how they live."

"We need to become ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the kind of church society's elites seek out — like the megachurches of Yeouido or Gangnam."

The very people charged with guarding against this culture — the pastors, elders, deacons, and deaconesses — either stood by watching or actively fanned the flames. And so the young people who were retaking exams, attending lackluster universities, stuck in prolonged job hunts, or working at mediocre companies were utterly ignored.

Once the service ends, I should talk with Min-soo.

Kim Min-soo, the young man Pastor Koh Yohan had long kept an eye on, belonged squarely to that neglected latter group. He'd even gone through a retake year, failed the college entrance exams anyway, and decided that if he was doomed to a second-rate university, he might as well aim for the civil service — and so he'd lived as a test-prep student for years. The most pitiable existence in the entire church.

If Jesus were here, He would have been the first to sit down beside a young man like Min-soo.

Yohan felt a wave of disillusionment crash over the church he worked at. And beyond that, he felt a creeping futility at the sight of Korean Christianity rotting a little more with each passing day.

"Min-soo, it's been a while."

After the service, Yohan made time to seek him out.

"Yes. Hello, Pastor."

"Good. How have you been? Is the civil service prep going well?"

Worried that the youth group's contempt might have wounded the boy, Yohan felt relief wash over him at the sight of Min-soo. His face was brighter than expected.

"I gave up on the civil service exam."

"Really? So you've decided to get a job instead? That's a good choice. Even part-time work is fine. There's no shame in any honest occupation. Becoming a contributing member of society and living diligently — that's what matters most."

"Hearing you say 'even part-time work is fine' suggests that you, too, are quietly ranking occupations by their worth, Pastor."

"Uh… oh? W-well, I suppose… hahahaha…"

The Min-soo he was seeing after so long hadn't merely brightened. Something about this kid has changed. He was like someone who had attained enlightenment.

"I'm not going to get a job or work part-time either."

"Th-then what will you do? Enlist in the military?"

"I already finished my service…"

"Ah, right, you did. Sorry."

"I'm going to become a clergyman."

"A-a clergyman? Are you going to seminary?"

"No seminary. I'm going to be a clergyman of the Providence Sect."

"?!!!"

With those words, Min-soo held out his phone screen.

"What's this…?"

"It's an app called Providence. You build up faith points here, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠then receive baptism from Lord Lee Seop to become an official believer. Once you're an official believer, you can help make Holy Water…"

"…"

At Min-soo's words, Yohan felt his mind reel for an instant.

"Mi-Min-soo! That place is a cult!"

"It's not a cult. By this church's standards, it counts as paganism, sure — but it is absolutely not a cult."

"No. Absolutely not. Let us pray, Min-soo."

"Pray? Hmm."

At Yohan's words, Kim Min-soo curled his lips into a faint sneer.

"If I said I was leaving, the church would probably welcome it, actually. It means a guy like me won't be muddying the waters here anymore."

"…!"

Yohan had no rebuttal to that. Because it was almost certainly true. The threshold at which a church raged over membership loss was when a member who benefited the church walked away. A believer who barely tithed and contributed no labor — no street evangelism, no volunteer work — could leave or stay; it made no difference to anyone.

"And today is my last day attending this church."

"…You seem to have made up your mind already, so why did you come today?"

"I came to harden my resolve completely. And I was right. Ah — this place really hasn't changed. It's not where I belong."

"…"

"Still, the only person in this church who ever saw me was you, Pastor Yohan. So here's my thought — why not convert, starting right now?"

"You — how dare you say that to my face—!"

"You know it too, Pastor. That Korean churches have no answers left."

"That's your delusion. There are still true churches and true clergy out there. Even now, pastors in small church plants walk the path of love and devotion while going hungry themselves—"

"I'm sure such people exist. But this isn't one of those churches, is it? Saint Church isn't."

"Then change it."

"Ah, yes. Fighting! As for me, I'll take the 'leave the temple if you hate the temple' route."

With that, Min-soo rose from his seat.

"Do you know what the very first line of the Providence Sect's doctrine is?"

"I don't want to know."

"Do not proselytize."

"???"

"Simply help those in need and stand beside them — that is enough. Never reveal the Mother or us before a person in hardship. Act only through pure love."

Kim Min-soo's voice and expression as he recited the Providence doctrine looked more reverent than they ever had before.

"And if that person should come to our embrace of their own will, then welcome them with all your heart."

Even though he was hearing the doctrine of a pagan faith spoken directly to his face, Yohan could not shut his ears.

"And if later that person finds our embrace too stifling and tries to leave — do not stop them. Simply bless their back as they go."

The strange doctrine, unlike anything he'd heard in his life, struck him with surprising force. I think I understand why Providence is so popular with young people these days. The very first line of doctrine lowered the barrier to entry for religion itself.

"Do you know why I'm violating that doctrine right now — why I'm even doing something like proselytizing to you, of all people?"

"Why?"

"Because you look like you need it. A new path of faith."

"Don't presume to decide that for me. Your words just now were an extreme discourtesy to a clergyman like me."

"If so, I apologize. Anyway, I'll be going."

With that, Kim Min-soo walked out of the church. The young man left at a brisk pace, never once looking back. He seemed to carry no lingering attachment whatsoever.

Yohan could not hold on to that apostate. He could only stare blankly after him.

Ten minutes passed like that.

Kim Min-soo was walking along a stretch of road where Saint Church was no longer visible when his phone chimed, making him flinch. He read the text that appeared on the app — and dropped to his knees right there in the middle of the street. He couldn't have cared less whether passersby stared at him or not.

"Providence be done… Providence be done… Providence be done…"

Min-soo was the kind of young man who wouldn't even glance at a church these days. The fact that he had gone to church today of all days, talked with the pastor at length, and even slipped in a bit of proselytizing under the radar — all of it had a reason.

Seeing the quest come back as a success — Pastor Yohan must have installed the Providence app!

His efforts had been rewarded. Rewarded in a way that the church he'd attended for nearly twenty years had never once managed. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠In the Providence Sect, which he'd believed in for barely two months, the rewards had come instantly, one after another. Like a game.

Pastor Yohan wouldn't seriously consider converting just because of me. He must have installed that app to know his enemy — to investigate the Providence Sect.

But Min-soo understood better than anyone: the single greatest barrier to entering the Providence Sect was the stretch between first installing the Providence app and perfectly completing the first daily mission. Among those who had come to the faith through the app, everyone called this stage the tutorial.

And if Pastor Koh Yohan cleanly cleared the tutorial? He would stake everything on this—

Why, though? I tilted my head as I studied the believer statistics on my status window. All I'd done was go about my usual routine. Volunteering around Yeonok-dong, holding services, performing baptisms, dropping by the Holy Water factory now and then to pray with the believers, inspecting the businesses run by the foundation… With only one body to work with, all of this was enough for a day to fly by.

I was forced to pour every hour of my time just shuttling back and forth between Yeonok-dong and Paju. I hadn't even had the spare time to visit any other regions.

And yet the number of believers kept exploding day after day.

As the common believers grew, so did the devout believers. And among the devout, no small number were becoming Fanatics.

What's truly astonishing is that some of the devout believers and Fanatics are cases I don't even know about.

Cases I didn't know about meant people who had never once attended a service. In other words, there existed devout believers and Fanatics who had accumulated their faith points solely through the app Providence: Raising a Clergyman.

Well, we are the people of gaming, after all.

It was, truly, a marvel. Proselytization that fused IT with divine power had far exceeded even this former Pope's wildest predictions.

Of course, even with the believer count swelling like this, the maximum number of classes I could grant was still capped at ten.

I should start bestowing Holy Stigmas on the believers soon.

I studied the devout believers and Fanatics through my status window — the believers I knew, those who had attended at least one service and received baptism.

Who would be the right fit? Whose Cleric stigma would be most effective?

The depth of one's faith alone was not a sufficient criterion for bestowing a stigma.

Once I advance to Oracle, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I'll be able to grant the stigmas of Pardner, Monk, and Chaplain as well, alongside Priest. I need to choose my Clerics with that in mind.

My calm eyes swept across the list.