Entering the Salvation Cult
"Huh?"
Where was I?
I rolled my eyes and scanned my surroundings. As my vision adjusted, the darkness gradually resolved into shapes.
Inside a vehicle?
The interior layout was a large van of the kind commonly used for abductions. I rolled my eyes again, taking stock of everyone around me. People in the same predicament as me were packed inside.
"Hey, buddy. Where'd they grab you from?"
The man beside me struck up a conversation. It was too dark to make out his face clearly.
"...Sejong."
I lied for now. Telling the truth never did anyone any favors.
"Why are you naked?"
"Got grabbed while I was peeping."
Human or anomaly? He'd noticed I was missing my pants, which meant he had free will. Whether he was an anomaly or a person was something I could figure out given time.
"Peeping on girls, huh? Tough luck. Me, I was just walking down the street when they snatched me."
He was remarkably calm. An ordinary person would have gone pale and lost the ability to think straight.
Better not get friendly with this one.
I put some distance between us right away. When you couldn't make sense of something, it was safer to stay clear. I gave him vague answers while opening the gallery.
(Photo of the vehicle interior)
Thought I was done for.
Anyway, I made it onto the van heading for the cult compound.
I'll post the rest once we arrive.
I was getting help from our inside man, Goe-bung-i1231. I took a deep breath and eased the tension from my body. The moment the van stopped, I'd do exactly as he'd said.
"We've arrived. Everyone out."
The vehicle came to a halt. The doors swung wide open, and through them I could see the scenery outside.
Huh?
(Photo of the cult compound)
The building's perfectly intact and there aren't any monsters in sight.
But the scene inside the cult compound was the complete opposite of what I'd been told. No monsters in sight. In their place, cult followers were spread throughout the grounds.
"Please step down, prospective believers."
A woman with her face veiled in gauze spoke. Those who still refused to get out were dragged down by force at the hands of the followers.
"We warmly welcome all of you who have come seeking salvation."
The veiled woman spread her arms wide. A brilliant light shone from behind her — a radiance so pure it felt as though it might cleanse body and soul.
Crap.
I pinched my thigh hard and clung to my senses. I'd nearly been brainwashed again. Rolling my eyes, I checked the people around me. Most of them had already succumbed, staring blankly into space.
Play along.
I rearranged my face into a vacant expression. There was nothing to gain by looking lucid.
"Please follow me. I'll show you to the rooms where our believers stay."
I trailed behind the woman across a wide open courtyard.
The building's fine. Not a single monster in sight.
Goe-bung-i1231 and I went back and forth. The outcome had diverged so far from expectations that both of us were rattled.
"This room is yours."
A uniform space of about seven hundred square feet with no partitions whatsoever. They herded every newly arrived believer into a single room.
Cramming men and women together like this — are they out of their minds?
The layout was practically designed for people to start pairing off. A cult being a cult, the space itself was unhinged.
Once inside, I stared blankly at the empty air. When you were trapped inside an anomaly, the middle of the road was the safest place to walk — meaning you just copied whatever the people around you were doing.
"Aaaah..."
"Ugh. Why am I here?"
One by one, people started coming to their senses. Out of twenty, maybe one or two. The man who'd spoken to me in the van wasn't among them. A tiny number, but that didn't matter. I approached the two who'd woken up — a man and a woman — and spoke quietly.
"Keep it down. Letting on that you're lucid won't do you any good. Unfocus your eyes and act vacant, just like everyone else."
"Uuh..."
The terrified woman looked ready to burst into tears at any second, but she held them back with superhuman restraint.
"We've been kidnapped by a cult. Anything that draws attention, anything that causes a scene — absolute no. These lunatics might kill people for human sacrifice, for all we know."
"Y-yes..."
"My name is Seol In-guk. What about you two?"
"Kim A-rang."
"Lee Yu-na."
I couldn't tell whether they were real people or anomalies. They might have been anomalies putting on an act to reel people in, or they might have been deliberately—
"For now, just follow the people around us. Read the room and act accordingly."
The two of them nodded. We blended into the crowd of vacant faces staring at the ceiling.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The sound of a drum struck three times. Everyone who'd been sitting in a daze rose to their feet as one.
No rulebook?
I'd been thrown into an anomaly without so much as a list of rules. I had no idea how I was supposed to act.
Inside the anomaly, everything is decided by the drum. Tell me how many times it just sounded.
"Let's get up. We should follow them."
I gestured, and we fell in behind the others. Matching the pace of the people nearby, we moved slowly down the corridor.
1. Never run in the corridors. Never open your mouth during prayer.
2. Before entering the cafeteria, you must kneel and pray. Keep your eyes half-open and watch your surroundings — monsters sometimes disguise themselves as humans. Sit next to a monster and you're dead, so be careful not to end up beside one. And never, ever get caught with your eyes open.
3. When the drum sounds once, prayer time is over. Open your eyes and take a seat. Aim for the edges if you can.
4. Sometimes the monsters will try to talk to you. Just ignore them. Whatever they say, completely ignore it.
I followed Goe-bung-i1231's advice to the letter. When the people around us stopped and prostrated themselves, Kim A-rang and Lee Yu-na, trailing behind me, did the same. I pressed my face to the floor with my eyes half open.
"What? Aagh—"
One person with no sense of timing failed to drop in time.
Crunch. Crack.
The sound of flesh and bone breaking reached my ears and rattled through my skull.
Those two aren't monsters, at least.
Through half-lidded eyes, I surveyed the room. Kim A-rang and Lee Yu-na weren't monsters. Their intact appearances brought a small measure of relief.
There are so many monsters. How many are there, exactly?
Just the ones I could see numbered in the dozens. The conditions for following the rules were brutally strict.
1. No clattering of dishes. Same goes for screams or any other vocal sounds. People make noise when they eat, obviously — that's why I told you not to sit near a monster. If one sits next to you, it'll catch even the tiniest sound.
2. Anywhere the food looks normal and lavish, a monster is definitely sitting there. Never head that way. One wrong move and you die.
3. Whatever's on the menu, finish all of it. Leave nothing.
4. If a monster walks past, don't make eye contact. Stay perfectly still.
5. If a monster sits next to you, get up from your seat before it does.
Ordinary-sounding conditions that were hell to actually keep. Every last one of these damn anomalies dangled grotesque rules as the price of survival.
But if I want to live, I've got no choice.
I had eight lives left. Within those eight, I either had to escape with the civilians or resolve the anomaly.
I stayed flat on the ground, pretending to pray.
"Can you see me? Can you see me?"
"We must root out the unbelievers and kill them."
Boooom.
The drum sounded. Prayer was over. I almost rose on reflex—
Why isn't anyone getting up?
Not a single person around me had stood.
You could've told me that sooner.
I'd nearly taken the bait and died. I slammed my forehead back down and squeezed my eyes shut.
Booom.
The real drum sounded. Reading the room, I stood and entered the cafeteria. Dishes and food were laid out on the tables.
Monsters sitting by the decent food, just like he said.
Good thing I'd listened to Goe-bung-i1231. Anywhere the food looked appetizing and intact, a monster had already claimed a seat. I headed for a spot without monsters and sat down. Kim A-rang and Lee Yu-na took the seats in front of me and beside me.
Ugh... at least it's edible.
My assigned meal was a thoroughly charred grilled mackerel and a soup that tasted like plain water. But eating it wouldn't make me sick. I polished off the food at a steady pace, making no sound, and the other two watched me carefully and followed suit.
Probably. When the drum sounds twice in the evening, you sleep. When it sounds twice in the morning, you wake up. The monsters' sleep and wake times are fixed too, so just follow what I told you. I'll fill you in on the rest tomorrow.
Why is this so hard? There's an insane amount of stuff to keep track of.
I did as Goe-bung-i1231 said. Back in the room, I stared blankly at the ceiling until the drum sounded twice, then headed to my spot and lay down. The exhaustion of the first day must have piled up deep, because sleep came quickly.
"It is the second morning. Everyone, please rise from your places."
I woke to the drum the next morning and dragged my aching body to morning assembly. Day two inside the anomaly. Monsters and humans mixed together as we filed out into the courtyard.
"We will now begin the morning prayer."
A woman stepped onto the platform, took hold of the microphone, and began the morning prayer.
"The Saintess's voice is beautiful no matter how many times I hear it."
"It feels like my heart is being healed."
Hearing what the followers around me were saying, I understood. The woman standing before us was the Saintess — the de facto leader of the cult. I focused on her voice. I'd heard it somewhere before.
That's Eun-hwa.
The woman called the Saintess was Eun-hwa. Why was she here? Why had she become the Saintess? I couldn't get a proper grip on the situation.
Before I knew it, morning prayer was over. I went straight back to the room and tried to let the tension drain out of me.
Fuck, I feel like I'm losing my mind.
Sitting still, staring blankly at the sky — it felt like my sanity was about to snap.
Pussy. I need pussy.
I wanted to have sex. I wanted to do it with an anomaly. The tension was so high I felt like I was going to go completely insane. Unable to hold out any longer, I pleaded with the Magic Conch Flute.
Can I go outside right now?
Yes!
Time to explore the Salvation Cult. Without anomaly pussy, I couldn't keep my sanity intact.