Changes (2)
Changes (2) — Rooftop of the Hanmaum Guwon Cult
"Kiiieeeeeeek!"
The familiar howling tore through the air.
I looked down at the horde of zombies swarming below, barred from entering by the Heavenly Barrier.
Black specks writhing like ants no matter how many you killed. It looked like a ring of darkness encircling a translucent orange dome, like the rings of Saturn.
Thud— Thud—
Each time a body slammed into it, the barrier sent out faint ripples that absorbed the impact. Strangely, the sight reminded me of those photos from Black Friday — shoppers who'd waited with religious devotion to storm the doors literally ripping the shutters off their tracks.
The only difference between then and now was that, unlike those shutters, my barrier didn't carry a single scratch.
'Zombies as far as the eye can see, and a Heavenly Barrier that absolutely cannot be broken. This hunting ground... is top-tier.'
Brrrzzzt—
Mimic Holy Body Lv.10, its efficiency doubled by the Sanctuary. Telekineses reaching a combined level of 20 literally crushed an entire zone of zombies flat.
Blood that couldn't seep into the ground pooled like standing water, and just as quickly, fresh waves of zombies filled the space as though plugging a vacancy.
It had taken me a full three days to get here.
The first day was spent gathering the horde. My first target, hovering in the air by levitation, was naturally the baby mutant — the one that rallied the zombies together.
But no matter how wide I swept my eyes across the library and city hall district, not a single baby mutant was to be found.
'Ha. Where the hell did the little bastard I flung away go?'
How was I supposed to know it would come to this? My goal had simply been to launch it far away — I never intended to send it anywhere in particular.
In the end, I had no choice but to make use of ordinary zombies.
What followed was a stretch of tedium. Every so often, I would snatch a regular zombie off the rooftop plaza and shake it around in midair for a while. Each time, the thing would shriek — kiiiek! — desperately calling its comrades, and while it lacked the baby mutant's fraudulent pulling power, the zombies began trickling in front of our barrier, one by one.
One became twenty, and twenty became a thousand. The more zombies that gathered, the faster their numbers snowballed.
Even that alone swallowed an entire day. I played with the creatures in between to knock the souls out of my believers, but the results weren't nearly as satisfying as I'd imagined. Once again, planning and execution turned out to be problems from entirely different worlds.
The moment day two broke, I started killing them mechanically. With the horde already multiplying exponentially even without the baby mutant, there was no problem there.
First came my own reorganization. I raised the skills I'd been neglecting — Mimic Holy Body to Lv.10, Lack Identification to Lv.5, Liquid of Subordination to Lv.5 — and then began tidying up the interior.
As long as the Heavenly Barrier stood, night watches and barricades were pointless. I had the believers clear away the obstacles and barricades Seo Taesan and I had built. With telekinesis or Faith Points I could have done it with a snap of my fingers, but why on earth would I?
'It would look like I'm serving those lazy pig bastards, wouldn't it?'
This was their punishment for standing around gawking at my performance on the rooftop all this time.
We moved the believers' sleeping quarters down to the first floor, which looked all the more spacious now that the bookshelves were gone. To the believers, who until now had enjoyed cramped but personal nooks of their own, it was like the rug being pulled out from under them. The moment I murmured the story of 'Kim Cheolsu' to the first few who hesitated, they all scrambled to relocate their bedding downstairs.
Rows of books lined up straight — stand-ins for blankets and pillows. And men and women sleeping mixed together, on top of that.
It made everyone uncomfortable, but I forced it through anyway.
Boom—
The Cult Leader Statue, relocated for 100 Faith Points, descended into the very center of their sleeping quarters. As they stared up at the statue that had appeared out of nowhere, I presented Yoon Ayoung — already dressed in the Hanmaum Guwon Cult Awakened Believer's Robe I'd prepared in advance.
"My grace cannot be shared with unbelievers. From this day forward, the first floor belongs to the unfaithful. My grace will be granted only from the moment you ascend to the second floor."
When Jeong Shinwoo asked whether that robe, too, was proof of grace, I simply gave a benevolent smile. That bastard really did live and die by his instincts. His grime-streaked face turned toward Yoon Ayoung — her skin freshly clean from the shower, her robe without a speck of dirt, and a brightness utterly unbecoming of the situation.
The gap between believer and unbeliever had never been wider.
"That's right. Yoon Ayoung is the glorious prospective Saintess of the Church of Salvation."
"Th-then, f-forgive my, my presumption, b-but, h-how might I, I prove that I believe in you, C-Cult Leader...?"
I didn't need to hear the rest to know what he wanted. The statue flared brilliantly, as if resonating with me.
"Pray. Regard this statue as myself. Revere it, love it, honor it. Pray, and pray again."
My eyes had been strained, so I switched the function back on. A stream of pure white faith, glowing radiantly, connected Yoon Ayoung's body to mine.
"Then your faith shall surely be proven."
Brrrzzzt—
Idly listening to the sound of bones being crushed underfoot, I checked how much faith I'd raked in.
Held Faith: 7,000(303/H)
The faith I'd burned on skill levels so far came to exactly 6,800 points. Since roughly 7,200 flowed in every 24 hours, you'd take 7,200, add the 6,800 spent, subtract the 7,000 I was holding now, and the answer would be...
About 7,000, give or take. With zombie kills paying out 5 faith apiece, that worked out to...
1,400.
Ha. After all this circus of a performance, I'd only managed to take down around 1,300. And I hadn't exactly been taking breaks. Killing regular zombies alone was truly endless work. The mutant bastards, meanwhile, had apparently gone off on some group outing — not a single one in sight.
The fact that, despite all that commotion, the faith I earned from hunting was roughly equal to what flowed in automatically made my head tilt a little on its own. On top of that, unlike ordinary awakened ones who only had to grow their own bodies, I had to worry about growing the collective as well. Meaning there were a great many places for my money to leak out.
I sighed quietly and looked down at Jeong Shinwoo, who knelt before me with his body pressed to the floor. The faint light leaking from him stretched into a thin thread that connected to me.
Ever since he'd asked me that question, Shinwoo hadn't left the statue's side. As if begging me to look at him, as if to show how diligently he was trying, he knelt before the statue and prayed. He probably didn't realize that the statue itself held a genuine power to move people's hearts just by being looked at.
Little by little, Shinwoo began muttering something between his prayers. A smile spread across a face that had been oscillating between desperation and joy, and at last a faint 'proof of faith' seeped out of his body.
Having confirmed it, I immediately bestowed the ordinary believer's robe upon him, and granted him his own Believer's Room on the second floor — the space I'd already cleared out with faith points. Yoon Ayoung and I had long since settled into the fourth floor ourselves.
Shinwoo took a shower in his Believer's Room for the first time in ages and ate the food that had been prepared for him. When he came down to the first floor in a freshly cleaned body and his new robe, every eye filled with shock. A person whose basic needs were met and one whose weren't even gave off different auras.
At the sight of him, Lee Gyeongmin fidgeted — and then knelt before the statue. Seo Taesan, Seong Gaeul, and Kim Eunbyeol were still wedged in their corner, but it didn't matter. They couldn't escape, and they couldn't take it off.
The zombies beyond the barrier were now serving as my breakwater and my sentries in one. The five unbelievers had quietly dwindled to three, while my faithful numbered three. And the pathetic pants-wetter had finished preparing to repent before me.
Among the unbelievers huddled protectively together, my gaze found Seong Gaeul. She had been watching me too, apparently — our eyes locked in an instant.
Until now, I'd deliberately left her alone. That conversation we'd had that night would never be enough to break her. Naturally, what had reached me was pure contempt and scorn — which was why, just last night, I'd smiled at her brightly in return.
"Shinwoo."
"Yes, Cult Leader."
Shinwoo answered with his forehead still pressed to the ground.
Chuuup— Chuuup—
I stroked Yoon Ayoung's head as she served me with her mouth for a long while. Reading the look in my eyes, she tidied up my underwear and trousers, and I spoke as I watched her.
"Let's head down. Slowly."
It was time to deliver the second penalty to the unbelievers.