Day of the Unbelievers (1)
"So you went down there and stirred up another scene, huh?"
It was Seong Gaeul's nagging — by now, ignoring it would have been stranger than hearing it.
The executive office on the third floor of the Hanmaum Guwon Cult. A long table stretched through the pristine white room, and Seong Gaeul scrubbed furiously at her temples as she looked at me seated at the head of it. That trademark sneer of hers was a service she always made sure to provide.
"Heheh, Vice Cult Leader, you worry too much. I merely tempered the fragile souls of our believers. And a soul tempered strong, of course, carries over into a body tempered strong."
"Ugh... Between you tossing them out like bait in the water, I'm terrified to even imagine what kind of chaos you've whipped up out there now."
She muttered it under her breath, wearing an exhausted expression. Apparently she was still stewing over the 'Han Guwon–style mysticism strategy' I had pushed through so aggressively.
"Oh, I'm sure I handled it just fine. Vice Cult Leader, you really ought to lean on my omnipotence a little more."
"Can you please drop that greasy tone of yours while we're in here?"
"Come now! Step right up. Come experience my Holy Spirit–infused electric massage."
"Stop at verse two, you pathetic loser."
What? You're rejecting this? Strange. The believers downstairs had been in stitches.
With a look of disappointment, I stroked Yoon Ayoung's head beneath the table. Chwub— chwub— chwup—
"You're especially prickly today, Gaeul. Looks like Ayoungie here gets to eat my entire quota today. Wonderful, isn't it?"
She beamed up at me, her eyes curving into a half-moon, her face the very picture of innocence — while a tightness around my shaft that had nothing to do with innocence drew a low groan out of me. I pulled her hair, guiding the movements she had now refined to perfectly match my tastes.
"Nngh—"
Her hair, wound once around her throat, began to cinch down deeper into her throat in time with my pull. As her face sped back and forth and the collar tightened further, I yanked the hair harder still.
"Gluk— glrrk—"
Every time my tip prodded the throat squeezed utterly taut around it by the pressure of her hair, boiling sounds echoed from the depths of Yoon Ayoung's mouth.
"Ah, our Saintess's manual-adjustment throat is absolutely the best."
"Mmmmmh— chwuuup— chwuuump—"
As my reactions grew conspicuously intense, joy rippled across her expression. While I savored the hollowing of her cheeks, a long sigh drifted over from the table.
"Every time you do this, I feel like I've given wings to a lunatic, and I regret it so much."
"Oh dear, I'm merely sacrificing myself for Ayoungie's happiness, you know? My joy is her joy, after all."
I gave a small laugh at Seong Gaeul's lament and hauled Yoon Ayoung's hair back and forth. Her head tilted toward the ceiling on a wave of languid pleasure as the tightness adjusted itself automatically.
"I was thinking we should get to the serious talk now — can't you just hurry up and finish?"
"No. What I have to say matters more than that. Listen up."
I prodded the neatly organized documents spread across the table with a fingertip of telekinesis, tick-tick. When she lifted her head and met my eyes, I slowly kneaded the corners of my mouth.
"You know how my cheeks have been getting sore lately, from all this smiling I keep doing?"
Muscles I'd never used before, apparently — my jaw ached from it. Which was to say, smiling had never suited me.
In my gaming days, dying to some other player mid-hunt meant slamming my fist on the desk and a rich torrent of curses. At the convenience store, my whole vocabulary had been the mechanical drone of 'Welcome.' and 'Come again.' But now, those gloomy, negative emotions felt stranger to me than anything else.
"The moment I changed one behavior, my whole mindset shifted like night and day. Turns out performing for people reveals a lot about you. Look at what I'm wearing. It's proof of faith and salvation."
With a deep, radiant smile, I flicked my finger toward Seong Gaeul's office look — and even without using telekinesis, her body flinched slightly.
I lowered my gaze to Yoon Ayoung. Chwuuump— chwub— chwup—
The pure white believer's robe, diligently serving me.
"Hmm, now what could it be, Ayoungie? Her noble love, devoted to satisfying my tastes? Or..."
Apart from the day I'd first discovered the office look and dressed her in it, I'd never interfered with her wardrobe. For sermons and prayer hours, she changed into her believer's robe on her own and entered the prayer hall without being told.
But that was precisely the point — the fact that she kept changing back into the office look when a comfortable believer's robe was right there.
"Or is it the swagger of a vestigial disbelief — pride refusing to bow?"
With a ripple of phantom limbs, my Lack Identification swept over her entire body. Just like before, her heart refused to soak past 90%.
"Oh, oh, don't misunderstand! It's just... I need a little more time, that's all."
Seong Gaeul stammered, uncharacteristically. I answered her with a smile and beckoned her closer. Without her usual bristling, she nodded at once and walked toward me on utterly frozen steps.
I seated her straight onto my lap, turned her chin, and pressed my lips to hers. Chup— mmm— chwooook—
I fed her mouth a steady stream of saliva as she obediently followed my lead. Her arms, stranded by the sudden kiss, gradually began to graze my thighs. The deeper the kiss went, the more I felt her nails dig into the flesh of my thigh — though no amount of that could leave so much as a scratch on my body.
Beneath the table, Yoon Ayoung glared up at Seong Gaeul with sullen eyes at the sight. Chwuuuump— chwup— chwup—
Her hollowed cheeks worked faster, her face pistoning along my length. I watched from the corner of my eye — Yoon Ayoung's saliva-glossed shaft, then Seong Gaeul quietly closing her eyes — savoring them in turn.
Pleasure surged, and my cock twitched with the approach of release. Grrrrrk—
The hair pulled to its limit cinched hard around Yoon Ayoung's throat. The instant her collar crushed down around me like a vise wringing me dry, a flash burst behind my eyes.
"Ngh—!"
Spurt. Spurt. Spuuurt.
One hand gripping Seong Gaeul's head, the other Yoon Ayoung's, I rode out the long afterglow of my release for a while. Gulp. Gulp. Gulp.
Watching Yoon Ayoung's throat bob again and again, I loosened my fingers in her hair. Sssreeek—
With a soft sound, her throat emerged — flushed scarlet from the pressure of my hair. Yoon Ayoung, having swallowed everything I gave her, slowly drew her head back. Seong Gaeul rose from my lap as well, wiping her mouth, smeared with saliva, with a handkerchief.
"Heheh— thank you for the meaaal."
"...Thank you for the meal."
"Yes, yes. Everyone back to their seats."
While Seong Gaeul slowly returned to her place, Yoon Ayoung — her cleanup complete — didn't move an inch. When I opened my arms with a faint smile, she burrowed into my chest as if she'd been waiting for it.
"Hehehe— Opphaaa, I did good, righttt?"
"Of course, of course. I truly couldn't survive a single day without our Ayoungie."
"Hehehehe—"
I gave the nipple poking out atop her white robe a light pinch and kneaded her rear. Mmmnn— haah—
With a sweet moan, Yoon Ayoung pressed herself tighter against me and writhed. As I deliciously savored that soft body, a cautious voice reached my ears.
"...May we please get to the important business now?"
"Ah! Of course. If I won't listen to our Vice Cult Leader, whose word would I listen to? Isn't that right, Ayoungie?"
"Hehehe— That's right. Oppa is always right."
Having read the direction of my gaze, Seong Gaeul recovered her characteristic poise and raised her voice.
"It's true — in less time than I expected, we've laid the foundation of a religion. The skeleton is built, I'll grant you that."
She tapped one of the planning documents and continued.
"But we're still missing a great deal. The cult has no scripture, no code of law, no identifying marks — all problems, sure, but the biggest issue is people."
A population that didn't even reach twenty was frankly embarrassing to present as a religion.
"To grow the congregation, we need a stable pipeline of newcomers, and the cult has no such pipeline at all. That's the problem."
Her gaze drifted to the window. The orange barrier ringing the Sanctuary, and beneath it, the zombies spread like ants.
"You can't personally haul in every new believer from now on, can you?"
"Hmm, fair point. There's a definite limit to that approach."
With the hand that had been stroking Yoon Ayoung, I slowly stroked my chin. A pipeline where believers would multiply on their own, huh.
First, I checked my faith production.
Faith Points: 3,660(610/H)
Nearly double what it had been back when it hovered around three hundred. The product of more believers, and of a faith that grew more unshakable by the day.
"We've bought everything we need for now, so I should be able to upgrade the Cult Leader Statue soon..."
Hold out obediently for just one more day, and I could unlock the Level 3 abilities.
"Let's start by raising the Cult Leader Statue's level. And if nothing about recruiting believers comes out of it — well, then I'll just have to pound the pavement like a department-store salesman, I suppose."
"Fine, nothing we can do about—"
"C-Cult Leader!"
Seo Taesan's voice cut off Seong Gaeul's from outside the executive office. I opened the door to find him bent nearly double, speaking in a trembling register.
"It appears someone has arrived outside the Sanctuary."
"What do you mean? I didn't hear anything."
"Through the window I was watching, I saw some group climbing toward the building!"
Seo Taesan pointed to a window behind the door where he'd been prostrated. I focused my eyes on the high-rise visible beyond it.
Did they go inside? I can't see a thing.
Either way, I'd need to check from somewhere higher.
"Hmm. Everyone, follow me. We're heading to the rooftop."
"Yes, Cult Leader!"
Leading the executives up to the rooftop, I studied the high-rise. Seong Gaeul, her sharp eyes gleaming as she scanned the building, whispered to me.
"See anything?"
"Not yet."
"If what Taesan said turns out to be true, that would make this our second missionary outreach."
"Well, nothing's certain ye— oh!"
With a short gasp of surprise, the faces of those arriving on the building's rooftop came into view. One of them, whispering something to the others as they looked at the Sanctuary's barrier, stepped forward — and our eyes met.
It was a long distance, but the moment we registered each other, I saw him glance back at the others and give a nod.
Crack— crack—
"Kiiieeeeeek!"
Gunfire tore through the air, and every zombie wandering the Sanctuary swung its head toward the high-rise at once.
"Th-those are guns!"
"Well, what would you have them shoot — water pistols at zombies?"
"You can crack jokes even at a time like this?!"
While I shrugged at Seong Gaeul's flare of temper, someone over there pulled something out and raised it high.