Regrouping (3)
Regrouping (3) — The Hanmaum Salvation Cult's 'Paradise'
The Holy Temple of Paradise was a little different from the building Gaeul and I had put our heads together to design back at the Sanctuary.
Clearly the System's professional hand had been at work—just looking at it filled me with reverence, and at the same time it felt impossibly grand.
I walked across the empty plaza, surveying the Holy Temple that didn't yet have a proper name.
First, the open ground I was standing on would get a monument symbolizing me placed at its center, and then be renamed the Plaza.
White outer walls curved around that plaza in a long, unbroken sweep.
Columns of white stone stretched skyward like those of an ancient Greek temple, radiating an odd aura of majesty that could overwhelm even their own master—me.
If you stared blankly at those columns long enough, your gaze would inevitably drift to the center.
Pure white steps, and an enormous door.
Your eyes would climb slowly upward until they came to rest on me—arms spread wide, welcoming visitors.
It was a statue, and yet it seemed almost to breathe, smiling down with such benevolence that anyone who gazed at it couldn't help confronting how small they truly were.
A meticulously calculated composition that made people feel as if they stood before a god.
If there was a single flaw, it was that the area around my statue felt a bit sparse—but that was a problem easily solved by arranging my future apostles on either side.
As expected of the System.
'That little bastard really does pay you back for every ounce of effort….'
My one concern was that anyone could tell at a glance the design had borrowed heavily from the Vatican.
'If the Pope ever saw this place, he'd foam at the mouth and declare a holy war.'
Normally I'd shout "thank you!" the moment someone mentioned war, but one thing nagged at me.
Could the Pope even still be alive, in the middle of a catastrophe like this?
Honestly, he should be counting himself lucky there weren't bullet holes in his body….
No, wait. There'd still be people who believed in God even in a world like this. Maybe he's alive.
…No idea.
It had suddenly become a maddeningly curious question.
Well, he's on the other side of the planet anyway. Even if he is alive, I won't be meeting him for a long, long time.
I was climbing the steps, lost in such thoughts, when I lifted my head.
The sun hung just above the pointed spire of the Holy Temple.
I turned and quietly called for Seo Taesan, who had been following at my heels.
"Have you eaten lunch before working, Vigilante Captain?"
"Yes. Everything I have is thanks to your grace, Cult Leader."
"Heh heh—and yet you hardly look well-fed for all the grace I've been showering on you?"
"Uh…."
Flustered, Seo Taesan scrunched up his bear-like face and ran a hand over his stomach.
"Hahaha—just a joke, Vigilante Captain. Only a joke."
"N-no! I dared to presume upon your grace, Cult Leader!"
"Hm. Looking at that face of yours, I suppose I can't even joke carelessly. Although… you're not entirely wrong."
With a mischievous look, I extended my right hand while opening the Faith Shop window at the edge of my vision.
Scrolling down the endless list, I bought every drink and every dish that caught my eye.
Faith points drained continuously, but it was an amount I'd comfortably recover within half a day.
Huge tables materialized from my right hand, along with colas, ciders, and every manner of drink imaginable.
Under the direction of my telekinesis, they filed into neat, harmonious rows and settled onto the plaza.
Then came the countless dishes, wafting appetizing aromas as they took their places on the tables. I tilted my head slightly.
Strangely enough, controlling my telekinesis had become far easier.
Was it because Guro-gu was now my territory, granting me double skill-level pumping?
No.
It was something subtly different—a naturalness that made it feel less like casting a skill and more like moving my own arm.
At this level, I could manipulate far more objects, far more diversely…
'Ah. So this is what the Divinity bonus was.'
So this was how the meaningful correction from the Divinity stat manifested itself.
I realized it mid-thought and slowly nodded to myself.
Truly a first-achievement reward.
It doesn't disappoint.
Deciding this was probably enough, I lowered my right hand.
The plaza was already lined with tables loaded with a feast more lavish and varied than any festival.
"Only at this level can it truly be called my grace, wouldn't you say?"
"Ah— I shall summon the believers at once."
"Good. They should enjoy the daily life of the Salvation Cult too."
Seo Taesan, quick to grasp my meaning, bowed low in respect and hurried off to gather the believers.
I watched him go, then climbed the steps once more.
Beyond the great doors of the Holy Temple, a lobby greeted me, its center dominated by a long table.
A familiar voice hummed through the vast space.
Gaeul and a middle-aged man were deep in an animated discussion—so absorbed they hadn't even noticed my entrance.
Thud… thud…
At the sound of my footsteps echoing through the lobby, the middle-aged man, who had been studying the blueprints spread across the table, looked up.
His eyes stretched nearly wide enough to tear, and he sprang from his chair like a released spring.
"C-Cult Leader nim!"
As he approached, his hands folded together automatically.
His arms and legs trembled as violently as if an earthquake were rippling through him.
He stared at me as if trying to map every last fine hair on my face, his pupils refusing to wander. I smiled.
"So you're the one helping with the city planning and design."
"Y-yes, Cult Leader! I-I have nothing but lowly, wretched experience for a task so grand and glorious, but I swear I will give my very life—aaah—!"
I slowly patted the head of the man who looked a good decade older than me.
Watching his eyes brim over with tears, I smiled all the more warmly.
Someone weeping like this was actually a mild reaction.
Just yesterday, a female believer had fainted dead away at the sight of me.
At first it had thrown me off, but I was gradually getting used to it.
To them.
"T-to think that I, of all people, would plan the city where God Himself will dwell… it is far, far too great an honor, and I-I am even afraid…"
To them, I was a god made visible.
I slowly extended my hand.
Seeing my hand approach, the man dropped to his knees instantly.
KOOM—!
The impact rang off the floor, but the man simply gazed up at my hand, choking back sobs.
I rested my hand gently on his head and spoke.
"Do not fear. As you dwell within me, so shall I dwell within you."
"A-aaah—!"
"Therefore your will is my will—and thus the will of God."
"I b-believe! I believe, Cult Leader!"
Tears finally spilled down both his cheeks. I watched the middle-aged man and smiled with even greater benevolence.
"Eat first, then work. A feast of every delicacy awaits you in the plaza."
"Yes! Yes! Yes, Cult Leader!"
Nodding his head with machine-gun rapidity, the man clutched his trembling legs and stumbled out toward the plaza.
I watched him until he was fully gone, then stretched out my hand.
Screeeech—! KOOM—!
I had closed the door myself, and until I opened it again, no one would.
I walked straight to the table where Gaeul sat.
I dropped into the chair behind the table hard enough to make a racket, but Gaeul didn't spare me a single glance, her eyes boring into the blueprints.
"Where did the other executives go?"
"No idea. Probably at the Sanctuary."
"Hm… unrelated, but I heard you called for me?"
She answered without turning her head.
"What's with that greasy half-formal speech? Did you ditch that concept? Have you moved on to a full condescension concept now?"
Sharp from the very first exchange.
I chuckled and replied.
"The register of one's words is but an accessory. What matters is the sincerity within them."
"What's that supposed to mean? The man lecturing me about sincerity was just quoting things Jesus said earlier?"
"Do not turn away from the truth, my daughter."
I rose from my chair and stalked toward her, whispering like a serpent.
Startled by the shifting atmosphere, she turned her head—and there I was, reflected in her eyes.
Gazing into them, I unleashed Lack Identification, now at level 20.
With the Divinity bonus layered on top, if anything had changed, I'd know it instantly.
94.7% — Han Guwon's twisted love and attention
05.3% — Kang San's undivided attention
Now it displayed precision down to the decimal point—admiration my ass.
Forget this pointless precision; what I wanted was a breakthrough!
Was there a growth ticket? An evolution ticket? Without one, was there truly no dramatic change?
Swallowing my disappointment, I gripped her soft chin, just as I had with Kim Eunbyeol.
Meeting her eyes, now filled entirely with me, I murmured.
"Become an existence that cannot be measured. Humanity fears the unknown at first sight—but what persists unknown, they come to worship."
The aphorism from the Cult Leader's Handbook she'd once made me memorize by rote.
"Were those not the words you once gave to me?"
Sometimes become a saint warmer than any other—and sometimes become a judge crueler than anything in existence.
I breathed softly against her ear.
"It seems that today, I looked rather like Jesus to you."
I stroked gently down her frozen, rigid shoulders.
Slowly drawing her waist toward me, I met her eyes once more.
She stared at me in a daze, and I asked.
"Now then—shall you rest a while, and go see heaven together with your god?"
She tilted her head, very, very slowly.
"…When you pull out a cheesy line like that, I know for sure you're the same pathetic loser I always knew."
"…Haah—!"
Ah. Not today, either.
I broke away from Gaeul with a snort.
Leaning back into my chair, I shook my head side to side.
"You venomous woman."
"Look at you, even your way of sitting has gotten arrogant. Something really did happen over that month, huh?"
"What's wrong with the way a man sits? Anyway, I meant what I said earlier. When is our Gaeul going to quit sucking her thumb and sleep with me?"
"So you made zero progress in a whole month?"
…And what exactly am I supposed to do about that?
I shrugged at her with exaggerated theatrics.
She narrowed her eyes into blades, lowered her head, and clicked her tongue.
And yet, curiously, her cutting words and bristling manner were actually softening the mood.
Catching the faint smile lingering on her lips, I turned my head aside and laughed too.
"So, what were the newly updated features again?"
When I turned back, she was absorbed in studying the blueprints.
I read down through the newly added tab in Religion Management: 'Paradise' Management.
"Water and sewage facilities, an advanced power plant, fountains—pretty much everything city-related, plus religious ornaments and so on, and…"
Finally, I checked the gleaming structure waiting in the Special Buildings tab.
"At last—it's unlocked. The Court of Faith."
Must be built adjacent to the Holy Temple.
Construction requires 100,000 Faith and 14 days.
A hundred thousand Faith and two weeks of construction time.
It was a requirement in a league entirely apart from anything I'd built before—yet for me, right now, it was hardly a burden.
Just how many effects did it have, that they wouldn't even give a brief description?
I wanted to place it immediately, but the culprit blocking me was sitting right in front of me.
"I've said it before and I'll say it again—not now. Housing for the believers, whose numbers have already blown past the thousands, comes first. The Court of Faith comes after that."
I understood why she agonized over the layout.
The Court of Faith's actual footprint, which I'd checked with a tap, was considerable, and even if repositioning was possible, moving one thing in a city would throw everything else out of whack.
All the more so in today's reality.
"You really ought to be grateful to me, Vice Cult Leader. It's because of me that things are moving this fast."
That bastard System truly is a devious piece of work.
I'd learned exactly how important citizens were only after I'd crossed 100% control rate—that made it crystal clear.
The city it had shown us amid fireworks was, to put it bluntly, nothing more than a model home.
When the celebration ended, the only thing left standing in Paradise was the Holy Temple.
The bewilderment and sheer absurdity of that moment were beyond words.
Even more absurd was Gaeul, eyes sparkling as she stared out over the vast, empty lots.
Something about how, having seen the best sample, we could now build it even better.
I couldn't comprehend the way she got so strangely invested in planning and explaining things.
So I'd simply kept doing what I'd always done.
Following Gaeul-mong's advice has never once steered me wrong.
I turned my head and pictured the district where the believers would soon gather in droves.
By now, Seo Taesan was probably urging them all toward the feast.
The distance wasn't far, so surely that's exactly what was happening.
'Citizen stacking.'
To unlock land, a certain minimum number of citizens had to be standing on it.
If the citizen count fell short, the land itself couldn't be used.
That was also probably why the Daily Quests kept refreshing even after I'd fully dominated the city.
Not that we were losing out—our rescued citizens already overflowed our ranks, and every completed quest supplied a fresh batch of new believers on schedule.
That other city, the one that had done nothing but hoard items, must be slapping itself on the forehead in regret right about now.
And the Hanmaum Salvation Cult had gone one step further.
To the believers, it must have seemed like an unbroken chain of miracles.
First, we sent believers to pray in the zones Gaeul and the planner had designated.
Watching the minimap for the instant the citizen stack filled and the land unlocked, I would raise a building on the spot.
The sight looked for all the world like grace raining down from heaven, and outside, the crowd was a veritable crucible of faith and prayer.
No wonder a female believer had fainted at the sight of me.
"It really is impressive, I'll give you that."
Seeing her regard me with unexpected approval, I raised my voice with pride.
"That's just the kind of consistent man I am! Besides, even at the special base, the items tried to seduce me! Out of nowhere this giant snake slithers up and starts reciting things like thin condoms and sex skills, trying to tempt me! But—"
"What?! God, the System is such an idiot. If it wanted to seduce you, it should've laid out a lineup of beauties. Those items are a little weak."
"Uh…"
…I'd have rather had the sex skills than most beauties, though.
And that thing nearly drove me insane back in Guro-gu….