Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability - Chapter 91

Chapter 91: Cult (3)

TL: DDTL

[0:01]

Right before warping, I activated Concealment.

The location changed. I was somewhere in the mountains.

I dropped Concealment and started moving, checking the location on my phone. The direction seemed slightly off.

I climbed up to higher ground in an instant and looked around toward where the location pointed.

‘…That it?’

I spotted it right away.

A clearing in the middle of the mountain, connected by an unpaved road.

And in the middle of the clearing stood a building that looked like a cathedral.

Vehicles were parked around the building, and I could see people moving about…

That had to be the Religion of the Heavenly One’s headquarters.

I made my way down the mountain path and approached the building.

People who looked like guards were posted at the entrance.

Watching them, I saw that the believers signed some kind of register, then had to hand over their phones to the guards before being let inside.

After observing for a bit, I went into the building too. Under Concealment, of course.

Was Jiu noona really going to be here?

Time to look around.

A large, chapel-like space.

The believers who had come inside were all gathered together in one place.

There was a podium at the front, and not a single chair, so everyone was standing.

What hit me a little hard was that there were far more people than I had expected.

All these people believe in some bullshit cult like this…?

Truly lamentable.

I moved through the crowd, scanning faces.

Everyone was laughing and chatting. Going by atmosphere alone, this could have passed for an ordinary church.

‘Oh.’

It didn’t take long.

I spotted the face I was looking for.

A woman talking and laughing with the person next to her.

…Jiu noona.

I’d been worried that maybe she was being threatened by the cult or caught up in something like that.

But seeing her looking perfectly fine, it seemed, fortunately, that wasn’t the case.

Hmm… actually, no. Not fortunately.

It meant Jiu noona really had fallen deep into the cult and cut off contact with everyone around her.

Well, in any case, at least I’d confirmed she wasn’t in some kind of dangerous situation…

I dropped Concealment somewhere out of sight.

With so many people around, all dressed normally, one more person blending in didn’t stand out at all.

‘What do I do.’

The question now was how to deal with this cult.

Exposing these guys as a fraud wouldn’t be hard.

And if I did that, maybe Jiu noona would come to her senses too.

Creeeak. Thud.

While I was thinking, the chapel’s entrance closed.

The guards who’d shut the doors took up positions on either side of the entrance like sentries.

The room went quiet.

When I looked toward the front, I saw someone climbing onto the podium.

A middle-aged man in a gaudy cloak that dragged along the ground.

‘So that’s him.’

Anyone could tell that was the guy.

The Cult Leader took the microphone.

“Welcome. Thank you all for traveling such a long way to be here today.”

The amplified voice rang out.

“I’m sure there are many probationary believers here today who are seeing me for the first time. I am the Representative of Person123, Shin Du-rang.”

Clap clap clap clap clap…

People began to applaud.

I clapped along too, glancing over toward Jiu noona.

She was staring up at the podium with an entranced look in her eyes…

Seeing someone I knew in that state really did weigh on me. How the hell had she ended up like this.

“Before we begin the Rite of Praising the Heavenly One, let us all offer a prayer to Person123.”

The Cult Leader suddenly dropped to his knees and clasped his hands together in prayer.

“Our Savior. The light, the hope, the guide of a world that will soon crumble. Your servants have gathered here today in this place…”

Everyone else dropped to their knees on the floor and began praying as well.

I had no choice but to do the same, but…

How can I put it, an indescribable wave of disillusionment hit me.

What the fuck are these people even doing.

The prayer dragged on for several minutes before finally ending.

The Cult Leader rose and launched into a long speech.

“…And recently, He bestowed yet another revelation upon me. ‘You, as my Representative, must work so that more souls may be saved. The road ahead is still long.’

Ah, I was moved to tears! I was overcome with awe! Though the end is already determined, He is delaying the deadline of ruin as long as He can, to save even one more soul. The role given to this old body is simply to carry out His will…”

The crowd listened raptly to the Cult Leader’s bullshit. Some were even sniffling.

Besides the Cult Leader, there were a few other people on the podium in ridiculous outfits.

Those must be the High Priests, the rank right below the Master.

‘Those guys…’

And another thing.

The Cult Leader, and a couple of the others, seemed to be climbers?

Just as Sixth Sense lets me get a rough read on an opponent’s strength, there’s a subtle difference between a regular person and a climber.

The Cult Leader and two of the High Priests were definitely climbers.

Not high level, of course. At most, not even level 10.

“Haahp!”

Mid-speech, the Cult Leader broke into another little stunt.

He threw his hand up high with a shout and stood frozen like that for quite a while, then…

Fwoosh!

Light flashed above the Cult Leader’s head.

The crowd gasped in awe.

I was speechless.

‘Bullshit.’

That’s just a Magic Type skill.

A ridiculous farce, and the people losing their minds over it.

But then.

“W-what? What are you doing? Let go!”

A commotion suddenly broke out off to one side. People’s attention shifted.

The guards had hold of a man.

When they searched the struggling man, a small camera came out.

What was this guy?

Looked like he’d been caught secretly filming.

The Cult Leader’s brow knit slightly, and he spoke.

“It seems a nonbeliever had hidden himself among us, trying to disrupt our rites. Please remove him.”

One of the High Priests on the podium, the one who was a climber, went with the guards to drag the man away.

“Wake the hell up, everyone! You really believe this crap about him being Person123’s Representative?! You cult bastards…!”

The man shouted desperately, almost thrashing, but the crowd’s mood barely wavered.

The believers’ attention quickly returned to the Cult Leader.

Hmm…

I watched the man being dragged out, then slipped back into Concealment.

“Huh?”

“What’s wrong?”

“No, just now there was a… was I seeing things?”

I followed them under Concealment.

*

Lee Tae-seong is a prosecutor.

He’d come to learn about ‘Religion of the Heavenly One’ by chance.

While investigating a corruption case at a small-to-mid-sized company, he’d noticed some strange flows of money.

It had nothing directly to do with the corruption itself, but something about it nagged at him, and the deeper he dug, the more this cult kept surfacing.

“That thing you’re working on, wrap it up. Let it go.”

“What? What do you mean, sir. This is obviously…”

“I’m telling you to stick to what you’re supposed to be doing, Tae-seong. Don’t waste your energy on the wrong things.”

The Chief Prosecutor, keeping his voice down, quietly told him to drop it.

Lee Tae-seong could tell the pressure was coming down from higher up.

He didn’t listen. He kept investigating.

The deeper he dug, the more impossible it became to tell just how far this ‘Religion of the Heavenly One’ thing reached.

“I told you to stop digging into this, didn’t I?”

“Isn’t there enough evidence by now? We should be requesting a warrant and launching a real investigation immediately…”

“Listen, you little shit, this isn’t a case you and I can handle! You trying to get me fired?!”

But no matter how many leads he tried to chase down, he kept running into walls.

Even so, Lee Tae-seong didn’t give up.

Frustrated, looking for something, anything more concrete, he infiltrated ‘Religion of the Heavenly One’ himself.

He’d spent months posing as a probationary believer waiting for his chance, and finally made it into the Rite of Praising the Heavenly One, the gathering where all the cult’s core figures were said to appear, but…

“Get off, get the hell off me!”

And he’d gotten himself caught like a damn idiot.

Dragged into what looked like a dark warehouse, Lee Tae-seong was forced down onto his knees, both arms restrained by the guards.

The camera, of course, and even the phone he’d hidden, all of it had been found.

A High Priest grabbed Lee Tae-seong’s wrist and forced his thumb onto the phone’s fingerprint sensor.

Lee Tae-seong tried to resist, but the man’s inhuman grip held him fast.

The High Priest unlocked the screen, looked through Lee Tae-seong’s phone, and spoke.

“Well, well, a prosecutor? Lee Tae-seong, of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office.”

Lee Tae-seong refused to be cowed.

“…You bastard, you’re a climber, aren’t you?”

When he’d been digging into ‘Religion of the Heavenly One’, he’d been shocked to find traces suggesting the Climber Association was tangled up in this too.

The Cult Leader, and now climbers like these standing right here, it all but confirmed it.

“What were you hoping to accomplish, sneaking in here like a rat. Such a pain in the ass.”

Realizing he might actually die, Lee Tae-seong said hurriedly.

“K-kill me, and your people won’t get away clean either. I told my colleagues everything before I came here.”

The High Priest burst out laughing.

“You really think we’d kill you? Of course we’re sending you back in one piece.”

He crouched down, bringing his eyes level with Lee Tae-seong’s.

“Still, let me give you a first and final warning, Prosecutor.”

“…”

“This isn’t a game you can play. Just keep your head down and live your life. Try anything else, and there’s no telling what might happen. To you, and to your family.”

The threat made something flicker in Lee Tae-seong’s eyes.

The corner of the High Priest’s mouth curled up.

“You can’t even imagine how far up the people involved in this go. Wiping a prosecutor off the board is nothing to us. If you’re curious, go right ahead and keep trying.”

That was when a voice cut in.

“These higher-ups, who?”

The High Priest and the guards whipped around in shock.

Standing behind them, no one knew since when, was a single figure.

A man wearing a hood and a mask.

*

I’d followed the man being dragged out and…

He was being threatened in what looked like a storage room right next to the chapel.

Turns out the man was a prosecutor.

I listened quietly to the conversation, then dropped Concealment and stepped into view.

“These higher-ups, who?”

Everyone whipped around to stare at me in shock.

The High Priest asked.

“…The hell are you?”

I didn’t answer.

The flustered guards came at me.

I dropped them with light, casual taps.

The moment all the guards were down, the High Priest lunged at me too.

He’d used the Leap skill, by the looks of it.

Bang!

I grabbed the High Priest by the forehead and slammed him into the wall. Lightly enough that he wouldn’t die.

“Kuagh…!”

Subdued.

I turned my eyes to the prosecutor.

He was staring at me with wide, round eyes.

“You’re the prosecutor?”

“…Y-yes.”

“I’m on your side, so relax.”

The prosecutor nodded, looking dazed.

I shifted my gaze back to the High Priest, who was groaning in pain on the floor.

From the way he’d been talking, this wasn’t just a regular cult. There was something more tangled up here…

Enough.

Nothing more to see.

Time to wrap all this up and get it straight from the Cult Leader himself. Just how much was tangled into this.

I pulled a mask out of Subspace.

A mask with a built-in voice-modulator microphone, the one I’d been keeping in Subspace just in case ever since the Wang Kai incident.

I took off my hood and hat and pulled the mask all the way down over my head.

“Come with me.”

Then I walked out of the storage room and back into the chapel.

Slam!

When I threw the doors open, every eye in the room snapped onto me.

I started walking toward the podium where the Cult Leader stood.

Knocking down every guard who tried to stop me with light, casual taps along the way.

“W-what? What is this?! Stop him!”

The Cult Leader jabbed a finger at me.

The other High Priest who was a climber came at me too.

I grabbed him and flung him aside the same way.

With all the guards down and no one left to block me, the Cult Leader looked utterly thrown.

I closed the distance to the Cult Leader.

“Y-you… who are you? Why are you doing this?”

The Cult Leader stumbled back, step by step.

“D-do you know who I am? I am the Representative of Person123! What are all of you believers doing?! Quickly, stop this man…!”

I raised my hand and fired Destruction Ray.

A huge hole was punched clean through the chapel ceiling.

Hiss…

The buzzing, murmuring atmosphere of a moment ago died into silence as if it had never existed.

Even the Cult Leader, who’d just been screaming in my face, was staring at me like he’d seen a ghost.

Somewhere, a voice could be heard muttering.

“P-Person123…?”

One person suddenly dropped to their knees and prostrated themselves.

And then, frantically, people all around began following suit, bowing their heads one after another.

I let out a small, dry laugh and turned my gaze back to the Cult Leader.

“H-hiiik…!”

Pale as a corpse, the Cult Leader fell backward onto his rear.

I looked down at him, his face emptied of every shred of soul, and spoke.

“I don’t recall ever making anyone like you my Representative.”

****

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