Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability - Chapter 92

Chapter 92: Cult (4)

TL: DDTL

What had given them the gall to peddle my name and swindle all these people?

Then again, they probably never imagined I’d show up in front of them in person.

If people I knew hadn’t gotten tangled up in this mess, I would never have learned about a cult like this in the first place, and I sure wouldn’t be standing here doing this.

“Lord Person123…! We beg you, save us!”

Someone cried out in a voice thick with rapture.

Others joined in, calling out my name the same way.

– Yes, this is more like it. Kill the cult leader and take the congregation for yourself.

The Demon King’s voice rang in my head.

Naturally, this wasn’t some farce I was putting on for that reason.

I glanced over toward where Jiu noona was.

Like everyone else, she was still prostrate on the floor, motionless.

I hoped this would finally knock some sense into her.

“Your cult leader is a fraud.”

The moment I spoke, the chapel fell silent again.

One by one, people lifted their heads and stared up at me with dazed eyes.

“All of it, dropping my name and saying you’ll be saved, demanding money, demanding prayers, every bit of it is just a cult trying to deceive and exploit you. I never wanted any of that.”

A murmur rippled through the crowd.

One person, looking utterly shaken, asked,

“Th, then, the world is going to end… and you, Lord Person123, will save only a chosen few of the faithful…”

I cut him off.

“It’s all nonsense.”

“…”

“There is no such thing as ‘only those who believe in me will be saved.’ I’m just a human being like the rest of you, a Climber who extends the Time Limit on Nightmare difficulty. I’m not someone to be worshipped.”

Normally, words wouldn’t have been enough to talk people deep in a cult out of it.

But they had no choice but to listen this time.

The very person they’d been worshipping was standing in front of them, denying it himself.

“So go home, all of you.”

I swept my gaze across the room.

“I’ll do everything I can, right up to the end, to stop the world from ending. So go and live your ordinary lives. Don’t ever fall for a cult like this again. That’s the one and only thing I want from you.”

I gestured for them to rise, and the crowd began climbing hesitantly to their feet.

A moment later they started filtering out of the chapel, one after another.

But there were still plenty who just stood there in a daze, staring at me…

“Go. Now.”

Only after I repeated myself did the last of them finally leave.

Jiu noona kept glancing back over her shoulder as she walked out.

‘Hah…’

That should’ve gotten through to her, right?

I just hoped she’d stop putting the people around her through the wringer and live like a normal person.

– I truly cannot fathom thee.

The Demon King’s voice came again.

– Why dost thou refuse adoration and worship? Thou couldst gather up these worms and grow thy following far greater still.

The Demon King’s nagging had practically become part of my daily routine.

He clearly never got tired of bossing around a body that wasn’t even his.

– Watching thee is exasperating, thou wretched worm.

I ignored him and looked to the side.

The cult leader, who had been trying to slink quietly off the platform, froze under my gaze.

“You’re staying. Where do you think you’re going?”

“…”

I motioned to the prosecutor, who had been standing dumbstruck near the chapel entrance, watching it all unfold.

The crowd was gone. It was time to wrap things up.

I made the cult leader and the High Priests kneel in a row on the platform.

“I, I was only trying to spread your greatness to the people…”

The cult leader started running his mouth.

I just stared at him, and he dropped his eyes and shut up.

“From what I’ve been hearing, some pretty important people are mixed up in all this.”

I’d already accomplished what I came for, and ‘Religion of the Heavenly One’ wasn’t going to survive as an organization after this anyway.

But since we’d come this far, I figured I might as well tear the whole thing out by the roots.

“Talk. Who else is behind you people?”

The cult leader and the High Priests just exchanged nervous glances and kept their mouths shut.

The prosecutor spoke up.

“There’s a high probability the Climber Association is involved as well.”

…The Climber Association?

Why would the Association be mixed up in this?

The cult leader and the High Priests still wouldn’t open their mouths.

It didn’t look like they had any intention of talking willingly.

– Three seconds and I shall have them all singing. Surrender thy body unto me.

I brushed him off.

I pointed a finger at the hole punched through the chapel ceiling.

“If you keep being this uncooperative, the second shot isn’t going to miss.”

“…”

He couldn’t possibly think I wasn’t capable of killing him.

Not to brag, but it was common knowledge that I’d already killed two people with the Destruction Ray.

When I leaked some killing intent on top of it, the cult leader finally went white as a sheet and opened his mouth.

“W, we… we were just following orders…”

“Whose orders?”

“The Vice Branch Manager of the Korean Climber Association!”

After that the cult leader spilled everything.

A shock, in its own way…

The ones behind ‘Religion of the Heavenly One’ turned out to be the Vice Branch Manager of the Korean branch of the Climber Association.

And a heavyweight National Assemblyman whose name every Korean would recognize, along with several other politicians on top of him.

When I got the full story, it turned out this ‘Religion of the Heavenly One’ had been planned and founded from the start by this Vice Branch Manager character.

The purpose, naturally, was money, and the formation of their own private little cartel.

The cult leader wasn’t the head of the operation. He was the tail end, following the Vice Branch Manager’s commands and busily reeling in believers.

The political side were accomplices who’d been taking their money and providing various favors in return.

I had the cult leader bring out all the evidence.

The prosecutor sat right there and went through the bribery ledger on the cult leader’s laptop, along with the emails they’d exchanged.

The further he got, the harder the prosecutor’s expression became.

“This is beyond anything I imagined. To think it had grown to this size…”

It had only been a few years since I cleared the first floor of Nightmare difficulty.

And in just those few years, they’d built a cult of this scale.

In a world where no one could even be sure if everything would still be standing a year from now, they were still that desperate to chase money and power…

It was honestly nauseating.

“Can you arrest all of them?”

The prosecutor’s face was grim when he answered.

“I’ll do everything in my power. But there are more major players involved than I anticipated… Honestly, I can’t say how far I’ll be able to take this… I’m sorry.”

What he meant was, evidence or no evidence, it wasn’t going to be easy.

I nodded.

“Then let me help.”

How many other cults like ‘Religion of the Heavenly One’ were out there? Who knew.

Either way, I figured this was as good a chance as any to give them a real beating.

I opened up the Communication Channel.

*

Not long after Person123 had posted his guide on the sixth floor.

Unusually, he put up another post.

[Person123: I have recently discovered a cult called ‘Religion of the Heavenly One’ that has been exploiting my name. The individuals behind this group are Kim Ji-hoon, Vice Branch Manager of the Korean branch of the Climber Association, National Assemblymen Baek Gyu-ho, Park Tae-min…]

A post calling out a single cult by the name of ‘Religion of the Heavenly One’.

And, listed out in order, the names of every individual entangled with it.

[Person123: …If there is any religious organization out there using my name to demand money or faith, understand that they are nothing but cults, and please be on your guard. As for ‘Religion of the Heavenly One’ matter, I will be looking forward to seeing those involved properly punished.]

The Republic of Korea was thrown into complete uproar.

– Person123 issues stern rebuke against Person123 Church…

– What is the true face of ‘Religion of the Heavenly One’? Vice Branch Manager still silent…

– Political world in chaos, public outrage boiling over…

The Salvation Faith, the mass-appeal branch of Person123 Church.

They were the first to react, scrambling like they’d been burned.

“…Lord Person123! It isn’t us! Our Society of Hope for Human Salvation has never coerced a single believer’s faith or money!”

It was their attempt to plead their innocence and devotion.

From the beginning, they had been the ones denouncing every other Person123 Church sect besides themselves as cults.

Within minutes of Person123’s post going up, the head of the Salvation Faith was already on a live broadcast, distancing themselves from ‘Religion of the Heavenly One’  and crying out at the top of his lungs that they were absolutely nothing like that cult.

He also announced that, starting that very moment, they would be conducting a sweeping audit of every Salvation Faith branch and foundation around the world.

The one really feeling the fire under their feet, though, was the Climber Association.

The Vice Branch Manager of the Korean branch had been outed as the man behind a cult that had been peddling Person123’s name, and Person123 himself had made the announcement publicly.

The Association President released a statement even faster than the Korean branch did.

“…I urge the Korean branch to convene its board and strip Vice Branch Manager Kim Ji-hoon of his position immediately. Depending on the circumstances, headquarters is even considering revoking the Korean branch’s operational authority…”

It was pressure on the Korean branch to throw Kim Ji-hoon out, immediately.

Korea had only just barely started its investigation. Wait for the actual findings before passing judgment?

Headquarters had no interest in that kind of caution.

After all, Person123 had stepped in personally on this one.

The Climber Association had nothing whatsoever to do with this. It was the unilateral wrongdoing of the Korean branch alone. They had to draw that line faster than anyone else.

The Association also announced it would be conducting a full audit of branches worldwide, just like the Salvation Faith.

“…Goddamn it.”

The home of Vice Branch Manager Kim Ji-hoon.

Kim Ji-hoon stared at the news streaming from his TV, his face hollow.

How… how the hell did it come to this?

His dreams had been grand.

Expand his underground influence through ‘Religion of the Heavenly One’, aggressively pull in the political class, and build the largest cartel in the Republic of Korea.

And it had all been going so smoothly. Right up until a few days ago.

A single post from Person123 had brought it all crashing down at once.

If Person123 had only fingered ‘Religion of the Heavenly One’, they could’ve cut off the tail and survived, but everyone involved had been nailed down by name.

Bang, bang, bang.

– Mr. Kim Ji-hoon, this is the Prosecutor’s Office!

Listening to the pounding at his front door, Kim Ji-hoon let out a hollow chuckle.

The one consolation was that all the other households were burning down right alongside his.

Baek Gyu-ho was a hardened old fox who’d been around the political block more times than anyone could count, but even he couldn’t manage this one.

The other side was practically an inviolable holy figure. There was no public-opinion battle to be waged against him.

The office of National Assemblyman Baek Gyu-ho.

“Damn it, damn it…!”

Baek Gyu-ho’s eyes were bloodshot as he hurled his phone aside.

A six-term National Assemblyman of the Republic of Korea, a man who, in the political world, was the very embodiment of living power. That was who he was.

And that power was on the verge of crumbling like a sandcastle.

Over at the prosecutor’s office, some Lee Tae-seong character was directing the investigation without restraint, public opinion was burning hotter by the day, and as if that weren’t enough, international pressure was rolling in from governments around the world.

China, for whatever reason, had completely lost its mind, threatening that if those responsible weren’t punished immediately they would take “appropriate measures” of their own, even floating raw materials export controls and tariffs.

There wasn’t a single soul left to stand by him. He was adrift in the open sea.

Far from anyone taking his side, pressure to resign was coming at him from every direction. The National Assembly had read the room and was already busy cutting off the tail.

Public opinion was boiling hotter by the hour, and worse, Person123 had personally nailed it down that he was looking forward to seeing those involved punished, so trying to sweep this one under the rug would mean consequences impossible to handle. The whole National Assembly could end up overturned.

Once he resigned, the investigation would proceed without obstacle, and Baek Gyu-ho’s destination, naturally, would be a cold prison cell.

He had no intention of going down quietly. Not alone, at least.

“These goddamn sons of bitches… so they’re all just going to play dumb, is that it?”

Surviving as long as he had in politics. That meant he knew plenty of dirty secrets to match.

Baek Gyu-ho intended to swing the blade properly and bring everyone down with him in one glorious self-destruction.

That was when he heard a knock.

“Pardon the intrusion, Assemblyman.”

Two unannounced visitors. The NIS Director and the Tower Climbing Special Agency Director.

To Baek Gyu-ho, his expression venomous, the NIS Director spoke as though pronouncing a verdict.

“Don’t do it.”

“…Don’t do what?”

“Don’t do what you’re thinking right now. Resign quietly.”

It was obvious what a cornered Baek Gyu-ho was going to do.

Baek Gyu-ho let out a low chuckle.

“You’ve got to leave even a rat at least one hole to crawl out of, or it’ll bite the cat right on the nose. Isn’t that right? Who exactly am I supposed to die alone for?”

The Tower Climbing Special Agency Director spoke.

“It’s not as though you’re literally going to die.”

“…What did you say?”

“The rat hole is already open. Resign quietly and at least keep your life.”

The color drained from Baek Gyu-ho’s face as he realized it was a threat against his life.

“A, are you threatening me…? Threatening to kill a sitting National Assemblyman of the Republic of Korea?”

The Tower Climbing Special Agency Director’s expression turned weary.

“What can we do? This is how things have ended up. Understand that we have no other options either.”

Person123 wanted it, and so Baek Gyu-ho had to be punished without fail, and if Baek Gyu-ho went mad and started swinging, the political world of the Republic of Korea would be overturned beyond anyone’s ability to contain.

Silencing him through death was, in fact, one of the options on the table.

“…Who put you up to this?”

There was no answer.

There was no need to ask, either. It didn’t matter.

Either way, everyone aside from the parties themselves had tacitly consented to this, or, if they didn’t know, they would look the other way.

Baek Gyu-ho, fully grasping his situation at last, sank limply into his chair, all the strength gone out of him.

****

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