Hiding A Logistics Center In The Apocalypse - Chapter 96
Chapter 96: Non-possession (3)
TL/ED – Miso
From a long-term perspective, that’s how it is.
As more healers and doctors were added, we could build an even more solid medical infrastructure.
True to its apocalyptic nature, this world, overflowing with casualties, found medical services as appealing a means to draw people in as food.
But it didn’t end with treatment.
Once recovered, the Awakened naturally followed PAX FC’s training program, and those nurtured PAX Men became loyal forces for PAX FC in return.
“…All the more so in times like these.”
Moreover, we were preparing for battle.
The large-scale “pioneering project” that Barnaul was preparing.
And I, too, needed to assemble a vast force in response.
Furthermore,
‘That’s not all.’
There was another significance to absorbing the small regional organizations.
The European Branch of the Chamber of Commerce, stored in subspace.
Being a superior institution to the Japan Branch, it could print a new Dimensional Being Registration Form.
Flip.
I quietly looked over the document PAX had printed for me.
———————-
▣ Dimensional Being Registration Form (6th Order)
Welcome to the registration of your existence.
Before proceeding with the application, be sure to check the following items.
Requirements to issue registration: An affiliated organization represented by the applicant.
Conditions for registration: More than 100 affiliated organizations (each with over 1,000 members)
Signature: (Handwritten)
▣ Multidimensional Chamber of Commerce
———————-
The newly required condition was 100 affiliated organizations.
I needed to have over 100 groups under PAX FC, and each of them had to have at least 1,000 members.
“Manong Tribe, Chicago, Prague, Elvenheim…”
Currently, there were about thirty organizations under PAX FC.
Not a small number, but still far short of the required 100.
Of course, I could artificially divide existing members and create new groups that way, but it would consume hundreds of thousands of mana stones, which made it an unrealistic strategy.
“Indeed, rather than that…”
There was a target right in front of me anyway.
The Cult of Selflessness, which had already merged fifteen large hospitals just in Daegu.
Including the dozen or so small groups reportedly under their control, the Cult of Selflessness alone could provide at least thirty organizations.
And in truth…
There was a reason why so many organizations were springing up like mushrooms in Korea.
“To be honest, I was the one who planted the seeds…”
Excessive humility is an illness too, and frankly, Korea was now the safest region on Earth.
Various supplies were being delivered through the portals installed across the regions, and local representatives affiliated with PAX FC regularly wiped out monsters.
The era of desperately struggling just to survive was over.
The Awakened were forming parties and actively hunting, acquiring a considerable amount of mana stones in the process.
It required 10,000 mana stones to establish a group.
The rise of the Cult of Selflessness, which commanded dozens of organizations, had quietly absorbed a substantial portion of my influence.
Although it was an unintentional seed I had sown…
“It’s about time I reap it.”
Wasn’t there a saying about self-cultivation, family regulation, state governance, and world peace?
Now was the time to resolve internal conflicts in Korea and prepare for conflict with foreign forces based on that foundation.
As part of cleaning house, I was planning to devour the Cult of Selflessness, which commanded many affiliated organizations.
And then, it happened.
“…Well, look at that.”
Conveniently enough, they made the first move.
***
The problem area was, unsurprisingly, Daegu.
My sister, who had gone out to transport a patient, was in a standoff with someone.
“What’s going on?”
“Well, these crazy bastards, I swear…”
A PAX FC ambulance stood still in its tracks.
In front of the stretcher holding the patient, men in white coats were blocking the path.
“I said hand over the patient.”
My sister’s voice quivered with rage.
Meanwhile, the men’s gowns were adorned with blue flower-shaped badges.
Their faces appeared kind at first glance, yet carried an odd glint of madness.
One of them approached me with a gentle smile.
“We’re from the Yuseong Hospital Emergency Medical Center. We’ll take the patient from here.”
Yuseong Hospital.
It was the largest of the hospitals affiliated with the Cult of Selflessness.
I asked the man, who insisted without batting an eye,
“What kind of bullshit is that? The patient requested rescue from us in the first place.”
The patient wasn’t in critical condition, just a leg fracture.
Still, in his hand as he lay on the stretcher was a smartphone clearly supplied by PAX FC.
If there hadn’t been a distress call, we would have had no reason to show up.
But the response I got was the kind of insane logic only a Cult of Selflessness member could spew.
“You’re going to use this man as a sacrifice for the portal, aren’t you?”
“…What?”
“H-Hiiik!”
At the word sacrifice, the patient lying down cried out in horror,
And sensing an opportunity, the cultist continued without hesitation.
“You think we don’t know? That the people who passed through that portal never returned? Of course they didn’t. To maintain a portal, you have to offer human lives as sacrifices.”
A conspiracy theory spewed from his flapping mouth.
Obviously, it wasn’t true.
Patients were being transported to Gangnam Severance Hospital, medical staff were treating prisoners in Elvenheim, and the Awakened were undergoing training at PAX FC’s facilities.
But even if I explained all of that, nothing would change.
‘…They’re stabbing pretty cleverly.’
It was true that we weren’t in Daegu.
They were agitating the people of Daegu with lies sprinkled with a single drop of truth.
And unless there was evidence directly visible to the eye, suspicion always overpowered explanation.
Sure enough,
Clatter…!
The patient, now terrified, got off the stretcher.
Even limping with his injured leg, he climbed down, clearly in a state of panic.
The Cult of Selflessness member began chanting their doctrine in a monotone voice…
“You’re obsessed with gathering mana stones and growing stronger. But what people truly need is peace and healing. If we all give up possessions together…”
“L-Let’s go! Now!”
Instead, the patient rushed the cultist to leave.
They immediately got into their vehicle and disappeared without looking back.
Meanwhile, on our side…
“…You sure I can’t kill them?”
Kim Joo-yeon asked me in a cold voice, seething with anger.
But it wasn’t a problem we could solve like that.
“Of course you can’t. The patient didn’t flee for no reason.”
“A sacrifice? You think he actually believed that nonsense?”
“Even if he didn’t believe it, he would have been worried. It’s a world where the strangest things happen. Maybe he thought going to a shabby local clinic was safer.”
That’s the kind of situation it was.
What we needed wasn’t land or resources, it was people.
If we went around killing them, it would only ruin PAX FC’s reputation, and we wouldn’t be able to bring healers and doctors to our side that way.
“Then what do we do?”
“We dig into them. Guys who talk shit about others like that are never clean themselves. And fortunately…”
I casually pointed my hand.
“That person looks like he knows something.”
A man with graying hair, dressed in a worn-out shirt.
Not just me, but especially my sister knew him well.
“…Professor?”
“It’s been a while, Nurse Kim.”
.
.
.
His name was Lee Guk-jung.
A doctor who used to appear frequently in the news, and someone who had grown close to my sister through overseas medical volunteer work.
“I came looking for PAX FC… but I didn’t expect to run into Nurse Kim like this.”
“Really. What happened?”
Lee Guk-jung said he had been performing a major surgery in Daegu when the collapse happened and, after narrowly escaping death several times, eventually became a doctor affiliated with Yuseong Hospital.
He had come to PAX FC for a reason of his own.
“I need medicine.”
“Medicine?”
“As Nurse Kim probably already knows… healers can only treat external injuries for the most part. Conditions like diabetes or vascular diseases are still the domain of doctors, and in most cases, they require medication. But in the hospitals around here, we’ve practically run out of medicine.”
In other words, he needed medicine to treat patients.
It wasn’t a difficult task.
Inside subspace, there was a mountain of specialized medicines copied from Severance Hospital.
But that wasn’t the only issue.
“The Cult of Selflessness is deceiving the patients.”
“…Deceiving them?”
“Half the patients have basically had their treatment discontinued because of the lack of medicine. But the Cult Leader continues to deceive people into thinking treatment is ongoing.”
“You think people are actually fooled by that?”
“Normally they wouldn’t be. Unless they had no awakened abilities.”
Lee Guk-jung added that the Cult Leader possessed a power related to anesthesia, and was masking the patients’ conditions by simply numbing their pain, creating a false impression of treatment.
“Do you think we have CT scans in this situation? Or ultrasound? When the pain goes away, they just assume they’re getting better. Then they start saying hospitals under the Cult treat illnesses well, that all you have to do is follow the Cult Leader’s word. All the while, they’re smiling and slowly dying without pain.”
It was effectively the same as drowning patients in painkillers.
The cult’s doctrine wasn’t much different.
A defeatist ideology that preached accepting destruction with serenity.
They kept emphasizing meditation and peace without basis, mentally numbing the people.
I responded to the professor.
“We’ll supply the medicine. But to put the medicine into the patients’ hands, we’ll probably have to take over the hospitals first.”
“If those hospitals become part of PAX FC, I couldn’t ask for more…”
Professor Lee Guk-jung nodded.
He then added, with a hint of concern.
“If you try to occupy them by force, there’ll be considerable backlash. Not just from the patients… but also from healers and doctors, many of whom don’t fully understand what’s going on.”
“Oh, don’t worry. We’ll resolve it peacefully.”
This incident had taught me something important.
Supplying resources, conducting rescues, even nurturing talent,
PAX FC had been generously feeding and sheltering people, but to become the true central axis of the world’s future, there was one more essential thing.
And that was…
‘PAX FC needs a philosophy of its own.’
Just scrambling to survive was no longer enough.
We needed a mindset that would actively overcome the apocalypse and confront the true root of the crisis, the Chamber of Commerce.
We needed a “full-possession” consciousness, grounded in the blessings of infinite supply.
Was I being too abstract?
My sister asked me again,
“So what exactly do you plan to do?”
“They’re throwing false accusations at us, aren’t they? We’ve got to clear our name.”
It would be enough to explain it, step by step.
That the subspace portal was a harmless, benevolent portal that didn’t harm people. That we were doing charitable work, handing out rice and coal. That PAX Men were patriots defeating alien threats. And in contrast, the Cult of Selflessness were just pathetic con artists, traitors aligned with foreign powers.
“…Do you think they’ll believe that?”
My sister looked at me doubtfully.
“They won’t have a choice. Because we’ll make them feel it.”
I had a plan of my own.
And the one who would deliver that message would be none other than Lydia, who possessed both buff and debuff abilities.
I intended to let the hospital staff experience firsthand the emotional current between full-possession and non-possession, a surge that flowed from paradise to the depths of hell.
“Well, everyone…….”
Civilized blessings falling from the sky.
And the crashing waves of debuffs and buffs riding a resounding voice.
It would be something akin to a religious experience, wouldn’t it?
“Whether they like it or not, they’re going to fall in love with PAX FC.”
****
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