Chapter 30 – The Perpetual Church (1)
The morning after returning to Korea.
As soon as I went to the office, I handed out honeymoon gifts to my team members.
It wasn’t a big deal, it was mediocre snacks or consumables, but the team members were smart.
“Thank you, chief.”
“I’m sorry that it’s moderately cheap. Still, it’s good to get it casually, right?”
“It’s cheap. It doesn’t look like that at all.”
“I bought it based on the color. Jeongtae, do you have something to give me?”
“Yes.”
While Lee Seo-woo and Seo Ji-yu insisted on working as soon as they arrived, Kim Jeong-tae immediately started briefing.
A Christian-affiliated pseudo-religious group, Yeongsokgyo Jinrihoe.
It is the next target of our special investigation team.
I decided to listen to what I already knew for everyone’s sake.
“Yongsokkyo Jinrihoe is a Christian-affiliated pseudo-religious group. The current leader is Kim Woo-min. He is a hunter officially registered with the association.”
“If it’s the current leader, does that mean there was a previous leader?”
When Alice sharply pointed out why, Kim Jeong-tae nodded.
“Yes. It was entirely taken over from the previous leader.”
“Are you dead?”
“No. I’m alive and working as Kim Woo-min’s aid.”
Kim Jeong-tae explained the reason why we paid attention to Permanent Religion.
“The Perpetual Church is not very large, but there are exceptionally many Hunter followers.”
“Yeah, that’s kind of weird.”
“It’s obvious.”
Hunters are a profession with a fairly high average income.
However, a place called a pseudo-religious group is not a very comfortable place to live.
In a pseudo-religious group that strongly asserts the authority of the religious leader, a vertical hierarchical structure is inevitable.
In addition, the church often extracts money from its followers by exploiting it like a multi-level, so this tendency is even stronger.
Believers who attend the church are forced to evangelize and make offerings, constantly praising the religious leader.
A collective life that becomes more and more damaging the more you do it beyond boring, painful, and meaningless things.
There’s no way a high-class manpower like Hunter could endure something like that.
As the explanation progressed to some extent, Seo Ji-yu came up with a reasonable guess in his own way.
“If I were a Hunter, would I still be a medium in the Church? Hunters with such abilities would be rare.”
“Yes.”
“Then, wouldn’t it be possible to endure enough? In a group with such a structure, the higher the rank, the more the profit will increase exponentially.”
You might think so.
In fact, multi-level or pseudo-religious groups sometimes seduce people in that way.
However, even if you say that you are an executive of Youngsokkyo, you will end up eating rice cakes that fall from Kim Woo-min, the leader of the cult.
Even in this case, the rice cake dumplings are not so generous.
“The Permanent Church isn’t that big of a group. Since the number of followers is less than 10,000, the money coming out of it is obvious.”
“Eh, then why…”
“There are several hypotheses. First, that you can get other things besides money by becoming an executive.”
“Ah…”
“And the second. Like the previous leader, he fell for the strange charisma of current leader Kim Woo-min.”
Having obtained the list of Permanent Church members in the past, we began our investigation, paying attention to the unusually high percentage of Hunters.
The results were truly astonishing.
“As Alice already knows, an autopsy is always required for hunters who die during missions. Due to the nature of hunters’ work, the possibility of various incidents cannot be ruled out.”
“Yeah, that’s right. What did you get out of there?”
“Yes. This is the result of the autopsy of the Hunter who belonged to the Perpetual Church. For reference, the person died during the dungeon raid.”
Before long, the data released was a picture like a perspective view of the brain.
I explained as simply as possible.
“The frontal lobe of the deceased was shrunken, and the left parietal lobe was also significantly damaged.
“If you died during the dungeon raid, couldn’t it be a change due to extreme fear?”
“It’s changed too much for something like that. You can’t change this much without being stimulated for a long time.”
Just in case, I investigated the data of the hunters who had already died, and similar results were found.
Most of the Hunters belonging to the Permanent Church were in a similar state.
They were all in groups of the same Permanent Church, so it didn’t stand out properly.
At this point, I revealed the expected charges.
“There’s a high probability that Youngsokkyo’s leader, Kim Woo-min, has brainwashing abilities.”
“Three, brainwashing…”
“If it weren’t for that much, I wouldn’t have been able to take over the entire church and gain the loyalty of active hunters.”
The condition of the victim hunters was worse than that of drug addicts…
Such a mutation was very advantageous to the cult leader, Kim Woo-min.
They had no choice but to give money and loyalty to the religious leader.
“Looking at the flow of funds, the secrecy is too perfect… I think the brainwashing ability is certain. At least I think they have something similar.”
Besides, he can’t speak properly in front of Lee Seo-woo and Seo Ji-yu, but even if he shakes the perpetual church with an oracle, nothing comes out.
Even if the use of electronic devices is extremely limited out of concern for accusations, since there are not one or two believers, something should come out, but that is not the case.
To me, that was the clearest proof of anything.
‘I’m controlling my close followers at an unconscious level.’
Alice stuttered after finally convincing my hypothesis.
“If that’s true, how am I supposed to arrest you? Do I have to claim that I spread some sort of plague based on the autopsy results?”
“That, that’s a bit ingenious… But there’s no need to do that. The head of the church, Kim Woo-min, is an official member of the association.”
“Ah?”
Only then did Alice seem to have a rough idea.
On the other hand, Lee Seo-woo and Seo Ji-yu are still confused.
“Why are you an official member of the association… “
“Think about it. When Kim Woo-min registered with the association, he must have revealed that he was a brainwasher.”
“Oh, no. It can’t be.”
“That’s right. Deceiving your lineage and rank like that is a serious violation of the Association Act. In some cases, it is possible to lose your membership.”
The association is not stupid, so those with special abilities are thoroughly managed separately.
However, Kim Woo-min lied to avoid such surveillance.
According to the Association database, it was only a C rank, so he must have cheated on his rank.
“So, if you only shoot him using his abilities, he’ll be able to catch you.”
“Ohh…But who’s filming that?”
“Seo Ji-yu, dispatch.”
“Yes, yes?”
Seo Ji-yu quickly became teary-eyed, so she looked up at me.
There was inevitably a bit of selfishness in my answer.
“What did you sit down for? I hired you to use it for a time like this.”
“Ah, no… I heard that the other person uses brainwashing ability? If I’m brainwashed, it’s a joke!”
“It’s a snap shot and bounce before you get beaten up completely. If you get hit, I’ll be really sad.”
“I’m really sorry for buying the cafe without saying anything… But the team leader also orders it often.”
“Isn’t there a search and seizure?”
As soon as Seo Ji-yu’s nonsense is over, Lee Seo-woo immediately asks a question.
I was strangely pleased with it.
“Seo-woo, did you enjoy the search and seizure?
“It’s not like that.”
“Unfortunately, not this time. You can’t attack blindly without reconnaissance. Besides, I want the higher up to deal with it quietly for a while.”
“Ah…”
After my explanation, Kim Jeong-tae opened his mouth again.
From now on, what I didn’t know… In other words, it was the investigation into the Jinrihoe headquarters of the Youngsok Church.
As soon as Jung-tae and his team received my order, they immediately started monitoring them.
“The Permanent Church’s headquarters, where the cult leader Kim Woo-min is staying, is under very strict surveillance. It would be difficult to sneak in. Besides, the use of electronic devices is restricted by using the Hunter ability 24 hours a day. “
“Hunter ability? Are you sure?”
“Yes. I launched a drone nearby and it crashed right away. One of Kim Woo-min’s aids has that ability.”
This has been quite a headache.
Originally, I was planning to use a dungeon exploration drone or something to take moderate pictures, but that became impossible.
“I thought it would be jamming at best… So there’s no such thing as a classic device?”
“Yes. Communication resumes perfectly fine once you get out of the range of the ability’s application.”
“Oh, yes? That’s easy.”
“Yes?”
I briefly explained to the surprised rabbit-eyed team members.
“Isn’t it just a matter of putting the green dust on the camera and taking pictures? Recover and recycle what you put on the core.”
“Is that so?”
“That’s right. Even a very small amount of green dust can unlock all Hunter abilities.”
It emits green light. I just have to adjust it myself.
However, if this is the case, I will not be able to use the drone.
That’s why I have no choice but to bring my camera and take pictures.
Of course, the team members who did not know my identity were embarrassed and dissuaded me.
“Team leader, if you go close, you might be defeated by Kim Woo-min’s ability.”
“If you have green dust, there’s no problem. Hide it properly under your clothes. If you have a device like that, the inspection won’t be too hard.”
The question is, how do you hide there?
Normally, I would have used the abilities of Esquire and Servants, but…
You cannot enjoy the benefits of abilities while using Green Dust.
The church’s security seems to be normally excellent, so it’s hard for any country to infiltrate without ability.
“Are there any opportunities for outsiders to enter the church headquarters?”
“Ah, that’s…”
For some reason, Kim Jeong-tae dropped his tail and pondered for a while before speaking.
He was looking at Alice, not me.
“There is a special meeting attended by Kim Woo-min himself. In some cases, first-time believers can also join in.”
“Oh, really? What’s the condition?”
“I checked the Permanent Church guidelines, and it says that white women are invited unconditionally, without asking or questioning. Kim Woo-min seems to like foreigners.”
But. If the name color is a pseudo cult, it is human nature to fall in love with the color.
Relatively decent religious people often do this, but how can pseudos be so?
I clicked my tongue as I thought so.
“Well, even the fake guys reveal that they are made in a foreign country…”
“…”
Everyone in the office stared at me, Yeriel Frost’s husband, in silence.
I shook my fist in the middle of them.
“I was joking. She’s a white woman… I’ll have to find someone suitable.”
“Well?”
Alice, who was tilting her head with a bewildered face, suddenly pointed at herself.
“Wait, can’t I just go? Shouldn’t I be there anyway to arrest him?”
“Can it be done? The second most famous female hunter in Korea, don’t say that.”
“No. I’m like Yeriel’s bonus, so I’m not that famous.”
Sounds stupid.
A guy who is about the size of the mascot of the super-large guild Winter Kingdom is talking like that.
But Seo Ji-yu stood by me and defended her for some reason.
“Chief, do you think it’s possible?”
“Where the hell are you looking at? You know you can’t use your Hunter abilities because you have to stop brainwashing with green dust, right?”
“Oh, of course it can’t be like this. But I can use my hand.”
Seo Ji-yu smiled confidently, then she took Alice’s hand her and headed for the empty room.
After a while Alice became a completely different person and she appeared before me.
