Chapter 41
Guardian Angel Eve (2)
“Everyone, the faith we prayed with every day has finally reached God! The opportunity has come to welcome the one who has descended to quell the chaos of this world and save its foolish masses!”
“Waaaaaaaah!”
“Who shall receive this glorious opportunity? Whoooo?!”
Inside a vast cavern, a middle-aged man stood on a platform and shouted before a countless multitude. One of the people cheering with madness in their eyes cried out.
“Of course, if anyone deserves such an opportunity, it must be our Cult Leader! You are the one who awakened us foolish masses to the truth of this world, something we could never have understood on our own! You must be the one to go!”
The man shouted until his voice cracked.
Upon hearing him, the leader of the Lee Shin Salvation Cult...
skillfully changed his expression and replied.
“N-no, that is not right! H-how could I possibly be anyone s-special? All believers are equal beneath Lord Lee Shin. Therefore, this opportunity must also be granted equally...”
“Noooo! You must go! Our Cult Leader must be the one to go!”
The crowd responded with fervent support.
As everyone gazed at him passionately, Ji Seongwei looked strangely displeased. A woman who had been watching him quietly approached and whispered into his ear.
“Cult Leader... it looks like you’ll have to go.”
Still wearing a confident expression, Ji Seongwei muttered without moving his lips, speaking quietly enough that only she could hear.
“Ah... I don’t want to...”
“You’re the Cult Leader. You have to go.”
“I’m scared...”
“If you don’t, they’ll probably beat you to death.”
“......”
“This is driving me crazy. Why did he accept our request...?”
In truth, he was nothing like the rumors portrayed him.
Ji Seongwei, leader of the Lee Shin Salvation Cult.
A fraudulent cult leader who had attracted millions of believers at an unprecedented rate, received both fervent support and fierce condemnation, and enjoyed a cultlike popularity on the internet!
“They say the leader of that cult will be coming. I don’t know if you’ve heard of him, but he’s quite famous online. His name is Ji Seongwei, and he’s from Guangdong Province in China... He has a ridiculous number of followers on social media. He gets plenty of criticism too, but he became a meme in online communities a long time ago.”
“A meme...?”
“He says bizarre things so frequently that it eventually turned into one. You know the expression about dragging a joke past the first, second, and third verses until you completely run it into the ground? Well, people also say that if you keep running it into the ground long enough, it eventually becomes art. Ji Seongwei is a perfect example of that.”
Manager Kim Dong-seok explained it in a way Lee Shin, who knew little about online communities, could easily understand.
For example, half-hearted nonsense merely fell into the uncanny valley and made people uncomfortable. But if it crossed the line so thoroughly that it reached the realm of insanity, it became amusing instead and made people laugh in disbelief.
Manager Kim Dong-seok offered an analogy involving a historical Korean movie. If the story claimed that Jang Yeong-sil had actually invented Hangul and King Sejong had stolen the credit, it would be irritating. But if Jang Yeong-sil and King Sejong worked together to construct a space battleship and conquer the world, wouldn’t that become entertaining instead?
“What sort of person could possibly make you use an analogy like that?”
“Instead of explaining, why don’t I show you?”
Manager Kim Dong-seok showed him his phone.
On the screen were posts such as:
—Watching hunters risk their lives and fight so fiercely inside rifts makes me realize once again how incredible our savior and God truly is, for he closed every rift in South Korea all at once.
—Watching the heroes who fought bravely in Hong Kong but unfortunately suffered grievous injuries makes me realize once again that our God, who has never suffered so much as a scratch, must possess an indestructible body.
—As I watched young people eating lunch boxes in the park, I realized that we can enjoy such precious nourishment only because our savior granted us peace. Once again, I cannot help but worship him...
Whenever there was an article, news report, or even a trivial incident, he would mention Lee Shin regardless of whether it had anything to do with him. At first, people reacted badly, saying that the damned cult leader was being obnoxiously attention-seeking. But as he steadfastly continued flooding the internet with such posts, they gradually began to be enjoyed as memes everywhere.
People would say that they had a satisfying bowel movement that day because the noble savior Lee Shin had broken through their constipation just as he had broken through the rifts. Others would say that buttoning a shirt was difficult enough, yet Lee Shin had closed rifts that had remained open since the year 2000, naturally filling them with faith in him.
Even people who were not members of the Lee Shin Salvation Cult started bringing up Lee Shin at every opportunity. Not only within online communities, but everywhere, the act of suddenly worshipping Lee Shin had become a trend.
“I-I can’t believe it. So there was a method like this!”
“...?”
“T-this must be the heavenly method... Such advanced worship makes faith surge within you merely by reading it. M-my God, my God! As expected, this humble Eve still has much to learn when it comes to evangelism...”
Though Lee Shin had no idea why Eve was so impressed.
“My God, who is the person beside you...?”
“Ah.”
How should he explain her?
Lee Shin gave a simple answer.
“She’s my bodyguard.”
Was there really much difference between a guardian angel and a bodyguard?
After hearing Lee Shin’s answer, Manager Kim Dong-seok thought, She doesn’t exactly look like a bodyguard... But he soon accepted it because this was Lee Shin. He had developed the habit of simply accepting whatever Lee Shin said.
“In any case, he may be surrounded by numerous controversies, but he currently possesses tremendous influence. You know how everything becomes much larger in scale once China gets involved, right? Cult Leader Ji Seongwei’s influence in China is enormous at the moment.”
“I see.”
“He paid an extraordinary donation just to have us arrange a single meal with you. He must have connections within the Chinese Hunter Association as well, because Dawn Management suddenly started receiving quite a few attractive proposals.”
Manager Kim Dong-seok continued.
“According to our investigation, he isn’t dangerous. There were plenty of rumors claiming he had a history of fraud or that he used to run a multilevel marketing scheme. But before he became the leader of the Lee Shin Salvation Cult, he apparently lived an astonishingly ordinary life. He earned just enough to survive each day and uploaded videos to NewTube as a hobby.”
“......”
“Of course, you never know what might happen, so we’ll make sure to send security personnel. We’ll also inspect him for any dangerous items. Hunter Seong Chanyang will be present as well. You may not know this, but our Chanyang isn’t only an S-rank hunter—she’s also S-rank when it comes to protecting important figures. Hahaha!”
A surprise boast.
Manager Kim Dong-seok’s talent for surprise worship was nothing to scoff at either.
In any case, Lee Shin stroked his chin for a moment while looking at a photograph of Ji Seongwei, leader of the Lee Shin Salvation Cult.
He doesn’t look dangerous.
If anything...
He just looks a little unreliable.
Lee Shin’s eyes could see the true nature concealed beneath a person’s exterior.
At any rate, a personal meeting with the leader of the Lee Shin Salvation Cult—which had helped him accumulate divine power—was arranged. Divine power would remain the most essential resource for developing his world, so Lee Shin had already been considering meeting the man at least once.
Otherwise, he would never have mentioned him during the press conference.
“My God, it’s been a while!”
After finishing the conversation and stepping outside, Lee Shin encountered Hunter Seong Chanyang. Her expression was now completely bright and cheerful. She greeted him warmly, but flinched when she noticed Eve standing beside him.
Had she become wary upon seeing a stranger?
“An angel...?”
Fortunately, that was not the case.
...Just what does Eve look like through Hunter Seong Chanyang’s eyes?
Lee Shin had no way of knowing how members of the clergy perceived her.
“It’s good to meet a believer with such an excellent name!”
“I-it is an honor to meet you, Angel...”
Well, there was nothing wrong with his believers getting along with one another.
“I think I can feel a little more at ease from now on...”
Seong Chanyang’s expression seemed to relax in a peculiar way.
Why would she feel more at ease?
After briefly greeting her, Lee Shin headed outside. Seong Chanyang remained in the hallway, staring at the spot where he had disappeared. Manager Kim Dong-seok approached her and asked,
“Oh, did you see Mr. Lee Shin?”
“Yes...”
“You saw the woman who came with him too, right? He said she was his bodyguard, but she might be the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen in my life. Well, Mr. Lee Shin is a young man in his prime too, so...”
“She really is his bodyguard.”
“Huh?”
Seong Chanyang grinned.
“From now on, absolutely no one will be able to lay a hand on my God. If they do... they’ll truly fall into hell.”
Of course, considering the global situation, touching Lee Shin now would already be an act of insanity. Who would dare harm a hero of humanity capable of creating equipment with extraordinary performance and even closing rifts?
“...What in the world?”
A rift had opened in Hong Kong.
Because the initial response had been inadequate, the rift’s intensity had rapidly increased. Hunters from across the world had assembled there to stabilize it. Even the most skilled hunters could lose their lives with a single mistake.
Everyone present was a veteran who had crossed the boundary between life and death countless times. They understood how important this operation was, so each of them had prepared thoroughly.
However...
“Did you take care of all this by yourself?”
“Who else would have done it?”
“T-that’s impossible. William, I know you’re Britain’s greatest hunter, but weren’t you a pure-blooded tank who even struggled to kill a single Gray Rhino? Someone who could endure for an entire day but couldn’t accomplish anything alone...”
The situation had ended far too quickly.
“That was true.”
William was an S-rank hunter from Britain.
When the Stonehenge Rift had gone berserk and unleashed a monster wave, he had held it back alone for four hours without any companions. The heroic hunter had earned the nickname “Iron Wall.”
Everyone acknowledged him as a peerless tank, but because he had virtually no offensive capability, he was considered inadequate at clearing rifts.
Yet that same William had annihilated every monster before the reinforcements could even arrive.
And he had done so flawlessly.
“Until I obtained this.”
William grinned and turned around.
A red cape like something a Hollywood superhero might wear hung from his shoulders. Strangely, its surface constantly rippled as though flames were flowing through it.
It looked as if the cape itself had been woven from fire.
“An item created by Korea’s ‘God’... After obtaining this, my sole weakness disappeared. Britain now possesses both an impenetrable shield and a spear capable of piercing anything.”
“At first, I berated them for spending so much money on a single piece of hunter equipment. But once I tried it myself, I understood. This is revolutionary. From now on, the hunter industry will be divided into the eras before and after the appearance of ‘God.’ This cannot even be compared to all the fuss people made over K-pop or the K-hunter craze led by Hunter Seong. It is no exaggeration to say that Korea’s era has truly arrived.”
A situation that had put everyone on edge had been resolved by a single person.
All because he had changed one piece of equipment.
William bared his teeth in a broad smile as he gazed at the hunter standing there dumbfounded—China’s S-rank hunter, “Yangtze.”
“Wasn’t there a weapon that suited you perfectly? A spear that called down lightning with every thrust... Ah, that’s right. India outbid you for it, didn’t they? You lost it because you were too stingy with your bid, then claimed you had deliberately chosen not to buy it because a great nation does not waste its money on the products of a small country. Was that what you said?”
“Why don’t you swallow your pride a little? Go back home and speak up in favor of it. I’m only telling you this because we’ve grown close after working together on so many joint operations, my friend. From now on, Korea will become the star of Asia. So bow your head and approach them humbly. Bow your head...”
William’s words made Yangtze’s insides boil.
Those damned Westerners did not understand the situation in Asia. That much was obvious whenever they drank together and asked why Japan, China, and Korea did not get along, claiming that the three nations would be stronger than Europe if they joined forces.
Even if aliens invaded Earth with space battleships, there was no chance in hell that Japan, China, and Korea would ever form an alliance.
William’s words had struck Yangtze exactly where it hurt, and he ultimately returned home without accomplishing anything noteworthy.
And then...
“Yangtze! How could a hunter from our great nation be outdone by a Briton? You should have distinguished yourself during this operation! It wasn’t even in Europe this time—it happened in Hong Kong!”
“Shut up.”
Yangtze had taken William’s words to heart.
“...A weapon.”
“What?”
“I need a weapon too.”
Yangtze ground his teeth furiously.
“How dare he sell his items to a Westerner but refuse to provide them to a great nation that is practically a brother country? Lee Shin, Li Shin, or whatever that bastard’s name is... Bring him to us immediately. Use whatever means necessary.”