The Jisan Village festival continued throughout the night.
Outsiders were able to sleep in several private houses that were completely open to them, and they could enjoy free alcohol and meat all night long.
In the end, quite a few of them did not leave and remained in the village.
“What’s going on?”
“Ah, they say they’re doing some big event on the last day. So… it looks like a gut ritual or something?”
“What’s that?”
“I don't know. But I’m going to film it and make a Short out of it.”
The outsiders murmured peacefully, staying up all night or falling asleep in random rooms while intoxicated.
And then, the sun rose on the final day.
“Oh.”
“Looks like it’s starting now.”
[The Blessing of Jisan is coming~]
Finally, the ritual began.
Dung, dung, dung.
To the sound of the janggu played by the pungmul-nori troupe, the villagers lined up on both sides as if making a path, creating a long space.
From the tile-roofed house.
To the Seonangdang.
And from the tile-roofed house in the center of the village, which was the beginning of the path, something finally walked out.
[O Proxy, grant us the scattered white blessing of Jisan.]
It was a massive human palanquin.
Four people, with rooster feathers pinned to their chests and their heads covered in white cotton cloth, were carrying someone.
“Oh.”
“Hey, hey, this looks legit.”
The outsiders chatted indifferently out of mere curiosity, but among them was a being hiding with eyes shining.
‘What a mess.’
Assistant Manager Eun Haje.
The one called that by Kim Soleum checked the movements of him, who was riding atop the human palanquin, and the villagers.
If things continued like this, it seemed the Project duties could be carried out smoothly.
Her sharp gaze turned toward the outskirts.
Right toward the site of the well on one side of the village, where abandoned houses were clustered.
‘Inside the well.’
That was the destination of the task.
The Agents of the Disaster Management Bureau had not yet identified the exact principle of why the villagers followed them less or why it was relatively safe near the well.
They had come to check when it wasn't festival season, but it was just a blocked well.
However, this ‘journalist’ knew the exact reason and knew what she had to investigate.
That the well was once a passage connected to somewhere else.
And so, during this strange festival period, the village itself becomes a High-Grade Darkness, and the role of the passage sometimes comes back to life.
So she had to investigate now.
But….
“…….”
The journalist glanced at Kim Soleum riding on the human palanquin and finally began to move quietly.
Not toward the well site among the abandoned houses, but in a different direction.
[O Proxy, grant us the scattered white blessing of Jisan.]
In the meantime, the palanquin procession continued.
When the pungmul-nori troupe cleared the way and the palanquin passed, the villagers bowed. And there were many who followed the palanquin passionately, stumbling along.
However, they kept a certain distance. It was as if being close was not permitted.
The problem was that there were also those present for whom that permission didn't matter.
“Wow! Look at this, they say this is the first time they’ve held this event in decades!”
Several outsiders followed closely, holding up their smartphones.
Those who were drunk and whose judgment was clouded did not maintain their distance, and even poked the head-covered villagers acting as the human palanquin.
To begin with, some of them had only visited a rural village festival for the free alcohol and food.
But the villagers did not stop them.
They just watched blankly with smiling faces.
“Ooh, this is pretty good for the countryside?”
“It’s professional spirit. Professional.”
The villagers did not get angry.
They only watched with desperate eyes to see if the palanquin would arrive safely.
“…….”
Eventually, the human palanquin arrived safely in front of the Seonangdang and came to a stop.
The people who had been acting as the palanquin carefully and respectfully set down the ‘winner’ they had been carrying on their shoulders, and two people approached the Seonangdang.
And then they cut the sacred rope of the Seonangdang.
Snap.
The sacred rope fell to the ground. The remaining two people untied the sacred rope that had been tied to the feet of the person they were carrying on the palanquin and hung it back on the Seonangdang.
And then the door of the Seonangdang was opened.
What was inside was….
“The door is opening! Wow! Look at that! Gold!”
A golden rooster.
That golden rooster statue, which was the ‘Special Prize,’ had been enshrined inside the Seonangdang.
But its size was enormous.
“Isn't it gold-plated?”
“Crazy.”
In the center of the Seonangdang, where an altar should originally have been, it stood atop a sudden circular wooden frame; it was literally as big as a human.
Greed beyond admiration reflected in the eyes of the outsiders.
In their eyes, they could barely see that the poles of the Seonangdang were originally stuck upside down behind the lump of gold.
Like sticks that had been put upside down into a drawing box.
[O Proxy, grant us the scattered white blessing of Jisan.]
The person riding on the palanquin finally moved.
When the person dressed in white stood in front of the Seonangdang, the villagers came forward one by one and covered the white clothes with paper.
The papers were covered densely with characters written in ink.
Hangeul and Hanja.
The names of the villagers.
And after bowing three more times, they tilted a bottle of liquor over him.
Sshhh.
As the poured Divine Mountain Liquor washed away the ink, the characters vanished.
It almost looked as if they were soaking into the person wearing the white clothes.
“Let us be liberated from the Truth of the World, O Blessing of Jisan, O Proxy.”
“Let us be liberated from the Truth of the World, O Blessing of Jisan, O Proxy.”
“Let us be liberated from the Truth of the World, O Blessing of Jisan, O Proxy.”
The villagers bowed, prayed, cried, and wailed as they spat out long-held, deep-seated fears, raising both hands or praying toward the air.
That desperation and tension could not be hidden even by the sound of the pungmul-nori troupe.
“Uh….”
“Hey. The atmosphere seems a bit strange.”
Most of the outsiders backed away hesitantly.
It was because they were starting to feel something bizarre….
And then.
“Shall we take a closer look at this gold statue? Oh, but there’s some fragrant… smell of alcohol……”
Thump.
It was the moment the person holding the smartphone stepped into the Seonangdang.
“Huh?”
[O Proxy, grant us the scattered white blessing of Jisan.]
The golden rooster melted.
Bubble, bubble.
With a shape that seemed to make such a sound, the rooster melted and spread along the grooves in the floor of the Seonangdang…….
Soon, it touched the foot of the person who dared to enter.
The golden liquid.
“…….”
The mouth of the outsider, who was blankly looking at their own foot, opened.
“I get it!”
Clang.
The smartphone fell to the floor.
“The world is ■■! We are nothing but a single ■■ written inside it!”
“Please don’t look, don’t look at me, don’t ■■ me.”
“I am valuable, I am interesting, no?? I don’t exist? What is this? What? Ireum-nim?”
Madness spread like a contagion.
“W-what is it.”
“What’s wrong with those people?”
The people on the outskirts were terrified by the situation and backed away or, on the contrary, craned their necks to watch.
But it was already too late.
“Aaargh!”
Eventually, the majority of the people fell into delusions.
Screaming and murmuring nonsensical monologues, or sitting with completely blank, hollow eyes.
A scene where madness and calmness coexisted.
But the villagers did not look back at them.
Because they had already seen too many ends of those who touched the Divine Mountain Liquor, learned the Truth of the World, and were seized by that terrifying realization.
Outsiders are just outsiders.
And they, the family of this Jisan Village, could avoid becoming like that.
Right at the end of this long Jisan holiday they had prepared!
[He is coming!]
Unlike these defiled people, only they, the chosen ones who had served the ritual with sincerity for decades and waited for the Blessing of Jisan, would face liberation!
“A new pole is being erected in the Seonangdang!”
The noisy sound of the kkwaenggwari drowned out the frenzy.
The winner calmly walked toward the Seonangdang as if nothing were wrong amidst this commotion of madness.
Holding the Special Prize, the gold rod, in his hand.
In that way, if their Proxy simply inserted that small rod into the melted golden liquid, it would melt into the Seonangdang and become the Blessing of Jisan.
The Sacrificial Lamb, no, the God, who would bring about liberation from that terrifying Truth of the World!
They would escape from this bizarre and atrocious world, avoid disaster, and be liberated!
But….
…….
“Everyone.”
The monotonous voice of a civil servant.
“The procedure for this is wrong.”
“……?!”
The winner looked at the gold rod he was holding and sighed.
“This is going to be a disaster. In your terms, I could say it seems like ‘it’s going to be defiled.’”
A deathly silence flowed.
Then, a wailing voice was heard.
“The Blessing of Jisan is telling lies to try and run away and leave us behind!”
“I wonder.”
Both hands in white clothes slowly spread out.
Toward the sky.
“I know.”
He spoke in their language.
“I, who have been cleansed by the Divine Mountain Liquor and received the realization of the Truth of the World, already know. I, the Blessing of Jisan, who will pull out the gold rod and re-erect it in the Seonangdang, already know.”
The truth.
“You have distorted the teachings. Either you only read a few pages of an anonymous scripture somewhere, or you overheard the teachings and misunderstood only a part of them.”
Confusion.
Groans and murmurs of those who did not understand.
“What did you think liberation from the Truth of the World was? Escaping from the situation of this cruel, painful, and irrational world, and living freely as chosen exceptions, avoiding disaster under the protection of the Blessing of Jisan?”
The villagers raised their heads.
An affirmation shown through action.
“I thought so. Then we will start from here.”
Kim Soleum spoke.
The certain knowledge he knew.
The most important doctrine of the Church of the Luminous Unknown.
Its first teaching.
“There is no freedom in this world.”
“This world belongs to Ireum-nim. It only has meaning if it receives the choice of Ireum-nim, and you must acknowledge this truth and cultivate yourselves and plant and nurture the Seed of Origin in the world to receive His choice.”
“Your free will has no meaning; only the will and choice of Ireum-nim have meaning.”
“The weak, who could not accept this truth, escaped from the world through death, but that is not an exit.”
He declared.
“There is no exit from Ireum-nim.”
…….
“This word is liberation.”
A deathly silence.
The winner, the bizarre being in white clothes, looked around at the villagers and asked.
“Do you hate to accept it?”
They hated it.
They hated it.
There’s no way!
“If so, pick another auspicious day and prepare a different form of holiday and ritual. Because the Blessing of Jisan you called in this way,”
He pointed to himself.
“Was me.”
The disappearance and death of outsiders. The end of the Living Sacrifice ritual where sacrifices were offered through a drawing.
From here and there, cries, groans, and wails of ‘No,’ ‘There’s no way,’ ‘It’s been defiled, we are defiled’ followed.
But they could not kill the winner before their eyes.
If he died in this village, he would become the new god.
Because that was the procedure.
In the end, they just had to let him go.
“Aaaaah!”
The pungmul-nori troupe faltered, and people collapsed everywhere.
The village festival ended in chaos, having lost its way.
And the winner who brought about this conclusion, Kim Soleum, who had succeeded as a matter of habit by using his specialty in information warfare and psychological warfare…….
‘As expected.’
He was just watching it with sunken eyes.
Without joy.
I knew it would be like this.
I looked around at the crazy sight.
This was indeed a ghost story under the Church of the Luminous Unknown. But it was not a place where their proper doctrine had been taught.
Probably intentionally.
‘They must have ‘experimented’ with this village, letting it have its own personality as a ghost story while performing the ritual clumsily.’
I needed Baek Saheon's help to grasp this process in detail.
Because I had to find out exactly how the ritual was performed and what doctrines they served.
And.
It was also possible because Baek Saheon could manipulate the villager who pulled the other gold rod, securing enough time in the early morning for me to hear and analyze all these things.
‘…Did he pick up another brainwashing Item in the meantime?’
By now, I had no motivation to retrieve it.
It was meaningless, and it would be like that anyway.
In any case, that’s how I was able to pinpoint their Error…….
Because all my knowledge of the Church of the Luminous Unknown was real, the villagers were more easily incited.
As for me, if it’s the Church of the Luminous Unknown, I can already guess what that damn Truth of the World is, so there was nothing to be influenced by anyway….
Since I’ve seen it all on the Wiki.
Anyway.
‘Jisan Village will just worry about what’s right, believe what they each want to believe, and fight each other.’
If such division occurs, their solidarity will weaken and a weakness will arise, so the Disaster Management Bureau will be able to take measures before next year’s holiday.
So before this commotion settles down, I should leave quietly too.
The festival is over.
The village rejected me being the winner.
So probably… it will be safe even if I leave the village.
“…….”
I tried to walk out of the Seonangdang.
Splash.
The golden liquid drew ripples at my footsteps.
This was that golden rooster.
Looking at the color, it seemed the circular wooden plate that looked like the base underneath had not melted with it.
It’s probably still here on this floor.
‘Did only the gold melt…….’
Thump.
“…….”
I stopped in my tracks.
Thump.
The ground was shaking. No,
Thump.
The floor.
The floor cracked, and the golden liquid poured downward.
“……!”
I threw myself out of the Seonangdang. I avoided the collapsing floor by a hair’s breadth.
And through the cracked circular wooden plate…….
A transparent liquid surged up.
Immortal Liquor.
……!
I realized.
‘The rooster gold statue was a weight stone.’
And the circular wooden plate wasn't its base, but…….
‘It was a lid.’
That gold statue was pressing down so that something buried under the Seonangdang would not float up.
A massive liquor jar.
And the real thing that had been sleeping, imprisoned inside it.
That thing had heard my ‘real’ doctrine and woken up.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch.
Along with the sound of countless legs dragging on the floor.
Aaaaaah!
A long body burst out from amidst the transparent liquid.
A wriggling thing with countless legs attached.
The giant centipede that was inside the liquor jar.
Aaaaaah!
But those countless legs were made of human arms.
Hands in prayer.
Joined palms.
Flat facial feature holes, as if imitating a human face, moved.
That appearance like an evil apostate monk from old folk tales.
……A characteristic I could recognize.
Jinejiseung.
A ghost story that passes down the traditions of the Church of the Luminous Unknown. It was recognized by a religious practitioner who was impressed by the Divine Power of stories dwelling in humble creatures, and it cultivates mutated believers in places all over the world.
But its body was already half-decayed.
The arms protruding out of the Seonangdang were worn out by the spirits and the liquid.
Its eyeballs had also melted.
In some rural villages, there is a folk tale that people misread this being’s teachings, caught it, imprisoned it in a liquor jar, and performed ancestral rites with that liquor.
That was it.
What passed down the doctrine here.
To appease that being, they had used the rooster, known as the centipede's favorite prey, as a symbol and placed it here and there.
Though it seemed to have been of no use.
Aaaaaah…….
Ireum-nim.
That thing is deeply engrossed in the doctrines of the Church of the Luminous Unknown, and conversation or communication is impossible.
It only gives doctrinal teachings and enlightenment.
Violently conveying the indescribable truth.
There is no liberation, there is no nirvana
This is the truth of the world. Eternal liberation approaches. When the end of the latter days arrives, offer pain, insanity, and madness, spit out sari, and live forever. That is the reality of the Way and the Law of unsurpassed value.
I have to respond.
I know.
But…….
‘Do I really have to?’
My arms dropped.
……I’m sick of it.
I don’t know how many times this has been.
How much longer do I have to do this?
My head says I just have to endure for one more month, I just have to get the Wish Ticket…….
The thought that it doesn't matter if I just listen to that centipede’s terrible preaching, and the thought that it doesn't matter if my body is crushed, weighs down my body.
I, perhaps…….
“Agent Grapes.”
A large hand grabbed my shoulder.
I turned my head.
Eyes shining in a firm expression.
Agent Bronze was there.
“I have come on time as promised. …And I said it, didn't I?”
When I come back….
“That I would find a way to rescue you.”
Strength entered the hand grabbing my shoulder.
“According to the rules.”
That was…….
“‘In the corresponding Supernatural Disaster, two Agents are mobilized for the rescue of the person requesting rescue.’”
Agent Choi’s executioner's sword pierced below the roof of the Seonangdang, and Goblin Fire flared fiercely.
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