The intensity and desperation couldn’t even be drowned out by the pounding of the traditional band.
“Uh…”
“Hey. This feels kinda off.”
Most of the outsiders began to draw back awkwardly, finally sensing sothing was wrong…
And then.
“Should we get a closer look at that gold statue? But what’s this, there’s this fragrant… is that the sll of alcohol…?”
Tuk.
It was the mont soone holding up a smartphone stepped into the shrine.
“Huh?”
[OChosenOnedeliveruntoustheblessingofJisanofthecountlesspeaks]
The golden rooster began to lt.
Bubble, bubble—
As if making that very sound, the rooster lted, gold spreading through the groove in the floor of the shrine…
Soon, it touched the foot of the one who had dared to enter.
Golden liquid.
“……”
The outsider, staring blankly down at his foot, opened his mouth.
“I see it now!”
Thud.
The smartphone fell to the floor.
“Theworldis■■!Wearenothingbutone■■inscribedwithinit!”
“Pleasedontlookatdontlookatdont■■at!”
“IhavevalueIminterestingarentI??ImnothereWhatisthis?What?Ireum-nim?”
Madness began to spread like a contagion.
“W-What’s going on?”
“What’s wrong with those people?”
People on the edge of the crowd recoiled in shock, so even craning their necks to see better.
But it was already too late.
“Aaagh!”
In the end, most people fell into confusion.
So scread, others muttered senselessly, or just sat there staring blankly, their eyes emptied out.
A scene where madness and eerie calmness coexisted.
But the villagers paid them no mind.
They’d already seen far too many outsiders fall prey to the truth revealed by the sacred liquor, too many destroyed by that terrifying revelation.
To them, outsiders were nothing but outsiders.
And the families of Jisan Village… Only they could escape such a fate.
Because, at the end of this long Jisan festival, which they had prepared so devotedly for so many years.
[He cos!]
It would be only the chosen, who had devoted themselves to the rite for decades, waiting for Jisan’s fortune, who would be delivered.
“A new pole will be erected in the shrine!”
The clamor of gongs drowned out the frenzy.
The chosen one, the raffle winner, walked calmly toward the shrine in the midst of this storm of madness.
With the golden stick, the special prize, in hand.
If they simply planted that small stick in the golden liquid left behind by their predecessor, they would themselves beco the fortune of Jisan, dissolving into the shrine.
A sacrifice—or rather, a god—who would bring liberation from the terrifying truth of the world.
The villagers would escape from this monstrous, cruel world, dodging calamity and reaching deliverance!
But then…
……
“Everyone.”
It was a civil servant’s flat voice.
“This procedure is all wrong.”
“…?!”
The chosen one looked at the golden stick in his hand and let out a sigh.
“At this rate, you’re all dood. In your own words, you might say ‘misfortune will befall you’.”
A deathly silence fell.
Then, a wailing voice cried out.
“The fortune of Jisan is trying to deceive us and run away!”
“Dunno about that.”
The figure in white slowly raised both hands toward the sky.
“But I know the truth.”
Speaking in their language, he continued.
“I was cleansed with sacred liquor and awakened to the truth of the world. I, who drew the golden stick and will be enshrined as the fortune of Jisan, already know.”
The truth.
“You have twisted the teachings. Maybe you read a few pages of an unknown scripture sowhere, or stole bits and pieces of doctrine and misunderstood it.”
Confusion.
Moans and muttering from those who couldn’t understand.
“What did you think liberation from the truth of the world ant? Escaping from the cruel, painful, and unreasonable reality of this world, evading disaster under the protection of the fortune of Jisan, and living freely as the chosen exceptions?”
The villagers looked up.
Their actions betrayed agreent.
“I thought so. In that case, let’s begin here.”
Kim Soleum spoke.
The sure knowledge he possessed.
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 holds aning only when one is chosen by Ireum-nim, and one must recognize this truth and cultivate and sow the seeds of origin in the world, striving to be worthy of that choice.
“Your free will is aningless. Only the will and the selection of Ireum-nim hold significance.”
“Those too weak to accept this truth may seek escape through death, but that is no true salvation.”
Thus, he declared.
“There is no escape from Ireum-nim.”
……
“These words are liberation.”
Deathly silence.
The chosen one, the strange figure in white, looked around at the villagers and asked,
“Do you refuse to accept this?”
No.
No.
Impossible!
“In that case, choose another auspicious day and prepare another form of festival and ritual. Because the fortune of Jisan you summoned by these ans—”
He pointed to himself.
“—Was .”
The fate of outsiders’ disappearances and deaths, the sacrificial ritual disguised as a lottery.
Cries and moans of “No,” “Impossible,” “We are tainted, we are impure” broke out from all sides.
But they could not kill the chosen one before them.
If he died in this village, he would beco the new god.
That was the procedure.
In the end, they simply had to let him go.
“Aaagh!”
The traditional band staggered, people collapsed everywhere.
The village festival ended in chaos and ruin.
And Kim Soleum, the chosen one who brought about this ending, who succeeded as always with his specialty of informational and psychological warfare……
‘As expected.’
…Just watched with heavy eyes.
Bereft of joy.
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