Chapter 238: Ch 238: Request: Fall
Fear.
Terror.
Emotions once familiar to me were surfacing after hearing what the Happy
Ending Sect twins just said.
Even though I can’t feel them now, I know what they’re like. And because
of that, the shock of realization sinks through me, cooling me to the core...
’They’re afraid of Ireum-nim.’
So this is all to cater to the wiki authors’ whims?
The entire Happy Ending Sect?
[Oh dear, but merely pandering to the audience’s whims is the work of
amateurs! A true entertainer must have their own vision.]
Yet that only makes it feel more desperate.
The despair of forcing yourself to do something you don’t want to.
All the more so when that something is horrific.
Crushed under an uncertain, malevolent divine being, flailing just to escape
its malice.
’Whose fault... is this?’
If this whole world turned out like this because the wiki authors wrote it
that way, then the answer is no. But then again, ghost story creators just
wrote stories too.
Who on earth ever thinks the ghost story they wrote will actually exist?
How should I accept this? How should I act?
Splash, splash.
Even now, the sound doesn’t stop, those thuds of human bodies falling into
alcoholic liquid.
The Happy Ending Sect’s converts, contaminated by ghost stories, lining up
and diving into the liquor.
A mad spectacle.
"Come on, let’s brew some liquor!"
The girl playing the older twin’s part had already hidden her desperate air
and was calling out cheerfully again.
"What fun do you think we’ll have with this drink? Excited? Aren’t you?"
My breath caught in my throat...
"Nope."
...!
"Wow. A cult being a cult."
I turned my head.
Assistant Manager Eun Haje was there, wearing that dry, unimpressed look.
’Assistant Manager?’
"Deceiving the laypeople, wringing them dry to the bone, then going off
and talking a different line themselves. Textbook cult, aren’t you?"
She stepped forward once.
"And the way you hand off the basis of your choices to someone else."
...
"Roe. There’s always a reason behind a grave."
The reporter who’d once succeeded in revenge stared at the cultists who’d
just shown fear.
"Sure, you can feel pity thinking of them as victims brainwashed by a cult."
Assistant Manager Eun Haje pointed.
To this underground bunker, the place where dozens had already died,
where people were dying right now behind us.
"Don’t lose sight of the situation."
I realized it.
Assistant Manager Eun Haje doesn’t know the deeper implications of the
twins’ words, the details I’d pieced together.
She doesn’t know about the Happy Ending Sect’s relationship to Ireum-
nim, or about the wiki.
But because she isn’t lost in details, she can strike closer to the essence.
The core.
"They’re killing people right now just because they want to."
And I know there are people who, even under similar conditions, would
never choose this path.
...
My head felt a little clearer.
But still...
’Was there really a need to provoke them that openly...?’
I looked back at the twins.
Their smiling heads slowly turned toward Assistant Manager Eun Haje in
her grandma disguise.
Creak.
"You’re not really Grandma, are you?"
...
Shit.
"Knew it all along, huh? Then you’ll be the first to taste the liquor! Let’s
drink and know Ireum-nim, let’s see the Happy Ending."
"Still pushing that after getting exposed? Ah, Roe. No need."
I stepped between the twins and Assistant Manager Eun Haje, but she just
shook her head.
"We’ve stalled long enough."
Craaaaack.
The sound of something splitting.
And then.
BAM!
From the white body made of cheap plastic, not thick pottery, water spilled
out with an explosive noise.
The liquor-brewing jar was shattered open.
’...!’
Bodies and parasites inside tumbled out, spilling across the floor.
As more of the still-living threw themselves up into the air, I hastily caught
them with my mist, sweeping them roughly aside while checking that
Assistant Manager Eun Haje was unharmed.
She shot me a quick look, probably to make a run for it in the chaos, but...
"Wow. That went off nicely."
Ho Yoowon walked out.
An empty vial dangled from his hand.
’Explosion, D-grade.’
...A Daydream Inc. potion.
The company director smiled faintly.
"Even for the sake of entertainment, leaving suspicious people unattended
in such a critical place... such a pity, that kind of judgment. Isn’t this what
happens because of it?Seoyu-ssi, Seobin-ssi."
The twin officials stared blankly.
At the half-shattered brewing vat, at the ones stricken with Nine Fox
Disease.
"Ah, please don’t misunderstand. I wasn’t the one who did it, it was the
grandma over here. I just happened to pick up this empty vial, that’s all."
"Ha."
"Anyway... judging by your actions, you seem to feel fear toward the
unknown... Well then—"
Joy flashed in Ho Yoowon’s eyes as he looked at the twins.
The joy of someone who has figured something out.
"Your identity. You’re still human, aren’t you?"
The condition for the binding was set.
The plague drew near.
"Would you grant me just one promise?"
And the stunned twins...
Smiled brightly.
"Hey. How about we just turn this entire space into one big brewing vat?"
"That’s a good idea."
What?
"You go gather the converts. I’ll go teach the dragon and the fox about
Ireum-nim right here! Let’s brew them into the liquor too."
"Yeah."
[They’ve chosen a frontal assault. Oh, now we’re about to see a full-blown
pandemonium of blood and terror...]
[If any converts manage to escape, this could spawn quite an entertaining
ghost story! Liquor, a cult, and a fox plague, oh what a mix!]
Ho Yoowon was trying to bind the officials with a ban and turn them into
puppets to extract intel, while the Happy Ending Sect’s officials were
planning to throw us into the brewing liquor.
The problem was, I was caught right in the middle of this clash.
Ho Yoowon had naturally dragged me into his own mess.
"Then let’s start with the dragon!"
Lee Seoyu’s head flew off.
It traced a long red arc, rolling across the liquor-soaked floor, and strange
flickers of red cloth-like space shimmered faintly around it...
’Damn.’
And the sparks of this madness could fly anywhere.
Even toward Assistant Manager Eun Haje.
’No.’
Then.
...I lunged and snatched the rolling head first.
"Ohhh? Ohhhh?"
The head grinned wide, trying to swallow me whole.
I smothered it with smoke first.
And then I r...ead...
I endure.
’Don’t erase. Just weigh the opponent down until they can’t hold
themselves.’
Endure.
I hold on.
’I’ve done this to Ho Yoowon too.’
Endure.
’Withstand it.’
But... wait.
What was it to endure? Why was I supposed to endure, what does it feel
like to question that, what was a feeling andwhyamI?doingthis Ineedtogo
backtotheisolationroomand
"What is this, what, uh, familiar, uh, some kind of■■■■■■■■■."
The voice faded out, leaving behind something like a final, dying scream.
"Ireum-nim?"
...
I released my smoke.
The head rolled to the ground.
Lee Seoyu’s body, separated from the head, collapsed over there. My brain
felt like it was being pulped. My mind clumsy and numb, barely
functioning...
[Oh dear. Let’s shake our head a little, Mr. Roe Deer.]
Head...?
...
Bell chimes.
Chimes, ringing.
They piece me back together.
Jingle.
I sucked in a deep breath and snapped back to my senses.
’Thanks.’
[Think nothing of it, Friend!]
At my side, Ho Yoowon clapped his hands.
"Wow. That was fast!"
...
I ignored Ho Yoowon and looked at Assistant Manager Eun Haje.
"Let’s go."
Yes.
I know where the exit is.
We just need to move now.
"Immediately."
Already near the exit, Assistant Manager Eun Haje darted into action.
We slipped out behind the coffins.
Kicking aside the harsh liquor now flooding even into the central chamber,
pushing through to the far end.
Soon, footsteps matched mine. Ho Yoowon was falling in step beside me.
Predictable, of course, but still...
"He’s following."
The younger twin.
He was walking toward us, leaving his sister behind, blinking as if he
couldn’t quite process the scene.
Ripples spread across the surface of the liquid pooled in the chamber.
...
’We need to neutralize him.’
Can’t be helped.
Since I’ve already used it once, one more time won’t hurt.
’And then I’ll report this to the Disaster Management Bureau...’
They’ll be able to contain the converts too. And the bureau will get valuable
intel from this. Resolving so, I turned my body to face him.
Of course, he won’t go down easily either.
’I think he was tied to some serial-killer ghost story.’
...I thought I could hear ragged breathing from somewhere.
The younger twin was already nearly at the center of the chamber.
He was passing by the black corpse-processing boxes, one of the drowned
bodies drifting toward a box and bumping it.
Then.
Thunk.
One of the soaked boxes opened by itself.
There were numbers on the lid.
三
...
Wait a second.
[Oh? Something special happening, Mr. Roe Deer?]
"How far is he going... huh?"
The one playing the younger twin brother turned his head just as he stepped
in front of the box.
And vanished.
Like a lie.
"..."
Then.
三
二
From the pitch-black hollow inside the opened black box, two hands
emerged.
Palms up, pressing flat against the ground.
...
Ah.
Escape
I grabbed Assistant Manager Eun Haje and bolted for the exit.
"Roe?!"
I know what that box is.
That’s...
’Not something from the Happy Ending Sect.’
It’s far older than that.
A remnant from the early ghost stories that were once posted to the wiki
back when the Church of the Luminous Unknown was just beginning.
A ghost story that used to surge to the top with overwhelming upvotes.
The Quota Worship ghost story.
Ascetic in the Box
No good.
In the early days of the Church of the Luminous
Unknown, many sought to grasp the true meaning of this
world. Among them, a devout few selected the path of
long and arduous meditation and ascetic practice.
To suppress madness, they sealed themselves inside
temple bells, attempting to maintain clarity of mind
without the use of drugs or hallucinogens, relying solely
on the intense pain caused by the striking of the bell.
Several years passed in this state.
Of the many bells, only one contained a surviving
adherent, and that individual would finally declare that
they had come to understand certain aspects of the Will
of Ireum-nim.
The meaning is as follows.
I ran.
Toward the exit I found.
Ireum-nim desires suffering.
The brief comfort, tranquility, and joy granted to the
components of this world exist only as arrangements to
prepare for greater shock and fear.
Even this realization itself is madness and pain. Yet it
cannot be anything but the right answer.
Still, the pursuit of enlightenment does not cease. Those
who follow this realization sealed themselves within
various vessels, seeking their own understanding. And
soon, within pain, they understood.
Ireum-nim places little value on pain that can be counted
and charted in numbers. He values most the special and
unique suffering of each individual.
The more harrowing, slow, and detailed the suffering, the
better.
Thus, they too resolved to praise the Will of Ireum-nim by
exhibiting long and extended suffering.
That is...
Quota Worship Sect
This sect believes that, rather than narratives with
countless casualties, records detailing a few selected
characters enduring prolonged and extreme fear and
suffering can bring joy to Ireum-nim.
They worship the quota, the fixed number.
A story with a predetermined cast, the exact quota[1] needed to transform
agony into narrative.
A ghost story that inflicts relentless agony upon its characters.
Especially, that thing. No, that being...
Ascetic in the Box
An Authority of the Church of the Luminous Unknown,
featured in the Dark Exploration Records. It is a 6th-level
Authority under the Quota Worship Sect.
Following Quota Worship’s scripture, it severed its own
legs and, through endless meditation and ascetic torment
inside a sealed box, awakened its power, and became a
creature within the box that secretes digestive fluid.
Quota Worshippers are those who focus on the most
primal form of suffering.
Once it devours the number of victims designated on the
lid, the closed box never opens until its chosen prey are
dead.
Those who touch the fluid inside are bound to the Quota
Worship Sect and become ascetics.
The ascetics remain alive and aware while being slowly
and painfully dissolved. Quota Worship speaks their pain
into their minds, refining and recording it. The longer,
slower, and more detailed the suffering, the more
doctrinally correct it is.
An ascetic cannot die until fully dissolved.
The average digestion period is twenty-seven years.
When the display of suffering ends, the creature enters a
period of rest, feeding on large amounts of textile.
When that rest ends.
When a new victim enters, the ascetic ends their
meditation.
The ascetic will then extend their hands to gather the
required number and begin displaying their pain.
You cannot refuse these hands.
Do not approach them.
Your suffering shall begin.
"..."
We stopped in our tracks.
At some point, there was a box by the bunker’s exit.
Both hands were extended outward, posed in a gesture of offering by Quota
Worship.
二
The number was declared.
’...’
Request : Method of crossing without passing the exit
"If it’s an immediate escape tool for use in Darknesses, I know a few... but
I don’t have any now."
Damn it.
Then there’s only one option left.
Request : Fall
I spread my smoke.
...Thankfully, I didn’t feel overwhelming fear. Without the terror of losing
my rationality, I could act right away.
’I have to.’
Confuse the Quota Worship as much as possible, force the exit open—
Knock, knock.
...
"Anyone home?"
A sound from the exit door.
A voice... that’s oddly familiar.
And then.
"Oh, heree."
BOOM—
The exit door burst open from the outside.
Air rushed in, replacing the reek of alcohol with the surface’s breath, and
beyond the doorway a figure appeared.
"Ah. Mr. Employee, finally found youu!"
...Assistant Manager Lee Seonghae?
’How the hell did she find this place?’
"Good to see you! And, well, there are some folks here who were really
eager to meet you..."
Assistant Manager Lee Seonghae stepped to the side.
...and I realized who was standing behind her.
"Ack. Come see over heree, Mr. Agents!"
Disaster Management Bureau agents.
Black-Tortoise Team 1.