The Life of a Wise Cult Leader - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Fire

Quiet morning sunlight gently streams through the stained glass windows of the chapel.

In the chapel where only soft candlelight and morning sunlight provide illumination, dusty air leisurely drifts through the space.

The chapel filled with hundreds of people was so quiet that not even breathing could be heard.

On the arched ceiling, mythological scenes depicting beings that were neither angels nor gods looking down upon people were painted so vividly they seemed to come alive.

An ornate marble altar decorated with gold in places caught the eye. Upon the altar lay an exquisitely crafted beautiful incense burner and red cloth.

People sat packed tightly on the pews, hands clasped together, eyes closed, sitting perfectly still.

Except for their shallow breathing as if they had become living mummies, there was not a single movement.

The settled silence was heavy.

At the very back of the quiet chapel, beyond the altar, stood a person with long white hair.

Dressed in clothes so luxurious they seemed to glow softly, they had such an androgynous face that it was difficult to distinguish whether they were male or female.

However, judging by their tall stature and build, one could only guess they were male.

He slowly began to walk. People watched him as if they had nearly stopped breathing.

With his long, well-formed hand, he grasped the golden bell placed on the altar.

His pristine white hand that had never known hardship shook the bell.

Ding.

At the sacred sound of the bell, people immediately prostrated themselves on the floor and began praying toward him.

The people couldn’t even make eye contact with him who stood merely a few steps above them, and could only barely look at his feet covered by his robes while trembling violently.

“Master… a blessing…”

“Please bestow mercy upon this humble one…”

As if they dared not raise their voices in his presence, the people whispered.

As if answering the people’s prayers, a beautiful voice was heard.

“You are not humble. God has molded your souls and bodies, so how can you call yourselves humble? Please nourish and cherish your bodies and souls.”

A voice that was neither female nor male, but androgynous.

If one were to mix the voices of a demon and a god, would it sound like this?

A mysterious power pierced their minds, allowing even those who couldn’t understand language, fools and idiots alike, to comprehend his meaning.

“Ohhh…!”

The humans bowed their heads so low their foreheads nearly struck the ground. And they shed tears.

The one standing closest to ‘God’ murmured.

“Truly, you are our god… Nun, please write down those words as well and hang them in the chapel.”

Unlike the attire of the one standing tall in the center, the clothes of those beside him were pitch black.

These shadow-like figures of the god moved swiftly.

The nun picked up a pen.

Golden ink that seemed made from melted gold soaked into the finely and intricately crafted pen tip. Hands wearing black lace gloves transcribed his words onto paper in golden letters.

The god smiled quietly and declared.

“Now please return home. The sun has risen.”

As his words ended, the people rose in unison within the silence and filed out of the chapel.

Soon, only he remained alone in the chapel.

In the quiet chapel where dust floated in the sunlight streaming through the windows, there was only the sacred figure standing with perfect posture.

He roughly swept his bangs upward. With that movement, his snow-white hair swayed gently.

He who had a smooth face that seemed to have never frowned, now frowned.

His lips parted and foreign words spilled out irritably.

“Damn it.”

*

I’m not a god! Aaaahhh!!!

I wanted to scream from frustration, but if I did, the guards waiting outside would surely come rushing in making a fuss, asking “What’s wrong, Master!”

Then I’d have to deal with that chaos.

In the first place, ‘Cult Leader’ Sernuan Lumiere definitely wouldn’t make such sounds, so it would be out of character, and the believers’ faith would surely plummet.

I sighed and raised my head.

What appeared in the center of my vision was the subtle pressure of a status window.

[Main Quest! Spread faith to people all over the world.]

[Penalty for failure: Death]

I had no choice but to become a cult leader.

If I didn’t want to die.

Yes… How I came to play this ridiculous cult leader role is quite an old story.

If only I hadn’t played that game.

No. If I had just lived my life properly from the beginning, I wouldn’t be doing this con artist work in another world…

“It really was a trash game…”

*

Having devoted my life to gaming, I was once again searching for a strategy to defeat the final boss today.

This game had diverse and good content, but there was just one problem.

For over 10 years, the final content – the final boss – still hadn’t been conquered.

From the old days when it continued as a mobile game until now, just before the VR game release, the final boss had never been defeated even once.

Beating an AI that analyzed and learned from my past plays was like being told to beat the final evolved AlphaGo.

There were users who tried macros, hacks, mods, etc. to beat the final boss, but nothing worked.

Since even hackers shook their heads, it seemed they had thoroughly blocked such methods in advance. Truly befitting the company that made this masterpiece game.

I pounded the keyboard as if I might get sucked into the monitor.

On the monitor, a creature with displayed above its head was unleashing magic in all directions.

This pattern appears here? That’s an unexpected pattern.

I rapidly pressed the keyboard keys.

What AI cannot learn is randomness.

Of course, this randomness could also be overcome through calculation, but it tends to panic when seeing new data.

This masterpiece game even reflects the AI’s panic when it can’t learn. This is why it’s called a masterpiece.

I switched equipment.

It was the Holy Sword obtained from the Hidden Ruins. A Holy Sword solely for delivering the finishing blow to the Demon King.

Since it was a type I had never used before, it would be the first time the Demon King was seeing it.

My character was also reaching its limit. I had used all my recovery items too.

I swung the Holy Sword for the last time. My character staggered after being hit by the Demon King’s attack.

However, while I barely survived with a sliver of health, a long wound remained on the Demon King’s chest.

[Kraaahhh…!!]

The final boss, the Demon King, screamed and fell to his knees.

“Huh?”

Did I actually beat this…?

I was about to scream with joy but stopped myself.

If I screamed, my ill-tempered landlord might kick me out immediately.

Clutching my pounding heart, I watched the cutscene.

The Demon King muttered.

Gray skin and pointed ears, spider web-like black hair.

Bright red pupils and pitch-black whites.

The camera slowly moved up, emphasizing the brilliant horns on his head and even his golden blood in close-up.

[What truly is evil, I wonder. We were merely called demons, merely branded as evil.]

I can’t believe I’m seeing a hidden ending that no one else has seen.

Ah, how much effort I put in just to see this one thing!

Spending money was essential, and effort was also required.

I’m the shut-in who took time off work to stay home playing games and ended up being taken away in an ambulance.

You’d have to go at least this far to say you’ve dedicated your life to gaming.

Yahoo. I should record this.

The monitor with top-tier specs displayed clear and crisp graphics.

[Who is the true savior? If he is a god… if that bastard is truly a god, then he should have saved even someone like me.]

The Demon King cries out in anguish and collapses. I can see the back of my silent character.

The character with ordinary black eyes and black hair will now gain great fame as the one who defeated the Demon King.

[O forgotten god… in the end, I am…]

“What? Forgotten god?”

This setting comes up here?

The existence of the forgotten god, which had barely been mentioned among back-alley vagrants, death row inmates on the verge of execution, and demon contractors, came from the Demon King’s mouth.

It was clearly a hint that defeating the Demon King wasn’t the final content and there was more to come.

After the Demon King comes a god? The content just keeps coming infinitely.

The screen vibrated.

The Demon King melted away like sticky tar.

[How tragic. How unjust. I cannot end it like this.]

The edges of the screen gradually darkened and began to crack.

[Again, starting over from the beginning…!]

Wait, he can’t end it like this? There’s a 5th phase? What does he mean by starting again?

If I’ve done 4 phases, a 5th phase would be brain-dead. Game companies should know when to draw the line.

[Make all of this forgotten. Let it return to nothingness. So that I may once again become your servant…]

Fire blazed in the brazier, showing the melting Demon King.

The Demon King’s fierce blue eyes seemed to be looking at me behind the screen.

With my poor vocabulary, all I could say was that the graphics were amazing.

【Fatal■ Error ■curred!】

“Here? This isn’t right…! Just how shittily did they optimize this…”

【■■ Intervention! Correcting error.】

Phew, it’s back.

[Please let me welcome the true god…]

The Demon King shed tears of blood with his eyes wide open.

I stared blankly at the monitor with my heart pounding.

Then,

Click.

The monitor turned to darkness.

Wow…. The direction is amazing.

So?

After waiting for a few seconds, I realized.

The computer had shut down.

The cooler that had been running at full speed was now quiet.

“Are you fucking kidding me?!”

I shouted.

I had maintained silence even when defeating the final boss, but this was something I absolutely couldn’t tolerate.

I built a top-spec computer.

The computer alone cost over five hundred thousand won.

With the keyboard, mouse, and various additional features, it came to just under ten million won. And that’s because I assembled it myself and shopped around for a good deal.

Anyway, my top-spec computer has no problems – it’s this damn game that’s the issue.

Does it make sense for lag that didn’t even occur during boss fights to cause a crash during a cutscene?

‘No… I can just turn it back on and watch. It won’t have that initial feeling, but I should still be able to see it, right?’

With that thought, I tried to console my devastated heart and pressed the power button on the computer.

BOOM!

My last memory was a great light bursting from the computer.

*

And I…

Opened my eyes on some altar.

As expected, I shouldn’t have dedicated my life to such a game.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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