WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability

Chapter 91

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Cult (3)

[0:01]

Right before I warped, I activated Stealth.

The scenery changed. I was in the mountains.

I canceled Stealth and moved while checking my location on my phone. It looked like I was slightly off.

I instantly jumped to higher ground and scanned the direction the marker pointed.

...Was that it?

Something stood out right away.

A clearing deep in the mountains, connected to an unpaved road.

And in the middle of that clearing stood a church-like building.

Cars were parked around it, and people were moving around too...

That seemed to be Cheonin Church's base.

I went down the mountain trail and approached the building.

There were guard-looking people standing at the entrance.

From what I saw, believers had to sign a register and hand over their phones before they were allowed inside.

I watched for a bit, then went in too, still in Stealth.

Was Ji-woo noona really here too?

Time to find out.

Inside was a large chapel-like space.

Every believer who entered had gathered in one place.

There was a platform at the front, and no chairs at all, so everyone was standing.

What shocked me was that there were far more people than I had expected.

All these people believed in this garbage cult...?

What a miserable sight.

I moved through the crowd, checking faces.

Judging by the atmosphere alone, everyone was chatting and laughing like this was just a normal church.

Oh.

Before long,

I found the face I was looking for.

A woman smiling and talking to the person beside her.

...It was Ji-woo noona.

I had wondered if maybe she was being threatened by these cult bastards or forced into something.

But she looked perfectly fine, so that didn't seem to be the case.

Hmm... no. Maybe that wasn't good news.

It meant Ji-woo noona had really fallen deep into the cult and cut off contact with everyone around her.

Well, at least I confirmed she wasn't in immediate danger...

For now, I dropped Stealth in a spot where no one's eyes would land on me.

There were so many people, and everyone was dressed normally, so one extra person didn't stand out.

How should I do this?

Now the issue was how to deal with this cult.

It wouldn't be hard to expose them as scam-cult trash.

And if I did that, maybe Ji-woo noona would come to her senses too.

Creeeak, thud.

While I was thinking, the chapel doors closed.

The guards who shut them stood on both sides of the entrance as if guarding it.

The hall went quiet.

At the front, someone was stepping onto the platform.

A middle-aged man in a flashy cape dragging across the floor.

So that was him.

Anyone could tell at a glance.

The cult leader took the mic.

"Welcome. Thank you all for coming such a long way."

His amplified voice rang through the hall.

"I'm sure many prospective believers here are seeing me for the first time. I am Shin Du-rang, the religious leader and proxy of Person123-nim."

Clap clap clap clap clap...

People started applauding.

I clapped along and looked toward where Ji-woo noona was standing.

Noona was staring at the platform with bewitched eyes...

Seeing someone I knew like that made my chest feel heavy. How did she end up like this?

"Before we begin the Chancheonje, we will first offer our prayers to Person123-nim."

The leader suddenly dropped to his knees and clasped both hands in prayer.

"Our savior. The light of this world on the verge of collapse, our hope, our guide. Your servants have gathered here today..."

Everyone else knelt and started praying too.

I had no choice but to follow for now...

I don't know how to describe it, but a crushing wave of reality hit me.

What the hell were these people even doing?

The leader stood and launched into a long speech.

"...Recently, He gave me another revelation. As my proxy, you must strive so that even more people may be saved. We still have a long road ahead.

Ah, I was deeply moved! I was in awe! Though the end is fixed, He is delaying the deadline of destruction as much as possible to save even one more person. The role given to this old body is only to follow His will..."

People listened intently to the leader's bullshit. Some even sniffled.

Besides the leader, there were several others on the platform in ridiculous outfits.

Those guys...

And more importantly.

The leader and a few of them seemed like Climbers.

Just as Sixth Sense let me roughly gauge an opponent's strength, there was also a subtle difference between ordinary people and Climbers.

The leader and two of the high priests were definitely Climbers.

Not high-level ones, though. At most not even level 10.

"Haaap!"

The leader put on another bizarre show mid-speech.

He shouted, raised his hand high, and froze like that for a while...

Flash!

A light flared above his head.

People gasped in awe.

I was dumbfounded.

What bullshit.

That was just a magic-type skill.

A ridiculous farce, and people were going wild for it.

Then it happened.

"W-why? Let go of me!"

Suddenly there was a commotion on one side. Everyone turned to look.

Guards were restraining a man.

When they searched him as he struggled, a small camera popped out.

Who was that guy?

Looks like he'd been secretly filming and got caught.

The leader frowned slightly and said,

"So there was an unbeliever hiding among us, trying to interfere with our ritual. Remove him."

One of the high priests on stage, one of the Climbers, dragged the man away with the guards.

"Get a grip, all of you! Proxy of Person123, are you seriously believing this bullshit?! You cult bastards...!"

The man screamed and thrashed, but nobody seemed shaken.

The believers quickly focused back on the leader.

Hmm...

I watched the man being dragged out, then went back into Stealth.

"Huh?"

"What is it?"

"No, just now, I thought I saw someone... maybe I was mistaken?"

I followed them while staying hidden.

* * *

Lee Tae-seong was a prosecutor.

He learned about Cheonin Church by chance.

While investigating corruption at a small-to-midsize company, he noticed suspicious money flow.

It wasn't directly tied to the case, but it bothered him, so he dug deeper, and this cult surfaced.

"Wrap up what you're doing and close it there."

"Excuse me? What do you mean? Looking at this, it's obviously..."

"I said do only what you're supposed to do, Tae-seong. Stop poking around where you don't need to."

The chief prosecutor quietly urged him not to dig into that side and tried to hush it up.

There was no way Lee Tae-seong could miss that pressure was coming from above.

He ignored it and kept investigating.

The more he dug, the less he could tell how far Cheonin Church's connections reached.

"Didn't I tell you to stop digging into this?"

"Isn't this enough evidence? We should request a warrant right now and launch a proper investigation..."

"You bastard, this isn't something you and I can handle! You want me stripped of my position?!"

No matter how much he tried to pull at threads and investigate, he kept getting blocked.

Still, Lee Tae-seong didn't give up.

Frustrated, he came directly to Cheonin Church to secure firmer evidence.

After waiting for months while posing as a prospective believer, he entered the Chancheonje, where all of the group's core figures appeared...

"Let go, let go of me!"

And he got caught like a dog.

Dragged into a dark storage-room-like place, Lee Tae-seong was forced to kneel with both arms restrained by guards.

They found not only the camera, but also his hidden phone.

A high priest grabbed Lee Tae-seong's wrist and forced it onto the phone's fingerprint sensor.

He tried to resist, but the grip was inhumanly strong, and he couldn't move at all.

The high priest unlocked the screen, checked the phone, then spoke.

"So you're a prosecutor. Prosecutor Lee Tae-seong of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office."

Lee Tae-seong didn't back down.

"...You bastard, you're a Climber, right?"

When he dug into Cheonin Church, he had found shocking signs that even the Climber Association was involved.

Seeing the leader and these Climbers here seemed to confirm it.

"What were you planning by sneaking in here like a little rat? What a pain."

Thinking he might die, Lee Tae-seong spoke in a rush.

"I-if you kill me, you won't get away with it either. I told my colleagues I was coming here."

The high priest burst out laughing.

"You think we'd kill you? Of course we'll send you back in one piece."

He crouched and brought his eyes level with Lee Tae-seong's.

"Still, I'll give you a warning, your first and last one, Prosecutor."

"..."

"This isn't a board you can handle, so keep your head down and live your life. If you try this nonsense again, who knows what might happen. To you, and to your family too."

Lee Tae-seong's eyes wavered at the threat.

The high priest curled one corner of his mouth upward.

"You can't even imagine how many powerful people are tied up in this. Getting rid of one prosecutor is nothing. Keep digging if you're that curious."

Then a voice cut in.

"Which powerful people?"

The high priest and guards snapped their heads around in shock.

At some point, someone had appeared behind them.

A man in a hood and mask.

* * *

I followed the man they dragged away.

He was being threatened in a storage-room-like space right next to the chapel.

He seemed to be a prosecutor.

I listened quietly, then dropped Stealth and revealed myself.

Everyone jumped and stared at me.

The high priest asked,

"...What are you?"

I didn't answer.

The flustered guards charged first.

I lightly smacked them down.

As soon as all the guards dropped, the high priest lunged at me too.

Looked like he used Leap.

Bang!

I grabbed his forehead and flung him into the wall. Gently, just enough not to kill him.

"Kugh...!"

I turned to the prosecutor.

He was staring at me with wide, round eyes.

"Are you a prosecutor?"

"...Y-yes, I am."

"I'm on your side too, so don't worry."

The prosecutor nodded blankly.

I looked back at the high priest, sprawled on the ground in pain.

From what this bastard said, this wasn't just a simple group. Something bigger was tied in...

That was enough.

Nothing else to see.

I'd clean this up and hear it directly from the leader, how deep those connections went.

I pulled a mask out of Subspace.

After the Wang Kai incident, I'd kept it in Subspace just in case, a mask with a built-in voice-changing mic.

I took off the hood and cap and pulled the mask fully over my head.

"Follow me."

Then I left the storage room and went back into the chapel.

Bang!

The moment I opened the door and walked in, every eye turned to me.

I walked toward the platform where the leader stood.

Dropping every guard who tried to stop me with light taps, one after another.

"W-what is this? Stop him!"

The leader pointed at me.

The other Climber high priest rushed me too.

I grabbed him and threw him the same way.

All the guards were down, and with no one left to stop me, the leader looked badly flustered.

I stepped closer to him.

"Y-you... who are you? Why are you doing this?"

He stumbled backward.

"D-do you even know who I am? I am Person123-nim's proxy! Believers, what are you all doing! Hurry and stop this...!"

I raised my hand and fired Destruction Beam upward.

A huge hole opened in the chapel ceiling.

Rustle...

The noisy atmosphere from moments ago dropped into dead silence, as if it had all been a lie.

Even the leader who'd been shouting at me stared as if he'd seen a ghost.

I heard someone mutter.

"P... Person123-nim?"

One person suddenly dropped to their knees and started bowing flat.

Then everyone hurried to bow their heads too.

I let out a small scoff and looked back at the leader.

"H-hiiik...!"

The leader went pale and collapsed onto his butt.

Looking down at his soulless face, I said,

"I never made a bastard like you my proxy."

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