WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 86: Heretic Extermination Request (3)

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When I synchronized my vision with the doggies, I saw a small building.

The sign above the entrance read Zion Church.

The problem was that more than one or two doggies had tracked the cult leader's scent.

"Three of them?"

"My lord?"

I synchronized my vision with every doggy that reported in.

Grain of Wheat Church.

Grace Church.

Love Church.

They were all common church names.

Love, Zion, Grain of Wheat... Churches used symbolic names from the Bible, so they all sounded pretty much alike.

It was almost more suspicious that none of them was called Eden Church.

The question was whether I should tell them.

According to their agreement, thirty percent of the reward would be mine.

There was one thing I needed to check first.

"Excuse me. I have a question."

"What is it?"

"Gari Bodhisattva?"

When I raised my hand to speak, the three bosses glared at me.

"Speak when it's your turn. No one gave you the right to speak."

"Isn't that the guy we saw earlier with no Knot?"

"He doesn't even have a Knot? What a loser."

Why were these people so hung up on scraps of cord?

"It's important. You plan to capture the cult leader alive, but what about the believers under him?"

"Believers? You mean the cult leader's lackeys?"

"There are ordinary believers too. What about them?"

From what I'd heard earlier, they seemed ready to kill everyone except the cult leader.

"Do we really need to worry about the lives of those fanatic bugs?"

"..."

Okay. I got the general idea.

They would keep the cult leader alive because he was worth money, while they were perfectly willing to kill every believer who wasn't.

In a battle, it might be impossible to worry about who lived or died, but if they were going to pick and choose like that, we weren't compatible.

The executives might be another matter, but the believers would be ordinary people.

If I worked with these people, wouldn't I just be joining a massacre?

At least if they planned to kill everyone for their own safety, it would've been consistent.

"I understand."

We weren't a good fit.

I'd come here hoping to score some easy money, but it didn't look like I'd have any fun either. I figured I was better off alone and left the meeting.

No one tried to stop me.

It didn't seem like anyone cared.

"Gari Bodhisattva!"

As I left the gathering, Gagaram called out to me.

No, more accurately, he came with me.

"What's up?"

"What do you mean? I'm coming with you."

"Didn't Eom Honggeun hire you?"

Gagaram shrugged.

"It wasn't a formal employment arrangement. I came because he said we should team up for one job."

Even so, it would be much safer to stay with the group. Why was Gagaram following me?

Maybe he noticed the look on my face, because he grinned.

"I figure my odds of survival are better with Gari Bodhisattva than with idiots trying to capture a Black Knot sorcerer alive. Gari Bodhisattva, you're much stronger than those gang bosses, aren't you?"

It seemed Gagaram had figured me out.

He'd seen me during the urban legend hunt and the succubus extermination, so it wasn't hard to guess.

"So how about you hire me, Gari Bodhisattva? I'll earn my keep."

I remembered how skillfully Gagaram had set things up at Itaewon Club.

He was good at thinking on his feet. He'd definitely be useful to have around.

"Fine. What split do you want?"

"Nine to one."

"Isn't that a little lopsided?"

"It's still a lot more than I'd get if I stayed with them."

Even so, judging by the numbers, sticking with me seemed much more dangerous.

"More than anything, I don't like killing everyone either."

Good. Since we saw eye to eye, there was no reason not to work together.

* * *

The next morning, we met again at a cafe.

"You've already found suspicious locations?"

"I tracked Kim Gicheol's scent, and the familiars found several churches."

"Hmm... Kim Gicheol's traces at multiple churches."

"Feels like they're divided into cells, right?"

"Yeah. Selling themselves under the Eden name would draw too much attention."

They had probably bought existing church plants or founded new ones.

"It looks like there are locations not only in Pocheon, but in Uijeongbu and Yangju too. They seem to have branches in every nearby city."

"There must be a separate headquarters. Did you know Eden Salvation Church originally had a base deep in the mountains?"

"It was called Heavenly Palace, I think."

Eden Salvation Church's downfall had begun when a documentary exposed all the depraved things going on there.

Wasn't that when the human sacrifices came to light too?

"We'll need to infiltrate them if we want to find the headquarters."

"Infiltrate them... You mean enter as believers?"

That was right.

Eden Salvation Church was a group of wanted fugitives. They would only bring people they'd vetted into their headquarters.

That didn't mean they would stop evangelizing.

After all, the goal of heretical cults was to collect money, and that required getting as many believers as possible.

"But how? Walking into one of their churches out of nowhere isn't a good approach. News that bounty hunters are all over the area must have already spread."

Fair enough. If menacing people like that were wandering around, I'd be on guard too.

"We need to try NME."

"NME?"

"Natural-meeting evangelism."

Gagaram looked like he was thinking nobody abbreviated it that way.

* * *

Evangelism was a serious matter for every religious person.

Christians in particular had a sense of duty to save others through evangelism.

Of course, it was also true that people went too far and became a nuisance.

I'd gone to church all my life, but I hated the people on the street shouting, "Jesus, Heaven! Unbelief, Hell!"

Still, as someone born and raised in the church, I had no choice but to have some experience with evangelism itself.

I had hated it when I was young, but I'd been one of those people standing near a station with flyers, handing them out and telling people to believe in Jesus.

My parents had wanted to keep me tied to church no matter what.

Whenever Sunday service ended, or on Saturdays, they'd take me near the station and make me hand out church flyers.

It wasn't entirely unpleasant. Church people would say what a good child I was and buy me things. Still, that meant I knew a little about evangelism.

「Did you see that Harvester get kicked out this time?」

「You mean Park XX? Apparently they disguised themself as an ordinary church member and tried to poach believers.」

「Good thing Pastor Kim found out.」

In a megachurch like ours, heretical cults often infiltrated while pretending to be ordinary Christians.

One way they naturally slipped into our church was through flyers and NME.

「I got a flyer at COEX. This church is really big.」

Man, I'd been so shocked when the middle-aged woman I thought I'd evangelized turned out to be ShinXji.

This time, I planned to use the NME method they had used.

"Believe in Jesus~ Come to church~"

I was at Deokjeong Station in Yangju, a twenty-minute drive from Pocheon. One of the churches I had marked as a target was conducting evangelism here.

Grain of Wheat Church.

I'd already gotten a rough sense of the church's atmosphere through Squeaky, the mouse familiar I had slipped inside.

People came and went despite it being a weekday.

Churches did have weekday services on Wednesdays and Fridays, but unless they were doing particularly well, few held services during the week.

The reason was simple.

Pastors needed to earn money on weekdays.

At most church plants, it wasn't unusual for the pastor to make less than minimum wage.

So many prepared only for weekend services, when people gathered, and worked a second job during the week.

The hardships of being self-employed, I guessed.

There were occasional superstar pastors like Pastor Kim, whose earning potential had blown through the roof, but most couldn't even make minimum wage.

Yet this place held weekday services.

A church plant renting space on the third floor of a commercial building.

Suspicious. Very suspicious.

Now, I just had to approach naturally.

In case there was someone whose spiritual sight was open, I had Gari and Eight-Foot Sister watch from far away.

Gagaram and Kohaku were infiltrating separately.

If those two church-clueless people succeeded while I, who had been raised in church, failed, it would be humiliating.

I was going to nail this NME.

"Believe in Jesus~"

Most people had no interest in evangelism.

Many didn't even take flyers, and even if they did, they usually glanced at them before tossing them in the trash.

That was why they said evangelism counted as a success if even one person out of a thousand showed interest.

I planned to be that one person.

"Grain of Wheat Church? Is it a church around here?"

"Oh, are you interested?"

A young woman with a kind-looking face came over eagerly when I responded.

Oh, she was pretty.

Not on Eight-Foot Sister or Kohaku's level, but still.

"Do you go to church?"

"Yeah... Well, I used to."

Surprisingly, cults often targeted other Christians with their evangelism.

They were already familiar with the Bible and Christian terminology, and they were more likely to join if invited to a Bible study group or faith seminar.

People with no interest in the first place weren't easy to draw in.

「They all say the same thing. They claim they have a meeting where you can learn about 'the true truth.' Then they use plausible interpretations of Bible verses to lure you in. Good children must never follow heretical cults just because they try to lure you.」

Pastor Kim had been especially firm when warning me.

「Yohan, especially you. Um, Yohan... you look easy to lure in. What did Pastor teach you?」

「I'll only go to Gangnam Holy Temple Church!」

「That's right. Don't even think about leaving Seoul if you can help it. If you have to, there is Jehovah's Tabernacle Church in the east and Samson Church in the south... If you go to the provinces, ask Pastor Park, 'Which church is good?' Got it?」

Pastor Kim must have thought it would be a disaster if I got swept up in a heretical cult.

Hmm... It really would've been.

"We have a Bible study group. If you're interested... how about it? Would you like to study the Bible with me?"

The woman subtly pressed herself closer. The glimpse of cleavage she showed me was practically blatant.

Hmm, I should play along here.

A spirited young man in his twenties, drawn into a cult church by a pretty face.

"S-Sure?"

Good. That was natural.

It's not that I fell for a pretty face.

This was all acting. Acting.

* * *

The moment I said I would join the Bible study, they invited me straight to the gathering.

"Hehe, Jinwoo. This way."

I used an alias. They didn't seem especially suspicious.

My acting was perfect, after all.

Grain of Wheat Church occupied the third floor of a commercial building. As I climbed the stairs, I made eye contact with Gari, who was watching from afar.

Stand by.

Clack, clack.

If things went wrong, I could escape with space leap. It didn't seem likely that someone like me, who could use a demon's authority, would easily end up in danger.

When I entered the Grain of Wheat Church Bible study, the believers waiting inside welcomed me.

"Sister Sunyoung, you brought a new brother?"

"Oh my, they look so good together. What a handsome young man and a pretty young woman."

"Oh, Deaconess, don't say that~"

Hmm, what was with this blatant matchmaking?

If I had come in without knowing it was a cult, I might have awkwardly rubbed the bridge of my nose.

But I knew.

They were one of the heretical cults' cells.

Pastor Kim had stressed it again and again. Never trust a group that used young women, especially pretty believers, to evangelize.

Men ruined themselves over what was between their legs.

"You came for Bible study, right? Before we start, have something to eat."

"I bought rice cakes. Do you like rice cakes?"

"Ah, yes..."

Other than the blatant matchmaking during our first meeting, the believers acted like ordinary church people.

I was born with spiritual scent.

I was especially sensitive to the smell of demons, evil spirits, and other evil beings.

That scent definitely existed in this place.

But it was less a scent coming from the believers than lingering traces left behind by something evil.

In other words, the believers in front of me were good, ordinary people...

No, I shouldn't jump to conclusions.

Not every cult believer was evil.

Many of them had been deceived or brainwashed.

Keeping my distance from Eom Honggeun and the other bounty hunters had been the right choice.

Those people would've killed people like this too, wouldn't they?

As a Christian, it was never a choice I could make.

Then was the evil trace lingering in this church from a high-ranking member?

"Where is the pastor here?"

"The pastor? The pastor comes for Sunday service tomorrow."

"Since you're here, would you like to come to Sunday service tomorrow too?"

"Sure... If nothing comes up."

The believers giggled when I said I would come to church.

Leaving aside the fact that they were cultists, their expressions were so normal that it made me uneasy.

Either way, I needed to see what kind of person this pastor was at tomorrow's Sunday service...

"...!"

Damn.

Something was coming.

The stench was overwhelming.

It was so foul that even from far away, it made the tip of my nose tingle.

It grew closer.

Straight toward us, toward Grain of Wheat Church.

"Today's passage for study is Matthew, chapter 21..."

The believers continued the Bible study as if they couldn't sense it.

But my attention wasn't on the study. It was focused entirely on the approaching stench.

It was coming.

Coming this way.

Closer and closer, until now...

Beep! Beep beep! Beep beep beep!

It had reached the door.

"Who could that be? Nobody said anyone was coming at this hour."

A deaconess stood up, and everyone's eyes turned toward the front door.

The door soon opened, and the first thing through it was...

【Creak! Crunch! Craaack!】

Not a person.

One grotesquely twisted evil spirit.

Behind it came another hideously warped evil spirit, followed by one with a bizarre form, as though it had been forcibly fused together.

"Pastor!"

The owner of that stench wasn't the evil spirits.

Their master entered behind them. The believers sprang to their feet with excited expressions and welcomed the kind-looking middle-aged man.

"Is the study group going well? Hahaha."

Kim Gicheol, leader of Eden Salvation Church.

He had entered with dozens of evil spirits.

And then.

【Can you see?】

The evil spirits all turned their eyes toward me.

Footnotes:

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