Chapter 357: Capitalistic Fanaticism

Leo, from the slums of New York, USA.

Although 'Swordsman' was proudly stamped on his Awakened Registration Card, the reality was that he was stuck at the bottom as a perennial F-rank.

Whenever he turned on the TV, scenes of Hunters from the USA's 1st rank Dragon Guild enjoying parties while popping champagne in flashy penthouses poured out every day.

The people of the world thought that simply awakening would put you on a cushion of money and make you a hero.

However, that was a 10% paradise allowed only to a tiny minority of top-tier rankers.

The reality for the bottom 90% of Awakened was the gutter itself.

The day of his first awakening, having luckily fulfilled the awakening conditions.

Leo chose Swordsman with swollen dreams.

However, the first skill given to him was entirely just a trash-like passive that increased swordsmanship damage very slightly.

A swordsman entirely lacking proper swordsmanship skills.

That was Leo's limit.

To survive, he entered F-rank gates to hunt slimes or goblins.

However, even if he sold the by-products obtained by risking his life, ruthless special taxes on gate by-products were deducted ignorantly, and after splitting it N ways with his party members, all that remained in his hands was barely enough money to buy a cheap hamburger meal.

Literally a desperate, rock-bottom life of living hand-to-mouth.

Forcing himself into an E-rank gate, one level higher, to make money?

For an F-rank with neither skills nor equipment, it was no different from a suicidal act of going in to become a monster's meal.

To escape this hellish cycle, he needed a lump sum of money to somehow buy a decent active skill book.

Therefore, Leo had knocked on the bank's door holding onto hope.

However, what returned was only thorough contempt.

“Hmm. Customer Leo. I have checked your Awakened Registration Card, but…… your first skill rank is F-rank? Furthermore, it's a passive, not even an active…….”

The bank teller, tapping on the monitor, glanced at Leo over his glasses.

It was a thoroughly calculating and cold gaze, as if looking at a cockroach.

Even for the same F-rank skill, an active one was better.

Because that at least greatly increased the damage of a single hit.

However, Leo's skill was merely a lowest-tier swordsmanship mastery skill that only compensated his swordsmanship damage by a little over 5%.

Just because an ordinary person's damage increases a little when swinging a sword doesn't mean their hunting efficiency becomes exceptionally good, so……

The bank teller, revealing a gaze typical of looking at an unprofitable customer, spoke coldly.

“I apologize, but with your conditions, it is difficult to approve a loan exclusive to Awakened.”

“But I'm an Awakened in name! Is even a little bit impossible? If I can just buy one active skill book, I can quickly rise up too!”

Despite Leo's desperate plea, the bank teller let out a hollow laugh.

“Customer, a bank is a place that lends money looking at future value. An F-rank close-combat Hunter without a single active skill? Honestly, from our perspective, there is no difference between you and an ordinary person. Since you roll around in gates every day, you're a high-risk group whose mortality rate alone is much more dangerous than an ordinary person's.”

“…….”

“If you are in an urgent hurry, we can accommodate you with a general micro-loan up to a limit of 2,000 dollars (about 2.5 million won). Instead, a mortality risk collateral is attached, so an annual interest rate of 39.9% will be applied. Shall we proceed?”

A suffocatingly high interest rate with a rat-poop-sized limit.

With 2,000 dollars, he couldn't even buy the front cover of the cheapest skill book.

The dream of an Awakened?

Hope?

A glamorous life?

There was no such thing.

This world was a cruel pyramid where only the top 10% were happy, running on thorough capitalism and talent.

Leo, who was barely scraping by day by day like that.

Then, the Shadow Cult's ark incident that covered Manhattan broke out.

Right before his eyes, the scythe-like front leg of a spider demonic beast the size of a building lunged toward Leo like a thunderbolt.

There was nowhere to dodge.

In the first place, it was an overwhelming speed that didn't even allow the thought of dodging.

To Leo's kinetic vision, which was merely F-rank, the front leg cutting through the empty air merely looked like a black afterimage making a metallic sound.

As someone who had wandered F-rank gates all his life, seeing only goblins, slimes, and the like, a monster this fast and vicious was a first in his life.

‘Something like that…… is a monster only the Awakened I used to see on TV would be able to match…….’

Why did it have to appear before my eyes of all things.

The gutter-like everyday life of being ignored while earning pennies, treated like a bug by the bank teller, and filling his hungry stomach with cheap hamburgers flashed before his eyes like a kaleidoscope.

He struggled to somehow rise up, but in the end, he was dying a dog's death like this without having achieved anything.

‘Hah…… my damn life, it ends up like this in the end.’

A terrible regret and resignation heavily crushed his entire body.

Leo couldn't even think of running away, let alone pulling out the rusty iron sword at his waist.

He merely stared blankly up with empty eyes at the massive scythe of death pouring down to cut him in two.

That moment of despair.

Ureureureureung―!

The massive divine dragon that descended tearing through the sky, and the overwhelming power fired by the Korean Necromancer riding on it, burned the Manhattan night sky.

That single hand gesture reduced tens of thousands of demonic beasts to ashes and saved Leo's life.

After that day, Leo's world was completely turned upside down.

‘Death Cult.’

A religion that reveres a living human as a god.

When he saw the news on an internet community in the past that the bizarre cult was spreading madly in East Asian regions including Korea, Leo had snorted.

‘No matter if he's a world ranker, to call a living fellow human a god and pray? Stupid fools. They've gone collectively crazy over a cult.’

As someone born and raised in the USA, the heart of capitalism, he merely thought of it as a barbaric collective madness he couldn't comprehend at all.

However, that was a completely wrong thought.

In the middle of the hell where the ark incident broke out.

The invisible god in the sky he had habitually believed in all his life did not save the New York citizens who had fallen into despair.

Even the nation and the heroes of the Dragon Guild he believed would protect him died wetting themselves beneath the monsters' feet.

Instead, the man in the black coat who descended tearing through the sky riding a massive bone dragon wiped out that terrible disaster with overwhelming military power in just 5 minutes.

The true light of salvation. A majesty truly like a real god.

The moment he clearly witnessed that absurd sight before his eyes, the petty values embedded in Leo's head shattered into pieces.

‘Fuck…… at that level, isn't he worth believing in?’

That brief instant when he saw the spider demonic beast that was about to tear him apart evaporate without a trace with a single hand gesture from the Necromancer.

Leo, without realizing it, was madly offering prayers of gratitude toward Kim Minwoo in the empty air, with his forehead smashed into the ground.

Just like the stupid fanatics he had mocked so much.

And after the ark incident, along with President Robert's full support, the state religion of the USA practically changed to the Death Cult.

An official application announcing the locations and benefits of the Death Cult branches all over the USA was activated.

As soon as the notification rang, Leo checked the smartphone map with trembling hands.

[Death Cult New York Headquarters and Ilsung Premium Store]

[Location: Center of Manhattan, 5th Avenue]

It was a place only a few blocks away from the slum where he was despised while carrying luggage.

“I have to go. I have to go no matter what!”

Leo, who stood up as if possessed, started running toward Manhattan 5th Avenue without hesitation.

The Death Cult New York Headquarters and Ilsung Premium Store built massively in the center of Manhattan.

When he first put his hand on the Faith Orb placed there, Leo didn't have the slightest bit of the aversion or shallow religious standards other Awakened harbored.

‘He's the one who saved my life. Of course I should be grateful.’

Pure gratitude without lies.

The moment the sincere prayer toward the savior who saved his life touched the orb, a faint light shone and he was immediately judged as a [C-rank believer].

Uung―!

As the Faith Orb spewed dense light, a priest of the Death Cult who was wiping the offering box nearby came approaching, startled.

“Oh my! To reach C-rank with just a single sincere prayer! You are truly a brother of devout faith!”

“Ah, yes…….”

“Brother, would you perhaps like to take out a loan?”

“……A l-loan?”

The priest nodded his head while putting on a fully benevolent smile.

“Yes! The great Kim Minwoo does not spare investments for devout believers. We will smoothly draw you a cult-exclusive loan with no guarantor and not even interest, so how about getting a skill book with that money?”

Skill book.

At that word, Leo's heart sank with a thump.

The cold and inorganic gaze the bank teller had shot at him after awakening came to mind.

However, the priest of the Death Cult was different.

The smile was kind, the contract was polite, and even the amount and interest rate were at a crazy level.

“70,000 dollars (about 100 million won). A 10-year maturity…… with n-no interest?”

Leo's voice cracked.

He rubbed his eyes hard wondering if he was reading the numbers wrong, but the words ‘Interest Rate: 0%’ stamped on the contract were shining clearly.

“I'm a perennial F-rank Awakened though?! I'm not particularly good at fighting either…….”

“Oh, Brother! What does that matter at all!”

The believer grabbed Leo's hand tightly and shouted benevolently.

“Your pure and blind faith, Brother, which made the orb shine as C-rank with just a single prayer! The great Kim Minwoo does not burden a devout lamb with petty burdens like interest!”

“Oh my god…….”

It was a perfect and physical miracle itself that even the God of the cross he had believed in for decades had never shown him even once!

Leo signed the loan contract without hesitation with trembling hands.

Afterwards, the result of receiving the Death Cult application.

[C-rank believer benefits are applied!]

Below that, text with endless benefits was seen.