Chapter 362: Fear Marketing (2)

Dusit Palace, Bangkok, Thailand.

In the middle of an audience chamber decorated with dazzlingly flashy golden light, the absolute ruler of Thailand, King Rama XI, burst into a chuckle.

“Just because the USA and China collapsed doesn't mean we have to tremble too.”

The recent global situation was literally engulfed in terror and madness.

Superpower countries consecutively raised the white flag to the Death Cult led by the Korean Necromancer, and even the haughty European countries were hurriedly opening their borders and scrambling to invite Cult branches.

However, King Rama XI's thoughts were different.

‘Foolish things. What those monsters are aiming for are only the fattest and most massive superpower countries.’

Thailand was hard to view as a priority target, whether geopolitically or in terms of Awakened military power.

If they were going to gather energy anyway, they would aim for places with abundant human resources.

His calculation was that there was no reason for the Shadow Cult to be crazy enough to purposely aim for a mediocre country in Southeast Asia and draw aggro.

Above all, Thailand was a firm monarchy that had continued for hundreds of years.

The King was immediately a living god and the absolute focal point. But to accept the Death Cult, which serves some greenhorn Korean Necromancer from across the sea as the sole god, as the state religion?

That was no different from saying he would throw his own royal authority into the gutter and destroy the foundation of the nation himself.

“Your Majesty, the Death Cult has contacted us again. This time officially asking to permit the establishment of a branch in the center of Bangkok…….”

“Politely refuse. Tell them we will protect our great tradition and Buddhist faith, and that defense is sufficiently possible with our proud domestic Awakened alone.”

As soon as his instruction fell, the media directly under the Thai royal family and the King's official SNS were massively plastered with refusal statements wrapped in diplomatic rhetoric.

Its essence was clear.

Thailand will not submit to Kim Minwoo's cult.

The King leisurely swirled his highest-rank champagne glass round and round.

“That arrogant Kim Minwoo bastard should be busy managing other superpower countries too, so he won't have the leeway to purposely waste his strength on us. Waaay later, when we look at the situation and can control the Cult to suit our tastes, we just need to accept them a little bit then.”

The stubbornness and confidence created by a long monarchical politics.

The Thai citizens were also agreeing with the royal family's massive media play.

“We have the great protection of Buddhism!”

“Sasaeng fans of Kim Minwoo or whatever, Thailand doesn't need them!”

It was when such an arrogant atmosphere was dominating the entire country.

At that time.

In the live news broadcast transmitted worldwide, the spokesperson of the Death Cult, the Saintess of Death Han Siah, revealed her appearance.

Amidst the pouring flash barrage from numerous foreign reporters.

To the question asking about Thailand's official statement refusing the Cult, Han Siah put on a pitch-black smile.

Han Siah stared straight at the camera lens and smoothly continued her words.

“It is a relief that you can sufficiently protect the country with your own firm faith and proud domestic Awakened alone. Our Cult respects that decision. Please…… I wish you good luck in Thailand's future.”

It was a beautiful face and a soft voice, but what lay behind it was a chilling sneer and a meaningful sentence that sent shivers down the spine.

However, King Rama XI, who was watching that news through the monitor, snorted.

“Hmph. A fanatic bitch completely crazy for Kim Minwoo.”

The King dismissed that eerie warning as the bluff of a cult fanatic and brushed it off as nothing.

The Thai citizens were also busy showing off their national power while mocking her in internet communities.

However…….

That petty and arrogant calculation of the King and the Thai citizens was miserably smashed to pieces in just three hours after Han Siah's interview ended.

Ureureureureung―!!!

The clear sky of Bangkok, without a single cloud, was torn open like the maw of a beast.

Along with a massive blood-red vortex, a ship of an overwhelming size enough to block out the sun, an ark, descended.

White spiderwebs and tens of thousands of spider demonic beasts pouring down endlessly piercing through the clouds.

The high-tier Awakened unit Thailand boasted of had its defense line breached in just 10 minutes and their limbs were torn apart, and the flashy downtown Bangkok turned into a living hell vibrating with screams and flames in an instant.

“Y-Your Majesty! It's breached! The defense line has completely collapsed!”

“Th-this makes no sense……! Why our Thailand of all places!”

When the Shadow, which he thought would only hit superpower countries, stormed into the middle of Bangkok, King Rama XI dropped his champagne glass and slumped onto the floor in a daze.

He hurriedly picked up the hotline receiver with trembling hands.

“K-Kim Minwoo! Connect me to Kim Minwoo! Right now!”

Ttureureureu. Dalkak.

Over the receiver, a familiar and relaxed voice was heard.

―Who is this?

“I-I will believe! I will believe! I will believe! I will offer our entire country as the holy land of the Cult! I will even lay down my royal authority! Please come riding that dragon and save our citizens!”

The King, who had acted arrogantly until just a moment ago, threw away his face to the dogs, lay flat on the floor, and sobbed desperately.

He earnestly prayed that the overwhelming light of salvation that had saved the USA and China would also fall in the sky over Bangkok.

However…….

―Ah, what to do.

The voice over the receiver was far too peaceful.

―I have a cold right now, you see. I don't want to get out of bed.

“Wh-what……? What kind of bullshit is that……! Didn't you say you would listen to all the conditions!”

―Didn't you say the Thai Awakened were that strong? Good luck.

Ttuk.

The call was disconnected mercilessly.

The pupils of the King, holding the phone, turned white with despair.

“D-dial again! Again!”

The secretary hurriedly pressed the redial button, but what returned was only a cold mechanical sound.

―The number you have dialed is currently unavailable.

The number had been blocked.

King Rama XI's lips quivered.

The screams of the Royal Guard Awakened being entangled in spiderwebs and dragged up outside the window pierced through the palace walls.

Only then did the King realize.

That he was never a target of salvation from the beginning.

It was like livestock being dragged to a slaughterhouse crying out to the butcher to spare them.

At the same time.

South Korea, Ilsung Group Headquarters.

Kim Minwoo tossed the disconnected phone onto the sofa with a ttuk and let out a smirk.

“Brother, are you really not going? Thailand, they'll really be erased from the map at that rate.”

As Park Siwoo asked as if flustered, Kim Minwoo answered while sipping his wine glass.

“I'm not going.”

“……Yes? Still, the ark popped up there, so those bastards will tightly fill up their energy, won't they?”

“Let them fill it.”

Kim Minwoo's black pupils sank chillingly.

“Siwoo, let's say I pop up like a 911 rescue squad every single time the ark appears and unconditionally save everyone. Then would the people of the world become desperate?”

“……Uh, that's…….”

“They are bound to just become lazy, thinking, 'Ah, if a gate bursts, Kim Minwoo will take care of it and save us~'. Religion, you see, blooms the most splendidly amidst terrible terror and despair when the leash is truly tightening right under your chin.”

The corners of Kim Minwoo's mouth twisted up viciously.

“I happened to need a scapegoat anyway. An example, I mean. The timing is truly good.”

He had definitively saved the USA and China.

However, an audiovisual material was needed to clearly show the non-believers of the whole world what the end of a country that refused the Cult's grace and held out until the very end would be like.

Humanity, having witnessed Thailand being erased from the map in real-time, would lose their reason before that terrible terror and cling madly to the Death Cult.

It did not matter whether the ark sucked Thailand's energy or not.

Because his divinity that would be sucked in from the whole world through this single extreme fear marketing would be far more overwhelming.

And there was another monster exactly piercing through that perfect malice.

The sky over Bangkok.

The top of the blood-red ark.

The High Priest of the Shadow, Persen, let out a turbid laugh while looking down at the burning downtown Bangkok.

“Heulheulheul…… As expected.”

Priest Santos, standing next to him, tilted his head and asked.

“High Priest, is it true that Kim Minwoo not coming is a benefit to us? If that guy doesn't come, the energy to fill the ark right now will be plentiful, but…… humanity, having seen Thailand perish, will be stricken with terror and cling blindly to Kim Minwoo's Death Cult even more. Meaning, his believers will increase like crazy.”

It was exactly as Santos worried.

Thailand's destruction was the perfect firewood that would explosively pump up Kim Minwoo's divinity.

However, there was not a single shred of bewilderment in Persen's turbid pupils.

“Santos, what's important in faith is not the headcount. It's the quality.”

“……Quality, you say?”

“Yes. The humans of the whole world, having clearly witnessed this terrible destruction, will now scrape together the very bottom of their true souls and cling to Kim Minwoo, rather than just having a fake belief hoping for benefits.”

Persen reached out his bony hand and grasped the empty air as if squeezing the screams of the Bangkok citizens.

“Their earnestness, desperation, and blind faith wanting to live…… will expand the vessel named Kim Minwoo massively as if it would tear. That is exactly what we desire.”

To abundantly feed the singularity named Kim Minwoo the manure of all humanity's faith and fatten him into the most massive and perfect fruit.

That was the beginning of the true harvest.

‘Inhale divinity to your heart's content, Necromancer. This old servant will gladly lay out the board for you.’

It was a night where the battle of wits between two monsters, perfectly knowing each other's intentions yet thoroughly utilizing each other as chess pieces while turning an entire country named Thailand into ashes, intersected.