Bailonz Street 13-Chapter 235.1

The days inside the Happy Ending Sect’s underground bunker were monotonous and strange.

Those who took turns praying.

The corpses brought in fresh every day.

And the people who gave impassioned speeches about how those corpses had been good people in life, and thus worthy of meeting a happy ending.

The people who wept at those words, smiling and applauding.

The bodies crammed into the black boxes.

The sight of a small, deranged society was grotesque, and yet among themselves they were at peace.

‘Truly cult-like.’

Cruel and insane practices.

And, in contrast, a closed sense of comfort.

The believers were strangely kind, treating each other warmly, intimately, calling one another family.

All in this survival bunker, cut off underground.

[Ah, that too is a technology of rule. A sense of solidarity, belonging, and the confinement of daily routine are what keep a group from ever leaving.]

Yes. Maybe it’s only natural. But still…

‘…It feels like something’s missing in the details.’

[Hm?]

The little details that should make this unreasonable situation possible.

For example… ordinarily in cults, rituals like these involve some sort of shared act.

‘Like drinking a certain beverage, carrying a specific branch, imitating an animal…’

Some small symbol that only they share.

A practice that is a little magical, unique, symbolic, easy enough to do, and helps foster religious belonging.

‘The same goes for clothing.’

I had expected them to share at least one unifying color or ornament.

But here in this underground bunker, everyone was just wearing ordinary clothes. No real sign of initiation.

Even the school uniform the sect official wore… well, as a ghost story it’s symbolic, but it wouldn’t feel out of place even if you just called it normal clothing.

‘In some eerie way, it would have been more striking if everyone was wearing school uniforms.’

But since only the official wears one, it feels neither here nor there.

‘I mean, how are they even forming unity?’

That this inhumane group is sustained on nothing but the ideas of ‘Ireum-nim’ and ‘happiness’ is… baffling.

Is it really just, brainwash with Ireum-nim and kill people, the end?

[Oh, what a witty analysis! My friend, you could even make a splendid cult group of your own. The prophet role you played on the train was deeply impressive!]

[Why not create a fine organization even now? Something intriguing, uncanny, cheerful… And this is a truly radical proposal, but I’ll allow my cotton-stuffed body to be taken as its symbol!]

T-Thank you, but I’ll pass for now.

Anyway.

To be very honest, hm… those gaps feel almost like blanks.

From the perspective of a wiki.

‘As though the worldbuilding parameters were never filled in.’

Because the focus is only on visceral stimuli and disgust, constructing events and ghost-story horror, it feels like the realistic details are missing. Yet it’s precisely those details that provide the foundation that supports the story.

‘…The Happy Ending Sect was one of the most recent sects added to the Church of the Luminous Unknown on the wiki.’

So maybe that’s why. I even wondered if it would have been different had I ended up in a sect added in the early days of registration.

‘Something like the Quota Worship Sect?’

But I erased that thought.

It’s probably better like this—being able to feel nothing but disgust, without great disturbance.

‘…Better than a visceral, crawling sense of dread, anyway.’

Let’s be grateful it isn’t that.

I simply sighed at the clumsy balance, trying to grow used to the pain in my stomach as I watched cruel and revolting sights.

[Ah, certainly a sharp analysis, but… Tell me, Mr. Roe Deer.]

[Haven’t you ever thought that some cult groups only reveal their true nature once you’re inside the in-group itself?]

So he’s saying you’d have to be initiated to experience the real thing…

‘I’d rather decline.’

At least over the past two days, I hadn’t been pressured to swallow blank scripture fragments and be reborn into the authority of Church of the Luminous Unknown.

There had been no veiled suggestions or pressure. If it were another cult, that kind of thing would have been all the more chilling.

Here, it seemed more like intentional calm.

‘Maybe because they see me not as a contaminated human but as a ghost story itself, and so they’re taking the long view.’

I asked Ho Yoowon too, but he only shook his head.

“Ah, no, nothing of the sort.”

…So that’s how it is.

“It’s hard to say there’s anything worth calling information to look into. Right? Still, it’s convenient to have an easy chance to talk with you separately, Roe Deer-nim.”

That was true.

Within this underground bunker, the Happy Ending Sect had assigned us to what could be called… living spaces set on an equal footing.

Hemispherical chambers, connected like an ant nest.

[Authority Zone]

Unlike the clustered, antlike dormitories where new initiates were packed close together, given only the bare minimum for survival, this place was slightly apart. The area was wider, emptier… independent. As though a personal territory had been granted.

Strange sealed rooms with no CCTV at all.

[Like a lion’s den. If these were the living quarters of those who hid underground at the world’s end, they might look just like this.]

For reference, aside from the spaces assigned to each of us, the nearby ‘Authority Zone’ seemed to be empty.

Except for those two in school uniforms.

“Authority Zone… In the Church of the Luminous Unknown, I think they call Darknesses ‘Authority’. Isn’t that right?”

Correct.

Now that I thought about it.

Question :

Knowledge about the Church of the Luminous Unknown

How much did Ho Yoowon know about them?

“I know as much as needed. I’ve read the experimentation logs mentioned in Cheerful Research Institute.”

Ah.

Derived from earlier research, the name of a god worshiped by a certain cult currently in rapid growth was adopted and used as the subtitle for this research.

…The very experimentation logs that were beside the incubation chamber I woke up in.

Apparently, Ho Yoowon had tracked down other traces mentioned a few times in the underground Cheerful Research Institute as well.

“A radical religious group that worships Darkness and seeks to become Darkness, expanding rapidly. It seemed like just the place to find information I’d missed before. And…”

Ho Yoowon met my gaze.

“In the experimentation log that created you, Roe Deer-nim… it said the name was taken from this religious group’s god, didn’t it?”

…!

“I’m a little curious about what connection you might have to the group. Ah, that’s not a question, of course.”

……

“Then I’ll ask a question this time, Roe Deer-nim.”

The topic that had been cut off back in the elevator.

A single question, almost obsessive.

“How do you know about Sekwang Special Metropolitan City?”

……Huu.

‘I can’t exactly say I read it on the wiki.’

There was no helping it.

Answer to answer

: Substitute with another question

“……”

Ho Yoowon’s laughter stopped.

For a brief moment, expressionless eyes looked straight at me. And then, as if flipping a switch, the smile returned.

“Can’t answer… I see.”

……

“I’ll remember that, Roe Deer-nim.”

There were no follow-up questions.

An uneasy end to an uneasy Q&A.

Salt Goblin

Latest posts by Salt Goblin (see all)