Chapter 225 - If (3)

And then.

Time passes.

"Everyone! Believe in the sacred Tower!"

JINGLE, JINGLE.

A gentleman in short sleeves wandered through the square, ringing a handbell.

"Why did the [Tower] come to be called the Tower of Babel, of all things? Do you know why? The reason is simple. Here, we humans can communicate freely. We have been blessed with God's miracle!"

"God once destroyed the Tower of Babel. But thousands of years later, in His mercy, He has granted humanity another chance to ascend to heaven! Let us give thanks for God's mercy!"

That day, Kim Gongja was at the guild.

Leaving aside the sheer audacity of slapping the three syllables of his own name onto his guild, Yoo Suha's guild, [Yoo Suha], had only four registered members. Yoo Suha. Ja Sujeong. Kim Gongja. And a pet slime.

For an organization with only four employees, its headquarters occupied an incredible location.

Babylon, the First-Floor City of the Tower of Babel. At the crossroads by the central square—the prime real estate of what was commonly called the City of Heavenly Ascent—they had erected a three-story headquarters to serve as their guild building.

It was a fucking waste of money.

But one person's bullshit was another person's happiness. Sipping the venti white mocha Frappuccino he had ordered through a delivery app—four shots, java chips half blended and half on top, extra chocolate drizzle—Kim Gongja sat elegantly on the guild terrace, looking down at the square.

"What kind of bullshit is that?"

"What else? A religious cult."

Ja Sujeong, also seated on the terrace, gave a curt answer. She was working on her laptop, sucking carrot juice through a straw.

"Don't listen to those people, Mr. Kim Gongja. They snatch up prey who come closer wondering what kind of bullshit they're spouting, then cook them all together into fellow believers."

"Huh."

"Even the parts that don't quite make sense are bait. A mixture of feints and genuine moves, you might say. People go in thinking, [I'm smart, so I can refute all that horseshit!], only to get trapped and brainwashed. Then one day they come to their senses and find themselves preaching God's word in the square."

"Those people use strategies that sophisticated? Seriously?"

"Religion sprouts from people's guilt, Mr. Kim Gongja. Cults nest in human arrogance."

"Heeey!"

Just then, Yoo Suha came over and looked down from the terrace.

"So there are still assholes like that left in Babylon. I used to see those guys all the time outside. Was it Myeongdong? Hey, part-timer. Ever been to Myeongdong?"

"No."

"The place looks a bit like hell. Still, that's weird. The Pantheon beats down cultists like that on sight. What gives them the balls to preach openly in the square?"

Sure enough, before Yoo Suha could even finish speaking, whistles sounded from the other side of the square.

TWEET, TWEET! TWEET, TWEET, TWEET!

Pantheon guild members in white uniforms came running out.

"What are you doing here? This is against the rules!"

"Oh, allow me to ask what you are doing here. The Tower is the holiest miracle to have descended upon us since the new millennium. You stand in the very midst of a miracle, brothers! Why, then, are you not grateful?"

"Seriously, this guy..."

"Repent, everyone. Reflect upon your arrogance and prejudice. The Tower is not merely a hunting ground, nor some crude playground! You are brothers who have personally received God's miracle! Be humble! God is granting you a second chance!"

"What are you waiting for? Drag him away!"

The Pantheon guild members dragged the preacher away.

Even as they hauled him off, he remained devout. His face brimming with conviction, he shouted, "Repent! You still have time for repentance. Everyone! Repent!"

"Hmm."

Some time later, after the commotion had died down, Ja Sujeong murmured, "Suspicious."

"Pardon?"

"He's too intellectual."

As she answered Kim Gongja's question, she tapped away on her laptop.

"Cult preachers are usually full of hostility. They believe there is a clearly defined enemy in the world, that this enemy has spawned evil, and that attacking it is their duty. But that preacher was a little different."

"In what way?"

"He didn't show any hostility at all."

TAP-TAP-TAP.

Ja Sujeong looked down at her laptop expressionlessly.

"All he showed was genuine concern and a desire to win others over. Only a religious organization of a certain size can take that approach. They need a bone-deep conviction that [they are right], without even needing to posit an enemy..."

She struck a key.

"I see. He entered the Tower just today."

A couple of photographs of a man appeared on the laptop screen. It was the man who had been waving his handbell in the square only moments earlier.

"The fuck?"

Yoo Suha, who had been watching the two of us from behind, was startled.

"President Sujeong. No, Assistant Manager Sujeong. What are you doing?"

"I dug up the personal details of the man who was just dragged off to the Pantheon."

"I know. I've got fucking eyes too. The question is, whose server did you break into? Not the Vigilantes' server, right? Huh? Sujeong, I'm not saying this because I'm scared or anything, but those guys are a fucking pain in the ass if you mess with them."

"Don't worry."

Ja Sujeong shut the laptop, then went to a desk drawer and brought back another one.

"Whatever exaggerated notions you may have of hacking, Mr. Yoo Suha, I have neither broken into any server nor touched anything connected to the Vigilantes."

"Huh? Then how did you dig up his details?"

"I simply used a legitimate login ID to view the records stored at the Tower Entry Administration Office."

Ja Sujeong opened the second laptop and connected to a site.

"Basic personal information about people arriving from the outside world is temporarily stored at the Tower Entry Administration Office until they are registered as official residents. For at least an hour, and at most a week. Once their resident registration is complete, those records are deleted there, and everything is transferred to an administrative office under the Vigilantes."

"Uh..."

Kim Gongja felt uneasy. It sounded like a world he knew nothing about.

"Are those records easy to access?"

"Yes, relatively. All you need is an administration office login ID."

"And where did you get that ID...?"

"The office employees are human too, Mr. Kim Gongja. There are a surprisingly large number of ways to persuade a human being."

Kim Gongja glimpsed this guild's dark side.

"Of course, with security that lax, there isn't any particularly valuable information. At most, it lists very basic details, such as which country they came from outside and whether they attended school."

"But," Ja Sujeong said, "those basic details sometimes include a social media handle."

A blue screen appeared on the laptop. Ja Sujeong nodded once.

"There it is."

She showed her colleagues the screen. A familiar man's photograph adorned the social media account's profile.

Following: 26.

Followers: 5,313,046.

Kim Gongja's eyes widened.

"Whoa. Five million...? Isn't that a huge number?"

"Quite large, yes. He's the vice president of an organization called the Tower Purification Society. Let me look it up."

Ja Sujeong's eyes grew serious.

"The organization began operating in earnest seven years ago. It's one of the internet religions that have recently become popular."

"Internet religions...?"

"Religions that don't have branches in particular countries, but effectively use social media or video-sharing accounts as their [branches]. They proselytize exclusively online. For example, when the leader uploads a video, the believers draw in as many viewers and subscribers as possible. They call this [evangelism]."

Ja Sujeong even found the organization's official video account.

"Look. A video of volunteer work."

"..."

"The members who actually work on the ground are limited to the leader and a few deputy leaders. Like this..."

She played a video. In it, a neatly dressed gentleman was showing a disaster site in some country as though reporting live.

Many other videos had been uploaded as well: [Earthquake Relief], [Here's How Your Donations Are Being Used], [Top 10 Evangelism Success Stories], [Meeting and Talking with an Eminent Tibetan Monk!], [I Went to Find Out Whether the Himalayas Are Really Melting], [Is the Tower Proof of the Divine?], and so on.

"This is..."

"They've mixed in so many videos of volunteer work that you can't even get the account banned. Nor do the videos themselves make particularly extremist claims. When the leader or a deputy uploads a video, they share it on social media and cultivate extremist claims among themselves."

"..."

"Mr. Kim Gongja, you asked whether cults employ sophisticated strategies, didn't you? Yes, they do. Not all of them, but people like this exist."

Kim Gongja felt a vague sense of foreboding. Yoo Suha apparently felt the same, for he frowned.

"So? Why did this social media superstar cult leader, with over five million self-proclaimed believers, abandon all the glory and prestige of the outside world to crawl into the Tower?"

"A deputy leader, to be precise," Ja Sujeong corrected him. "And here's why he entered the Tower."

CLICK.

Ja Sujeong pressed Enter.

"Brothers, I shall now devote myself to the Tower."

A video played on the laptop screen. The man speaking in it was the deputy leader.

"As you all know, tomorrow marks the day the ancient Tower of Babel fell. Just as He did thousands of years ago, God will decide tomorrow whether to destroy the Tower of Babel once more. To beg for His mercy, to prove that hope still remains for humanity, I shall personally enter the Tower and awaken its corrupt inhabitants to the danger."

The deputy leader spoke devoutly.

"I will probably be arrested. I may die. But if my evangelism succeeds, I will prevent the Tower's collapse. And even if I fail and die, God will know that there was at least one believer on this earth who sacrificed himself for humanity. If I live, I live for humanity; if I die, I die for humanity. This is how one serves God."

The deputy leader formed a triangle with both hands. It seemed to be their own sacred sign.

"Everyone. Until now, we have watched the Tower's atrocities. We have waited for them to repent and purify themselves. But now, with the second collapse of the Tower of Babel imminent, we can no longer stand idly by. Once my sacrifice has been confirmed, you too must immediately perform the ritual of entering the Tower."

Kim Gongja's mouth fell open.

"Do not fear death. What we must fear is not the death of each individual, but the tragedy of humanity betraying God's mercy once again. Prevent that tragedy with your blood and your bodies. Eliminate as many of the corrupt as possible and purify the Tower! Ah, I shall go first. If we must die, I shall die first. Everyone! I..."

Then the video stopped. Yoo Suha had reached out and paused it.

"These people are complete fucking lunatics, aren't they?"

Korean baseball was playing on the television in the guild office. "Ah, he's out! Out!" the announcer shouted at the top of his lungs.

Yoo Suha's baseball cap lay alone beside the television.

"This is a declaration of war," Kim Gongja murmured. "Something terrible might happen."

"Mr. Yoo Suha, we need to go tell the Pantheon right now."

"Hmm."

Yoo Suha responded indifferently.

"Forget it. It's not like this is the first time. Countless lunatics have crawled into the Tower over the years."

"..."

"If you want to go, go yourselves."

Kim Gongja and Ja Sujeong did just that.

The two rushed out of the guild. Fortunately, the Pantheon was another guild that knew how to squander money. Its temple stood on expensive land, and Ja Sujeong easily secured an audience with the Master of the Pantheon thanks to her reputation as [Yoo Suha's secretary].

"Good day, Miss Secretary! And our newly hired part-timer too! Have you been well?"

"It's been a while, Master of the Pantheon. I'm sorry to bring this up as soon as we meet, but there's something I must tell you immediately."

"Oho."

The Inquisitor's hands were dirty, as though he had hurried over in the middle of some task. Specifically, there was red liquid on his left hand.

He smiled cheerfully as he wiped his hand with a handkerchief.

"What is this urgent matter?"

"Did you just take away a cultist who was preaching in the square?"

"Yes. We arrested him in accordance with regulations!"

"Is he still unharmed?"

"Ah, he was perfectly fine."

The Inquisitor beamed.

"Until forty seconds ago!"

"..."

"You requested a meeting saying it was terribly urgent, Miss Secretary, so I thought I ought to finish my work before coming over. I dealt with it quickly. Ah, there's no need to worry! Everything was conducted according to proper procedure!"

"Did you kill him?"

"Yes!"

The Inquisitor was bright and cheerful.

There were no excuses or explanations. Not even a claim that the man had been too stubborn, or that he had had no choice.

There was only the calm assurance of having done what needed to be done, and the confidence that came with it.

"You..."

It was impossible to tell who had begun to say that. But before the words could be finished, something sounded.

BZZZ.

"Hmm? Mr. Part-Timer. I believe your phone is ringing!"

Kim Gongja lowered his head. Just as the Inquisitor had said, his smartphone was vibrating in his trouser pocket.

He had followed the video and social media accounts Ja Sujeong had just found. This was a notification from them.

With another sense of foreboding, he took out his phone.

"... A new video just went up."

Ja Sujeong took out her smartphone as well. While the Inquisitor alone tilted his head in puzzlement, the new video began to play.

"Brothers."

The person in this video had an unfamiliar face. Was he another believer rather than the deputy leader?

A young man spoke with grim resolve.

"Our deputy leader has just been dragged away by heretics. As we suspected, there is no hope for these people. He offered no resistance, nor did he throw a single punch. He preached solely out of concern for them."

The young man's face was unfamiliar, but the backdrop of the video was very familiar indeed.

Kim Gongja furrowed his brow.

"That's... Babylon's square, isn't it?"

"It is. This is bad. Very bad," Ja Sujeong murmured.

The young man in the video continued.

"I shall now begin the promised purification. Brothers! I love you."

He reached inside his shirt.

"I love you. I love people, I love humanity. I love God. Please, love them too. Please do not betray God's love. I love you!"

Then the video cut off.

There was no need to wonder why. A tremendous boom had reached them from beyond the temple walls.

"..."

It came from the direction of the square.