Chapter 343 – Seoul (27)
People were starting to get used to the temple building that popped up from the former soccer stadium.
Those who condemned the existence of the temple quickly disappeared, instead claiming that the excessively high building threatened flight safety over Seoul.
It was natural.
The government remained silent no matter what the people said about the temple.
The people wondered how they would demolish a building that had been created overnight, and whether it was possible in the first place.
Even those who raised their voices against the temple said that they would rather impose a fine or tax on me rather than demolish the temple.
But now, their voices were also disappearing.
After the Lee Ho-jae Faith began to spread in earnest, there was an atmosphere that bore down on people like them.
I looked out at downtown Seoul from the temple.
Thanks to its high location, the entire city could be seen at a glance.
To be honest, it wasn’t such a good sight.
“Oh, look at the air.”
This is a city where people live.
In the Tutorial, I’ve been to many places, but I’ve never seen a city with such serious air pollution.
I went to a place filled with all kinds of odors and toxic gases, but it was not a place where people lived.
“It smells bad too.”
[Sorry.]
Earth, which had been quiet for a while, apologized again.
Well, I wasn’t talking to you.
No, looking at it, I was right about what I said to Earth.
[Sorry.]
I said yes.
Earth talked from time to time.
Usually when I think of Earth, I think of the environment including the earth or the sky of this planet, or I think of the world as a whole; it was like that.
Maybe it has always been like that.
Every time people think of Earth,their faith builds up little by little.
Just like how I respond with a system message whenever I gain faith from believers.
Earth would have only apologized every time.
That would have been all it would do.
Even if it could do more, only I could hear its words.
The wind blew out the murky air in Seoul.
At the same time, I wanted to create a strong wind, but if I did, those who walked the streets in broad daylight would be mutilated.
A lot of time was wasted trying to move the wind at the right intensity.
It was a temporary measure, but a little bit of contaminated air went away.
It will be better for a while.
Let’s seriously think about purifying Earth’s environment later.
I can ask Kim Min-hyuk to figure out how.
Recently, he moved to the temple and lived there.
It was almost completed so there was no inconvenience in life.
Rather, the accommodation was uncomfortable due to how “perfect” it was.
As Yong-yong’s decorations have not yet been completed, it can’t be opened.
In the near future, believers will also be able to visit the temple.
On the lower floors of the temple, there was plenty of s.p.a.ce for the members who visited the temple.
From a distance, Hochi was holding his cell phone and talking on the phone.
Hochi was more and more frequently talking to humans.
It was unavoidable because he was busy taking care of the Lee Ho-jae Faith every day.
The Lee Ho-jae Faith, which seemed to only grow, was experiencing some ups and downs recently.
There have been several incidents in which believers who have secured a large amount of public value by pouring capital money in the early stage have used the score to play foul.
Of course, as soon as they did such an act, the public value was reduced.
Because of such actions, the church’s image was deteriorating.
Negative behavior of individual members of the congregation immediately affected the score, and these events could have become even more serious if it were not for a system that others could check.
There were also conflicts with existing religions.
Existing religions that have been rooted in Earth before the introduction of tutorials and the Hundred G.o.ds Temple.
Most of those religions either partially admitted tutorials and G.o.ds Temples, or distorted them all as being part of the religion.
From the standpoint of existing religions, they would have wanted to completely deny the Hundred G.o.ds Temple and Tutorial.
They couldn’t pretend to know the monsters that appeared in front of their eyes and the rise of the Awakened who fought against them.
Because of this, they had to go back and forth through their old doctrines to find clues and connect stories.
From the standpoint of such religions, the rise of the Lee Ho-jae Faith was inevitably threatening.
It was just a simple thought.
In the case of the Hundred G.o.ds Temple, even if the facts were distorted and related to existing religions, there was no response.
However, when they say that they have a religious connection with Lee Ho-Jae, a protest from my denomination immediately rushes out, demanding them not to speak nonsense.
Every time they protest, they will get public value, so the believers will protest more confidently and stubbornly.
Moreover, the system Hochi devised was overly lethal.
Beyond religion, it was shaking the existing economic and social systems themselves.
The theocratic state theory is already spreading in Korea.
Eventually, the existing major religions identified us as pseudo-religion and began a campaign against us, unlike when the Hundred G.o.ds and the Tutorial appeared.
While considering dropping a bolt of lightning on top of the protest site, Hochi argued that it would be better to overcome and solve the problem with the believers at the religious level.
The operation of the denomination was completely left to Hochi, so I decided to follow Hochi’s opinion.
Thanks to that, Hochi, who was already busy, became more busy.
Well I didn’t want to stop him even though he said he would volunteer to work hard.
It wasn’t just bad news.
As the number of businesses incorporated under Lee Ho-jae Faith increased, Hochi added the option to add the products of those businesses to the system.
I had to store the business’s products in my subs.p.a.ce and distribute them to the system, so I was able to run them immediately.
Thanks to this, the list of rewards had increased significantly.
All kinds of businesses were incorporated into the system, starting with hospitals and pharmaceutical companies whose inst.i.tutions were in jeopardy due to the Lee Ho-jae Faith’s compensation system.
So, the number of members who spent both daily life and work at the Lee Ho-jae Faith increased.
It had a good effect on both the growth of the denomination and the increase of faith.
Thus, the Korean economy itself was being absorbed by the Lee Ho-jae Faith.
Won is now used only when using vending machines or products and services that are not handled by Lee Ho-jae Faith.
Not long ago, Hochi said he was preparing a plan to include the credit card companies in the system, so that would soon disappear.
Naturally, the value of the won plummeted.
Originally, it was a situation that would have a devastating negative impact on exchange rates and trade.
Fortunately, after the cataclysm of the monsters, the trade routes between countries were greatly reduced.
The global trend was economy centered on the domestic market or neighboring countries.
In the case of Korea, most of the trading came down to j.a.pan and China.
At the very least, it was to export the Awakened to earn foreign currency and to bring in some food or industrial products.
In the case of food, both j.a.pan and China were in short supply, so it was not necessary.
“But who is Nakamura?”
Before I knew it, Hochi came back from the phone call and I asked,
“A cabinet member I met when I went to j.a.pan.”
It was an unexpected person.
I thought it would be a j.a.panese cartoonist or novelist.
“This time, they helped establish Lee Ho-jae Faith’s j.a.panese branch. They also promised to cooperate with the denomination in the future.”
What, really?
Hey, why are you so competent?
At this point, it feels a little strange.
Hochi was smiling confidently.
When he first took over the job, he completely disappeared as he was somewhat anxious or unconfident.
Now Hochi himself was sure he was doing well.
“Ha!”
Instead, his nose was rising with a momentum to pierce the sky.
Hochi returned from the phone call, so I sat on the couch again.
“By the way, the mantis doesn’t think about coming out of the church.”
Kim Min-hyuk said.
The mantis was becoming the leader of the Gangwon-do denomination.
Well, it wasn’t very different from the truth.
In fact, it was emerging as some kind of guardian.
It was the mascot of the denomination, and it was taking in a little bit of faith.
If it continued like this, I thought that sooner or later it would easily gain G.o.dhood.
There was also the power it regularly received from Yong-yong, so it was almost definitely going to happen.
“What is it?”
Kim Min-hyuk had been taking a break since earlier.
That’d been the case even before Hochi got up to speak on the phone.
I don’t know what he wanted to say, to call me and Hochi, but he wanted to tell the matter as soon as possible.
To be honest.
Waiting for someone who feels like they can talk, is quite a pain, from the standpoint of being able to read other people’s thoughts at any time.
“Oh, well, I got a call from the United States.”
“United States?”
“Huh. Some of the Awakened people in the US lab are from Korea. I got a call through them, but…… .”
Well, good.
I’ve decided.
Let’s seriously think about hitting Kim Min-hyuk later.
“They say it seems like a meteorite is flying to Earth?”
“Huh?”
A very strange story popped out of Kim Min-hyuk’s mouth.
What meteorite?
“It was observed yesterday. There seems to be a giant meteorite flying towards Earth.”
It was definitely an unexpected issue.
“Oh really?”
“Huh.”
There are really special things in life.
What crime did the earth commit that only bad news kept popping up since the beginning of the 21st century?
[Sorry.]
I ignored the earth’s apology and asked Kim Min-hyuk.
There was one questionable thing.
“But if it’s flying in, what else is there? You’re not sure are you?”
“Because I hadn’t observed it at all until a while ago, I found out about it out of the blue. I don’t think we have confirmed it yet. Still, the contact sounded almost certain.”
Well, I see.
“So I mean…….”
Kim Min-hyuk dragged his words again.
I was urged to feed him honey chestnuts so at least he wouldn’t get hurt.
I thought about it for a while, but eventually decided to quit.
Kim Min-hyuk was too weak to hit with his light heart.
I thought that I should put this guy in the Tutorial and train him.
“That… What you did… It’s not you right?”
Kim Min-hyuk asked, looking at my eyes.
“Huh? What?”
“You mean that meteorite, isn’t that something you made or dragged here?”
“… not really.”
Kim Min-hyuk threw off his hesitant att.i.tude and smiled broadly.
“Yes! As expected! I believed in you, man. No matter what you’ve done, I don’t think you would drag a meteorite to Earth.”
Then, he sighed for a long time.
When I looked at his face, it looked like he had lost ten years.
This motherf.u.c.ker, you doubted me, you’re suspicious of me.
What do you usually think of me?
Recently, I was annoyed due to seeing people who were working against Lee Ho-jae Faith.
I left it to Hochi, but I still didn’t like it.
Kim Min-hyuk also knew that.
Then, when he heard that a meteorite was flying in the car, I guess he thought I was trying to drop a meteor over the heads of the opposing activists or religious groups.
I understood.
That’s understandable.
Still, I didn’t feel good.
“Get some athlete’s foot.”
Kim Min-hyuk trembled.
“Suddenly, my foot seems to be itchy, but is it just my imagination…… ?”
Why blame your imagination?
To heal that, you’ll need potions, not regular athlete’s foot medicine.
Originally, I tried to give him circular hair loss rather than athlete’s foot, but it seemed too severe, so I compromised with athlete’s foot.
“Anyway… So, a request for cooperation came from the US’ side. It is impossible to stop meteorites with only technology. Can you stop it?”
Kim Min-hyuk asked.
It was much more comfortable than when he asked if I was dragging a meteorite.
“Of course.”
In fact, I can do anything with inanimate objects.
Whatever it really is.
“Can you make the meteorite stop without any damage?”
It’s easy.
I just need to erase the kinetic energy.
“Is it possible to make the meteorite into Kim Min-hyuk?”
Hochi intervened from the side and asked.
“It is possible. It’s like pouring out my power into useless places.”
I could have done it.
After the meteorite is reduced, it could be transformed into a human body, and Kim Min-hyuk’s memory, personality, and soul could be injected into the body.
It wasn’t easy.
It was a meaningless waste of power.
“Why is that an example…”
“It would be best to just blow it up in the atmosphere in moderation. I think that will be the least troublesome.”
When a meteorite approaches Earth enough, it just bursts.
Like a fireworks display.
“Then would there be additional damage from the fragments?”
“That’s something I can handle easily.”
In fact, if Earth had been sanctified, a much more colorful and fun way could have been used.
There was a lot of faith in my religion on Earth, but it wasn’t enough to make it my sanctuary.
A sanctuary has great significance to its G.o.d.
The biggest difference between a deity and a non-deity is that they can twist the laws of the world.
The divine power, which begins with the power to interfere with others, changes the world itself.
Individuals who have full control over themselves will be able to interfere with other microcosms outside through divine power.
And the individual who is able to interfere with another microcosm soon reaches the level of interfering with the grand universe.
A G.o.d can use its divine power to modify the laws of the world in the direction he wants.
And the G.o.d who is united with the world through a sanctuary becomes another being.
It is the same in that it modifies the laws of the world.
However, the cost of the modification disappears.
Therefore, the power that a G.o.d exercises in his sanctuary is not a twisting of the law.
It’s the redefining of the law.
I explained it to Kim Min-hyuk and Hochi.
Both of them have recently had a growing interest in G.o.dhood.
“Something just doesn’t come across.”
Kim Min-hyuk said.
It’s a story too far from himself.
Hochi looked similar.
I decided to give an example that touched a little.
“If Earth was my sanctuary, I could explode a meteorite and change all the fragments that fall into pieces and fall into Kim Min-hyuk. Let thousands of Kim Min-hyuk fall from the sky like hail. At no cost. Or you can make Kim Min-hyuk fall from the sky instead of rain. Not once, but every time. Until the end of the world.”
“Ah, I get it.”
“…It’s a clear explanation, but why is that the example… ”
The theology cla.s.s stopped right there.
Although both are showing interest.
Actually, it’s going too far.
Kim Min-hyuk was natural, and even Hochi was.
“Returning to the previous story, Can I ask you if you could come to the US the day after tomorrow. Oh, and the story about the meteorite is absolutely secret.”
“US? It’s annoying.”
Can’t I just tell them to come here?
Meteorites will be handled roughly.
In Korea, there are people who believe in me and support me.
In America… it was an annoying situation, they’d be asking questions.
I wanted to send someone else as my agent.
Everyone was busy now.
It will be a little hard, but I’m just thinking of asking Hochi.
I suddenly saw Hochi sitting next to me staring at me.
“What is wrong with you.”
“Hey hey hey.”
“What, why.”
“Can we spill the information that the meteorite is flying in?”
Hochi’s eyes were twinkling.