Chapter 341 – Seoul (25)

Once again, the times were changing.

As the Gate and the Awakened began to move away from life, something new appeared.

The Lee Ho-jae Faith, which first appeared in front of the public at the Dimension Gate briefing session, was expanding its influence surprisingly quickly.

In a way, it was natural.

The characteristics of the Lee Ho-jae Faith embraced not only existing religious people but also atheists.

It presented miracles that could be seen and experienced within a short period of time to each believer.

There were many believers who didn’t even care about the miracles offered yet gave their faith.

However, in the case of believers who were really desperate for the miracles offered, they began to convert to the Lee Ho-jae Faith.

Atheists were also quickly absorbed.

The atheists long-standing claim that an unproven god is no different from a flying spaghetti monster did not apply to the Lee Ho-jae Faith.

Lee Ho-jae Faith showcased the existence of miracles as well as the existence of god.

Because of that, there were some questions floating around regarding the lack of mystique in the religion and how Lee Ho-jae, a human, was a god.

Hochi, the operator of the church, did not care.

In the first place, Hochi did not value the depth of faith.

He thought it didn’t matter whether the congregation regarded Lee Ho-jae as a god, an idol, or like a neighborhood brother.

They entered the Lee Ho-jae Faith anyway.

As they build merit value for miracles, they will realize that at some point they must raise their level of faith, not merit value.

Once they compare those with high faith and those with low faith, they will naturally realize the difference.

In fact, there were many believers who did not consider Lee Ho-jae a god.

Yet despite their beliefs, a certain amount of faith and merit value were still steadily coming in.

[Jehovah is our Savior. Trust in Jehovah and go to Heaven.]

At the entrance of the station, next to an aunt holding a picket, a member of Lee Ho-jae Faith stood with the same picket.

[Lee Ho-jae Faith is free from the constraints of a church]

It was too rude to push against their god, but the members of the Lee Ho-jae Faith didn’t care.

If that picket is really blasphemous, just holding that picket will hurt your merit score.

Just by standing in a crowded place with a picket, they could see that the church member was gaining merit value, and that was an act that helped the church.

The same was true in the web.

Those whose faith was not even visible were commenting eagerly for the Lee Ho-jae Faith.

└ Only two hours if you work hard. One point in two hours. And one point is a good meal. Honestly, this is better than having a job.

└ Really. Even if you post comments while watching a video, your merit value goes up.

└It’s too sweet to comment while playing mobile games.

└Who would choose not to suck this honey, kekeke. Do you still think it’s a multi-level business?

There was a boasting post in the Internet community saying that writing comments gave merit value.

Of course, just posting such a boastful article raised the public score.

└[Link] How to sign up for Lee Ho-jae School online. http://www.blog.never.com/dd11233…

└Because it is organized, let’s go in and join. In particular, the unemployed people in the corners of the room, who have nothing to do, can manage to live by just doing this. If you collect enough merit points, you can be prepared for a big illness later or get things like abilities.

They were advertising very excitedly.

Some people felt anxious about the spreading day by day.

Isn’t that a new type of voice phishing scam?

Are their families and relatives who joined the Lee Ho-Jae Faith really all right?

The government’s press conference was held at the petition of the people.

As a spokesman for the Blue House, a government official in front of reporters was wearing a Lee Ho-jae Faith necklace.

As the spokesman entered the conference hall, he was extremely anxious.

He was a devout religious person.

Since he was a child, he went to church every weekend, and he was proud of it.

But he was a public official who only represented the position of the government.

He was the husband of a wife who was undergoing chemotherapy for stomach cancer.

The spokesman kept his mouth shut and made his resolution.

He said to the reporters that the Lee Ho-jae Faith was a formal religion with no problems and Korea was a country that allowed religious freedom.

Finally, it was notarized in the name of the government that there was no illegal activity happening in the faith, including its missionary work.

The spokesman learned why the president made him do that and looked at him with regret and envy.

[You have obtained a large amount of merit value.]

[You have acquired 33,302 pt.]

[Acquired the title ‘Top Contributor of the Month’.]

[You have acquired 500 additional points due to the title.]

[Advanced healing potion can heal even terminal cancer cells. In addition, it also provides excellent nourishment and tonic effects to the disease tolerance of the body…]

The spokesman briefly forgot his words at the amazing sight that appeared before his eyes.

He even forgot that beyond the message, reporters were pushing cameras and microphones towards him.

He muttered quietly.

“33,000 points…”

And the Republic of Korea turned upside down.

That the spokesman muttered 33,000 points.

It must have been the official value of the Lee Ho-jae Faith.

People checked the list of miracles.

The list of miracles is already widely known, and anyone on the Internet could find it by simply searching.

What stood out most was ability.

It takes 100 points to increase 1 point of strength.

How about putting all 33,000 points on your strength stats?

Strength ability alone becomes 330 points.

The Awakened believers said that the strength stats showcased on the shop were about a tenth of the efficiency compared to the strength stats in the status window obtained by the Awakened in the Tutorial.

In other words, the strength of 330 points reached 33 for the Awakened.

When Lee Ho-jae reached level 40 on the 19th floor, his strength was just 40.

Having only 33 strength stats was enough to be recognized as an A-class Awakened.

People who were quietly joining the Lee Ho-jae Faith and drinking its honey began to openly reveal that they were members of the Lee Ho-jae Faith.

Politicians whose positions were at stake, chairmen with little to no time left, as well as foreign leaders.

They tried to obtain merit value in the Lee Ho-jae Faith by mobilizing all their influence, including wealth, manpower, and power.

It wasn’t just those with power.

The same was true of self-employed people, like those who owned small supermarkets.

‘Believers of the Lee Ho-jae Faith get to shop free of charge.’

All items were provided for free as long as they showed the symbol of the Lee Ho-jae Faith and proved that they were members of the Lee Ho-jae Faith.

So instead of money, they earned merit value.

It wasn’t too bad.

Most of what could be obtained with money could also be obtained using the points system.

However, most of what could be obtained using the points system was not available to purchase with money.

Soon, the Lee Ho-jae Faith’s official currency began to overtake as a new key currency.

Thus, the Lee Ho-jae Faith did nothing, and the tax was being multiplied several times a day.

President Kim Eui-seok was openly saying that he would surely complete the Lee Ho-jae Faith’s designation of diplomatic relations within his term of office.

It wasn’t because of his devout faith, but because of his strong will to achieve the public value he would get from the designation of diplomatic relations.

“You did a good job.”

“Right?”

Hochi smiled.

Was this within this guy’s calculations?

Or maybe it just happened, like a cow catching a rat while walking backwards[1]?

In any case, the fact that the result was a jackpot did not change.

Hochi eventually got caught by the old man.

Hochi, who was grabbed by the back of his neck due to the old man[1], was hanging quietly like a cat being carried by the nape of his neck, looking quite confident.

“But my image is a little… .”

“Well, that’s good enough”

…There was nothing to say.

In the first place, it was me who said that if the results are good, it was okay to ignore the small things.

Surely, the religion spread quickly.

Hochi had overperformed.

He did so well for what he had as a test before entrusting the believers he had collected from the God of Hope.

I didn’t have to open the Religion Window I made to check it.

The Religion Window was just a device to make Hochi feel interested and intuitively see the situation.

Even if I closed my eyes, I could feel the faith of humans from Korea and all over the world being sent to me.

I was in a good mood.

Earth is the land that I took over from the Hundred Gods Temple.

So I became the owner of Earth, but if asked if Earth was my sanctuary, I had to answer no.

I didn’t have my faith in the land.

Simply garnering faith from the land did not mean it was my sanctuary.

It meant that my laws were the first priority on the land.

The most significant difference between a god and a non-god is that he manipulates the laws of the world at will.

No matter how much power a non-god wields, even if it were comparable to a god, they would be turned into a frog at the word of the god.

Such was possible in the physical world.

But it wasn’t without any price.

In order to tweak the law, one had to pay a price.

However, there wasn’t such a consumption value in the sanctuary.

Because I am not breaking the law, but realizing my will exists above the law.

My sanctuary had that meaning.

So, if I encountered the gods of the Pantheon on the 61st floor, and collided with them, as if without any concern, I would be able to win.

And before I started work, I was trying to connect Earth and the 61st floor.

Lastly, it was also the reason for not putting much effort into Earth.

However, Hochi has laid the groundwork for turning the planet into my sanctuary in a short period of time.

It won’t be long before I completely sanctify Earth.

“Yes, good job. Would you like to go to the apartment and take a break?”

“No, I have to go to the church.”

I was very proud of him.

I sent Hochi and sat down and closed my eyes again.

“Is it good?”

Asked the old man.

It must be good.

It was the same on the 61st floor, but this feeling was always good.

I saw the faith I received from my believers.

Most of them were living a normal life.

In the corner of the room, on the street, and at work.

Through them, I could see and experience the world.

It felt different from the world of the 61st floor, which blindly pursued only battle and victory.

From time to time, I was able to recognize where the believers were.

I also sympathized with the topic of the conversation the believers were talking about.

[Sorry.]

A voice came in quietly.

It wasn’t someone’s voice.

It was the voice of this planet, Earth.

[Sorry.]

Earth was apologizing to me.

It wasn’t just me.

It was apologizing to everything that was alive and breathing in this world.

I was the only one that could understand it.

[Sorry.]

Now, no one cares about it, but it has always been the home of the people and everything in the world.

Since the birth of man, it received the faith of humans.

Unable to wield one’s faith in one’s own self.

[Sorry.]

So, the one god in the human world, who could not save anyone and just listened to the prayers of numerous existences was endlessly apologizing.

“That’s interesting.”

“What is it?”

The Awakened extracted Earth’s source to the limit.

There is a little left, but it won’t be that much.

Kirikiri predicted that this planet would soon be destroyed.

If you think so, maybe.

[Sorry.]

Wouldn’t that apology be considered the last will of Earth?

How would it feel to be an incompetent god, who had to watch their believers die in vain, just for the hope of salvation for so long.

I didn’t know.

I didn’t even want to imagine.

[Sorry.]

I replied to the voice.

“Stop it, I understand.”

Earth was annoying.

* * *

[Pros: 100 votes, Disagree: 0 votes]

[The voting ends.]

“Ho-a-am.”

Kirikiri yawned loudly.

It was a very long voting session.

It wasn’t unusual for the Hundred Gods Temple where a single agenda could produce dozens or hundreds of votes.

But this agenda was really, really long.

It was difficult to achieve a unanimous agreement because of the complex interests involved.

In any case, the voting went as intended.

As a result, the Hundred Gods Temple was completely removed from Lee Ho-jae.

After clearing the Tutorial, they agreed to completely ignore his status as a challenger and to treat him as a separate entity.

What will happen…

“You’re finally going to live.”

“God of Hope?”

A fluttering fly flew over Kirikiri’s face lying in the field.

“It’s me. Who could it be?”

“Hi-hing, you have become so weak that I did not recognize you as the God of Hope.”

“…”

The God of Hope was quietly silenced by Kirikiri’s words, as he was offended.

The God of Hope, who flew around for a while, soon left Kirikiri’s room.

She knew what he came to say, but she wasn’t in the mood to accept it now.

The God of Hope will start moving again.

The God of Hope was relatively free from restrictions, but that did not mean complete freedom.

Now that Lee Ho-jae has completely disappeared from the axis of constraints, the God of Hope would finally resume his activities.

And now he would approach Ho-Jae not as an individual, but as a member of the Pantheon.

The relationship between the Pantheon and Lee Ho-jae could not be said to be friendly, no matter how it seemed.

The protection period was over and now…

The die was cast.

It was unclear whether this would end up beneficial for them…or if this was equivalent to poking a beehive.

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