Rise of the OtherGod Apostle: Not a Cult Leader, but a Serf?!
#122
#122
Go ahead, take it. I dare you.
The Saint was going to show up any second, and when that happened, this idiot had no chance of escaping.
He’ll probably drop the stolen relic and make a run for it, though.
But really, it didn’t matter if he ran and tried to keep it.
Actually, that might be even better.
Because that thing’s basically a GPS tracker anyway.
No scenario ended with him not being totally screwed.
The boy’s hand hovered over the reliquary, a flicker of confusion crossing his face.
“…Wait, there’s something else on him?”
The Prophet’s fingers fumbled around the back of my neck, like he’d just spotted the hidden Saint’s relic beneath my clothes.
Great. Is he trying to swipe that too?
Shameless bastard. I hope he goes bald after this.
But doesn’t the Saint’s relic have some kind of anti-theft protection?
Shouldn’t it trigger a divine barrier or something if someone tries to snatch it? It’d be pretty ridiculous if it could block deadly attacks but couldn’t stop a petty pickpocket.
“The Saint?” The Prophet’s voice wavered. “Is this… the Saint’s holy relic?”
Ah. Looks like he triggered the warning.
You know, the one that basically says: “Touch this protected creature and face divine judgment!”
So, the warning only goes off when someone actually touches it, huh.
I suddenly remembered how Athanas had given the relic a suspicious look before.
Should’ve let him touch it back then.
He would’ve believed me on the spot. I’ll make sure he does next time we meet.
…But what’s he going to do now?
I could hear him muttering, “Shit.”
Curiosity piqued, I wanted to see the look on his face, but with my eyes closed, I had to settle for just listening in.
“Why’s the Saint involved? What’s happening? Is this one a fake too?”
There was a frantic rustling sound, like he was desperately digging through his pockets.
“…Shit, the Saint’s really coming this way?”
Wait, how does he know that?
There’s no way the Saint was out there announcing his arrival like, ‘Hey, I’m on my way!’ So how was this guy tracking him? Did he have some kind of item?
Did he buy something with clear points?
In Heretic Slayer, there’s a hidden talisman that lets you sense incoming enemies while masking your own holy power. If he’s got something similar—maybe even one that detects Apostles by measuring their holy power levels—it would explain how he knows the Saint is getting closer.
“S-Save me! System, please save me!”
Out of nowhere, the Prophet started shouting at the air like a madman.
Does he seriously think the system will rescue him just because he yells at it?
And then Ding!—a notification window appeared.
[The approach of an Apostle has been detected.
In response to the player’s request, the “Tutorial Emergency Life-Saving Device” will now activate.
For the next two hours, the time within the ‘Underground Library’ will be accelerated by a factor of 20.]
What the actual f*ck?
It actually worked.
…Tutorial Emergency Life-Saving Device?
I’ve never even heard of something like that. Is it some kind of hidden mechanic to balance how overpowered Apostles are compared to non-contracted players? That would explain why they’re not as aggressive right now.
…But when I met the Saint, I didn’t get any notification like that.
Is the system playing favorites? Because I’m the one in real danger here. No powers, no emergency devices… nothing.
And for f*ck’s sake, why does this bastard get all the perks when this is a conflict between two players?
System, you damn bastard! If you’ve got any explanation for this bullshit, I’m all ears!
Why don’t I get any of those convenient, life-saving features?
“…20x speed? So, like, how much time’s gonna pass out there? Five minutes or something?”
It’s 6 minutes.
You idiot who can’t even do basic math.
“Okay, okay, I just need to stay calm and think this through. First… as long as I don’t leave any traces that I was here, I can still fix this.”
Are you seriously thinking about running away instead of cleaning up the mess you created?
With all those insanely strong distortion abilities, why are you playing like a total coward?
If that’s your genius plan, wouldn’t it be easier to just come clean to the Saint and switch sides? At this rate, you won’t even survive the tutorial, let alone make it to endgame.
“Yeah, yeah, I got it. I’ll say Bishop Andrea was the Prophet! He told me he’d introduce me to the Prophet, but instead, he secretly came down to this underground library himself and planned to reveal, ‘Surprise! I was the Prophet all along!'”
…Wow. Now Andrea’s suddenly an idiot.
“And then Andrea… yeah, he got bitten by this purple snake that’s been living down here! A snake that’s actually a remnant of the evil god, but Andrea, being the fool he is, thought it was a messenger of the Lord and started taking care of it! It’s perfect!”
Perfect? In what universe is that perfect? You’re losing both the useful snake and Andrea in this ridiculous story.
Poor Andrea…
He had so much faith in the Prophet, only to have his memories twisted and his reputation trashed by all these wild accusations.
This just proves you should never associate with anyone who plays with the Distorted One.
“But then, this suspicious Inquisitor got a hunch that something was off and decided to investigate… Yeah, that’s it! He got dragged into the whole mess. It’s perfect.”
Does this guy ever stop talking to himself?
Was he one of those streamers who narrates every single thing they do?
“Wait a minute… this Inquisitor… Could it be that crazy bastard sent him on purpose? But even if it’s him, there’s no way he could control the Saint…” The Prophet muttered under his breath.
“So, this wasn’t some elaborate trap? Just an accident?”
I cracked one eye open just enough to sneak a peek at what the player was doing.
The Prophet was holding Nasir’s tail between two fingers, inspecting it like it was some strange item.
“…We’re still in a cooperative relationship, so I guess I should ask. Napoleon!”
Napoleon?
“What? I can’t use the chat function while the time scale’s being adjusted?”
He muttered a curse under his breath.
“If I cancel the time adjustment temporarily… No, explaining everything would take five minutes and waste too much time.”
He kept rambling, but I’d already tuned out.
Napoleon…
The name rang a bell.
…That bastard’s a total Mother God fanatic.
“There’s no such thing as ‘impossible’ in my dictionary! So, of course, I can do it!”
I could practically hear him now, spouting his ridiculous catchphrases with that manic energy of his—always obsessed with possibilities, always pushing the boundaries of reason.
Just thinking about him really grinds my gears.
Napoleon.
Anyone who’s ever played Conclude knows that name. He was a one-man army, single-handedly releasing the Korean language patch when the developers couldn’t be bothered. And that was just the beginning. He wrote strategy guides, flooded the wiki with content, and became the go-to expert in the forums. Whenever things got too quiet, he’d whip the community into a frenzy with events and prizes.
Honestly, say what you want about him, but the guy was hardworking.
The problem is, he’s a total possibility junkie.
At first, he kept his craziness on the down-low, but as the Mother God Fanatics multiplied, he started shamelessly promoting Conclude as the ultimate fix for people obsessed with endless possibilities.
No matter where I went, that guy was there.
I even tried jumping into communities in different languages to escape his presence, but Napoleon? He’d pop up there too, dropping multilingual guides—he even had stuff for furries.
Honestly, I’d say he’s about 80% responsible for turning Mother God into the deity of possibility junkies.
And then came the creepiest part: he once said to me that I “opened his eyes to the truth.”
What a horrifying thing to say.
So, as much as I hate to admit it, I know way too much about Napoleon.
…Which is exactly why I knew this guy wasn’t him.
The reason? Simple.
Nasir had four ears.
Cat ears on top, human ears right where they should be.
Napoleon was a die-hard member of the ‘two-ear’ camp…
I wish I didn’t know this, but apparently, the number of ears on beastkin is a hot-button issue among possibility junkies. It’s like the “dip or pour” sauce debate, but somehow even more ridiculous.
Before Conclude became a breeding ground for Mother God fanatics, Napoleon had posted a question on the wiki’s discussion page, aimed directly at me:
“If there’s a cat beastkin, would they have four ears or two? qwerasdf, I’d love to hear your take.”
At the time, I had no idea how insufferable these possibility junkies could be, so I casually fired off an answer.
As a Mother God player, I replied, “Two. That’s the only correct answer.”
…I mean, have you ever seen a creature with four ears?
That was my reasoning.
Evolution and mutation tend to stick pretty close to the original blueprint. Just like no vertebrate has more than two arms, it seemed obvious to me.
Take bird wings or whale fins, for example. Sure, they look wildly different, but when you break it down, they’re just modified arms.
So, in my mind, if a creature had four ears, it wasn’t some quirky ‘mutation.’ It was a chimera, cobbled together from bits and pieces of different animals.
That was my response, and I still remember it like it was yesterday.
After that, he started acting all buddy-buddy with me, in a weird, one-sided way.
Back then, I didn’t give it much thought.
I could never understand why people got so worked up over whether beastkin should have two or four ears—it didn’t affect the unit’s performance in the game. I just thought, ‘People have their preferences, right? No big deal.’
Even when I found out that Napoleon was more obsessed with turning people into beastkin than actually advancing in the game, I wasn’t really bothered. I mean, I’ve always thought it was ridiculous to judge someone’s character or morals based on their weird in-game decisions.
Just because I once did an eugenics playthrough where I castrated anyone below a certain stat to achieve “human evolution” doesn’t mean I actually believe in eugenics in real life.
But then I realized…
This bastard wasn’t just weird. He was full-on crazy.
Was it when that religious group tried to get Conclude banned…?
Suddenly, the game was swarming with newbies who had bizarre motivations. Strategy guides showcasing humanoid-insect traits were flooded with comments like, “OMG, WHAT IS THIS ABOMINATION?! MY EYES ARE BURNING!”
At first, I brushed it off. There were always trolls online, so it didn’t seem like a big deal.
I was just thinking, maybe we need to reorganize the thread tags. All these “possibility junkies” were making it impossible to find decent strategy guides…
And then Napoleon made his grand entrance with a post that shook the whole forum.
A video montage of insect-humanoids mating, close-ups and all, with the caption: “Shut up, you uncultured bastards!”
That image is seared into my brain.
The post was titled: “I don’t sit at the same table with those who can’t appreciate the allure of insect-human hybrids!”
The bastard really lived up to his nickname, alright…
Napoleon was intense, capable of taking things to extremes. And that’s precisely why he had pored over my strategy guides with a fine-toothed comb.
Anyway, just the thought that Napoleon might be the Mother God player makes me want to stay far, far away from him.
I can’t afford to die. No matter what.
If he ever finds out that I’m qwerasdf, I can already hear the smug words coming out of his mouth: “Now I can turn even your impossibilities into possibilities!”
If the “crazy bastard” the Prophet mentioned earlier really is Napoleon…
When the Prophet first saw Nasir, he immediately suspected it was a trap set by that so-called ‘crazy bastard.’
From the Prophet’s furious rant—“Is this your idea of cooperation? Huh? Now you want to hunt me down?”—it’s clear that players not only know each other but some even work together. Yet, the fact that this ‘crazy bastard’ is infamous for trapping or hunting down other players? That adds a whole new layer of danger.
The fact that the Prophet is still working with Napoleon, even after knowing what he’s done to other players, speaks volumes about just how terrifying powerful Napoleon must be.
I was lost in thought when the sound of footsteps snapped me back to reality, and I flinched slightly.
“So, what’s the deal with this Fabio character?” the Prophet muttered, his voice uncomfortably close.
“Is he really some kind of super-important unit?”
…Napoleon isn’t the main concern right now.
I’ve got to play my part, two hours of pretending I’m blind and deaf to the world around me.
But is that even remotely possible?
It feels like it’s only a matter of time before I slip up and blow my cover…
Ouch.
The Prophet pinched my cheek, his fingers digging in just enough to hurt.
“But I’ve never heard of a unit called ‘Fabio’ before. Can someone that important really have no information on them?”
Quit pinching me, you bastard!
“Or maybe this body is just a vessel? Is there something special about the soul inside?”
How would you even figure that out?
His eyes narrowed as his hand began to explore further.
“No ring… and this necklace, just a relic.”
Wait… hold on—
I nearly yelped when his hand slipped under my robe.
F*ck!
This… this crazy bastard! Who loots someone while they’re still conscious?!
“There must be something here,” he murmured, his hand groping lower. My stomach churned with disgust, and before I could stop myself, I shoved him away.
But instead of backing off, the Prophet caught my wrist.
“Ah… so you still have your sense of touch?”
His words sent a chill down my spine.
As I considered dropping this whole charade…
[The hand touching you right now feels like it belongs to someone you deeply rely on.]
[SYSTEM: Due to the effect of ‘The Whole World Is Beneath Oneself,’ the ‘Distortion’ is provided as text.]
Seriously… Is this guy an idiot?
For a moment, I was stunned by the sheer absurdity of the notification.
Really? Even if it’s someone you trust, if they’re rummaging through your pockets and trying to steal your wallet, wouldn’t you stop them?
Isn’t it natural to ask why someone is taking your stuff?
Ignoring the notification window, I struggled to pull my hand free.
“Huh? Why are you resisting?”
Damn, this Prophet must have good stats.
It wasn’t as bad as when Athanas grabbed me and I couldn’t move at all, but I still couldn’t muster enough strength to overpower him.
…I guess staying hidden is my best option.
Even if I revealed myself as a player, I’d still be stuck here with this lunatic for over an hour. And if he figured out I didn’t have any blessings and my stats were garbage?
No telling what he’d do.
“Did the distortion fail? Why?”
Another notification popped up.
[Your sense of touch disappears. Even if someone touches you, you will feel nothing.]
[SYSTEM: Due to the effect of ‘The Whole World Is Beneath Oneself,’ the ‘Distortion’ is provided as text.]
“This should do it.”
He’s abusing his power of distortion like crazy. How many clear points did this guy have to spare?
“Hmm… Would undressing someone count as doing them harm?”
A cold shiver crawled down my spine.
Undressing… me?
“Just in case, I shouldn’t be the one to undress him.”
[You feel the urge to take off your clothes.]
[SYSTEM: Due to the effect of ‘The Whole World Is Beneath Oneself,’ the ‘Distortion’ is provided as text.]
I didn’t move.
“…He’s not doing it? Ah, I must’ve missed a condition.”
[You are preparing to take a bath. This is a bathhouse, and no one else is around.
You feel the urge to take off your clothes.]
[SYSTEM: Due to the effect of ‘The Whole World Is Beneath Oneself,’ the ‘Distortion’ is provided as text.]
“…….”
“Huh? Why isn’t this working? Did it conflict with the previous command?”
F*ck…
Can’t he just pat me down over my clothes? Isn’t that how body searches normally work? I’m not exactly wrapped in layers.
And seriously, doesn’t it make him uncomfortable to see someone else naked?
I hoped if I stayed still long enough, he’d just give up after a quick check.
“I don’t care anymore. Since you won’t feel anything, I’ll just undress you myself.”
F*ck this. I’m done pretending.
I snapped my eyes open and glared at him.
“…Huh?”
The Prophet’s eyes widened in shock.
“The distortion… it hasn’t been canceled yet?”
“Stop.”
“…How dare you speak to a Prophet like that?”
“Cut the crap. I know you’re a player, you bastard, and I’m done with this f*cking act.”
A tense silence filled the air.
“…Are you a player, too?” he asked, more cautious now.
“Yeah.”
“…Since when did you break free from the distortion?”
“From the start.”
His face flushed bright red.
“So you heard… everything I was muttering to myself?”