GSGW c235

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Chapter 235

note: i'm testing out some new fonts for certain things so you can notice what is what (like Sol's smokey words). Sorry to those who fell for the rick roll. I had to do at least something for April fools day lol

 

The days in the underground bunker of the Happy Ending Sect were monotonous—and strange.

People took turns praying.

Every day, new corpses arrived.

And the ones who brought them would passionately explain how good those people had been in life, and therefore how they deserved a happy ending.

People listening would tear up, smiling and applauding at the same time.

The bodies were then crammed into a black box.

It was the image of a small society gone mad—grotesque to look at, yet strangely peaceful among themselves.

‘Truly cult-like.’

Cruel, insane acts.

And in contrast, a closed-off sense of comfort.

And in contrast, a closed-off sense of comfort.

All while living inside a survival bunker isolated underground.

[Ah, that too is a technique of governance. A sense of solidarity, belonging, and the constraints of daily routine—those things keep a group from leaving.]

Right. Maybe that was only natural. But still…

‘…It feels like something is missing. Some kind of detail.’

[Oh?]

The details that make this absurd situation possible.

For example… when cults hold rituals like this, there is usually some specific act that everyone shares together.

‘Drinking a particular beverage, holding a certain branch, imitating animals… things like that.’

Small symbols shared only among themselves.

Something slightly ritualistic—unique, symbolic, not difficult to perform, yet enough to create a sense of religious belonging.

‘Clothing too.’

Usually they share at least one thing—matching colors, or some common ornament.

But the people in this underground bunker were all wearing ordinary clothes. There was no visible sign that they had joined the sect.

Even the uniform worn by the executives… well, as a supernatural rumor it was symbolic, but it still didn’t look strange as normal clothing.

‘If everyone wore the uniform, it would at least feel bizarre.’

But if only the executives had it, the effect felt incomplete.

‘How are they forming a sense of unity at all?’

This inhumane group was supposedly maintained by nothing more than the ideas of Ireum-nim and “happiness.”

Was it really just brainwashing people with Ireum-nim and telling them to kill someone?

[Oh, what a clever analysis! My friend could create a splendid cult of their own. The prophet act you showed on the train was quite impressive.]

[Perhaps you should start a fascinating organization right now? Something intriguing, strange, delightful… And this is quite a bold offer, but I shall even allow the stuffed body of this Braun to serve as its symbol!]

Th-thanks, but I’ll pass for now.

Anyway.

To be perfectly honest… those missing elements feel almost like a blank space.

From a wiki perspective, that is.

‘Like they couldn’t fill in the settings.’

It feels as though the story focused only on visceral stimulation and discomfort—constructing events and horror without realistic details.

But those details are what usually support the story.

‘…The Happy Ending Sect was the most recently added sect in the Church of the Luminous Unknown wiki.’

Maybe that was why. Part of me wondered if it would have been better to end up in a sect created earlier in the wiki.

‘Like the Fixed Number Praise Sect?’

/tn. the other translation was Garden Praise Sect and neither versions make sense, this cult doesn't make sense >:(

But I erased the thought immediately.

It was better to remain in the current state—feeling only discomfort without too much emotional disturbance.

‘…Better than experiencing genuine, realistic unease and terror.’

Yes. I should be grateful it wasn’t that.

For now, all I could do was sigh at the sloppy balance while gradually getting used to the stomach-churning spectacle of cruelty and horror.

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

[Have you ever considered that some cults only reveal their true nature once you become part of the true in-group?]

So… you have to join to see the real thing?

‘I’d rather decline.’

Over the past two days, no one had forced me to swallow a fragment of an empty scripture to be reborn with the authority of the Church of the Luminous Unknown.

There hadn’t even been subtle hints or pressure. If this were another cult, that alone would have been even more unsettling.

It felt like deliberate calm.

‘Maybe they think I’m not a contaminated human, but the ghost story itself, so they’re taking a long-term approach.’

I even asked Ho Yuwon, but he shook his head.

“Ah, nothing like that so far.”

…Really.

“But it’s hard to uncover any real information here, isn’t it? Still, it’s convenient that I can speak privately with you like this, Roe Deer.”

That was true.

The Happy Ending Sect had assigned us living spaces here in the underground shelter—almost like we were placed at the same level.

Half-spherical rooms connected like an anthill.

[Authority Zone]

It was different from the cramped areas where ordinary initiates lived—shelter-like spaces packed tightly together, barely enough for basic survival.

This area was slightly separated from them. Larger, emptier… independent. Almost as if territories had been assigned.

Strange sealed rooms without even CCTV.

[Almost like a lion’s enclosure. If such facilities existed within the underground living quarters of those who fled below during the end of the world.]

Incidentally, aside from the spaces assigned to us, the nearby Authority Zone appeared empty.

Except for the two people wearing uniforms.

“Authority Zone… It seems the Church of the Luminous Unknown calls darkness an authority, right?”

That’s correct.

Come to think of it…

Question :

What do you know about the Church of the Luminous Unknown?

How much did Ho Yuwon know?

“I know what I need to. I read the experimental logs mentioned in the Cheerful Research Institute.”

Ah.

A subtitle for the research had been taken from the name of a god worshipped by a cult that recently rose to prominence, derived from earlier studies.

…The experiment log beside the incubation tank where I woke up.

Apparently Ho Yuwon had also discovered other references to it within the underground Cheerful Research Institute.

“It’s an extreme religious organization that worships darkness and seeks to become darkness itself. It seems to be expanding rapidly. It looked like the perfect opportunity to learn information that couldn’t be found before. And…”

Ho Yuwon met my eyes.

“The experiment log that created you… said its name was taken from the god of that religious group, didn’t it?”

…!

“So I’m a little curious what connection you might have with them, Roe Deer. Ah, that wasn’t a question.”

……

“Now I’ll ask a question.”

The topic that had been interrupted in the elevator.

A single question he seemed almost obsessed with.

“How do you know about Segwang Special City?”

…Sigh.

‘I can’t say I read it on a wiki.’

I had no choice.

Unable to answer

: Please substitute another question

"......"

Ho Yuwon’s laughter stopped.

For a brief moment he stared at me expressionlessly. Then, as if it had never happened, the smile returned.

“So you cannot answer….”

……

“I’ll remember that, Roe Deer.”

There were no follow-up questions.

It was an uncomfortable end to the conversation.

And that evening, one daily event finally arrived that at least made sense in terms of detail.

The Happy Ending Sect’s mealtime.

“Let us spread happiness.”

“May Ireum-nim watch over us.”

Here, everyone must attend breakfast and dinner together.

No exceptions.

Even those contaminated by ghost stories sat at the same table as the initiates.

Incidentally, the uniformed executives sat across from me.… Sigh.

‘At this rate they’ll say killing a believer made them happy too.’

I suppressed a groan.

Soon the meal began.

I glanced around the underground bunker—the exposed cement walls and ceiling. Then I quietly looked down at the table.

Canned food.

“Can’t eat?”

I turned my head.

The executive in the school uniform—the one who called me earlier—rests her chin on her hand while staring in my direction.

Then she nudges the boy who looks exactly like her.

“Hey, hey. What do dragons usually eat?”

The boy only shrugs. The executive smacks him lightly on the back once, then looks at me with a bright expression.

“Oh! We should introduce ourselves. Introductions are important…. Anyway, I’m Lee Seoyu, and this is Lee Seobin. We’re twins—I'm the older sister!”

She grins.

“Some friends even call me ‘Isseoyu~’ in a Chungcheong dialect!”

So cheerful.

Which only makes it more awkward.

The casual, lively attitude of someone who was just murdering people without hesitation—brainwashing them with hallucinations and trying to kidnap us.

The uneasiness of someone in a ghost story freely revealing their real name. And…

‘They really are twins.’

Now that I’ve come this far, I recognize them. The twins from the Happy Ending Sect, who appear in several Church of the Luminous Unknown ghost stories.

I’ve even seen them in WTube thumbnails a few times.

/tn. yes, it is called WTube, probably to prevent copyright laws or something

This is the first time I’m hearing their real names, though.

“So do you eat weird things? Like human brains or something. Or liver?”

Seeing them like this, though, they just look like ordinary high school students.

So after hesitating for a moment, I finally ask—

Reason for the clothing choice

“Oh, my uniform?”

Her head tilts downward.

“Curious?”

She rolls across the table.

Her long hair, tied with a red headband, wriggles across the tablecloth.

“Are you reallyreallyreallyreallyreally curious? Curious why I wear this? Really really? Really?”

No.

Actually… I think I’m good.

A polite remark for table manners

“Really? Really!”

‘Just leave it alone, please….’

Maybe it’s because they’re insane, but there’s no warning before they start spiraling like that.

Before I even figure out how to disguise myself as a human, my sanity will probably collapse first.

Everything just feels exhausting and overwhelming. And then—

Thud.

“Oh dear….”

To my right.

An elderly woman eating beside Ho Yuwon bumps into his arm and spills her cup of water.

His clothes are soaked.

“Oh dear, are you alright?”

But instead of checking the water on his sleeve, Ho Yuwon immediately moves to help the elderly woman up.

He cleans the table in front of her and wipes the spilled water from her clothes.

…Ho Yuwon is being that considerate?

“He’s a good person.”

“A good man.”

…People are watching.

From every table, whispers spread as they watch Ho Yuwon’s actions.

'......'

That evening, Ho Yuwon chats warmly with the old woman for quite a while… Eventually, he even invites her to his zone.

“I’ll tell you an interesting story.”

No one stops him.

[Oh. I can feel the audience’s anticipation.]

Right.

Anticipation.

The Happy Ending Sect executive—who introduced herself as Lee Seoyu—whispers to us as we leave.

“If you’re going to make Grandma Kim Bokja happy, tell us in the morning! We’ll need to perform the ritual!”

/tn. is that you Kim Dokja? 🥺

……

My stomach churns.

But I don’t stop Ho Yuwon.

‘It must be for information.’

If anything goes wrong, I can intervene.

So I slowly follow the elderly woman as Ho Yuwon supports her toward his zone.

And then we enter Ho Yuwon’s zone.

Thud.

The moment I close the door and lean against it—

Ho Yuwon suddenly releases the hand that has been supporting the old woman and steps back.

And the old woman straightens her back completely, standing upright as if nothing had happened.

'...!'

She spits out a small round glass bead she has been holding in her mouth. As soon as it leaves her mouth, her form begins to change—gradually becoming firmer and clearer.

A cold, tired expression.

Eyes sharp like a hawk.

A pale face with short blue hair.

Someone I know.

'...!!'

Assistant Manager Eun Haje.

‘Wait.’

What kind of situation is this?

For a moment my mind freezes, unable to process it.

Then realization strikes like lightning.

‘No wonder he helped the old woman.’

Assistant Manager Eun Haje has infiltrated the Happy Ending Sect facility disguised as an old woman.

And there is only one person who would have sent her here.

Ho Yuwon!

“So you send someone in and then come in yourself like this?”

“No, no. Pure coincidence. I didn’t expect to run into you here either.”

“Right. Of course.”

Assistant Manager Eun Haje drops heavily into a seat.

For a moment she looks like she wants to smack Ho Yuwon. Then she notices the bruise on his face and her eyes light up.

“Director, were you injured?”

“Ah. This person here was a bit rough with me….”

[How shameless.]

Exactly.

As Ho Yuwon points at me naturally, Eun Haje glances at me as well.

She almost looks shocked—but then she steadies herself and asks calmly.

“…Security Team?”

“That’s right. And actually, someone Ms. Falcon knows as well.”

"......"

Eun Haje’s eyes sink.

As if she is recalling a list of field investigation team members she has worked with—and the fates they met.

But before she can finish that thought, Ho Yuwon speaks again.

“Long time no see, right? This is Mr. Roe Deer.”

Assistant Manager Eun Haje freezes.

Her gaze leaves Ho Yuwon and turns completely toward me.

Her mouth opens.

“Roe Deer?”

……

Yes, Assistant Manager.

I form letters with smoke.

'It’s okay.'

In fact, this situation is better than when I encountered the security team.

My mind is calm, and unlike when I am in the isolation room, I have some freedom now.

To meet her eye level as she sits on the floor, I carefully sit down by the door as well.

Trying to recreate the way I used to speak.

I made a mistake, so I ended up like this. But it will be alright.

I’m looking for a way to recover.

"......"

Assistant Manager Eun Haje looks down at the floor.

Her face, hidden behind her hair, disappears from view for a moment…

“Okay, Roe Deer.”

Then she lifts her head and meets my eyes again.

All traces of agitation are gone from her face, leaving only calm composure.

“Of course you can recover. Hey, you can’t call yourself a real employee of Daydream Inc. until you’ve experienced a few ridiculous side effects from the darkness.”

She taps my arm inside the black smoke.

“You’re a smart one. You’ll figure out a way. Just think about what you want to do once you’re back to normal.”

……

Thank you.

“Don’t thank me. Hey. Whenever I want a cigarette, I can just stand next to you.”

…That doesn’t sound ideal.

Still, while Assistant Manager Eun Haje grumbles about not being able to smoke because of her disguise, we end up talking a little more about what has happened recently.

It is brief, but strangely comforting.

When she hears that I worked with Supervisor Park Minseong, a faint smile briefly appears on her face.

Of course, once we return to the main topic, it disappears again.

“Ms. Falcon. I didn’t call you here so you could enjoy small talk with Roe Deer.”

“Sorry.”

Assistant Manager Eun Haje apologizes immediately, though her expression still says something like what are you going to do about it?

Hmm. They seem more used to each other than I expected.

‘Last time that bastard even controlled Assistant Manager Eun Haje’s body, so I was worried.’

Fortunately, she seems to be acting like her usual self.

‘Still… I should confirm it later.’

For now, there is something else to ask first.

Assistant Manager, did you enter this place under Director Ho’s orders?

“Yeah. It’s been a real nightmare. Fetching corpses and everything…”

She grumbles, saying that even when she was a reporter, she had only infiltrated cults twice.

“They say they worship darkness in some underground bunker, killing people and all that. What was it… Happy Ending? If they want a happy ending so badly, why don’t they give it to themselves instead of forcing it on other people?”

Every word is absolutely correct….

But this seems like a place where they gather people who have just joined. Would it really be possible to obtain useful information here?

“No. The initiation ceremony is exactly where you can dig up the most.”

Huh?

“Cults usually show their true colors once they think they’ve successfully pulled someone in.”

Assistant Manager Eun Haje grins.

“And if that’s the case, they must’ve prepared something. There’s definitely something somewhere in this facility. So then—”

“That’s all well and good, but Ms. Falcon. Please don’t forget why you came here.”

Ho Yuwon cuts in.

“Have you learned anything about Segwang Special City?”

“Wait, you’re saying that in front of him…? Well, if it’s fine, then whatever. Anyway, if we want to find information about that here, we first need to figure out what these people are actually doing. Once we have that as a base—ugh.”

Assistant Manager Eun Haje speaks with visible disgust.

“Just wait a bit. You only sent me here because you saw a future where I’d learn something about Segwang Special City here in the first place, didn’t you?”

……!

‘The future?’

A memory flashes through my mind.

Right before I boarded the train to Tamra, Assistant Manager Eun Haje rushed to my room in the company housing and said—

—You’re recorded as dead on January 2.

—I confirmed it through a darkness that can see the future.

If that discovery was connected to Ho Yuwon’s project…

‘Then his behavior up to now makes sense.’

He already knew.

‘Eun Haje will learn something about Segwang Special City from the Church of the Luminous Unknown.’

Another realization follows.

‘Wait. Then did he even plan for himself to be recruited and infiltrate this place?’

With the title of director, it wouldn’t be strange if he noticed something suspicious beforehand and made preparations.

That would explain why the Happy Ending Sect executives managed to infiltrate the underground of the company headquarters so smoothly without triggering more alarms.

He probably manipulated things to minimize resistance—maybe even pulling security personnel away that day.

All to enter here without suspicion.

And of course, I’m not thrilled that I ended up caught in that plan too. But more importantly—

‘…What kind of darkness lets him see the future?’

The accuracy is terrifying.

Darkness is a paranormal phenomenon, and the stronger it is, the more dangerous and incomprehensible it tends to be.

What exactly is Ho Yuwon using?

Question: The darkness that sees the future

“…Are you asking me a question? That’s strange. I believe our question-and-answer session stopped when it became my turn to ask."

Damn.

“It seems Roe Deer-nim doesn’t have the right to ask questions until I do.”

For a moment, the smiling Ho Yuwon and I—wearing a gas mask—simply stare at each other.

Assistant Manager Eun Haje, watching this bizarre scene, looks confused for a moment. Then she shrugs and speaks.

“Well, anyway, since we’ve got more people now, things should be easier. If Roe Deer and the Director help with the search.”

“A search?”

“Yes. I was planning to examine the facility itself first… hm.”

She shrugs.

“Even if this bunker itself is a form of darkness, there has to be an entrance somewhere, right? One that connects to the surface.”

That… must be true.

‘Most spatial ghost stories have an exit leading back to reality.’

If there’s a way in, there must also be a way out.

No matter how strange a Church of the Luminous Unknown ghost story is, it wouldn’t break that fundamental rule.

Even if this underground bunker doesn’t have a fixed location, it must connect somewhere at any given moment.

The initiates probably wouldn’t know—they lose consciousness before waking up here. But someone deeper inside the organization surely would.

For example—those twins.

“And if we’re talking about suspicious individuals, those twins in school uniforms seem like the most insider-like people here. But they’re never in the cafeteria at lunchtime.”

Assistant Manager Eun Haje adds that they seem to be doing something other than managing initiates.

Anyway, the point is that if we can find clues about the entrance, we might be able to track the facility’s core from there.

“In cults, the most important things are usually placed farthest from the entrance, deep inside. Though of course, it’s also useful if we need an escape route.”

“Ah.”

Ho Yuwon doesn’t object.

After thinking for a moment, I respond.

If that’s the case, there might also be some device nearby that allows people to check the outside.

“Oh, that’s possible.”

Actually, I’m certain.

Some wiki records about Final Ritual Sites mention descriptions suggesting people inside could observe the outside.

“Well, it wouldn’t be in areas where ordinary initiates live. Showing them the outside would weaken the indoctrination.”

A place separated from the initiates’ living area.

A place slightly elevated.

A place convenient for insiders to check.

Which means…

‘Here.’

[Authority Zone]

Because of its anthill-like structure, this area has a higher ceiling—meaning parts of it are likely closer to the surface.

In the end, we decide to carefully search this zone while avoiding the twins.

“Good. If the two of you go together, this old lady will have an easier time moving around.”

Assistant Manager Eun Haje swallows the glass bead again.

A short while later—

“Here it is.”

We find it.

At the very end of the Authority Zone, in an empty section.

Near the ceiling, there is a small round cover. When we open it—

“It’s glass.”

A small fixed device, like a miniature telescope, designed to peek outside.

“Roe Deer, want to check?”

Gladly.

My body lightly dissolves into smoke as I rise upward and place my eye against the small round opening.

Through the narrow opaque glass telescope, a view appears.

……

.…!!

“Roe Deer?”

I look again.

But the scene does not change. Old houses, mountains, utility poles, dirt roads, and traditional hanok houses.

It’s—

Jisan Village.

The ritual site of the Church of the Luminous Unknown is located directly beneath Baek Saheon’s hometown.

 

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