The underground bunker of a cult.
Dinner time, with the initiates sitting around together.
A voice rings out in the silence.
"Wow."
....
"Wow, this is amazing."
The ghost story of the Nameless Brilliant Cult is looking at me.
"Only Dragon came?"
Smiling brightly.
Turning their gaze to the two empty seats beside me.
"Fox and Grandmother Kim Bok-ja aren't here, only Dragon."
....
"You know. Why do you think those two couldn't come?"
Guess: Mild forgetfulness
Reason: Natural aging due to old age
"Are you dissing Fox for being older than you? Hahahahaha!"
Hahahahaha….
Laughter spreads through the dining hall.
"Don't worry! They're both fine. I made an exception because they seemed to want to go on a field trip."
Field trip.
[Oh dear, I think I've been found out.]
Perhaps.
I tried not to imagine what kind of situation they were in in an overly 'imaginative direction.'
But.
"Hey, do you want to continue eating, or go see those two?"
…Ha.
Rule: Breakfast and dinner are eaten together.
"That's right! But you're not an initiate, are you? So you're an exception."
....
"Of course, follow me! I'll show you. The others will continue eating!"
"That's right."
The people nodded with smiles, then resumed their meal, talking to each other about things like 'Let's spread happiness.'
I got up from my seat, gathering my smoke, and followed the twins as they walked….
Listing the worst-case scenarios.
'As long as Assistant Manager Eun Haje isn't dead.'
And as long as Ho Yuwon didn't run off alone, anything else would be fine.
The possibility of that is slim. I should remember that….
The twins left the dining hall, which was located to the east, and walked down a dark, cement-finished corridor to the place I expected.
A giant central cavern.
The place where rituals were held.
And….
"They're here."
Among the many coffins, I pointed behind one leaning against the wall.
"Want to go in?"
The sister smiling broadly, and the brother with a blank expression.
After seeing that obvious yet unsettling appearance once, I drew out thick smoke and sent it into the space behind the coffin.
There.
"Ah. You've arrived."
…Ho Yuwon, with a healthy complexion, and Assistant Manager Eun Haje, disguised as Grandmother Kim Bok-ja, were leaning against the wall.
For now, both of them seemed intact.
'Phew.'
I followed Assistant Manager Eun Haje's nod and slowly stepped into the space. It was….
'...Factory equipment?'
It was some kind of facility.
The size was not as overwhelming as the cavern, but it was large enough, slightly bigger than the dining hall, with pipes and machine noises humming everywhere.
It looked like a compressed version of an old, worn-out factory implemented as a small facility.
[Indeed! A bunker equipped with production facilities!]
[Preppers sometimes build underground bunkers not just for simple shelter, but with long-term living in mind! This is a prime example!]
Steam was being emitted from the installed pipes. I detected the smell of disinfectant lingering in the air.
"Isn't it magnificent?"
I turned my head.
The twins were now standing inside this space.
Both of them were smiling.
"Curious about what we're making?"
....
"Ask. Hurry. Fox, who went on the field trip first, is here."
I looked at Ho Yuwon.
He glanced at the facility and said with a smile,
"It's a place where we brew alcohol."
....
...!!
"That's right, …Cheers!"
As the twins moved aside, the view they were blocking was revealed….
A giant vat.
As tall as two people standing and immense in width.
However, instead of pottery, it was a large rectangular water tank that looked like cheap plastic.
I realized.
The smell lingering in the air wasn't disinfectant.
It was the smell of alcohol, of ethanol.
Coming from that vat.
"What do you think? Isn't it cool?"
The place where the Immortal Liquor, brewed with Jinejiseung in Jisan Village, used to be.
Right beneath the village shrine, they had recreated that vat.
Exactly the same.
"Right here, in this very spot. There used to be a festival where they drank alcohol brewed with the Jine of the Imitator Cult. Everyone heard Lord Name's voice there and saw a Happy Ending."
....
"But someone stole all the alcohol. They say even the Jine were completely taken. So someone has to refill it, right? We're going to try!"
Wait a minute.
Then what are they planning to put in place of the Jine….
"I thought about making alcohol from Dragon or Fox, you know."
...!
"Ah, but you two aren't initiates! So that won't do."
It's because.
"If the alcohol is to have the effect of realizing Lord Name… shouldn't we brew it with the devout and miraculous Divine Power of the Nameless Brilliant Cult?"
Divine Power.
The language of the Nameless Brilliant Cult that summons ghost stories.
"So we've prepared the Divine Power. Ah, here come the participants."
Footsteps could be heard from behind me.
The footsteps of dozens of people, echoing through the vast cavern.
"Congratulations on completing the initiation ceremony!"
....
I turned my head.
Beyond the entrance.
The initiates, having finished their dinner, were standing there.
The initiates standing before the coffin were all lined up quietly.
Without making a sound, they looked inside with knowing smiles.
A strange sense of unity.
As I examined their faces….
....
Wait a minute.
Question:
"Hmm? Mr. Noru, how many times have I told you it's not your turn to ask a question…."
Question: Whether the restriction on 130666's facial recognition impairment (mosaic) has been lifted.
"…You're saying strange things."
Ho Yuwon declared.
"I've never touched Mr. Noru's restrictions…"
....
Then.
Why can everyone see each other's faces clearly?
From the first day, I hadn't seen anyone's face in this underground bunker as a mosaic or a melting mass.
Everyone else accepted it as it was. Because I had left the Daydream behind and was accompanying Director Ho, and because of his words, 'Gain freedom for a while.'
I had accepted it naturally.
And so, now I am facing it.
The truth I missed.
"Let's spread happiness!"
The initiates' mouths opened, reciting their set lines.
I saw inside them.
Those mouths.
The shape of the wriggling tongue moving inside their mouths as they pronounced the words….
That it was something else, not a tongue.
"Let's spread happiness."
It was a worm.
A red, fleshy mass resembling a tongue, a worm-like creature moving in their mouths instead of a tongue. Its movement was natural and skillful, as if it had completely replaced the function of a tongue, but its mouth at the end opened, revealing teeth.
"Oh, did you see? Isn't it cool? That Divine Power, you see. It's said to be a horror derived from fish parasites. It attaches to the root of the tongue, eating away at it, and replacing it. And…."
The whisper of the Happy Ending Cult.
"It spreads quickly? …Even just by talking during a meal."
And so I realized.
How arrogant my casually thrown, sarcastic question had been.
·No, how can they possibly form a sense of unity?
That question was asked from such an arrogant position.
Reality is not a wiki.
Just because the settings revealed on a wiki are childish doesn't mean the situation lacks plausibility. How superficially I viewed this situation.
In reality, phenomena always have reasons and foundations.
It's just… that I don't know them.
·The details that make this absurd situation possible
There were.
·Small symbols shared only among themselves
There were.
'Ghost stories.'
All the initiates were contaminated by the same ghost stories. That's why I could see their faces.
And that ghost story….
"Isn't it amazing?"
Is something I don't know.
I know almost nothing about what ghost stories the Happy Ending Cult uses as Divine Power. Only the powerful and impressive ones were registered on the wiki in a rush.
…Would it be meaningful even now, to read them?
Meaningful in controlling this insane situation, where the tongues of the initiates have all been replaced by parasites, and perhaps everyone's thinking and cognitive abilities are being controlled by those parasites….
[Oh, friend. There's an idea you've overlooked.]
What?
[If it's all initiates, isn't there one person we haven't confirmed yet?]
'...!'
I stiffly turned my head.
Assistant Manager Eun Haje.
Assistant Manager's face, as I met her gaze, was perfect, without a single speck of mosaic or melting, just like the first day.
....
Smoke rose.
Recommendation: Check the tongue.
However.
"Ah. It's okay. Ms. Falcon's tongue is fine."
Ah.
"Ms. Falcon is already infected, so other parasites can't enter."
Wait a minute.
I made eye contact with Ho Yuwon, but there was no time to argue.
Because.
"Is the story over? Then now… the initiation ceremony is over, so we start working."
The twins raised both hands.
"Everyone, get into position!"
The people moved.
The initiates, still in line, entered the facility without hesitation. And….
They passed by me, cheerfully advancing.
Further inside.
Walking along the pipes of the facility equipment at a constant speed, as if placed on a conveyor belt, they went up….
And threw themselves in.
Splash, splash, splash!
People fall into the potent liquor.
'…!!'
With a clear and even refreshing sound, they disappeared into the cheap white plastic tanks. They sank. The refreshing sound continued without interruption.
"It's going to be a great liquor."
Contaminating dozens of people with ghost stories, turning them into something less than human, and brewing liquor with them.
…Instead of Jine, the entire group of initiates became the ingredients.
That was the purpose of this initiation ceremony, and why the underground bunker was located here.
"Isn't it cool?"
....
A shiver ran down my spine.
"When it's finished, you should drink it too. You drink it too, and know Lord Name."
And then I realized that one more emotion had returned to me. That was….
Already known entity: Lord Name
Disgust.
"Hmm?"
Doctrine of the Nameless Brilliant Cult:
This world belongs to Lord Name. Only His will and choices have meaning.
"That's right! That's it!"
Is that right?
But in truth, they don't know.
Do they know the absurd truth of this doctrine?
This is actually….
Lord Name
The being worshipped by the cult, the Nameless Brilliant Cult, appearing in
In reality, its identity is [Spoiler].
The content that appears when you click on Spoiler.
The author of the
It's simple.
However, since anonymity was the basic rule, the principle was not to touch the name field.
Thus, when the contributor uploaded the ghost story as is… this is what happened.
Author: Name
This format.
And so, all wiki pages are written as 'Author: Name.'
And the Nameless Brilliant Cult initially started as a small meta-ghost story inspired by this.
A chilling idea that transcends the fourth wall, where the beings in ghost stories recognize their author.
But as countless people joined, it gained its own life force and grew wildly, eventually becoming a massive religious organization.
The Nameless Brilliant Cult mistook this 'Author: Name' for a great divine being and worships it.
…Just like a real cult.
And what does this mean?
That the Nameless Brilliant Cult's doctrine has a contradiction from its very origin.
: The Happy Ending Cult.
In fact, this means the Happy Ending Cult harbors a fundamental setting error.
"…Huh?"
Do you perhaps remember?
What I said to the people of Jisan Village, in front of the Jinejiseung.
·Those who are too weak to accept this truth have fled death in the world, but that is not an escape.
That's right.
Death is not an escape.
You cannot escape from Lord Name.
"Th-that's."
Therefore, death is
▶ Cannot be happiness.
▶ Cannot be an ending.
It means there is no such thing as a Happy Ending.
Killing people under that pretense is also.
A doctrinal contradiction.
A meaningless act.
"..."
A high-ranking member of the Happy Ending Cult fell silent.
Their smiling expression gone, their face serene, beneath the red headband, over the worn school uniform.
A face devoid of vitality.
I suddenly realized that face was not as young as I thought….
And.
"Does that matter?"
…!!
"Isn't it sufficiently like a ghost story? People dying meaninglessly, and it being a misunderstanding… it's something Lord Name would notice. We're doing well."
Splash, splash.
"That's right. Right now, a hundred people are jumping into the liquor, but if it's all just a pointless death, if the Happy Ending Cult itself is a ridiculous act, then it's funny."
…Something.
It felt strange.
That wasn't a deliberately staged grotesqueness.
In other words, it wasn't the flat expression commonly seen in ghost stories or horror films, where madness suddenly manifests outwardly and screams, 'Aren't I scary?'
It was real.
So this was….
"Unique, funny, with a twist. It's funny."
Fear.
I looked at the twins, who had the face of handsome teenagers in school uniforms. That contrived appearance.
An appearance that felt desperate… a blatant individuality.
"Lord Name will like it, won't He?"
....
"Lord Name will like it, so He'll want to watch it longer!"
I realized.
'I knew it.'
It wasn't that I didn't know.
On the wiki, there's only baseless cruelty and characterization, made by gathering fragmented, unpleasant stimuli, but reality is different.
It's just that for them….
"Then that's enough."
Lord Name was fear.
The reason ghost stories spread throughout the world is Lord Name's will.
They know that.
Therefore, they must act in a way that best suits His taste. Doing absurd things, creating amusing events, committing cruel acts, even bizarre situations.
Trying to act in accordance with His taste like that.
"Then that's it."
Was the true identity of the Happy Ending Cult.