Damn Necromancer

Chapter 433: Religious Competition

There was someone else doing sales in this field besides me?

Sitting on the bench tilting his teacup, Kim Minwoo let out a hollow laugh as if he was dumbfounded.

On the opposite side of the rest stop square.

A guy calling himself the Apostle of Radiance, wearing a pure white robe and holding a golden staff, was spewing a holy halo.

With his appearance, thousands of challengers from District 7 prostrated on the floor and offered blind prayers.

It was truly a religious group itself.

If this District 1 was a newly emerging capitalistic multi-level cult united by the interests of meat, elixirs, and resurrection, that District 7 was a group of orthodox fanatics whose brains were perfectly brainwashed.

[Warning! Combat activities are strictly forbidden in the rest stop.]

The system's red warning message was flashing in the empty air of the rest stop.

They considered each other an eyesore, but they couldn't just draw their weapons and hold a physical heretic inquisition right here right now.

Ultimately, there was only one method the two cults could choose.

"Brothers, those who are wounded, come to me. The mercy of the light is always by your side."

If physical force was blocked, what remained was verbal force.

In other words, only sales.

The Apostle of Radiance launched a preemptive strike first toward the neutral survivors from other districts who belonged to neither District 1 nor District 7 and were reading the room.

The apostle approached a beastkin challenger, who was bleeding with one leg torn off by a monster, with a benevolent smile. He brought his brilliantly shining golden staff to the beastkin's severed area.

Hwaaaaat―!

A holy and warm light wrapped the wound, stopping the bleeding, and new flesh slowly began to sprout.

It was a high-level holy magic that showed off tremendous magic power manipulation.

"Ohhh……! The wound, the wound is healing!"

"Apostle! Thank you! How can I ever repay this favor……!"

The beastkin challenger, who had been writhing in pain, shed tears and grabbed the hem of the Apostle of Radiance's pants.

The apostle smiled benevolently and stroked the beastkin's head.

"Favor, you say. The mercy of the light is equal for everyone and does not expect anything in return."

The apostle slightly turned his gaze toward the Death Cult in District 1, which was busy grilling Dragon Bone steaks far away, and said.

"Do not sell your souls to beastly material things like that. A God of Death in the first place…… Doesn't the very name sound ominous? They try to ensnare you with the bait of false miracles, but true faith lies only in uncompensated devotion and the salvation of the light."

At that holy miracle and free healing show, the eyes of the neutral survivors, who were still atheists, began to waver.

'That's right. If it were a genuine religion, would they have enticed people like doing a promotional event, handing out goods like that?'

'Come to think of it, feeding people meat to gather believers was a bit much, it's not a supermarket tasting corner.'

'The name God of Death itself was sketchy. Isn't it obviously an evil cult at a glance.'

'Yeah. The salvation of the soul takes precedence over material abundance.'

Just as a few neutral survivors overwhelmed by the atmosphere were about to sneakily move their steps toward the Cult of Radiance.

Kim Minwoo, who had been directly observing that spectacle sitting on the bench, burst into a pishik laugh.

"What do you mean uncompensated. His own mana is already leaking profusely from the tip of his staff right now. He's speaking so fluently when he won't even be able to heal once he runs out of mana."

Kim Minwoo picked his teeth with a toothpick and gestured with his chin.

"Hey, Nasar."

"Did you call, Master!"

"Show them hotly what the welfare of our Death Cult is like. Don't hold back and use it generously."

"I will obey your command!"

Nasar revealed his gums fully and took out something from his inventory. It was a [Premium Elixir] commanding thousands of points.

The extravagance of using consumables worth hundreds and thousands of points like plain water.

It was because Kim Minwoo, behind them, was hitting his believers with unlimited item sponsorship based on the astronomical points he swept up in the Despair rank.

Nasar, fluttering his hair like a lion's mane and revealing his teeth with a grin, strode across the rest stop.

The place he headed was another neutral survivor moaning with one arm torn to shreds.

"Hiik?!"

Sharp fangs and a beast-like pressure.

The survivor instinctively cowered and covered his face with both hands.

"G-go away……! Combat is forbidden in the rest stop……!"

However, making that warning meaningless, Nasar bent his knees and smoothly lowered his posture. The lion face that had been savagely contorted until just a moment ago relaxed into a benevolent smile like a lie.

"You misunderstand, brother. Our Death Cult never proselytizes through violence."

Even his voice was as smooth as silk.

"Could you lend me your arm for a moment? It will only take a very short while."

Without a single bit of hesitation, Nasar popped open the lid and poured the entire bottle over the mouth and wound of the neutral survivor, who was panting with a hole in his stomach next to him.

"Keok, keoheok! Wh-what are you doing……!"

It was the moment the survivor was about to struggle.

Flash―!

"……Uh?"

The large wind hole that had been pierced through closed up without a trace like a lie.

Even his health and mana filled up exceeding their limits, and an aura even spewed from the survivor's torso.

"Next is the provision of a meal."

Nasar shoved a steak dripping with meat juice into the arms of the dumbfounded survivor.

"Our Death Cult is never stingy with its followers. Even just the most basic meals are like this."

"Th-this meat is……!"

The survivor received the steaming chunk of meat and trembled violently.

"D-don't tell me it's the one worth 5,000 points in the shop……?! Th-the Meat of Strength that says your strength stat goes up if you eat it?!"

"That is correct. If your strength stat is below a certain value, it will be quite effective. Eat it and cheer up."

Nasar revealed his gums fully and gave a thumbs up.

"……!"

Before that overwhelming and intuitive taste of capital, the feet of the neutral survivors who were about to move toward the Apostle of Radiance stiffened rigidly.

The healing given by the Apostle of Radiance?

It is certainly holy and something to be thankful for.

But it took ages just to heal one wound.

On the other hand, the Cult of Death?

They pour top-grade potions worth thousands of points like neighborhood bottled water, and hand over elixir meat that raises stats when eaten.

In order to survive this hellish Ascension Ritual first of all, it was unconditionally more beneficial to believe in a rich god with solid backing who covers them in blood and flesh with overwhelming wealth, rather than a god struggling to save mana.

"I-I will join too! Long live the God of Death!"

"Excuse me! I just prostrated saying I believe in the God of Light, but I'll cancel it! Please grill me one steak rare!"

"Welcome, brothers! Come on, line up! Don't push!"

The remaining thousands of neutral survivors changed direction like a horde of zombies and began to swarm toward Kim Minwoo's faction. The public opinion and commercial supremacy of the rest stop completely crossed over to the Cult of Death.

"……Y-you heretics!"

A deep blue vein popped out on the forehead of the once benevolent Apostle of Radiance.

"To defile the holy hall of faith with such vulgar material and points! Do you not fear the wrath of the god!"

The angry Apostle of Radiance shouted, slamming his golden staff down.

However, Kim Minwoo merely lay flat on the bench, picking his ear.

"What's he saying, that bald monk bastard."

Kim Minwoo spat out the toothpick he was picking with and delivered a factual violence.

"Be honest. If you're annoyed, you guys should earn points to buy and use potions too. Ah, you earned a rat-tail amount of points in the Normal difficulty so you don't have the money to buy things from the shop?"

"Y-you bastard……!"

"If you're poor, you should at least pray hard, yeah. You must be short on mana, so keep up the hard work. We'll just finish tearing our meat."

The lips of the Apostle of Radiance trembled pareureu. The expression plastered with benevolence began to crack jjeok-jjeok.

It was exactly that moment.

Wiiiing―!

[The stay time in the rest stop has ended.]

[The affiliated districts of the remaining challengers have been divided into two massive factions.]

[The extreme religious solidarity of the challengers has been confirmed.]

[From now on, the 3rd trial, the Proof of Faith, will begin!]

Hwaaaaat―!

The entire rest stop was engulfed in intense lights of two colors.

The dark red light of the dead and the pure white light of radiance.

The bodies of the survivors reaching 15,000 floated into the empty air and began to teleport toward their respective factions.

[You have entered the 3rd testing ground, the 'Plateau of Abandoned Gods'.]

As his vision brightened, a dry wind brushed the tip of his nose.

What spread out before his eyes was a massive wasteland and canyon where the end could not be seen.

Kim Minwoo looked around.

Behind his back, the District 1 challengers exceeding 10,000 and the 50,000 vampire legion taken out of the belt stretched out endlessly.

And at the far opposite end of the canyon.

In a distant place, the pure white army led by the Apostle of Radiance could be seen setting up camp.

It was a massive battlefield blatantly set up by the system.

[Announcing the rules of the 3rd trial.]

[The challengers are currently divided into two places: the Faction of the Dead and the Faction of Radiance.]

[The side that defends the sacred relic granted to their faction and destroys the sacred relic of the enemy faction wins the trial.]

[Upon victory, a massive amount of points can be acquired.]

A typical faction war.

It was a blatant rule telling both sides to fight bloodily and mutually destruct.

The Apostle of Radiance raising his staff and shouting from the opposite side of the canyon echoed, riding the wave of magic power.

― Ohh! At last, the holy war to purify those heretics has arrived! Brothers, endure the pain of the flesh and be martyred for the true light!

Hearing that sound, Nasar and the District 1 challengers simultaneously spewed murderous intent and drew their weapons.

"Cult Leader! Just give the command! We will smash all the heads of those heretic bastards and conquer their fortress!"

However, Kim Minwoo's gaze was fixed on the last line of the system message floating in the empty air.

[Special Rule: A massive amount of additional points is acquired when killing believers of the enemy faction or converting them to allies.]

"……Additional points if converted?"

Kim Minwoo's eyes flashed wide open.

A war of attrition where you kill and rob them once and it's over, and saving them and bringing them to my side had different rates of return in the first place.

Kim Minwoo dropped Hell Rhapsody with a tuk and shouted.

"Hey, guys. Put your tools away. Don't kill the guys over there."

"……Pardon? But they are heretics who serve the light!"

"Heretics or whatever, didn't you just see the system message? It says they give more points if we entice them and bring them over."

Kim Minwoo gestured with his chin toward the vampire legion and the challengers, giving the order.

"We pull all the personnel over there to be our subcontractors."

Let's do door-to-door sales holding steaks instead of shields.

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