Chapter 44: Churches without Missionaries (9)

Truth be told, until recently, I hadn’t developed a strong attachment to this neighborhood.

In a way, it was natural.

It had only been a few months since I’d fallen into this unfamiliar world.

Even now, a part of me still felt that ‘Omega Detroit’ was just a fictional city I’d only seen in a game.

So, even though I had formed quite strong bonds with the people around me, the area itself still felt awkward.

I established the ‘Church of Radiance’, but that was to protect myself, and the charity work was merely an extension of that purpose.

It wasn’t truly out of practicing some selfless divine love or because I particularly cherished the residents here.

That sentiment had continued similarly until recently.

The number of believers visiting the church kept increasing, but I didn’t assign it any meaning beyond the expansion of the church’s influence.

But clearly, something was changing.

“Thanks to the Saintess… truly, thank you so much.”

Facing the believers who looked at me with eyes full of goodwill and affection every day, I couldn’t help but realize it.

The people living here were, each and every one of them, real people, just like me.

Not mere backgrounds or nameless crowds.

They were individuals who had sought God, carrying their own deep worries and the weight of their lives.

And they also knew how to sincerely express gratitude for the help they received.

As I gradually came to realize this, I could no longer feel as estranged from this neighborhood and its residents as before.

It was a bit awkward whenever I received tearful words of thanks, but on the other hand… yes, I was definitely happy.

The old buildings here, the people who greeted me as I passed by.

They were slowly becoming familiar.

It seemed I was growing fond of them without realizing it.

Of course, even at this moment, my goal of returning to my original world hadn’t changed at all.

However, if my actions in the process of moving towards that goal could be of even a little help to someone…

I thought that the days I spent in this world wouldn’t be entirely meaningless.

But, lost in such sentiments, there was one fact I had momentarily forgotten.

Yes, this city was the infamous Omega Detroit.

A city of sin where unexpected incidents and accidents occurred every minute, every second.

And usually, most unfortunate accidents primarily befell the powerless.

A paradise for the strong, hell for the weak.

How could I have forgotten until now that I was living in such an unreasonable world?

==============

That day was no different from any other ordinary day.

I had become quite accustomed to juggling my part-time job and the minor tasks of the Church.

As usual, after work, I stopped by the church office and was processing approval documents related to charity work.

Bang, bang, bang!!!

Suddenly, I heard someone urgently pounding on the office door.

While I was wondering, ST opened the door for me, and a priest, drenched in sweat, rushed into the office, flustered.

And then he started rambling.

“Saintess! We’re in big trouble! R-right now, in the streets…!”

“First, calm down and tell me slowly. Has something happened?”

“Well, I mean, please wear this first!”

The priest, his face pale as a sheet, hastily pulled something out from his clothes and handed it to me.

The item was some kind of mask.

Not a non-woven fabric one, but a mechanical mask connected to a small oxygen tank.

“Quickly, please put it on first…!”

I had a mountain of questions I wanted to ask, but his desperate expression made me accept the offered item first.

And as I casually glanced at ST standing beside me, she replied.

“My respiratory cybernetics are implants equipped with a composite gas mask function, so I’m fine.”

Hearing ST’s answer, I put on the mask.

It wasn’t the type you put on like a hood, but one that only covered the lower half of the face, so thankfully it wasn’t too stuffy.
Afterward, we followed the priest’s guidance and began to go downstairs.

“What on earth is going on?”

“Well… y-you should see for yourself first.”

And when I finally reached the chapel, the sight that unfolded before my eyes made me feel as if my breath had stopped.

“Good heavens….”

It was utter chaos.

“Cough, cough!”

“Ugh, keuhuk…!”

The church interior, which had been peaceful just half a day ago, was now filled with numerous residents who seemed to have just evacuated.

Coughing sounds erupted from all directions.

Their complexions were pale, almost white.

Red rashes bloomed on their skin here and there, and people were collapsed on the floor, vomiting painfully….

On another side, patients in critical condition were gasping for breath, lying haphazardly.

‘What in the world is this……’

At a glance, there were well over a hundred people.

Among them, even unconscious young children were mixed in.

I asked the priest again, my voice trembling.

“…..What happened?”

He wiped the sweat beads from his forehead and answered.

“Toxic gas is spreading throughout the streets of 13th Avenue right now…!”

Toxic gas.

The first thought that came to mind from that word was chemical weapons.

“Could it be… are we under attack right now?”

“No.”

“This incident is… well…”

The priest was choosing his words.

Just then, someone else appeared and interjected.

“We’re estimating it to be some kind of industrial accident.”

“Yoanna.”

Without any further explanation, the girl quickly approached my side and showed me the tablet screen she was holding.

It was a CCTV footage of a certain location.

It was a pipeline where dozens of huge pipes stretched out for a very long distance, and the surrounding area was thick with hazy smoke.

“The source of the leak appears to be one of these large gas pipes.”

“It’s an energy supply pipeline that crosses the suburban area and goes into the city, and a large amount of toxic gas was leaking from one of them.”

That’s why the nearby streets had turned into a living hell overnight, Yoanna added.

Following that, the CCTV footage of the back alley she showed me revealed a horrific scene.

The entire street was filled with hazy smoke, and people were collapsing, foaming at the mouth.

It was a scene where countless people were strewn across the streets, regardless of whether it was a commercial area or a residential area.

These were the very same people who, just yesterday, had greeted me warmly and friendly on my way to work.

‘Good heavens….’

A trembling voice escaped me at the horrific sight.

“Surely… all those people… are they dead?”

Fortunately, Yoanna shook her head.

“The concentration of the leaked gas doesn’t seem to be at a fatal level yet.”

“Most are unconscious, but they’re still alive for now.”

“However, they won’t last long without proper emergency treatment.”

It was a sight where anyone could tell there wasn’t much time left.

I desperately tried to think of a solution to this situation.

“Then, first, we need to mobilize the church personnel to find the leaking pipe and stop it-“

But Yoanna shook her head once more.

“Eve-nim, the gas pipe has already been completely repaired.”

“What’s spreading in the streets now is only the residual gas.”

“What? What do you mean…?”

She swiped the tablet screen again.

And the video she showed was a CCTV recording from about two hours ago, she added.

‘This is……’

The pipeline I had just seen.

A few work vehicles arrived near the site, several technicians wearing gas masks got out, did something to the problematic pipe, and then disappeared in an instant.

And as soon as they disappeared, the hazy smoke that had covered the screen stopped increasing.

Yoanna explained.

“They are presumed to be the maintenance team of ‘Union Solutions’, the energy company that owns the pipeline.”

“They probably checked the gas concentration flowing through the pipe and realized there was a problem.”

“So the leak itself was repaired two hours ago.”

“What remains in the streets now is only the residual gas that was released before that.”

At those words, I felt a fleeting glimmer of hope.

“So, the company also quickly grasped the situation.”

“Then, perhaps a rescue team sent by them or the police will arrive soon?”

“……….”

But Yoanna, without any change in expression, simply shook her head calmly.

“There were no reports received by the public office servers.”

“They probably reported it to the company superiors, but their problem-solving measures likely ended with fixing the pipe.”

The moment I realized the meaning of those words, I couldn’t believe my ears.

“S-so… they just… left it at that?”

“At the very least… they should have at least informed the nearby residents about the leak!”

“If it was two hours ago, they could have warned people and evacuated them before the gas spread this much, why…?”

“Why didn’t they order an evacuation?”

At my agitated question, this time ST, standing beside me, explained in a cold voice.

“If they order an evacuation, the responsibility becomes clear.”

“To avoid being accused of negligence or having to pay for damages, they are treating it as if nothing happened at all.”

“But, people are actually dying!”

“It’s better if everyone dies and no one makes an issue of it, then it doesn’t become a problem.”

“No matter how obvious their wrongdoing, the poor have no way to properly protest against a corporation.”

“If they secretly fix the pipe and pretend not to know, it will become a non-event as they wish.”

“In this city, that’s the common way to solve problems.”

“Good heavens….”

The company that owned the pipeline had turned a blind eye to countless lives just to save on accident compensation.

It was an unbelievable story, but the result was unfolding before my eyes.

On the floor of the chapel, now turned into a shelter, countless people lay in agony.

And this wasn’t all.

There were countless other residents scattered throughout this back alley whom we hadn’t yet identified.

People isolated and unconscious in every house, or in shops they couldn’t escape from.

Their numbers would be too vast to find them all.

As I felt a sense of despair, Yoanna’s voice reached me.

“Considering the leaked gas components and the current residual concentration in the air, the golden time for survival for those who have lost consciousness due to poisoning is estimated to be a maximum of about three hours.”

“And… two hours have already passed.”

According to her, in just one hour, most of the people in this area who couldn’t evacuate would die.

But it was a hopelessly insufficient amount of time to find, rescue, and treat all the victims scattered throughout this entire back alley.

‘Why… why did this happen….’

Suddenly, I lifted my head and looked around again.

Among the numerous patients, a father frantically searching for his family.

A young child crying for their mother, their face smudged with black soot.

And elderly people gasping for breath, as if it would stop at any moment.

Deep resignation and despair were etched on everyone’s faces.

They knew it too.

That the company responsible for this whole catastrophe, this horrific living hell, would never take responsibility.

The poor in the back alleys couldn’t hire proper lawyers to file lawsuits, nor could they go downtown to protest.

Even if they vented their anger by destroying company-owned external assets, like other pipelines, that would only give the company a pretext to cleanly ‘dispose’ of even the victims’ families.

Either way, it wouldn’t be a problem for them.

So, they could do nothing.

So, for the corporations in this city, nothing really happened.

Even if hundreds of people had their bodies ruined overnight and lost the homes they had built their entire lives.

“………”

Suddenly, I remembered something I heard in my original world.

‘You can’t put a price on a human life.’

That was originally meant to signify how precious human life is.

But the society of this city also didn’t put a price on human life.

The reason was the exact opposite.

‘Because it’s so trivial and worthless.’

Especially the poor outside the city limits, who didn’t even have voting rights, weren’t even counted as statistics.

They were simply and thoroughly ignored.

No one would look back at their tears.

“…….”

However.

Right now, I… am watching, aren’t I?

Once I made my decision, I threw off the stuffy mask I was wearing onto the floor.

“Eve-nim…?”

And I approached the patients lying in the middle of the chapel.

Among them was a rather familiar face.

‘Eri….’

The brown-haired girl who had once helped me had her eyes closed, her complexion pale.

Her breath was shallow, as if it could stop at any moment, and a pained, faint cough escaped her.

Unconsciously, I was about to touch the girl’s forehead.

Someone called out to me.

“Saintess.”

Was it Yoanna, ST, or one of the priests nearby?

I don’t remember whose voice it was clearly.

But I could vividly recall the content of what they said.

“This time, it could be really dangerous.”

“Since a corporation is directly involved.”

“If an epidemiological investigation comes from somewhere, it is judged that there is a high possibility that the reality of the miracle will be revealed.”

But that warning somehow didn’t sound like an attempt to dissuade me.

Rather, it felt like a voice filled with firm resolve.

It was the kind of determination that only those who had sworn to share their fate with me, no matter what danger befell them, could show.

And it seemed everyone present felt the same way.

“…….”

Before them, I answered.

“The reason I created the Church was precisely to prepare for situations like this.”

It was something I had resolved from the first time I borrowed God’s name to heal the blind girl.

That in this city, I would never lose my humanity and return home.

And now, look at the countless lives laid out before me.

They were dying because they couldn’t receive help from anyone.

And I had the power to save them.

If I turned away from this horrific scene and sought safety for myself alone, that would by no means be the way of a human being.

‘Yes, even if I have to go, I should live like a human being.’

Even if the end of that effort is a tragedy, I will gladly endure it.

I didn’t want to be a coward alone among people who had sworn to offer even their lives to me for an upright life.

So I will do what I can do now.

‘If this is a tragedy that cannot be overcome by human strength…’

Then only God’s power could help them.

As I gathered my fingertips and prayed—

The first light burst forth.

Paaaat—!

The girl closest to me, Eri, who had been gasping for breath, slowly opened her eyes.

“Eve-nim?”

She looked up at me, still with a bewildered expression.

It wasn’t just Eri.

The attention of the people, surprised by the radiance that had gently illuminated the chapel just moments before, began to focus on me all at once.

“Saintess?”

“It’s the Saintess….”

“Ah, merciful Radiance… have mercy….”

The surroundings started to get a little disorderly with murmuring sounds, but such commotion didn’t bother me in the slightest right now.

Because I was concentrating all my mind on desperately conversing with someone unseen in my heart.

‘If… someone who gave me this ability was watching my journey here……’

Were all the tragedies I faced in this city, all part of your plan?

Do you truly wish for my hands to take away the rampant misfortune and suffering in this city?

If my thoughts are correct….

If that is truly what you desire….

‘Please, grant me the strength to achieve it as well.’

It was the moment I finished that prayer.

“……!”

A radiance more intense than ever before began to erupt from my entire body.

It wasn’t just my hands, which had been the medium for all miracles until now.

Now, from head to toe, even every single strand of hair was imbued with a dazzling light.

That bright radiance instantly filled the entire chapel and, not content with that, leaked out through the windows and open doorways.

It was a sight that brightened even the dark streets outside the church as if it were broad daylight.

The patients, bathed in that warm light, one by one, stopped their painful coughing and began to open their closed eyes.

“………”

Finally, the dazzling light slowly subsided.

Someone looked back and saw that the main door of the church, which had been firmly closed, was now wide open.

But no one tried to close it again.

Instead, people, as if by prior agreement, began to take off their masks or the cloth pieces that covered their mouths, one by one.

And they took a deep breath.

“Hoo-eup—”

What filled their lungs was no longer the air of death.

It wasn’t even the usual stuffy atmosphere filled with fine dust and acrid smog.

As if standing on a cloud, or the kind of air one might feel at the very top of a skyscraper, a refreshingly clear and clean wind, so crisp it was almost biting, gently enveloped not only the inside and outside of the chapel but the entire eastern suburban area.

“Ahhh…..”

Everyone witnessed that miracle.

Even those at the bottom of the valley of despair, whom no one cared about, clearly felt God’s love warmly embracing them.

Then, they no longer doubted the existence that would save them.

Not even for a moment.

Someone later commented thus.

That moment was the true beginning of the Church of Radiance.

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“That church needs no preacher, for there is no way to disbelieve the miracle before one’s eyes.”

• Author Unknown: The Church Without Missionaries –