Ch.1515. Bahamut (3)

While this foolish dragon was deluding himself with ridiculous hopes that his cult would become a legitimate religion, his subordinates weren’t content to simply wait for the Balhut Cult to fail.

Once the foolish dragon had determined the cult’s name, Yu-na summoned all the cult members.

“From now on, we will operate under the name of Balhut Cult. Now that we have our name, I will announce the objectives we must pursue.”

“Objectives…!”

In this zombie apocalypse catastrophe, Yu-na and the cult would move toward the future they desired.

On a small scale, this would determine each cult member’s future, and on a larger scale, it was a strategy that would determine the Balhut Cult’s future.

All cult members focused their attention on Yu-na, who declared in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear:

“Our goal is simple! To rebuild the lost order of Gyeongju City with a new order. To build a new city upon the ruins! That will be the world we desire!”

“Ohhh…!”

Restoring the order that collapsed due to the zombie apocalypse.

And building a new city on the ruins.

Looking at the big picture, it was a declaration to reclaim their former daily lives, and the cult members responded positively to this declaration.

In their situation, what they desired most was to regain their peaceful daily lives, and Yu-na’s declaration to personally make this happen resonated strongly with them.

“To achieve this, the first thing we must do is unite all the survivor camps in downtown Gyeongju!”

“Uniting all survivors.”

Moreover, this wasn’t just mindless populism without a plan; she seemed to be presenting a kind of roadmap.

Yu-na mentioned all the survivor camps in downtown Gyeongju and stated that they all needed to be united.

“All survivors must become one, with one heart pursuing one goal! Only then can we gain the strength to make the impossible possible!”

Her reasoning was that if all the survivors in Gyeongju City joined forces, they could gain the strength to make the impossible possible.

“For the restoration of order, we, the Balhut Cult, solemnly declare that we will struggle under the name of the god Bahamut!”

“Is that… the mission given to us?”

After the declaration of their goal, one cult member posed a question to Yu-na.

More than half had already been persuaded by Yu-na’s speech, but some rational cult members still felt uneasy.

In response to this member’s question, Yu-na smiled brightly and conveyed the “divine” message:

“Yes. Our god has spoken thus! Cultivate strength. And with that strength, raise a new city from the ruins. That will be the new world we desire. Following this teaching, we will purify Gyeongju with our power and pioneer a new city in the purified Gyeongju. That is the new world we want right now!”

“The world we want…?”

This could be seen as a kind of fanaticism.

In this modern society, the idea that someone would be persuaded by Yu-na’s claim that the word of god is absolute…

“I will follow the High Priestess’s words!”

Incredibly, they were convinced.

It seemed that the cult member who had harbored inner doubts about Yu-na’s teachings believed that the dragon who had swept away all the zombies in Gyeongju City had absolute authority. They quickly transformed into a loyal cult member without a trace of doubt.

Naturally, this scene was observed by Bahamut, who was watching through Yu-na’s Scrying Mirror.

‘What the hell is that? That’s scary.’

Bahamut felt genuine fear.

He was terrified both of Yu-na, who was convincing cult members with her nonsense, and of the cult members who were being persuaded by that nonsense.

At the same time, he felt a sense of crisis.

‘This is dangerous. If I leave them unchecked, they’ll definitely go out of control!’

By this point, even this foolish, stupid dragon could roughly sense what was happening.

If he left them without any safety measures, they would surely cause trouble somewhere!

‘But how do I stop them? If I tell them to stop, they’ll probably listen.’

Of course, if Bahamut himself stepped in, he could quickly suppress their recklessness.

Bahamut was their god, and he had the power and authority to do so.

If he simply said “Don’t go overboard right now,” there would be a truckload of cult members willing to obey with their lives.

‘But this won’t be a one-time thing. They’ll go out of control many times in the future. I can’t stop them every time.’

However, he realized this wouldn’t be a fundamental solution.

Without clear rules and laws, their recklessness would continue, and Bahamut himself couldn’t keep stopping them.

But could he, with his stupid brain, establish laws and rules that they would accept?

‘That’s impossible.’

Until he met Yu-na, he had been nothing more than a basement-dwelling dragon, so it was impossible for him to create laws and rules that people would accept.

Bahamut was well aware of his own limitations, which only deepened his concerns.

‘Wait. I don’t necessarily have to establish the laws and rules myself, do I?’

And what he chose was…

[Choi Yu-na.]

“Yes, my god.”

[What we need to do right now is recruit legal experts to create laws and rules for our cult.]

To outsource the task to others.

Frankly, it was the idea of borrowing someone else’s brain because his own abilities were lacking, but it wasn’t a wrong approach at all.

Although many people had fallen victim to zombies since the zombie apocalypse began, there were still survivors who had worked in law-related fields.

Of course, in the era of the zombie apocalypse, laws were practically useless, making their expertise unusable and placing them in a socially vulnerable position. But there were plenty of people in the city who had studied law their entire lives.

Now that stability had been achieved, their knowledge could be of great help to the Balhut Cult, which was trying to implement new laws and rules.

“What’s the reason?”

‘I can’t just say outright that it’s to create laws and rules to prevent you all from going berserk!’

Of course, the purpose was to restrain the Balhut Cult’s recklessness, but he couldn’t openly admit that.

Bahamut slowly thought of a plausible logic to convince Yu-na and the Balhut Cult, and gradually explained the rationale for seeking legal advisors.

[Since this will be a new city rather than an existing one, the existing laws and rules will no longer have any effect. Moreover, I don’t know much about human laws. So I thought human laws should be created by humans themselves. If amateurs who know nothing about law try to devise new laws, they will surely only create bad laws that torment people. To prevent that in advance, we need legal experts.]

“I see! So these are the laws and rules that our Balhut Cult will follow!”

[Y-yes. I’d like this prepared relatively quickly. Meaningless recklessness hinders unification. In other words, it’s a safety measure that we set for ourselves.]

Upon hearing Bahamut’s explanation, Yu-na immediately realized that these would be the laws and rules for the Balhut Cult to follow, and before she could think otherwise, Bahamut explained that it was a safety measure to prevent meaningless recklessness.

Yu-na nodded several times, seemingly convinced by the somewhat plausible explanation and reasoning.

Bahamut breathed a sigh of relief, thinking she had been successfully persuaded, but…

“I completely agree! My god! I’ll kidnap them right away!”

[Not kidnap. Invite them! Understand?! We’re not a radical cult, but a peace-loving one?]

He immediately put the brakes on her brutal statement about kidnapping.

“…Yes.”

‘That was dangerous. If I had really been spacing out, she would have gone 100% berserk.’

Seeing Yu-na looking dejected with a disappointed expression, Bahamut felt a chill down his spine.

He sensed that if he had done nothing and remained oblivious, this cult would have gone berserk and become an evil cult.

“This is troublesome.”

After taking his eyes off the Scrying Mirror, which showed Yu-na’s dejected appearance, Bahamut sighed.

“Should I just step in directly?”

If he could intervene directly, the chances of unintended situations would decrease, but with Choi Yu-na acting as his proxy, these fanatics were emerging.

“Let’s just be grateful that Yu-na isn’t a bad person.”

At least Yu-na’s nature wasn’t bad; rather, her kindness made her not a bad choice as a contractor.

She didn’t disregard him and was trying her best to follow his opinions.

“…What’s scarier is that it’s not malice but goodwill.”

However, Bahamut was genuinely terrified by the fact that everything happening now was not from wicked malice but from pure goodwill.

He only now realized that even goodwill, when excessive, could become evil.

* * *

“Sigh. Is really no one going to make a move?”

Hwang Seung-man, the Chief Judge of the Gyeongju Branch of the Daegu District Court, sighed at the silent stillness of Gyeongju.

Working at the Gyeongju Branch, Hwang Seung-man had survived until now by fearlessly leading the judges working at the court and the civilians who had come to the court when the zombie apocalypse broke out.

Due to the nature of the court as an institution, resources could have been very scarce, but fortunately, the Gyeongju market, full of supplies, was near the Gyeongju Branch. They had defeated the zombies in the Gyeongju market and recovered the food and supplies there.

Additionally, they had managed to survive by creating sturdy barricades using the cars parked at the court.

Yes, they had been able to survive without problems until now.

“It’s already been two days since the promised day… I thought at least one clueless survivor would have shown up by now.”

It had already been two days since the day promised by Choi Yu-na had passed.

However, the survivors living in Gyeongju simply couldn’t express joy.

“With all the zombies gone, we don’t have to worry about our lives anymore.”

Of course, it was truly joyful and fortunate that all the zombies in the city had disappeared.

They no longer had to fear for their lives from zombies and could go outside with peace of mind.

However, on the other hand… the being that had annihilated all those zombies was troubling.

“I wish they would make the first move!”

The massive dragon that had descended upon Gyeongju.

That dragon was supposedly the god worshipped by Choi Yu-na, who had promised the day of promise.

When he first saw it, Hwang Seung-man was overwhelmed by its enormous size.

Then he felt terror at the immense power that followed, and when it roared toward the sky at the end, he already felt that he had submitted to that dragon.

Perhaps because of this, even after two days, Hwang Seung-man and the survivor camp that followed him remained silent.

“Should we explore the surrounding areas now to gather supplies?”

Now that the zombies were gone.

He knew this was the perfect opportunity to recover supplies that couldn’t be retrieved because of the zombies.

The numerous supplies sleeping in the nearby Gyeongju market.

Among the supplies that couldn’t be recovered because of the many zombies, some items might have expired and become unusable, but conversely, there would be twice as many usable items.

‘Should I just close my eyes and search thoroughly?’

If they searched now and focused on recovering supplies, they could obtain many resources.

This thought circled in Hwang Seung-man’s mind, but at the same time, he couldn’t get that dragon out of his head.

‘If that pseudo-cult had made some declaration or movement, we could have moved accordingly.’

Clearly, the winner in this situation was the cult led by Choi Yu-na.

Naturally, the spoils belonged solely to Choi Yu-na and the cult she led, and other survivor camps didn’t dare to covet them.

If they made a wrong move and incurred the dragon’s wrath, they might follow the horde of zombies that had been annihilated two days ago.

So despite the zombies being gone, the city remained eerily quiet.

‘Damn it. What is the government doing?!’

Cursing the central government that still hadn’t made any declaration, Hwang Seung-man racked his brain.

But no good answer came.

He feared that if he stepped forward tactlessly here, he might be viewed as hostile by other survivor camps, not to mention Choi Yu-na.

“You seem to have a lot on your mind.”

“Gah?!”

As his worries deepened and despair welled up in his heart, Hwang Seung-man was startled by a voice from beside him and tried to draw his weapon.

Was it a surprise attack from another survivor camp?

Or was it a zombie that could speak playing a trick?

Seeing Hwang Seung-man frantically trying to draw his weapon, someone smiled and spoke:

“Oh? It seems I startled you.”

“Y-you are…?”

A young girl with white hair, dressed in what appeared to be a priestess outfit.

Hwang Seung-man immediately recognized that this young girl was the most famous girl in Gyeongju right now.

He had witnessed the dragon’s descent and had also seen the girl who had summoned that dragon.

“C-C-Choi Yu-naaaaa?!”

Why on earth was Choi Yu-na here?

Hwang Seung-man backed away with a fearful expression, raising his voice and regarding her with caution.