Ch.155155. True Ending (Main Story End)

# The Jerusalem Incident became known worldwide.

It was a massive event that nearly led to the destruction of an entire nation.

A thousand years ago, when similar incidents occurred, they could have been covered up as Crusades through religious authority and the efforts of inquisitors.

But that’s no longer possible.

Media has evolved, satellites have advanced, and above all, there are too many survivors.

During the Crusades, cities were already filled with demons, leaving no survivors, but this incident ended in just one day, resulting in fewer casualties.

In other words, the world could no longer ignore religion and Divine Power.

– <The Qing Dynasty has begun establishing diplomatic relations with the Vatican…>

Countries that had ignored and distanced themselves from religion began opening their doors to the Vatican one by one.

This wasn’t simply out of caution against the Saint of Sin or demons.

– <A massive escape of entities occurred at Chernobyl…>

Shortly after the Saint revealed herself to the world, the boundaries of the world shook, and entities and outers made contact again.

In a way, it was a repeat of Punk City 2.

However, there was a clear difference from 2.

The original setting of Punk City 2 existed because the Vatican was on the brink of collapse.

The Vatican, which had suffered devastating damage in 1, couldn’t display any ability against entities, and thus, through neglect, entities steadily grew until they reached world-ending proportions.

But the current era is different.

“Greetings, Mr. Secretary General. I’m Tom, head of the First Division of the Peter Order, Vatican Special Bureau.”

“Deputy Rumi here.”

At the Soviet Secretary General’s residence, holy knights dispatched from the Vatican shook hands with the Secretary General.

Originally, the Secretary General had no intention of accepting Vatican assistance, but after hearing that the Spetsnaz had been annihilated by an escaped entity, he had no choice but to change his mind.

This wasn’t a matter of firepower or willpower.

Dealing with such anomalies had to be left to experts.

Eventually, the Secretary General requested help from the Vatican, and thus the First Division was dispatched.

Afterward, the First Division successfully eliminated the entity after a fierce battle.

Division Head Tom celebrated the success of this mission, giving glory to the Vatican.

– <This is all thanks to the grace of the Mother.>

Tom smiled proudly at the screen.

And in California, United States, Amon smiled at Tom through the screen.

“Wow, our little brother is on TV.”

“Really?”

Sonia, who was washing dishes in the kitchen, sat next to Amon and looked at the screen.

Rumi was also smiling brightly next to Tom.

“The kids have all grown up.”

Sonia agreed with Amon’s murmur.

“Who would have thought all the orphanage kids would want to join the Special Bureau?”

Time had passed since defeating the Saint of Sin.

During that period, the Vatican established numerous special bureaus besides the 11th Division.

The 11th Division with Amon alone couldn’t handle all the anomalies worldwide… that was the surface reason.

The real reason was Amon’s threat… or rather, request to the Pope.

– “If you want to repeat the past, remaining silent is an option.”

Amon, not wanting to see Punk City 2 repeat itself with entities running wild after contacting outers, advocated for active intervention.

As a result, numerous divisions were created, and many division heads were children from the same orphanage as Amon.

– “AMEEEEEN!!!”

Except for their slight fanaticism and battle cries (learned from who knows where), the division heads’ skills were undeniable.

Thus, the Vatican Special Bureau became renowned as entity hunting specialists.

As Amon was recalling these facts, Sonia approached him.

“By the way, Amon.”

“Yes?”

“Why did you insist they shouldn’t proselytize?”

She wondered as she watched her siblings’ achievements on screen.

She couldn’t understand why Amon strictly prohibited the division heads he trained from spreading the word of the Goddess he loved so much.

Amon pointed out one fact to her.

“What could be more dangerous than someone with a sword preaching?”

He wouldn’t mind if ordinary priests proselytized through sacrifice and service.

But the division heads were clearly swordsmen.

If such people went around preaching, they could easily turn to extremism.

For the same reason, Amon himself didn’t go around preaching to people.

“Our role is just to protect quietly. Preaching is the priests’ job.”

Sonia nodded in understanding at his explanation.

Later, as the two were relaxing on the sofa, Amon’s phone rang.

“Kathy? What’s up?”

[We’ve been called to deploy. I’ve arranged planes and helicopters, so head to the airport with Sonia.]

Amon checked the tickets Kathy sent.

“Japan, huh?”

[They say it’s a Hyakki Yagyō phenomenon. Entities are leading the charge, and the onmyoji are struggling.]

“Got it. We’ll head out right away.”

Amon extended his hand to Sonia.

“Pack your things first.”

She took his hand, got up from the sofa, and headed to the room.

After sending her off, Amon also gathered his weapons while muttering.

“Time to create some DLC content too.”

Amon’s lips curved into a smile as he took out swords from the closet.

***

Much time has passed.

During that time, the Church of Goddess flourished again for the first time in human history, and also fell into corruption.

Whenever the Church of Goddess became corrupt, there were those who led the charge in punishing them.

They started as the Special Bureau, but at some point, they had become something beyond that.

Like a force of nature.

They forever warned against the corruption of the Church of Goddess.

And around the time even their names and origins were forgotten,

[You’ve arrived.]

A man stepped into the Goddess’s dwelling.

“I’ve returned, Mother.”

Amon bowed his head toward the Goddess.

She sent a merciful smile to the bowing Amon.

[How was your journey?]

“It was the best. I believe I can tell the greatest story to the world I was in.”

[Sigh…]

“Um… Mother? Did I misspeak?”

Amon was flustered by the Goddess’s sigh.

She revealed a shocking truth to the confused Amon.

[What did I say when I sent you?]

“To enjoy the world…”

[That’s right. I never told you to create a story.]

“Oh…”

Could it be.

“Wasn’t it Punk City 4?”

Though the question was somewhat disconnected from context, the Goddess understood its meaning perfectly.

[No.]

Thud!

Amon was devastated.

It wasn’t Punk City 4!

The Goddess looked down with concern at Amon, who had fallen to his knees.

[Don’t be disappointed. You are the protagonist of your own life. And though it wasn’t a game, I enjoyed your story.]

Thanks to the Goddess’s comfort, or perhaps due to his own mental strength, Amon recovered quickly.

Upon reflection, his reaction was more about the shock of a lifelong misunderstanding rather than true disappointment.

‘What does it matter if it wasn’t a game?’

He had formed precious bonds that would last a lifetime and lived a happy life.

There was nothing to regret.

The Goddess read his thoughts and smiled contentedly.

[Were you happy?]

“It was the best.”

The Goddess nodded with satisfaction and created a portal beside her.

Then she said to Amon,

[I look forward to your continued achievements.]

Amon walked toward the portal without hesitation.

“Amen.”

With that single word, Amon crossed through the portal.

Looking at the portal through which Amon had disappeared, she murmured.

[Thank you, Kassiel.]

******

20XX.

A game that would stir up the internet communities of Earth finally appeared.

– Punk City? Punk City! Cityyyyy!!!!

– Four? Really? Foooooour???? Fuck!!!!

Punk City 4.

After eight years of silence, the love-hate game showed its face.

Many events occurred before this game revealed itself to the world.

There was a holy war between resellers and fans over limited editions,

A holy war between congressmen targeting Punk City’s violence and fans,

And after many other holy wars.

Finally, the game came to the fans.

– “The technological singularity of this game is ‘religion’.”

When fans first heard this from the developers, they were confused.

Religion as technology?

But they understood immediately after watching the background trailer.

75 years after Punk City 3.

The Saint of Sin was resurrected, and the Vatican stopped it.

The shockwave caused entities to escape, and the Vatican stopped that too.

They predicted AI’s rampage, and the Vatican stopped that as well.

The Vatican’s influence grew increasingly powerful, and coincidentally, the technological singularity of Mystic Power occurred.

Mystic Power finally entered the realm of human understanding.

After research on divine magic taught in theological schools, everyone could now possess Divine Power.

Humanity called this the Divine Revolution, and the Vatican became the most powerful nation in the world.

About 100 years passed from that point.

Mystic Power was completely replaced by the term Divine Power, and daily life became inseparable from religion.

All humans ‘must’ believe in the Goddess, and those who didn’t were witch-hunted.

Excommunication meant losing Divine Power and being expelled from society.

Faith was forced, and punishments became increasingly harsh.

Meanwhile, the priests weren’t particularly virtuous either.

The church was divided into 12 denominations, and these 12 denominations didn’t hesitate to do all sorts of dirty work to increase their influence.

Only the appearance had changed; the denominations had simply replaced megacorps.

In this Divine Punk world, the protagonist of Punk City 4 called himself the ‘Atoner’.

Of course, since it’s a game that values freedom, players are free to make any choices, but the basic goal is one:

To enjoy the game world as I please.

However, fans were curious about two main things.

“Who will be the final boss in 4?”

One was the opposing force.

When playing Punk City, it’s important to distinguish between who the protagonist opposes and who made the world this way.

To use Punk City 3 as an example, the opposing forces were ultimately the AIs.

But it was clearly the megacorps that made the world that way.

Punk City 4 was the same.

The church denominations made the world this way, but the opposing forces would only be known once players entered the game.

Fans logged into the game with excitement.

However, apart from their first curiosity, they had something else to test first.

The second curiosity – who would come if they raised five stars in this game?

In Punk City 3, the Horde Special Forces came.

So who would come in 4?

Under this curiosity, fans threw grenades and rockets in the middle of the city.

Soon, wanted levels began to appear.

With crosses instead of stars.

When one cross appeared, holy knights were dispatched.

From two crosses, vehicles and snipers appeared.

From three crosses, airborne troops appeared, and from four crosses, archangel combat nun units appeared.

And at five crosses, the relevant Special Bureau appeared depending on the territory of each denomination.

In the First Denomination’s territory, the First Special Bureau appeared, and in the Second Denomination’s territory, the Second Special Bureau appeared.

According to fans’ experiences, the skill differences between each territory’s Special Bureau were evident.

Among them, the 11th Denomination Special Bureau was unusually belligerent and combat-effective, so users tended to avoid them.

– “AMEEEEEN!!!”

If you raised five crosses in the 11th Denomination’s territory, these fanatic warriors would chase after you with sword dances, and those with mediocre specs would end up like hedgehogs and die.

Meanwhile, fans discovered a peculiarity of this installment.

– Six crosses are possible.

Not only killing citizens but also terrorizing cathedrals or assassinating cardinals would result in six crosses.

In this case, a random boss would appear.

There were four types of bosses, and their concept was the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

The White Conqueror

He was characterized by fast mobility, spinning slashes, and clone techniques.

Being cut by his sword inflicted a deadly poison status effect, and he moved as if teleporting, making it impossible to deal with him without auto-tracking devices or neural acceleration implants.

Next was the Red Warmonger.

She(?), with hair hanging down like a virgin ghost, had a pattern of parrying all attacks and then counterattacking.

If you hadn’t mastered parrying, combat with her wouldn’t be possible, so she was called the “Parrying Tutor” among fans.

Next was the Black Rich One.

She, with a Banshee-like form, draped blue threads around her.

Touching the threads accumulated counters, and if enough counters accumulated, you would enter a confused state and be controlled by her.

The problem was also the spears that flew around following whistle sounds, making it difficult to deal with.

But the scariest thing about the Black Rich One was that every time you were attacked by her, your money decreased.

Because of this, users ranked her as the second most unwanted hidden boss.

But there was one boss that was incomparable to all the previous six-cross hidden bosses.

The Blue Angel.

There was no answer for this one.

Beams rained down from the sky, and penetrating sniper shots occurred every 5 seconds.

Despite this, he flew in the sky himself and had a fast health regeneration rate.

There was only one way to win.

Dodge all attacks, parry, and attack whenever possible. Without rest.

Fans’ reactions to the six-cross hidden bosses were…

– “Well, this seems reasonable…”

It was an understandable difficulty.

To begin with, you need to meet special conditions to raise six crosses.

It would be unpleasant if it happened by mistake during the story, but it was an opponent you’d never see unless you deliberately summoned it.

Moreover, it wasn’t impossible to defeat if you were determined to do so, so fans accepted it as a challenge target.

After confirming the cross wanted system, users began to progress through the story.

At the end of the story, they could face the mastermind behind this story.

The ultimate archdemon Aamon.

He was the true ending boss of this incident.

To reach him, you had to deal with the Four Heavenly Kings, and after dealing with them, Aamon would welcome you with dignity.

He was a demon who wouldn’t die easily, but he was still just a game boss.

Users even produced speedrun guides in just 50 minutes.

A month after Punk City 4 was released.

An analysis post appeared on the community board.

[The true ending might not be the true ending.]

Users rebelled against the question he posed.

Stop talking nonsense and grow up.

But that user speculated on the backstory by citing various materials found in the game.

[There are records that the Four Horsemen of Death with six crosses are fakes created by cultivating the genes of heroes who saved the Vatican in the past.]

[There are hints throughout the work that the archdemon Aamon is hiding from something.]

Until this point, users didn’t show much interest.

It could be interesting, but it was too deep a setting to care about.

But the situation changed due to a post that user uploaded.

[I collected 12 swords found in the 12 denominations, and the cutscene changes??]

After checking the cutscene the user uploaded to YouTube, users immediately went looking for those 12 swords.

Eventually, they collected the 12 swords and faced Aamon.

A month after release.

Now they could defeat him in less than 10 minutes and waited for the ending cutscene.

And after confirming that cutscene, people finally called it the true true ending.

*

“What the…”

“Don’t come!”

“No! This isn’t reality!”

“You Bitch!!!”

The Four Heavenly Kings and Aamon fall one by one to the protagonist of the 4th installment.

“I said don’t come near me!!!”

Even Aamon threw away all dignity and fled from the protagonist of the 4th installment.

And he finally meets his death at the hands of the 4th installment’s protagonist.

This was the true ending.

But in the true true ending, users could see something they had never seen before.

The moment they collected the 12 swords, the cutscene before the Four Heavenly Kings changed.

The angels who were the originals of the Four Horsemen appeared in all Four Heavenly King battles.

They didn’t help defeat the Four Heavenly Kings.

They just watched the 4th installment protagonist’s battle, as if saying this was something they had to handle.

Of course, if this was all, it wouldn’t have been considered the true true ending.

The reason this cutscene was considered the true true ending was because of their role.

Originally, the Four Heavenly Kings never perish completely.

As long as Aamon is alive, they can always resurrect.

But the reason they didn’t resurrect after being defeated by the 4th installment protagonist was because the quietly watching angels were sealing them.

Like guardian angels.

So the protagonist reached Aamon.

And when the protagonist finally defeated Aamon, the last angel revealed himself.

[Mocking death is a great sin.]

“Don’t come!”

[Mocking life is an unforgivable sin.]

“Save me…”

[You who mock divinity. How will you atone for your sins?]

“I said don’t come near me!!!”

The final angel.

The silent judge and the death of the blasphemous.

There were various discussions about the origin of his name in the work.

Aamon, Armun, Amor, etc.

The origin of his name is still actively debated, but his name as an angel was one.

“Kassiel!!!”

[Do you hear it? The sound of trumpets?]

The angel of death and judgment, who wasn’t seen in the true ending, walked steadily toward Aamon.

Why wasn’t he visible in the true ending?

According to speculation, the dominant theory was that only after collecting the 12 swords could one barely rise to the dimension where he was visible.

Kassiel proclaimed:

[The Book of Life has erased your name-]

But the angel, who seemed about to behead Aamon at any moment, did not take the archdemon’s head.

He only cut the life vessel that the archdemon had prepared for resurrection.

Having completed his task, Kassiel looked at the 4th installment’s protagonist.

And then,

[Your judge is elsewhere, so receive your punishment there.]

He turned his back on the archdemon and withdrew.

On his way away from the archdemon, Kassiel passed by the 4th installment’s protagonist and said:

[Chosen one. I will respect your choice.]

With an attitude that seemed to affirm that all choices in the 4th installment were correct, the angel disappeared.

*

And the backstage that wasn’t shown in the game.

Scratch, scratch.

The angel once called Amon, now called Kassiel, was writing on parchment.

The angel, who was both a silent judge and a silent recorder, stopped writing and paused at one letter.

“Sonya, Kathy, Sunhwa. Come here.”

Amon called them, though they each had different names as angels, they still hadn’t abandoned those names.

“Wow, brother-in-law, really.”

Sunwoo, who wasn’t even called, came along.

Amon showed the parchment record to the four gathered and said:

“What do you think of this person?”

In response to Amon’s question, the four angels nodded.

“Good.”

“Approved.”

“I agree, my lord.”

“I agree too.”

Amon nodded and rolled up the parchment.

Then, heading to Earth after a long time, he brought back the soul of a man who had collapsed from overwork.

“I enjoyed your community posts. I didn’t know you would love our world so much.”

“What? Who are…”

Amon transformed in front of the puzzled man.

An angel with six pairs of wings made of swords, wearing a deep black hood.

In the form of Kassiel.

Amon – Kassiel spoke to the man who was taking a sharp breath.

[Mother calls for you,]

– Chosen one.