Every beast, from the small groups to the big ones, including the Gibbous Army, was also shocked.
It was because of the announcement made half day ago, when a siren suddenly sounded from Casita’s needle and the angels flew over to share the news.
<<The Lord God’s Declaration: Responsibility of the Illuminated>>
It was easy to follow. It allowed everyone to see the status of their ‘mind’ just by looking up at the status window. A new rule was added to it so that when the illumination was done by someone else, that person who was responsible would be given a reward.
<<Preacher’s Coin – X>>
With the mysterious rank of X, it was a different type of coin that was given when people successfully illuminated others. However, the amount given varied greatly depending on how powerful newly illuminated person was, as well as the scale of the influencer’s role.
These coins could then be exchanged for something else by going to Casita’s needle.
“Five of these coins for 1 million coins…”
Choi Jimin repeated what she found out from one winged angel, “There’s gotta be something behind this.”
She walked down the corridor. It was the place of the once giant underground bazaar from the old civilization. It was destroyed during the turning of the world, but it was reconstructed into a secret hideout for their army.
It had been five months, since she joined forces with Shin Nahee of the Gibbous.
Everyone called them the Gibbous Army.
Gibbous Army was the name of the squadron that Shin Nahee used to lead under Dohyuk’s leadership, but the word now meant a giant militant group that controlled all of Seoul and Gyungi-do.
Except for Jimin, nobody knew Shin Nahee’s real purpose of standing on top of the world and having everyone, including Dohyuk, to be corrupted and to kill herself afterwards so that Dohyuk could take over her achievements.
Everyone just believed her intention was to rise to the top. For past five months, many people tried to overthrow her reign to become the most powerful ruler of the region, but they were all killed. Except for the strangely quiet ‘southern’ part of the Korean penninsula, the Gibbous Army was now the most powerful army.
“Lieutenant Commander.”
One of the beasts saluted as he saw Jimin walking by the corridor, but Jimin didn’t even nod.
Lieutenant Commander was the title that the Gibbous Army gave to Jimin.
Shin Nahee considered Jimin to be her most trusted lieutenant, putting more trust in her than her old advisors. It was natural as Shin Nahee shared her secret with Jimin, but Jimin did not like this.
‘Dammit.’
She was disgusted.
She was disgusted by all of those beasts who considered Jimin to be Nahee’s right hand person since the beasts were jealous and wary of her. And most of all, she was disgusted by her situation because she had no choice but to put up with everything.
Her intention was to stay with them only until she caught a trace of Dohyuk while watching this mad woman named Nahee. She was prepared to leave at any time, but she couldn’t find Dohyuk at all.
However, she did hear rumors.
In the southern region of peninsula where a monster named Jung Ilgyu lived, she heard that Jung Ilgyu’s forces had been eliminated and that Great Emperor Yoo Dohyuk took his place.
But nothing was certain.
While that was going on, the Gibbous Army increased its strength at an enormous speed.
“What is it?”
As Jimin stopped at the end of the corridor, the woman standing on guard, Kim Sunyoung, eyed her.
She was one of Shin Nahee’s trusted advisors, and one who absolutely hated Jimin. It seemed she had business, so she had two of her men with her.
“I came to see the Gibbous.”
“Why?”
“Are you a gatekeeper? Why would I tell you?”
“I guess not.”
It seemed like she was going to let her pass, but instead, she stood right in front of the door.
“You won’t go in anyway. The Gibbous ordered to stop anyone…”
Before she could speak, a voice came from the top of the door.
-Jimin, you’re here.
It was as if there was a speaker on top of the door, but it was only one of the many magic tricks that Nahee had.
Yoruba.
The god who had the nickname called ‘Demon God’ was one of the most powerful of the gods and Shin Nahee was her most valued follower.
It was through that power that Nahee was able to unearth the buried bazaar and reconstruct it to her liking.
-Come in! Now!
“That’s the order for you,” Jimin stated, not even without a smirk. Sunyoung’s face reddened.
“How about you move? Unless your deaf and didn’t hear that. Oh, but if you think getting in my way will help you, think again. The Gibbous will be watching us even now.”
“…”
“Sad,” Jimin said as she opened the door to walk in. “I hope you get a chance to see her soon.”
Jimin felt silent rage from behind, but she did not care.
‘F*ck you.’
These were pieces of trash who served Nahee, not Dohyuk even in the previous life. Jimin wanted to kill them all even now.
“…”
Yet before she could take a few more steps, she felt her annoyance and anger instantly be replaced by shock.
“I wanted to call you.”
As always, Shin Nahee was tired and sick. But now there was something more.
“It was hard to check everything by myself.”
“…”
Jimin wasn’t sure what she was feeling right now. In the middle of large room, there was a pillar that Jimin had never seen before. On the pillar that went from the floor to the ceiling, there was a man hung on it, with his skin pulled out from every part of his body; only the skin on his face was intact.
“Uh…”
“Huh? Do you know him?”
The man was one of the ‘weak’ who performed chores and other duties in the Gibbous Army.
Shin Nahee did not like using slaves since her power allowed her to have everything needed to supply her army without requiring slaves to work for them. Because of this, the Gibbous Army didn’t particularly care about the weak. They did train ‘Unfortunate Ones’ who had good talents, but they did not care about the other ‘weaklings’ who were useless. Sometimes, they were provided protection in exchange for chores or bodily pleasure.
The man was a cleaner.
“….Did he.”
“Huh?”
“Did he do something?”
“No.”
Shin Nahee shook her head.
“Then why…”
“I was testing out something.”
The man moaned quietly. His unfocused eyes showed that he was waiting to be killed.
“You and I know about being ‘illuminated’ very well, but we don’t know actually ‘how’ it happens. We kind of became illuminated without realizing it. That’s why I came up with some experiments.”
“…”
“If it only requires the ‘mind’ to reach the limit, wouldn’t it work at once? If one takes enough damage? Say, something like, unimaginable pain?”
“You are mad.”
Her voice shook. The man was almost as good as dead. But he was not like one of them. He was not a beast.
“You gave so much to Yoruba, and now you have given your mind too? This won’t…”
Then something dropped to the ground. Jimin looked down and saw the metal pieces that Nahee dropped. The coins were each smaller than a baby’s palm. It was the same type of coin that looked like it was made out of burnt metal that Jimin saw half a day ago.
-This is the example. Look closely.
It was the ‘Preacher’s Coin’ that the one-winged angel showed her.
“B-but….”
She looked up at the man. He had not turned into a beast yet.
“It’s sad.”
Shin Nahee snapped her fingers, and the shadow below jumped out to swallow the man. The shadow then disappeared with him.
“I trusted you in every way. But to see you that you don’t trust me that much…”
“That man isn’t…”
“Yeah, he’s the fourteenth one. I’ve been busy for the past half day. I could’ve gotten 40 of them if it wasn’t for testing out variations.”
“F*ck you, I won’t allow it any longer.”
“Yeah, if you came earlier, I wouldn’t have had to waste this much…”
“Waste?”
“It’s not worth it. See?”
She dropped the coins. There were four.
“Only 2 out of 14. And that’s after using all kinds of methods to keep them alive. Only 4 coins after putting in half a day’s worth of work? It’s a waste of time. Pain is not the answer. There should be another…”
“THAT’S ENOUGH, YOU B*TCH!!”