Somebody Stop the Pope – 38



Episode 38

3.

The results of the sales or rather missionary work were a great success.

[Player ‘Choi Siwon’ joins your sect.]

[Player ‘Shin A-young’ joins your sect.]

[Player ‘Oh Jae-min’ is in your church…]

“Thank you for choosing us. We ask for your continued support brothers and sisters. I am sure Limen will be very pleased as well.”

A sermon that wasn’t really a sermon that lasted a full 30 minutes.

My passionate sermon reminiscent of a job fair was rewarded with the enthusiastic result of all five people joining the church.

How I will lead them and what support I can provide along the way.

After making a very explicit and passionate argument that ‘when it comes to the subject of divine power no one can match our sect’ they all ended up choosing our sect.

And that is a plain fact.

I didn’t have a great talent for teaching anyone but we happened to have a guy who would be a great instructor.

“Archbishop Leo.”

“Yes Your Majesty.”

“I have great faith in Archbishop Leo. Haha.”

Leo Lumen the best priest who was in charge of training the inquisitors in Eden and was admired by many!

Leo was the driving force that made me speak with confidence and passion.

Did he figure out my intention to use me to my heart’s content?

Leo whispered quietly to me his brow furrowing.

“…Your Majesty what you said seems a bit different. It is clear that the weekend….”

“Hey you said you’d come find me this weekend. You didn’t say you’d come find me right away did you? Let’s cheer up.”

“His Holiness.”

“Since Limen said he’ll bring additional personnel from Eden to help educate new believers let’s just try a little harder. Okay? I said I’ll definitely provide additional personnel.”

Looking at it this way I feel like I’m such a bad boss.

When I mentioned Limen’s name Leo couldn’t complain anymore.

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Instead he nodded heavily and asked.

“Do you know if any brothers are coming over?”

“I asked you to send one of the Knight Commanders. Each of our new brothers will have different talents so we can’t take care of them all right?”

Just as not everyone who uses magic becomes a wizard not everyone who awakens divine powers serves God as a priest.

There are many different ways to use divine power.

Some use divine power to heal or bless others while others lead the crusade on the front lines clad in divine power and armor.

“Certainly if it were the current Earth the knights would be of great help.”

“I guess so.”

The beings that represent the latter case are the paladins.

Of course there are special positions among the priests called warrior priests that have combat abilities but these are very special cases.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Knights Templar were the most powerful force possessed by the Vatican.

Starting with how to use divine power in combat and various weapon techniques including shield techniques.

There are healing spells that can be used on the battlefield although not as much as those of the healer priests.

To borrow an Earthly expression you could say that he is a true hexagonal player.

“Of course it will take a long time to get to the level we want.”

“Isn’t that inevitable? The Earthlings have just begun to develop divine powers so it will take them plenty of time to become accustomed to them.”

“Adaptation won’t take that long.”

“Why?”

“There is a helper on Earth called the system.”

Because I too was able to use divine powers easily with the help of the system.

My plan is to expand my cult as much as possible through the information gap until the people of Earth become accustomed to the divine power.

If just one of the Eden Knight Commanders could come over here it would be enough to give us some momentum.

It was while I was having a quiet conversation with Leo.

“Now that I’ve joined the Limen sect I’ll just call you Siwoo hyung. Siwoo hyung?”

“Heh heh.”

Jaemin who had already irritated me a while ago asked me with a bright expression.

Until just a moment ago he had no hesitation in saying “With my clothes on?” But his expression was unnecessarily cheerful.

I quietly looked at Jaemin’s face and nodded with a kind smile.

“That might be a bit difficult.”

“Ah why hyung! You said it was okay just now!”

“Did I? Haha I just said I’d think about it.”

I wonder what on earth the title of ‘hyung’ means and why it’s so direct.

But it seems like Jaemin was sincere.

The guy looked very annoyed then spoke in a slightly higher tone.

“Then I’ll just go to another religion. I feel bad.”

I knew it.

If it were earlier I would have tried to appease him somehow but now there is no need to do that.

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I carefully brought my mouth to Jaemin’s ear and whispered in a very small voice.

“Oh what should I do about this? Once you choose a religion you won’t be able to convert for 180 days. I guess you didn’t check carefully.”

This is information that I confirmed in advance through Mr. Se-myeong.

Conversion is possible but only after choosing a faith and waiting 180 days.

Judging from this guy’s reaction he didn’t know he was acting so smart but he was a total idiot.

“How could that be…?”

Our Jaemin froze for a moment as if he had confirmed something.

I said this while patting Jaemin’s head.

“I think our Jaemin brother will need special education. Even though we are a family-like religious group there are rules that must be observed among people. Since he is still young he may not know it well so I will assign him a very good teacher. Archbishop Leo?”

“Yes Your Holiness.”

“Our brother Jaemin suddenly wants to convert to another religion. Our Archbishop Leo is good at giving religious counseling right? He should come and get some fresh air while he receives some religious counseling.”

Leo bowed politely in response to my words.

“I consider it an honorable responsibility as a priest to guide wavering faith. I will faithfully follow Your Holiness’ commands.”

“Oh right. And while providing religious counseling I would like you to teach the minimum manners that believers should observe among themselves. Is that possible?”

“Of course.”

“Please save me.”

“Don’t worry. I will definitely revive our brother Jaemin’s fading faith.”

So Leo took Jaemin whose face had turned pale out of the auditorium and I brightened up and spoke cheerfully.

“Why is there such a saying? It’s easy to get in but hard to get out. Haha that’s what faith is all about. Now my new believers. If you have any questions feel free to ask them here.”

As expected none of the four new believers who remained there asked me any questions.

4.

According to Team Leader Kim the plan is to have the Divine Series players complete basic training at the Awakening Academy according to their age.

I too was very happy to accept their plan.

Just because you’re a Divine series player doesn’t mean you’re not an Awakened.

The Ability Management Department is the expert on things like the mindset of the Awakened and the rules that the Awakened must follow.

Since we had already achieved our primary goal of initiating them Leo and I returned to the temple after handing them over to the Ability Management Department.

When I was taking a short break in the visiting room because I felt psychologically exhausted Leo handed me his smartphone and said

“I think you need to see it once.”

“Why do you think you use your smartphone better than me?”

Since I am a person with a conscience I gave Leo who was having a hard time the latest model of smartphone as a gift.

Still Leo is my true right-hand man so there needs to be a way to contact him even when I go out on business.

But I didn’t know Leo would learn how to use a smartphone so quickly.

Should we say that this is an incredible ability to learn considering that he comes from a savage tribe north of Eden?

Even I am still awkward with smartphones after coming back after 10 years.

“Siyeon-nim has taught us this a few times before and the operation method is surprisingly simple. In that sense how about installing a router in the shrine? I think the believers who visit here will really like it.”

“…okay.”

It’s probably a router.

It’s time to take care of employee welfare.

I nodded vaguely and looked at the smartphone Leo handed me.

What Leo showed me were various internet articles.

<A powerful appeal to players who have awakened to the divine power of the Vatican! Saint John Paul III ‘Proof that the Lord still loves us’>

<Some Islamic extremist groups say ‘The moment for jihad has come. Warriors assemble.’>

<The power to heal the divine power. What on earth is the divine power?>

<What is the ‘Age of the Struggle’ and what is its connection to the Divine Power?>

<Governments of each country begin discussing countermeasures against divine-affiliated players.>

The first to react of course was the religious community.

Since the opening of Dimension five years ago established religions that had been steadily losing influence have begun to raise their heads one after another.

I skimmed through the articles and then placed my smartphone down on the desk muttering bitterly.

“Divine power may not be the omnipotent energy that those people think it is.”

“It is true that magic is more effective than force in dealing with monsters.”

“That’s true but enemies aren’t necessarily just monsters. Earth is a much more complex world than Eden.”

In the case of Eden most of the countries had already been destroyed by the demon lords so the survivors banded together and fought.

In contrast the case of Earth is different.

There are still many countries left and the competition that has continued since ancient times has only changed in form.

Divine power is an energy that shines when trying to protect something but its range of applications is not as wide as that of magic power.

For now it is just an excitement about the new energy but these are facts that will soon be revealed as research on divine power progresses.

“We just have to do our work quietly.”

“Understood Your Majesty.”

I shrugged and handed the smartphone back to Leo.

And then through a quick command I brought up our church’s system interface right before my eyes.

[Limen Church]

●Main God: The Primordial Goddess – Limen

●Original dimension: Eden

●Official believers: 255

-Possession characteristics-

<Mercy Lv. 2> <Baptism Lv. 2>

-Subordinate Group-

None applicable

★Sacred points held: 1700 points

Is it just an illusion that something still feels empty?

The only thing that seems to have changed compared to before is that <official believer> has been replaced where <Shinto> should have been originally written.

This situation arose because there were no divine points left for reasons such as bringing Leo from Eden and building the sanctuary.

“It’s about time I started filling up my stuff.”

Bringing additional people from Eden would obviously consume more Divinity points but it still seemed necessary to fill those traits.

Among the conditions for completing the main quest there was also a condition that the total level of the characteristics had to exceed 10.

Besides with new players joining the sect we need traits that can help them grow so why not give it a try?

I lightly stroked my chin and then immediately opened the DLC store.

Perhaps because it had been a long time since I opened it as soon as I issued the command countless message windows filled my eyes.

And among them there were a few message windows that particularly caught my eye.

[You can purchase a total of 17 traits and 3 special positions.]

[You have a noteworthy trait!]

-Notable trait: <Enlightenment Lv. 1> ★★★ (Highly recommended purchase)

[Displays information about the trait <Enlightenment>.]

1. <Enlightenment (★★★)> Lv. 1: All experience points gained by players who newly join the sect are increased by 30% for 180 days. This effect can overlap with other characteristics and there is an extremely rare chance that a <Prophet> will appear. If a <Prophet> appears within the sect this effect is applied three times.

*Price: 10000DP

“oh.”

After a long time the jackpot has been hit.

Our Pope please stop this