Chapter 45, Raiders (3)
The first thing I did was observe the raiders' reactions.
Every one of them reacted differently.
Some simply stood there blinking, as though they still couldn't understand what had happened.
Some narrowed their eyes and carefully examined the surroundings, wondering whether it had been some kind of trick.
Others simply stared blankly at Epsilon.
Most remained stunned.
But quite a few looked at the man on the second floor with admiration.
The flashlights shining on him from every direction were so bright that it was difficult to even see his face.
A man wrapped in light, his face hidden by the brightness.
Someone had fired a bullet at him.
Yet the person who fired the gun was the one who collapsed.
That mysterious event overlapped perfectly with the mysterious man everyone here was already looking up to.
Humans instinctively searched for answers.
When they encountered something strange they couldn't explain, they often answered it with something equally strange.
People in ancient times had looked at incomprehensible things like lightning or eclipses and thought of gods.
This was no different.
“...Was that some carefully prepared show?”
“A miracle...”
“Epsilon... he will become the leader who guides us through these collapsing times!”
A mysterious phenomenon.
And standing before them was a mysterious man wrapped in light, the person who had created the raider group chat that once contained 1,300 members.
The raiders naturally connected those two related things.
They arrived at a simple answer.
Epsilon used some mysterious miracle to punish the assassin.
That thought naturally grew into worship.
The desire to rely on him and believe in him followed closely behind.
Of course, every part of that conclusion might have been wrong.
Perhaps the entire thing had been a performance planned in advance.
Perhaps Epsilon was just an ordinary human.
But the truth wasn't important to the raiders.
Recently, their companions had been dying one after another for unknown reasons.
They were already anxious.
Their minds were weak.
When they received the invitation to this meeting, many of them had probably come as though making a desperate gamble.
People consumed by anxiety needed someone to depend on.
An unbreakable iron man.
A heaven-sent visionary.
A great person who could lead them.
Epsilon fit their wishes perfectly.
He had created the raider organization in the form of the group chat.
And that organization had grown extremely large.
Then there was the miracle that had just happened.
Their feelings, almost similar to religious faith, fed on the desire to believe in Epsilon and rapidly grew.
Those who had been deeply influenced lowered their heads to show their loyalty.
“...The Order.”
Watching them, I remembered the Order.
I also remembered the Church of Nihility they had planted inside the apartment complex.
The structure and organization of the raiders were completely different from the Church of Nihility.
So why did looking at them remind me of it?
I frowned while staring at the words [The Order] written inside Lucy.
I wanted to kill Epsilon immediately.
But I crushed down the violence trying to break free from inside me and decided to wait a little longer.
I wanted to see what Epsilon would do now that he had earned the trust of so many raiders.
Conveniently, he was already beginning to act.
Standing on the second floor, he quietly looked down at the corpse with the pierced head.
Then he opened his mouth.
“Someone has died.”
“...”
“Yes. A person died. It's unfortunate, but it couldn't be helped. He tried to kill me.”
“...”
“Everyone who commits a sin eventually pays a fitting price. And murder is a serious sin. A very serious sin.”
“...”
“So I hope none of you will murder anyone. Just like this man, you never know when you might be forced to pay the price.”
It was an extremely unexpected thing to say.
If we weren't standing inside an abandoned factory...
If he wasn't the creator of a raider group chat...
I might have mistaken him for a religious leader or pastor.
After calmly stating his beliefs, he raised his hand.
Because I had been watching carefully, I noticed light gathering around it.
The flashlights shining on him had made it difficult to notice at first.
A strangely heavy-looking glow wrapped around his hand.
Warm.
Sacred.
It felt strangely familiar.
I narrowed my eyes and searched through my memories.
Then I realized what the light was.
Divine power.
The light surrounding Epsilon felt exactly the same as Lee Yeonhee's divine power.
Manipulating the divine power, he spoke toward the corpse.
“You tried to kill me, and that was clearly a sin. Even so, I forgive you. May you be blessed.”
Epsilon waved his hand.
The light suddenly became stronger.
The bullet hole in the corpse's head closed.
For a moment, I wondered if the dead man would come back to life.
He didn't.
Apparently, it was just for show.
Still, Epsilon seemed more skilled at using divine power than Lee Yeonhee.
That was about the extent of my reaction.
The raiders reacted very differently.
They bowed their heads.
Heavy thump, thump noises echoed from all around as some even lowered themselves to the ground.
To people who knew nothing about divine power, Epsilon probably looked like the second coming of Jesus.
With that performance alone, he gained the deep obedience of roughly thirty percent of the hundreds of raiders.
Is Epsilon's goal to make them worship him?
If so, there was one thing I didn't understand.
Why had he used the flashlights to hide the glow of his divine power?
Being surrounded by sacred light would have been an impressive visual display.
Why intentionally hide it beneath the brightness of the flashlights?
