Jihyeon entrusted the man's disposition to the Master's subordinates. The man was now incapable of using any power. In the eyes of these men, the crime he committed was undoubtedly enormous and grave.
The crime of hurting their comrades alone was huge. Moreover, the crime of laying hands on their Master was something they thought deserved death.
Perhaps Jihyeon might have thought the same if he were a member of the same organization. But even so, Jihyeon asked them for mercy.
"He may look like that, but in reality, his life is ruined. He will become a cripple who can no longer do anything anyway. It will be enough to tell him to go to his family."
The Master's subordinates nodded at Jihyeon's words. No matter how rough they were, they had no hobby of beating a person who could no longer do anything and was only trembling uncontrollably.
Instead, they asked.
"What exactly did you do? For that guy to end up like that..."
Fear and curiosity were mixed in their voices. However, Jihyeon gave only a simple explanation instead of a detailed one.
"It's nothing much. I just took away what they call divine power."
Jihyeon said only that, warning them that knowing more would be dangerous. The subordinates expressed disappointment at his words. But they were relieved that one major problem had been solved.
"What will you do now?"
They asked Jihyeon. Jihyeon simply replied.
"I'll have to adjust the original plan a bit. There will be some interesting news."
Jihyeon said only that and went outside. The Master's subordinates watched him leave without saying a word.
When all the day's work was finished in the evening, the cult priests rested in their respective rooms.
The Executive was no different. After a busy day, he was now resting in his room.
But this was only rest on the surface. The Executive was currently more anxious than ever.
That was perhaps natural.
No contact.
There was no contact from the apostle he had sent. The time for the task to be completed had long passed, and even if it was taking longer, there should have been a report in between.
But there was no contact.
The Executive felt a deep sense of displeasure at that fact. His foremost apostle, whom he had sent to find the Master on his behalf, was the ultimate weapon that no one could stop.
Although there was a slight mental issue, that didn't matter. As long as he was faithful to his orders, a minor issue could be laughed off.
He must have carried out his orders without fail. And he should have obtained information from the person who knew the truth. That was a given.
But the call history on his smartphone was clean.
That was proof that a problem had occurred. And an extremely major one.
The Executive couldn't help but feel annoyed because of it. Although he forced a smile in front of the ordinary members, the story was different inside his room when he was alone.
The Executive revealed all his negative emotions and just sighed. If things continued like this, it was certain that something bad would happen to him.
Was that why?
Some subordinates asked what they should do next. That was due to their worry about their future.
The Executive felt disgusted by their appearance. They weren't truly loyal to the Executive.
Instead, they were doing this only for their own well-being, a little power, and money. After all, genuine faith was impossible in a cult.
Wasn't he himself proof of that?
It was natural to miss the apostle who was purely loyal to him. But there was no contact from him.
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This was troublesome.
The Executive was focused on and anxious about the possibility of him losing his chance to become the successor.
Come to think of it, the man called the Master seemed to be accompanied by some unknown luck.
Hadn't the Deputy Leader's apostle, who was much stronger than he was, also failed?
That was quite a pleasant thought. Recalling that memory once again, the Executive gave a bitter smile.
The Deputy Leader's apostle had somehow returned, but perhaps because he had received quite a grand welcome, he was not normal. He was currently in the cult's hospital, but he was in a very dangerous state due to significant psychological shock.
That was a tragedy for the cult as a whole, but not for the Executive.
A competitor's failure was always a delight. The Executive had laughed at the Deputy Leader's failure and was pleased. But now that it was his own problem, he felt extremely sick to his stomach.
Unlike the Deputy Leader, the Executive knew better than anyone that his position was always precarious. A single failure would shatter the barely maintained delicate balance.
In the case of the General Manager, he had no intention of becoming the successor in the first place. The man who was once the most power-hungry was now solely focused on maintaining the cult.
Such a man was faithfully accumulating merit without making any major mistakes. He was even taking the lead in dealing with the current tax issue, gaining the support of the devotees.
In the case of the Deputy Leader, even though he had failed a few times, he was the person right after the Leader in rank.
If he secured legitimate authority, he was in a position to take over the cult at any time. The Executive knew inwardly that he couldn't win against him, who was not rushing and was slowly building up his power base.
Nevertheless, the Executive did not give up. He belittled other ordinary members by calling them fools, but he himself was not much different from them until recently.
So, naturally, the current situation made the Executive anxious.
He had to firmly establish his position and hold on. And he wanted to get his hands on power and money and live a life of prestige.
"Damn it. Nothing is going right."
The Executive said that, expressing his annoyance again. Once things started to get twisted, there was no end to it.
He had thought luck was on his side when the lightning fell in front of him.
Knock, knock
The sound of knocking on the door was heard. Someone must have come to see him for some business. The Executive immediately suppressed his emotions as much as possible at the sound.
It would be troublesome to face the devotees with this expression. Looking at his face reflected in the mirror, the Executive thought that.
However, the person who knocked on the door said nothing. Shouldn't they identify themselves and state their business?
But knocking on the door and saying nothing was impossible. The Executive felt irritation rising again.
However, it was problematic for a leader of a religious group to get angry over such a thing. Unless it was a serious transgression, one should first greet the devotee with a smile.
Therefore, the Executive got up and opened the door.
At that moment, he lost consciousness.
Locking the door, Jihyeon realized he had passed a hurdle. It was dangerous, but since he got this far safely, it was fine.
Fortunately, there were no issues with entering the room. Jihyeon thought there would be no problem since he had used the tool to neutralize CCTVs and had directly linked his consciousness to the electrical wires to hack in.
And knocking out the Executive was truly lucky. If the Executive hadn't let his guard down, things would have become complicated.
Jihyeon said nothing. He just looked at the Executive and let out a short sigh.
There was no need to wake him up. What he needed was information and his tool.
The Executive would probably be flustered when he woke up. Because his power would be gone. But that was none of Jihyeon's concern.
He was one of the religious leaders who had ruined the lives of countless ordinary members in the first place.
Jihyeon thought it was a just punishment, as the extent of his crimes was unimaginable.
"By the way, seeing things like this, really..."
Jihyeon wore an expression of being fed up with the fact that he couldn't obtain any information just by looking.
If he could secure the information instantly just by seeing it, he wouldn't have to move this way.
But he couldn't help it. It was not easy to extract information from those who possessed tools from the same source.
Jihyeon was still confident that he could do the job more easily this time. With every tool he secured, he was able to secure more knowledge.
After absorbing the tool of the Executive's first apostle, information about the secret surgery was added to Jihyeon's knowledge.
It was about how to implant and disassemble the tool and how to do it without pain. If he were an ordinary person, such information entering his brain might have caused his mind to collapse, but Jihyeon was different.
Perhaps that was why getting used to it was scary. Jihyeon inwardly felt a sense of absurdity about that fact.
But what was important now was the fact that he would obtain what he needed. Jihyeon didn't want to care about anything else.
Instead, he didn't forget to stack his bags near the door to prevent anyone from approaching him. Once he started, he wouldn't know if someone came, so buying time was essential.
Fortunately, the tool the apostle possessed was not only used for destruction. The ability to instantly change the position of the furniture in the room with only a slight expenditure of stamina was an excellent ability.
"Then, shall we start..."
Jihyeon perfectly blocked the door and placed his finger on the Executive's body. Simultaneously, Jihyeon began to undo the seals deep inside the Executive's body one by one.
"Tch..."
Jihyeon clicked his tongue involuntarily. Unlike himself, the tool implanted in the Executive's body possessed a much stronger defense system than he had expected.
It would not be easy to simply retrieve it. If he made a mistake, he could kill the person.
However, Jihyeon felt this as a challenge. He had high expectations about how much information he could secure if he could make this his own without any physical harm.
He concentrated his consciousness and slowly began to sort out the tangled threads, one by one. Jihyeon continued the work, believing that this would allow him to take one step further, even though he didn't know how long it would take.
And when he regained his consciousness, Jihyeon smiled as he heard knocking on the door.

