#006

When I opened my eyes, I was in the Dark Realm.

That meant I had fallen into a mad medieval era where crazed cultists ran wild.

And not on the side of those hunting cultists, but on the side of leading them.

“Fuck.”

Surprisingly, however, the biggest problem wasn’t that I was the cult leader.

[‘Happy Cult Evangelist (??)’ : Serf]

The real problem was that I wasn’t even the cult leader yet.

“I’m… a serf?”

I know that in the Middle Ages, a serf was more of an ordinary villager than an untouchable outcast or a slave.

But me? A serf?

That shouldn’t be right.

The starting point and class in Conclude are always the same.

While the situation at the starting point might change slightly depending on the initial settings, the location and class have never changed.

The game begins with the player waking up as a Contractor of an Othergod at the Altar where the Observatory of the Inverse Heaven is located.

“Don’t tell me I have to make my way to the starting point myself?”

I had a bad feeling.

The character settings for a ‘Cult Leader’ can be decided before starting the game.

However, there were many cases where settings I hadn’t even added appeared once the game began. Especially if a trait had an amazing effect, it often came with a nasty backstory.

Back in my newbie days, thinking the game would be easier with good traits, I tried adding ‘Legitimate Heir of Nobility,’ ‘Sword Saint,’ ‘Genius,’ and ‘Indomitable Will.’

As a result, the game started with my family being wiped out due to a false accusation, my frequently used right arm being severed, my left arm’s tendons being snapped, and the character being in a state of drug addiction with a flickering mind. To make matters worse, the Empire had issued a kill order because I was the heir of a family that had staged a rebellion.

Being hunted by both Heretic Inquisitors and the Imperial Knights simultaneously, there seemed to be no way to survive.

After dying repeatedly, I got pissed and asked on the community forums, only to receive reactions like, “Another newbie got baited lol,” and “Why are you starting high-level veteran content all by yourself lol.”

Among them, one comment stood out.

It’s obvious. Why would someone born with a silver spoon, possessing immense talent and a sound mind, make a contract with an Othergod? Their life is already a smooth ride.

You have to be in a situation that shitty to risk going to hell for a contract.

If you just put in trash mental strength, there are many cases where you become a cult leader through brainwashing, so unless you’re a veteran, it’s better not to add a Mental Defense trait.

To think the system created to screw over newbies had such narrative consistency?

I marveled at how Conclude’s creators were true fetishists for setting and geniuses of direction.

Just by adding a few bad traits, they could instantly create a full-length novel about what happened to this character before becoming a cult leader!

I really liked that the player character didn’t just drop out of thin air, but felt like someone who had been living their own life in that world.

Direction that leaves room for the imagination!

Aren’t the creators of Conclude geniuses?

But now that it was happening to me, I felt like clutching the back of my neck in frustration.

“This is a game possession story, but is it okay to start from a part that wasn’t even in the game?”

It feels like I’ve possessed a character in an academy novel, but I have to start from the academy entrance exam preparations that weren’t even mentioned in the original work.

No, if it’s a possession story, shouldn’t I be showing off my knowledge of the original plot? Why am I in a state where I can’t utilize the advantages of being a possessor?

Of course, I know how to get to the Observatory of the Inverse Heaven, the starting point.

The problem is that simply arriving there empty-handed isn’t the end of it.

Many preparations are required to make a contract with an Othergod.

However, since this part wasn’t in the game, I don’t know exactly what is needed.

I can only guess based on the situation at the start of the game.

If you start as Mother Aellusia, the Altar is drenched in blood, and many followers offer their greetings, celebrating that they have seen the Mother of Mothers.

The types of ‘biological data’ acquired at the start of the game vary significantly.

Looking back immediately after the start, it shows that there are quite a few prisoners and slaves as resources, and the followers are already in a mutated state by Mother Aellusia.

Judging by these conditions, a contract with Mother Aellusia likely requires many living sacrifices.

The type of ‘biological data’ acquired initially probably depends on what kind of living sacrifices were gathered.

Also, there must have been some means… a divine object or a Sacred Relic, to draw upon Mother Aellusia’s power even before the contract. That was likely used to mutate the followers and served as a catalyst during the contract.

Therefore, the conclusion is that to contract with Mother Aellusia, one must find Mother Aellusia’s Sacred Relic, create an organization to gather living sacrifices, find the exact method of contracting, and arrive at the Observatory of the Inverse Heaven before the night the Starry Sky Opens to complete all preparations.

In the case of Happiness…

‘What was it again?’

I always skipped the beginning with macros, so I don’t even remember what the initial resources were.

I only remember thinking it was a truly penniless start.

‘Starting penniless might mean that not much is required for a contract with Happiness.’

Since they’re an idiot who grants a Blessing unconditionally as long as you pray, it might be possible to contract even if I just wander there empty-handed.

Of course, even excluding the random Happy-Happy Terror, Happiness has such trash performance that I don’t really want to contract with them.

I’ve never even made it to the mid-game with Happiness.

“More importantly, do I really have to go to the starting point?”

I am not a Contractor yet.

That means I am not yet a ‘heretic’ that needs to be beaten to death.

There is no reason to be chased by Heretic Inquisitors, and no need to lead mad cultists to plunge the world into chaos.

Of course, for a modern person who lived in the 21st century, living as a medieval serf would be absolutely terrible, but there must be a way to survive. Innovating farming methods, or earning a title by achieving merit in war…

Even if I’ve possessed a medieval cult strategy simulation, couldn’t I just live as if I’ve possessed a dark fantasy RPG?

“If I contract, I’ll have to bring about something like a ‘Happy Apocalypse’ with my own hands.”

I’d want to refuse even if they told me to be a hero who saves the world, let alone be an Apostle of an Othergod who destroys it.

I hate this primitive medieval era overflowing with madmen, but that ‘hate’ means I want to leave this place, not that I want to kill every living creature.

“Well, if I don’t contract, someone else will become the Cult Leader…”

Mother Aellusia had said she would make whoever she didn’t choose regret it.

That means, at that time, I had already chosen ‘Happiness.’

Given that my name in the Status Window is ‘Happy Cult Evangelist,’ it means I’ve possessed the Dark Realm as the destined apostle of Happiness.

If so, there must be a separate destined apostle for Mother Aellusia.

If the other Othergods also brought their own destined apostles, there would be up to 16 candidates.

Since there is only one day when one can contract with an Othergod—the Day the Starry Sky Opens—the candidates will compete bloodily for that moment.

‘Is that how ownerless protections are created?’

Among them, there might be at least one lunatic who is truly determined to clear the game even if it means destroying the world.

If that guy becomes the Cult Leader and works hard, this world will truly perish.

‘Not that I intend to do anything about it.’

Even thinking about the possibility of the world ending didn’t evoke much thought.

It’s not like I have a favorite character in the Dark Realm who I’d be devastated to lose.

My life motto is ‘In case of a problem, you are right.’

Rather than struggling to prevent the end of the world, I’d rather just live my own life and become an extra who closes their eyes and shouts ‘Oh God!’ on the day of destruction.

“One out of sixteen is probably bound to have a protagonist-like personality.”

For starters, that protagonist won’t be me.

If I were the protagonist, I wouldn’t have started as a serf.

To be a protagonist, shouldn’t one at least be the illegitimate son of a noble family, the second son of a merchant guild, or the son of a knight?

One needs assets, connections, or innate talent to prepare anything.

Or start in a dungeon cell.

The kind of cell where a dying old man in the next stall shares a fortuitous encounter.

A serf… no matter how I think about it, wasn’t protagonist material.

‘But I’ve possessed this body, yet none of the body’s memories are coming to me.’

In possession stories, shouldn’t basic memories be provided?

Things like where this is, what I should be doing, and how to work the fields.

‘First, shall I look into the situation of this character…?’

* * *

I worried whether I should pretend to have amnesia and ask the people around me, but fortunately, there was a way to find out the body’s memories.

After spending half a day, I discovered that this body was truly ‘Ordinary Serf Youth 1’ itself.

The name is Fabio. No surname.

Parents are deceased, no siblings, not yet married, and he’s a serf in a reasonably decent position with a decent piece of land to cultivate and a shabby but tidy house.

The bread tastes terrible, meat is hard to come by, and he has to do hard field work every day, but he’s in a position where he doesn’t have to worry about starving to death.

His past is also truly unremarkable. He volunteered with the ambition to live better, as he was told he would be given more land if he went to a new settlement.

If he continues living like this, it’s a setting where he’d marry a village maiden, have children, and live a decent life.

‘Of course, I will absolutely never marry.’

Marriage in the Middle Ages?

In an era with high infant mortality, marrying and raising children is absolute madness.

I will live as a bachelor for the rest of my life.

‘I understand the situation… now what should I do?’

I have no intention of living as a serf for the rest of my life, but no good way to escape serfdom comes to mind.

It’s not that I can’t leave because I’m a serf.

In the case of a pioneer village, if I tell the village head and return the ownership of the land I reclaimed to the lord, I can become a freeman and leave whenever I want.

However, almost no one quits being a serf to leave.

Because it’s a loss for the individual.

Unless they are immature kids who join the army saying they won’t live as serfs like their parents, they just live by farming diligently.

A serf’s greatest assets are their house and land, taxes are paid in crops, most items are made by hand, and they trade in kind with the merchant guilds that occasionally visit.

This means I currently have almost no cash.

The only currency I possess is three Imperial silver coins.

I took out the silver coins, whose patterns were slightly blurred from wear, from my pocket and muttered inwardly.

‘The source of this money.’

[Before leaving for the settlement, household items that were difficult to carry were distributed to neighbors. Since the crops received in return could not be carried, the village head exchanged them for seven silver coins.]

[

SYSTEM:

Due to the effect of ‘Heaven Above, Earth Below, I Alone Reign Supreme,’ ‘Memory Recall’ is provided as text.]

As soon as I finished reading, the Narration Window closed on its own.

‘This narration is so inconvenient.’

The method I used to find out the information about this body was also narration.

Unlike in other possession stories where the memories of the occupied body naturally surface, the ‘character’s’ knowledge or past memories are output as text, as if I had pressed the item investigation key in a game.

As can be seen from the system window notification, this is the influence of the trait called ‘Heaven Above, Earth Below, I Alone Reign Supreme.’

This trait prevents the body’s memories from mixing with my own and prevents my ego from being influenced by the body.

The problem is that to find something out, I have to manually throw out keywords to output the ‘memory.’

If I hadn’t muttered, ‘Does this Fabio fellow have any money stashed away,’ I would have never known that my body had stored silver coins in the corner of a straw mat.

“Can’t I toggle that trait on and off?”

I want to turn it off at least when I’m eating.

Eating coarse bread and watery turnip soup while possessing 100% of a modern person’s sensibilities is nothing short of torture.

“Status Window.”

[‘Happy Cult Evangelist (??)’ : Serf]

[Health: 45(-15)] [Mental Strength: N/A] [Intelligence: N/A] [Martial Power: 30] [Endurance: 25] [Charm: 30] [Faith: N/A]

Status:

[Fatigued (Health -15)]

Unique Traits:

[Miracle of the Silver Tongue], [Heaven Above, Earth Below, I Alone Reign Supreme], [???], [System User]

Looking at it again, these stats are truly hopeless.

I clicked ‘View Details’ in the Unique Trait window.

[Heaven Above, Earth Below, I Alone Reign Supreme]

: Only I can influence my own mind.

Not affected by any positive or negative mental status effects.

Not influenced by the ‘body’s’ memories and emotions.

Not influenced by ‘Mental Strength,’ ‘Intelligence,’ or ‘Faith’ stats.

“…Turn off ‘Heaven Above, Earth Below, I Alone Reign Supreme’ effect.”

[

SYSTEM:

The ‘Heaven Above, Earth Below, I Alone Reign Supreme’ trait cannot be turned off.]

As expected, it doesn’t work.

I furrowed my brows.

“What kind of trash trait did they give me?”

I only asked for a trait that would make Happiness’s Blessing absolutely ineffective, and they gave me this crazy trait.

“Does it make sense to completely nullify three stats…?”

In particular, the fact that I can absolutely never increase ‘Mental Strength,’ which is the most important stat in Conclude, is the most fatal.

If mental strength is low, not only are you prone to mental illnesses like ‘Depression,’ ‘Trauma,’ ‘Hallucinations,’ and ‘Insomnia,’ but you also cannot endure terrible situations.

You have to raise mental strength significantly to become a strong character who can steadfastly carry out missions even in shitty situations.

But I cannot increase the mental strength stat.

That means I have to endure the era of medieval madness with the fragile mind of a modern person.

While I am completely immune to things like a ‘Curse of Terror’ cast on me by others, I can’t help but be terrified on my own.

Rather, due to the effect of blocking ‘positive influences,’ I cannot receive blessings that heal the mind from priests like other people do.

‘This is truly the perfect setup to go insane.’

7 – 007