S204

Society Protocol Season 2 04

MS Korea Chapter

After returning to Korea from a meeting in the United States, Pastor Hwang immediately shared his thoughts with all the believers.

He then entrusted everything to the will of the congregation.

Although some believers remained, their numbers were not significant.

And then, the church began to be attacked.

It was not directly struck by a specific organization.

While they were attacked by some members of the general public and those with anti-Christian sentiments,

they did not directly use physical force.

It was the existing Christian believers who directly attacked them.

“Heresy, begone. Satan, begone.”

Believers from other churches began protesting in front of the church with picket signs, and their numbers steadily increased.

This was something that had been anticipated and taken into account to some extent when the church initially decided to make it public.

However, the situation became increasingly severe.

They threw stones to break windows, and the children of the remaining believers were beaten at school.

Even the believers, who had previously endured and suffered in obedience to Pastor Hwang's will, began to join in the anger and fight back.

Police cars continuously patrolled the area around the church, and at one point, the situation reached a point where they had no choice but to park in front of the church gate all night to prevent any violence.

Thinking that a major disaster might occur before they even began if things continued this way, Pastor Hwang decided to move the location to a place difficult for the general public to access.

It is a prayer retreat recently established in Gangwon Province.

However, it was uncertain whether believers with livelihoods would follow his will.

The church members, reduced to one-third of their original numbers, decided to follow Pastor Hwang despite external threats.

Of course, half of the remaining believers gave up.

This was because their current lives were more important to them.

And the saying, "What glory can we gain by remaining alone in a world where the people of the world have vanished?"

circulated among the believers like a kind of catchphrase.

It is not entirely wrong. What on earth do they intend to do alive after throwing away all the civilization humanity has built up over the years?

However, among the few remaining believers, some had received grace from Pastor Hwang,

and there were those who believed that God's judgment would come someday.

And some genuinely desired to survive.

They had no desire to die immediately.

And a anger toward society and others, which had never existed before, began to boil over.

It was utterly repulsive to see them brazenly committing horrific acts—going beyond mere mockery of their faith, to commit violence and tormenting children.

Driven by such rage, some were filled with the desire to leave, regardless of whether society ceased to exist or not.

They began to take serious and full-scale action.

They started selling their homes and household belongings at second-hand markets.

Hearing the news from afar, electronics dealers would even loiter around the church in their delivery trucks.

However, giving up one's livelihood was incredibly difficult. It was a workplace they had built up over a lifetime.

There were self-employed individuals, and there were those who worked in offices.

It was too hard for them to leave their customers behind.

So, some of the office workers rented studio apartments and chose to live apart from their families while continuing their jobs.

The pastor could not stop even that.

He was now living a life completely isolated from society.

Some believers even reported Pastor Hwang to the police and the prosecution.

However, since there was no direct evidence, and in particular, no evidence of material gain was found, a custodial investigation could not be conducted.

Furthermore, because he was the church and the pastor, and because of the assets he had accumulated over the years, and because influential figures who had once attended the church—even though they had stopped attending—prevented Pastor Hwang from falling into a predicament.

Some even stepped forward as witnesses themselves. Thus, the investigation was concluded.

The main church building was also put up for sale.

Since the site was quite large and located in the center of a station area, there were many inquiries from construction companies.

One of the church members decided to acquire the church site.

Although he could not travel to Gangwon-do himself, he had received grace from Pastor Hwang,

and the church site was also of sufficient value to be purchased.

Just as preparations for the relocation were underway, an unexpected situation suddenly unfolded.

People began visiting Pastor Hwang's church.

Having heard rumors from afar and keeping an eye on them, they were people who wished to follow Pastor Hwang and his entourage when they learned they were leaving for Gangwon-do.

For the time being, they left their house and household belongings behind and came with nothing but their bodies, just their families.

They had decided to dispose of these items later and donate the entire cost as an offering.

It defied common sense, but people with such faith were found everywhere.

Pastor Hwang embraced them and prayed, shedding tears.

Eventually, Mi-hee also submitted a leave of absence request and moved with her mother.

This was because Mi-hee's mother was someone who could not survive in this world without the church.

It had to be Pastor Hwang's church, not just any ordinary church.

Mi-hee could not let her mother go alone.

She also held the thought that she would have to bring her mother out if a dangerous situation arose. It was because she had learned through the internet that the end of a cult is mass suicide.

There was only one reason why Mi-hee chose the church. It was because of her mother.

It was only after she started attending church that her mother, who had raised her alone, suffered immense emotional distress, and had poor health, began walking, becoming brighter, and leading a vibrant life.

Before that, she drank alcohol every day and was always depressed.

There was even a time when she tried to carry out terrible plans with her young self.

That is why she could not bring herself to tell her mother that she wanted to leave the church.

Mi-hee's mother was worried about Mi-hee.

She thought that it didn't matter if she simply disappeared along with the world when it vanished.

However, her faith was firm.

If Pastor Hwang said so, then so it was. She wanted to save her daughter at all costs. Property was not the issue.

Since everything was essentially given by the church, throwing it away was not a big problem either.

The permitted belongings were minimal clothing, toiletries, and a few sentimental items.

For now, they would begin living collectively in the chapel, much like flood victims whose homes had been submerged.

However, they decided to build a structure together and configure their individual homes as bungalows.

Families with many members would purchase container homes and live there.

Mi-hee and her mother decided to spend their time praying at a prayer retreat for the time being.

Mi-hee had no strong attachment to society.

However, the one thing weighing on her mind was Min-hyuk.

Fortunately, Min-hyuk had said he would come to church.

She could not yet say whether he would join her. However, Min-hyuk had been busy with work constantly coming up.

So, they hadn't been able to see each other for the past few months. Yet, they had been staying in touch consistently.

Now that she was leaving for Gangwon-do, Min-hyuk even choked up with emotion during their phone conversation.

“I’m sorry. I should be by your side. But filming here right now is a kind of commitment, so I can’t just suddenly back out. I’ll come find you as soon as filming ends. Please let me know your location. Make sure you do.”

Even the words were appreciated. However, Mi-hee thought that her relationship with Min-hyuk was over.

[You become a star and I go to Gangwon-do. We didn’t see each other for long, but I truly loved you, Min-hyuk.]

Mi-hee turned off her phone and boarded the bus heading to Gangwon-do.

The belongings of all the believers were being packed neatly inside a large container, placed in cardboard boxes labeled with their names, and stacked one on top of the other.

Pastor Hwang was busy procuring the necessary supplies that all these people would use at the prayer retreat in Gangwon-do.

Electricity would be scarce, and water would be scarce. Eating and washing were no easy task.

“How did the prophet Moses lead so many Israelites to Canaan?”

All Pastor Hwang could do was pray.

However, among the existing believers and the new members, there were many capable individuals in various fields.

There was an electrician and a professor of electronics engineering.

There was an architect and a former athlete.

In particular, a new believer who ran a professional restaurant brought the necessary tableware from his establishment, which was a great help.

Several sacks of rice would be used daily, and it would be difficult to shower using only groundwater.

An architectural expert suggested a method to draw water from a reservoir located several kilometers away.

Construction began to use a portion of the stream water flowing down from the mountain as drinking water by creating a waterway, and to pump water from the reservoir and use it for domestic purposes by processing it with sand and filters around the prayer retreat.

To prevent environmental destruction caused by domestic wastewater, a sewage treatment facility also had to be built.

Equipment was constructed to purify and discharge the sewage.

Electricity was also needed. Solar power facilities were installed, but that was nowhere near enough.

A proposal for improvement was submitted to the power company to bring in high-voltage lines and distribute them to a substation.

Although public officials in Gangwon Province also expressed concern about the sudden increase in population,

since the area had such a low population and had been judged to be on the verge of disappearing,

they tried to accommodate the people's wishes as much as possible.

This was based on the judgment that it would not be bad to have young people coming to an area overflowing with the elderly population.

However, upon realizing that they were a religious group, they changed their attitude from active support to passive support.

However, the provincial governor and the nearby county head, realizing that everyone had become a voter because they were changing their addresses,

were busy going back and forth to the construction site to greet people.

Pastor Hwang began purchasing land in the nearby area using the assets accumulated by his parishioners.

He practiced self-sufficiency there, though he did not aim for 100% self-sufficiency.

This was because he knew that he would only be treated as a necessary person if he bought goods from local merchants and farmers.

He hired local residents as construction workers and shared a portion of his farmland with them to cultivate together.

This was likely possible because Pastor Hwang possessed a fundamental concept of mutual coexistence.

He did not strive to convey the teachings of his religion to the neighbors around him.

This was because if they were driven out of this place as well, they would have nowhere to go.

It was a time when they had become somewhat accustomed to moving their belongings, washing and eating minimally at the prayer retreat, reducing waste, and living without electricity.

A young man wearing hiking clothes and boots was seen walking toward the entrance of the prayer retreat.

Security personnel were stationed at the entrance, fearing that outsiders might harm them. Most of them were subordinates of a gangster butler who was a former mobster.

They looked at the young man with grim expressions.

“What is the matter? This is not a hiking trail.”

“I have come to look for someone.”

“Is it family?”

“It is someone I love.”

The security guards, formerly gangsters, looked at each other.

“Who are you looking for?”

“I have come to see Mi-hee. Please tell her that Min-hyuk has arrived.”