That Tamago personage was certainly an interesting fellow to be targeted like that.
He (?) did end up clarifying that those hackers certainly weren’t from the Revivalist Church, which was relieving, to say the least. He tried to offer me a discount “for the trouble”, but the info he gave me was really too crispy, so I insisted against it.
I soon left and walked down a short stretch of Katipunan Avenue, crossing several intersections in the direction of Diliman Park. The change in atmosphere around here truly was… different.
After all, this is basically just scaled-down Akihabara.
I’d actually been there once in my past life, so I can tell it’s basically the same air.
… It even smells the same.
… I’m pretty sure someone’s spending a lot just to mimic the smell.
Rather, wouldn’t that imply that there’s actually someone else here who’d reincarnated from the 21st century?
Or, most likely, Akihabara still smells like this until today?
Ah! It could be like that thing where artificial banana flavoring actually simulates the taste of an extinct banana variety!
… aw man, Akihabara getting leveled’s a sad thought.
Finally, I arrived at my destination building: Regis Central, but nowadays called レジスセンター (Rejisu Sentaa).
…because Filipinos are the biggest weebs on the face of the Earth in this 23rd century. Also, I looked around the forums to try and figure out why the Katakana was "Rejisu Sentaa" instead of "Rejissentaa", but I found out that people actually pronounced the -su at the end of Rejisu in its entirety.
Nice to know Filipinos still bastardize languages before importing them, I guess.
The building in front of me was a 10-story midrise standing on a 30x30-meter corner lot, but uniquely, it’s one of only a few other buildings along Katipunan with a nearly all-glass facade. There’s a convenience store and a few shops at the ground floor facing the street, and a curt driveway that passes in front of the small lobby’s entrance. There’s also an elevated walkway that connects the building’s 2nd floor with the other side of the street.
Incidentally, the Areneo Convention Center is just across the street, hidden behind an arboretum behind a chainlink fence. Because of that, lots of people come and go through Rejisu. Even now, the lobby’s experiencing server errors from overcrowding.
… and for just that reason, cults show up around here looking to recruit.
“Bow down to our Fettucine gods!”
“Have you been saved by Our Mother?”
“Pursue the One Truth! Join Sciencism today!”
Ah yes, hobby cults, normal cults, and victims of the Horseshoe Theory.
It’s actually weird that the Revivalist Church managed to establish their HQ here, since Rejisu’s management expressly banned cults from setting up permanent facilities here, precisely because there were already so many of their recruiters showing up every day.
Well, what matters is that I’m about to meet with them.
I took the elevator to Floor 5-32—basically the 32nd parallel instance of the 5th floor.
If I were to look outside the window, I would see the street below normally, but the people outside would observe an overlay of parallel-existing 5th floors— which obviously hurts the brain, so people generally use a filter to focus on a specific instance which obeys common sense, as opposed to watching people phase in and out of each other. Ah, well, I know someone who does that as a hobby, though…
By the way, public spaces like roads can only have one instance, so there’s no multi-dimensional mindfuckery going on there.
The doors opened to Floor 5-32, and I was greeted by a receptionist wearing a simple white dress. The simplicity was so striking that it felt like she was glowing.
White really is all the colors of a rainbow and none of them at the same time, huh.
“Hai?”
“Ah— I’d like to make an inquiry.”
The receptionist eyed me with a courteous smile. Come to think of it, I never really thought about what to say.
Well, best not to think about it too deeply.
“Do you have a church?”
“Hai?”
“Isn’t this the Church of Christian Revivalism?”
“Ah, sou. What was it you wanted, again?”
“A church?”
Though she was smiling, she narrowed her eyes. She must be confused. Maybe they didn’t call it a ‘church’?
“A chapel? No, congregation location? Prayer lair?”
What the heck is a ‘prayer lair’, self?
“…Would this be for filming? I’m sorry, but we don’t—”
“Ah, no, I’d like to pray.”
At those words, three dots appeared in front of her eyes.
No, really, there were three dots physically projected in mid-air.
“… Wait—teka—mattekudasai…”
Eh? Did I do something wrong? She just said ‘wait’ three different ways there. Don’t Churches have… churches?
She flipped through the pages of a thick book.
“Ah, this one,” she quietly said.
She picked up a landline and dialed something in.
“Hello? It’s prodigal.”
That was all she said, then she put down the phone.
“A person-in-charge will speak to you shortly. Please have a seat— and, there’s a vending machine by the elevator if you want anything.”
I did end up buying something to drink before I took a seat.
VR can simulate flavors, and if you pay extra, they ship the real thing to your doorstep. Basically, there’s some next-level advertising going on.
I took a sip.
… dude, this coffee’s amazing.
… a blend of 10 different beans, it says.
… I only know 3…
Impressed, I went back to the vending machine and ordered one for shipping to my realspace door. I mean, my god, it didn’t even have any sugar in it and it tasted that good. Meanwhile, the glass door beside the reception desk quietly slid open.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, Mr…”
He had a blank expression, just like my ID.
“A blank ID? I didn’t realize—”
“Please, no, don’t mind me.”
His expression relaxed, even if only slightly.
“I apologize for my rudeness,” he said, smiling. “If possible, I would like to afford you the hospitality of my office.”
Heeh, is this that ‘Let’s move this conversation elsewhere’?
I nodded and obliged. The glass door slid open once more as he led me away from the reception.
I’m not sure what I expected. This “cult”’s HQ felt more like a corporate office. We were walking down a corridor, where left and right, I could see teams behind glass dividers, all slaving together around long tables in pursuit of long-passed deadlines that caused them to tear their hairs out.
Said hair instantly grew back, because VR.
Pretty sure that inflicted quantifiable damage to their avatar, though.
Come to think of it, we’ve been walking for quite a while, huh? Floor 5-32 probably has a space expansion pack.
I was eventually led to an office behind one of the glass dividers along the corridor. Inside, a man and woman were waiting. They were dressed in some sort of clergy-wear, but it didn’t look like from any Christian denomination I knew of. Rather, it’s more like a subtle mishmash of all of them, huh?
The man who had earlier greeted me flipped a switch, and the glass divider rapidly frosted over, blurring the inside and outside from each other. Like this, any passers-by couldn’t see inside.
Rather, what’s with all these privacy measures?
“I apologize. I haven’t introduced myself. I am Director Vansen Vernier.”
As he took a seat, he motioned me to take a seat as well, and so we were finally seated on either side of his desk. The other two remained standing guard on either side of the door.
Ne… They’re kinda like bodyguards of a big boss or something.
Come to think of it, why does a cult have a ‘director’?
“Those two are Brother Adam and Sister Eve. They will be facilitating our discussion today.”
“Facilitating? Discussion? I just asked if you had a church, though?”
“That is where our issue lies, you see…”
True, praying in a church was illegal. That ban was a sweeping one which applied to all churches, old and new.
But, you know, it’s not like I’m that much of an upright citizen. I’m also pretty sure any organization that has “Church” and “Christian” in the name has at least one underground church somewhere, which means we’d be on the same page of the law if we’re talking about that.
“I’m sure you know— It’s abnormal to pray at a church these days.”
“But you’re the Church of Christian Revivalism, aren’t you? Shouldn’t you have, like, an underground church or something?”
“And how did you know about that?”
I didn’t know what to say. Did I say anything wrong?
“Christianity and underground churches… You see, such a thing is considered ‘knowledge lost to history’.”
We stared at each other for a while, but once I connected the dots, I was shocked.
He was right.
Christianity as a concept was preserved in our history books, but records of its practices were, at best, stereotypical. The fact that Christianity was infamous for its virulent establishment of underground churches, especially in circumstances of religious oppression, was wholly lost and unknown in this era.
In that case… How did they know?
The directory showed me a wry smile. Bastard outsmarted me— not like I was smart in the first place, but still! He fully had the reins in this “discussion.”
“Then, let me reiterate your goal,” he continued, “You wish to speak to Jesus, yes? We will permit you.”
“I mean, I did say I just wanted to pray—”
“No, you, literally— you literally want to speak to Jesus, do you not?”
“I— I don’t—”
“You are, after all, a ‘Hero’.”
I was speechless. The shock was probably plastered on my face, since the director’s grin had grown to his ears.
“Ne, I’m right, right?! Aw shit, yeah! I finally did it!”
Ah, he broke character.
“Ah, sorry man, I just—”
Areh? Who is this man?
“Embarrassing.”
“We apologize for his behavior.”
Sister Eve and Brother Adam bowed their heads. Somehow, I sympathized with them.
“Now, now.. In this case, it looks like it’s finally time to make the big reveal. Ne, Brother Adam? Sister Eve?”
Their eyes burned with determination. Next thing I knew, two confetti cannons had been fired, and a white projector screen leisurely lowered to cover the wall behind Director Vernier.
And the image it showed was…
A title slide.
It’s a slideshow presentation. An honest-to-god PPT.
The title read “Welcome to the Church of Christian Revivalism!”
They advanced to the next slide. There was a play button, and the director clicked on it. Nothing happened.
“Brother, there seems to be an issue.”
“It’s still loading the video, brother-director. Please await its coming, and you shall surely be rewarded.”
Rather, why are these people trying to play a video from inside a PPT?!
Ah, the video started playing.
Ah, 15 FPS. Wonderful.
“Christianity is dead— or is it?”
‘Or is it’.
Good lord.
“It really is!”
Eh?
“We here at the Church of Christian Revivalism aren’t pursuing the revival of Christianity at all!”
A lot of questions cropped up in my mind. Before I could ask any, I narrowed my eyes at the top of the screen and I saw the filename.
‘introduction for heroes.ppt’
What a plain filename, though!
Also, that ‘for heroes’ part implies the existence of introductions that aren’t for heroes… meaning what I’m seeing right now is really top secret, huh?
It’s top secret and it’s this kind of quality, huh?
“The real mission of the Church is to accommodate heroes… like you!”
The video paused and Director Vernier took center.
“17 years ago, a vision befell the Founder—may peace rest his soul—that the world would fall into ruin, and that Heroes would rise to rectify the chaos.”
He stopped there. I guess it was reasonable why. Heroes have already literally met God—well, it was just Weeb Jesus—so we already have all the context in the world, and the director didn’t really need to say much about that respect.
… Though, did he say Heroes? With an ‘s’?
“… Ne, how many Heroes are there?”
“We can hear that from our intelligence officer.”
Director Vernier gestured towards Sister Eve.
Also, I think I just heard a hint of danger in that introduction— an ‘intelligence officer’, was it? In a cult, huh? Hm…
“By our current estimates, there are, at least, 1500 Heroes in Metro Manila alone.”
… Eh?
Is it really that bad?
All this time, I thought Heaven was placing all its hopes on me. Why wasn’t I informed of this?
“… so, do you have a church?”
“… we have something like that, yes.”
Brother Adam must have picked up on the conflict erupting across my face, and that didn’t mean my acne. He had used a gentle tone to answer me.
The others in the room had guessed what I had wanted to do. I must not have been the first Hero here, nor the first Hero to have reacted this way.
In the first place, this was my reason for going here— it’s just that on top of seeking guidance, I would also like to nail a complaint onto Heaven’s gate.
They led me from the office… to the church.
