Chapter 119: The Newbie’s Bizarre Concert

Concert day.

Pantheon’s fans were gathering in front of the Jamsil Student Gymnasium.

The two-day show at the 7,000-seat venue was completely sold out, and riding on that momentum, an additional concert in Busan was scheduled.

The ticket war was that fierce among the fans.

Even among the core fans, there were many who failed to secure a ticket, pouring out their bitter regrets on SNS.

`- Failed! Why? I thought the Demon God made everything we do go well?`

`└ That’s because it’s applied to other fans too, lolol`

`└ Are you rubbing salt in my wound?`

`└ I failed too lolol My laughter is not real laughter ㅠㅠ`

`└ Ahh ㅠㅠ`

By this time, it was usually the moment for posts cursing at professional scalpers to appear.

Rage would follow along with screenshots of scalping posts on Carrot Mart and the like, followed by the development of buying tickets with tears in their eyes.

Scalpers were such a chronic headache in the music industry that there were even cases where concerts were postponed because of them.

But, Pantheon’s concert was a bit different.

`- There’s one surprising thing`

`└ Is there another surprising thing besides my failure to get a ticket?`

`└ There are no scalpers. None at all`

`└ That’s true. How is this possible?`

It really was so.

Only the fans succeeded in ticketing.

Not a single person who participated in ticketing for other reasons managed to secure a ticket.

`└ Is it because those people aren’t fans? Could they not defeat the fans whose ‘everything they do works out well’ under the Pantheon buff?`

`└ lolol Is that so?`

While they had suspicions, they had no physical evidence to prove that the reason the fans joked about was actually the truth.

They just had to accept the results.

`└ The tickets were sold in a wondrously fair manner`

`└ Wondrous things are a daily occurrence when it comes to Pantheon. But even to this extent lol`

`└ So even if we couldn’t get tickets, we can’t resent anyone. We should resent Pantheon for not knowing their place and booking a mere 7,000-seat venue`

`└ Right. I’d accept even if they are resented for this lol`

`└ How is it that exactly only the fans bought the tickets lolol`

Like that, the atmosphere was one where all the fans accepted it and moved on.

If they couldn’t soothe their regrets, there was no other way but to watch the online concert.

Even the fans who cried over their ticketing failure composed themselves, saying, “Yes, let’s at least watch the online con.”

Yet.

In the midst of this.

“U-Um…. Is it really okay for me to come to this concert?”

Here she was.

A certain college student who succeeded in ticketing despite not being a fan.

“I don’t even know Pantheon that well….”

It was a statement that would make any fan who failed to get a ticket run up to her and demand she worship them immediately.

In fact, the college student was trembling.

*– Wor!*

When she was startled by someone suddenly shouting next to her,

*– Ship!*

those around them would shout the remaining syllable in unison.

*– Would you like to worship?*

*– Yes!*

*– I shall worship too.*

*– Mutual worship!*

Conversations with utterly incomprehensible meanings also went back and forth.

The college student, who stanned actors rather than singers, had little concert experience, but even to someone like her, the Pantheon concert was bizarre.

A bizarrely excited heat and glistening gazes.

The constantly overflowing incantations of worship.

It was almost like looking at a religion.

`[Today, this place is the first temple built in the human world]`

Even the promotional phrase hung outside the venue openly mentioned a temple.

“S-So-young, take care of me. You’re the one who asked me to come with you. I don’t know Pantheon well, so I’m a bit scared.”

She had succeeded in the ticketing her friend requested, but in the end, that friend couldn’t make it.

Hearing that news, another friend, So-young, who had also gotten a ticket, brought this newbie along, saying they should go together.

“Worship.”

“Hm?”

The college student looked at her friend’s face anew and was shocked.

“Who are you?”

She had mistaken the person in her confusion.

She thought she had grabbed her friend’s sleeve, but it was the clothes of a complete stranger.

Their gaze was somehow different.

Already tainted by the demonic Aura.

Holding eyes filled with deep darkness, they were ecstatic with the joy of worship.

“Crazy….”

The college student let go of her sleeve, startled without even realizing it.

“What did you say just now? That you do not know Pantheon well?”

The woman she had mistaken for her friend spoke.

She didn’t speak very loudly either; it was a low murmur.

But the moment her words ended, everyone around them stared at the college student.

“No way.”

“No way? Really?”

“One who succeeded in ticketing despite not being a fan—”

While the college student didn’t know what to do under the suffocating pressure.

““It’s a newbie!!!!””

The heat of the surrounding Pantheon fans instantly amplified.

“What?”

“A newbie?”

“She says she doesn’t know Pantheon well!”

“But how did she succeed in ticketing?”

Even scalpers failed in ticketing.

But this newbie succeeded in ticketing; they would be even more surprised if they knew her fan friend couldn’t make it due to something coming up.

This newbie was an ‘existence that defied the laws’.

Pantheon fans gathered to look at the rare existence.

“N-No, it’s not! What do you mean I don’t know well! I did not say that!”

The college student newbie hurriedly tried to make excuses, but.

“Sun-woo has worked as a police officer. What gift did he receive after saving a lost boy?”

The atmosphere suddenly turned into a quiz!

There was no way the newbie would know.

“He worked as a police officer? He must have lived diligently….”

““She’s a newbie!””

“Kyaah!”

I must escape!

This is not the place!

“Welcome!”

“We welcome you!”

“Worship!”

“I’ll give you this merchandise!”

“Do you want some snacks?”

“Worship!”

She felt like she would lose her mind under the pouring adoration for the newbie.

In the midst of that, the slogan of worship was always slipped in.

“W-Wait, just a moment!”

Ultimately, the newbie squeezed out her strength and attempted an escape.

After saying just a moment, she pulled herself away with the thought of leaving the temple forever.

“Newb? Newb?”

“Where is the newbie Unni going?”

“Find her! Let’s find her and gift her an album too!”

“Does she have a lightstick?”

Behind the back of the desperately running newbie, the heat of the believers worshipping Pantheon billowed.

We shall catch that newbie and offer her as a sacrifice at the concert venue.

We shall make her thoroughly feel the charms of our Pantheon members before she leaves.

“Huk, huk.”

Enveloped in terror, the newbie ran for quite a while without even knowing the direction.

Unable to go to the opposite side of the venue, and unable to stray too far, she arrived somewhere.

“C-Crazy…! It’s strange, but they are too kind, which makes it even scarier!”

Letting out a sigh of relief along with a mysterious impression, she barely looked around.

Around the venue filled with fans, at least here there was no one.

No, not completely; one woman was standing there.

Quietly.

As quietly as possible.

‘W-Who is it? Who is standing here alone?’

She had been hit hard just now by talking to a stranger.

With her guard fully up, the newbie examined the woman.

And, even this time, she was engulfed in shock.

“Lua…?”

The solo singer Lua was standing alone vacantly.

Even the newbie knew that she was today’s special guest.

Lua’s presence had also played a major role in her giving in to her friend’s coaxing, because the newbie liked Lua’s songs quite a bit.

“Are you perhaps Lua-nim?”

The newbie cautiously approached Lua so as not to be rude.

But why is her expression so hollow?

She looked somehow more exhausted than when seen on videos.

Slowly, Lua lifted her head and looked at the newbie.

“You must be a Pantheon fan?”

“Pardon?”

“A Pantheon fan.”

The newbie realized why Lua mistook her for a Pantheon fan.

Right now, only Pantheon fans filled the vicinity of the venue.

A bizarre madness where others could not set foot was wafting up.

“Actually, I came along with a friend. I am not a Pantheon fan.”

At that, Lua’s exhausted face brightened up.

‘What is it? Was she looking for someone other than a Pantheon fan? Did she perhaps want to meet her own fan?’

The newbie guessed within the incomprehensible situation.

Just as she had run away to avoid Pantheon fans, she was glad to see Lua looking for someone who wasn’t a Pantheon fan.

So she spoke with confidence.

“Yes, that’s right! I am not a Pantheon fan!”

Lua approached the newbie with an even wider smile.

“I have finally found one. A person who is not worshipping Pantheon.”

“Yes!”

The newbie thought she had escaped from Pantheon’s shadow cast around the venue.

Simultaneously, she also felt that she had met someone who was free from Pantheon like herself.

To think that person was Lua, the singer she liked.

The newbie also naturally came to smile widely, but.

Lua delivered a single statement.

A statement to fulfill her duty of spreading worship.

“Then won’t you worship from now on? Pantheon is really good.”

“Kyaaaak!”

Wrong!

Pantheon was dominating even Lua!

The newbie barely managed to turn around and run away.

To be urged to worship Pantheon by a top singer met in a secluded spot, she tried to escape the scene where common sense collapsed.

“Kim Ju-yeon.”

A strong grip tightly grabbed her arm.

“Kyaah!”

“What are you doing here?”

“S-So-young?”

Finally, a familiar face appeared.

The friend she had lost earlier had found her.

Unlike the other Pantheon fans, her friend had a normal expression that held no heat.

The newbie appealed with relief.

“So-young, I, I cannot do this!”

“What?”

“This place, I mean. Something about it doesn’t suit me.”

“Hm?”

The friend looked at the newbie in surprise.

The friend, who examined the newbie’s state for a while, nodded.

“It’s true? Well, our fandom’s atmosphere is indeed unique. Our cohesion is strong too.”

“Cohesion? Can this kind of atmosphere be called cohesion? Anyway, I don’t think I can do this.”

“Phew, then it can’t be helped. Come this way.”

Unlike the newbie who was directionally challenged, her friend was good at finding directions.

Knowing the exit direction, she led the way.

“I saw something strange. The singer Lua was standing over there?”

“Yeah, so?”

“But she urged me to worship Pantheon. Does this make sense?”

Hearing the newbie’s words, the friend burst into giggles.

“I tell you it’s real!”

“No, I didn’t laugh because I don’t believe you.”

The friend even wiped away tears from laughing too hard.

“If not because you don’t believe me? Why did you laugh?”

The friend pushed the newbie’s back, making her turn the corner, and spoke.

“That’s because you will become like that too.”

“What?”

At the place after turning the corner.

Pantheon fans were gathered.

Their gazes locked onto the newbie all at once.

“She’s here!”

“Newb! Newb!”

“The friend found her!”

“Shower her with merchandise first!”

The escape was thwarted.

“Ahh.”

The newbie ended up being sucked into the concert venue.

***

And.

There, the newbie heard the trumpet of summoning, the first synth sound.

The first song was `<Idolatrize>`, which made Pantheon known.

*– I can feel you, the only one*

The newbie also heard a whisper.

Furthermore, she saw five male gods.

An ominous and terrifying demonic Aura swirled above the stage, and sharing that Aura, Pantheon began their choreography.

“Ugh— Uwah— Uwaaa—”

Chilling yet endlessly immersive.

Is it this?

Is this the very Pantheon that even Lua urged her to worship?

Is the heat of worship filling the concert venue directed toward those members?

Because she didn’t know Pantheon well and had never looked them up separately, the newbie felt as if her brain was melting at the intense demonic nature she encountered for the first time.

Having no resistance whatsoever, she was exposed to a whole song’s worth of demonic nature.

After the song ended, her friend waved her hand back and forth in front of the newbie’s eyes.

Smiling contentedly at her completely unresponsive state, the friend also fixed her eyes on the stage.

There, the Demon God was throwing a single question.

*– Will you worship?*

The newbie felt that the question was meant for her.

“Yes.”

She answered the question meant for her along with everyone else.

*– If so, I shall worship you as well.*

Newbie.

And several fans who recognized her existence thought simultaneously.

The newbie was not an existence that defied the laws.

She was merely an existence that came to become a fan in accordance with the laws.

“I will worship.”

Like that, the newbie died.

A fan was born.

A fan who receives the worship of the Demon God.

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