[Sub Mission : Improve her Impression of You.]
To think my first objective would involve her. Then again, my System was literally called the Cult Leader System. I should’ve seen this coming.
’Improve her impression, huh?’ I rubbed my chin. Or, more accurately, my double chin.
From what I could tell, her opinion of me was at an all-time low.
Most people would call that a problem. I saw room to work with.
Why?
Well, if a responsible person cleaned the house, nobody would care. But if the laziest guy around suddenly picked up a mop? That got attention.
It was all about contrast.
I learned that back in college and used it on women more times than I cared to admit.
Now I just needed to know what I was working with.
"Status."
Name: Raven Park
Level : 1 [0/100 XP]
— Personal Attributes —
Strength: E
Agility: F
Stamina: F
Intelligence: B-
Charisma: D-
— Cult Attributes —
Members: 0
Reputation: Unranked
Influence: Unranked
Loyalty: Unranked
Resources: Unranked
I went over my stats. The ratings weren’t that far off from my own assessment.
Intelligence was my highest stat, which wasn’t surprising. I was very smart to begin with. That said, my thoughts felt a little slower than before.
My new physique was probably to blame. Hopefully, getting into better shape would help.
Next was Charisma, which had to be carrying a lot of my past experience, because this face wasn’t contributing shit.
The Cult Attributes were more interesting.
What would happen once I gained members?
Would their loyalty make me stronger?
Was this one of those situations where having enough people worship me would eventually turn me into some kind of god?
Plenty of questions came to mind, but there was only one way to find out. Get my first member.
’Time to get moving.’
I glanced around my room, which looked like nobody had bothered cleaning it for months.
Dust covered everything, and the foul air made me wonder if opening a window counted as releasing a biological weapon.
In any other situation, I would’ve bolted out the door and called the authorities. They might as well quarantine the entire place.
’How the hell did this guy live like this?’ I sighed and rolled up my sleeves, only to stop halfway when it got stuck.
I was reminded that my once-proud, vein-popping biceps were now soft and flabby.
’Enough with the self-pity.’
I grabbed a discarded cloth, then stopped halfway.
What exactly was I supposed to do again?
My girlfriends always did chores for me, so this was a little awkward.
’Damn it. I’m suffering from too much success.’
Fortunately, cleaning wasn’t rocket science.
After nearly half an hour of hard work, I finally stepped back. It wasn’t exactly spotless, but compared to how it looked before, the difference was night and day.
’Not bad.’
Sweat trickled down my forehead. Who would’ve thought cleaning could be this exhausting?
’Thanks for spoiling me rotten, Claire, Anne, Lily, Lexy, Professor, Nurse Joy.’
I stopped counting before I ran out of fingers. If the System had a body-count stat, I’d probably be sitting at S+ rank.
With the job done, I showered and changed into clean clothes.
I could’ve gone straight to her and reported my accomplishment, but that would’ve ruined the effect. Better to let her notice it herself.
Since I had some time to kill, I decided to look up some information on the internet. Thankfully, the memories I inherited made reading the language here feel completely natural.
’Is this for real?’
The deeper I searched, the more I realized how different this world was from mine. I could spend months figuring it all out, but I couldn’t afford to waste that much time.
I got a literal deadline.
Good thing I already had a plan.
Why build one from scratch when I could steal members from someone else’s?
And the best part? Anyone already involved in these groups was more susceptible to influence.
With that in mind, I started looking into the religious organizations I could potentially join.
Most of them weren’t what I was looking for. Some were too large to infiltrate, while others were located in areas too far away.
I was about to give up when I noticed something strange in the browser history.
’Wait. What’s this?’
Looks like the original Raven had an interest in this stuff too.
There were searches about religious movements, cults, and organizations with questionable practices. Some of them dated back several months.
Why was he researching these groups?
Maybe he was curious. Or perhaps he was looking for somewhere to belong.
Either way, I wasn’t about to complain. The guy practically did half my homework for me.
One website in particular caught my attention. He visited it several times, and unlike most of the others, it belonged to a small spiritual organization right here in the city.
The organization promised spiritual guidance, enlightenment, and a chance to become part of something greater.
Typical cult recruitment material.
I opened the application form.
They asked about my beliefs, my struggles, and what I was willing to sacrifice for salvation.
Every one of my answers sounded sincere, devoted, and completely full of shit.
Application sent.
DING!
[Cult Expansion Opportunity Detected.]
[Objective: Infiltrate the organization and bring it under your control.]
[Reward: Cult Influence and Resources.]
’Good. At least we’re on the same page.’
Now, all I had to do was wait for them to contact me—
click!