The victory of a religion in another world is so easy?

"Sers!" the bandit grinned arrogantly. "Bring out all your men! If you behave well, I might leave you some food to survive!"

...

The twelve robbers were tied to the wooden post in terror, while Rand rolled his eyes at them.

Fifteen cultists easily defeated twelve bandits.

He really underestimated his group of relatively kind cult members. Despite their thin appearance, they were actually much stronger in combat than ordinary bandits.

After assigning his men to their tasks, he went back to the sacrificial chamber to sleep. However, after experiencing the mass sacrifices that exploited bugs on the assembly line and the skill-farming incidents that he himself exploited, he felt more secure sleeping there.

He will never die as long as he keeps sacrificing himself!

Living in the sacrificial chamber also aligns with the temperament of a divine messenger.

Unfortunately, he was awakened by a noisy argument not long after he fell asleep. Rand, who was grumpy when he woke up, quickly walked out of the sacrificial chamber and saw that one of Serth's hands had turned into a tentacle and was pulling a bald man with festering sores on his face off his horse.

These cultists actually have some kind of evil magic! I, a mere messenger of the gods, don't even know it. I'll have to go see the Goddess of Abundance and learn from her!

Although sacrificing oneself now no longer brings any substantial benefits, there's no cost to seeing the Mother Goddess anyway.

He always felt that this ability to exempt from sacrifice had many other uses.

He plans to develop this ability properly; who knows, he might learn some new skills by seeing more gods?

With Rand's arrival, the cultists present, including the paladin who didn't know Rand was a paladin, seemed to be boosted in morale.

Shouting incomprehensible phrases like "God!" "Friendship!" "Bonds!" and lacking proper weaponry, the gang, resembling more refugees than bandits, were beaten down one by one and tied to wooden pillars.

Rand sighed, puffed out his chest, and with the air of a superior, approached the bandit leader whose face was covered in sores from untreated wounds: "I am the messenger of the Mother Goddess. Do you wish to meet our Mother Goddess, the great Goddess of Abundance?"

The bandit leader screamed in terror.

It's possible that the fact that he's managed to hold back from incontinence has already exhausted all the courage he has in his life.

My first robbery turned out to be a cult hideout.

This life might be over, or it might be coming to an end right now.

“It seems you don’t want to.” Rand sat on the stool that Tanl had cleverly brought for him. This paladin seemed eager to be promoted. “So tell me what you’ve done. If you’re qualified, our Goddess of Abundance Cult is also open to recruiting.”

The bandit leader was about to speak when he met Rand's dark eyes, which seemed to see through all secrets: "Do not use lies, Mother Goddess is thirsting for your flesh and blood."

He had no choice but to hurriedly explain, "Although we haven't done anything before, we can do very well in the future. Just give us a way to survive."

Rand looked at the other bandits, noticing their frail bodies and the fishy, ​​damp stains on some of their trousers.

They were definitely not professional robbers, and this hideout just happened to be short-handed.

Why are there robbers?

Although these people look like vagrants.

“We’re short of slaves here,” Rand laughed, patting the towering paladin beside him. “He’ll be keeping an eye on you.”

……

"Today's lesson is how to hide your identity in town." Rand sat on the stone platform in the sacrificial chamber, holding a hastily carved wooden stick as a pointer.

A group of believers sat cross-legged in the audience.

So who exactly wasn't invited to this lecture?

It's Tank!

Tanl was not allowed to attend the course because he was assigned to supervise the bandits' hard work.

Now that more manpower has made land reclamation faster, a simple problem has arisen: there are no seeds.

Because Rand is wanted by the authorities, it is quite dangerous for him to be out and about, so his followers need to go and buy him.

Then we have to confirm that they really do have the ability to infiltrate human towns.

Rand's gaze swept downwards.

Sers and Rand made eye contact.

Rand immediately understood: "You, it's you. Answer my question."

"Huh?" Seres was stunned. The lecture hadn't even started yet, so why was he asking questions?

Ignoring Seres's astonishment, Rand grinned and asked, "If someone in town asked you who you believe in, how would you answer?"

"Goddess of Abundance! Mother of All Things!" Serth answered almost reflexively.

"Wrong!" Rand shouted, slamming his pointer on the ground with a loud thud.

“You answer!” Rand turned to another person, a man named Serai. Unlike Seras, who was thin, Serai had a large frame and would have been a big man if he had been properly nutritious. He was the one who had poached the lord’s rabbit and had to flee for his life.

He was clearly clever, and replied, "The Torch Goddess! The light and heat of the first civilization!"

“Very good.” Rand nodded approvingly. “Tell Serth why you answered that way.”

“Because if we say we believe in the Goddess of Abundance, we’ll be hanged. Everyone outside is a heretic and hostile towards us!” Serai said, puffing out her chest.

“Very good, a good idea.” Rand nodded in partial approval, then said regretfully, “Unfortunately, it’s still the wrong answer.”

Serai looked at Rand with some surprise and confusion.

Rand shook his head slightly: "Because only registered free citizens, nobles, mages, and royalty are qualified to believe in the religion and enjoy the church's protection and assistance."

"If you go to towns now, you can only call yourselves ordinary villagers. Villagers are not free people; they are the property of the lord and are not qualified to worship the Torch Goddess."

Rand clapped his hands: "I know you might not understand, but just remember, if anyone asks, just say you don't know anything about gods or beliefs."

"Okay, get out of class is over!"

Although Paladin Tanl was not fortunate enough to hear Rand's course on infiltrating the town in disguise, he later learned the general outline of the course from other cultists.

However, he was finally able to confirm that he hadn't come to the wrong place; this was indeed a cult hideout, or at least these people knew that they were cult members that everyone hated.

Moreover, while subduing the bandits, he clearly saw Serth's right hand transform into tentacles, and that evil power constantly stimulated his nerves as a paladin.

But now he has absolutely no idea about his undercover plan.

These people are not evil, and they don't seem to have any connection with other cults.

The only thing that could be considered somewhat evil at present is turning these bandits into slaves to cultivate wasteland, but in reality, it's not that cruel; at least they're fed.

Apart from that, they are no different from villagers who hide in remote areas to avoid taxes.

Tanl had met other cultists before; back when he was a paladin's squire, he had also helped the church to eradicate cults.

The human skeleton fragments scattered on the ground, the rotting internal organs, and the dried blood remain vivid in his memory to this day.

But there were no such things here, and he had also visited the so-called sacrificial chamber, so he quickly ruled out the possibility that sacrifices had been made here.

Whose sacrificial chamber is piled high with furniture?! This looks like a place where people live. What are they offering sacrifices for? Are they offering sacrifices to a divine messenger?

Rand was starting to panic.

Because he felt that the paladin might discover that he wasn't a true messenger of the gods.

Lately, he's been seeing the paladin's suspicious gaze wherever he goes.

He'd already been promoted to overseer of slaves, yet he didn't work properly and instead started to doubt Rand!

Rand wiped the sweat from his forehead—a sweat that theoretically didn't exist—as he had no means to resist the paladin at this moment.

He had been observing them over the past few days, especially the glimpse he made when the robbers were subdued.

Despite being fully armored, he moved with surprising speed and precision, each strike effectively subduing a bandit. When the bandits were tied up one by one, the real injuries were caused by the cultists who had lost control of their power; none of them were caused by the paladin.

In the game, at least in the first expansion, this paladin was already among the strongest in the upper echelons.

Rand's strength may not be much weaker than this paladin's now, but in his previous life, as an ordinary college student, his combat experience was limited to chickens, ducks, geese, and cats.

He would probably die in a single exchange if they really fought; he had a very clear understanding of his own combat abilities.

Such a powerful paladin actually came to join this dilapidated cult; the possibility of him being a fanatic has increased.

It seems I need to find a way to do something weird to dispel his suspicions!

Chapter 4 What to do if you're suspected of being the mole by an insider?

The paladin also sensed something was wrong; he might be suspected by the divine messenger of being a traitor.

Lately, this divine messenger has been looking at him with a suspicious gaze.

They even assigned him the evil task of overseeing the work to test him. It seems that truly gaining the trust of this divine messenger is a long and arduous journey.

Since the undercover operation has made no progress, it is estimated that the real secret lies with this divine messenger, but getting close to the divine messenger is extremely dangerous.

Damn it, where did things go wrong? He had done everything perfectly, from providing financial support to painting the armor black and reciting doctrines.

As expected, none of the divine messengers were easy to deal with; their wisdom was truly terrifying.

If his undercover identity is discovered, he could be crushed in a heartbeat.

He was very familiar with the doctrines; in fact, he could recite the doctrines of this so-called Goddess of Abundance more fluently than the doctrines of his original Torch Church. After all, if he didn't recite them well, his undercover identity might be exposed!

This is far too dangerous. It seems only a noble paladin like him would be willing to brave the difficulties and take such a huge risk to infiltrate a cult's hideout.

It was definitely not because I was sitting idly on the sidelines in church that I suddenly had this idea.

According to the doctrines of the Goddess of Abundance, divine messengers are divine beings directly dispatched by the gods, powerful beings possessing a portion of the Goddess of Abundance's divine power.

The doctrine also said that the messengers of the gods were usually a powerful monster called the Black Goat's Young.

This messenger named Rand appears to be a humanoid creature, but what kind of monster he actually is remains unknown.

If you provoke him, who knows if he'll immediately turn into a gigantic monster and crush you to death? That's terrifying.

Completely unaware that Tanl's imagined Rand was training his followers.

Because he needs his followers to learn some normal fighting methods. Unless it's a life-or-death situation, or they can ensure that their cultist identities won't be exposed, otherwise, using the power of the Mother Goddess indiscriminately will quickly invite the Torch Church's pursuit.

If this place is discovered to be a cult stronghold and its exact location is revealed, the Torch Church's judges will come sniffing around like wild dogs.

Although when he was just a casual gamer, he only thought that the Torch Church's clothes were beautiful and the church's judges were very attractive.

But now that he's transmigrated into the body of a cult leader, he finds these people utterly repulsive.

You could say that your perspective is determined by your position.

Q: How can a group of poor and weak villagers be quickly transformed into a fighting force?