spoilers for the ending

read the raws for the ending as well as the author notes, and essentially everything from start to finish was masterminded by hyunseok.

the last chapter starts with sungjae waking up in the hospital. once he gets out, he's informed that filming for his movie will start the next day, as the director has been waiting for him despite his disappearance for 3 months. things go well, and his acting has improved. 3 years later, the movie is a hit. sungjae is proud of his work and repeatedly watches the movie. one day, he goes to a screening of his movie in an empty theater, and people start filling in. as the movie starts, he realizes it's different and is actually the events that transpired in the village throughout the story. at the end of the movie, he realizes he is surrounded by the townspeople, who give a standing ovation. lastly, hyunseok appears and beckons sungjae to the stage as their new sheperd. it ends with sungjae looking horrified.

so turns out, hyunseok was the upcoming director mentioned in the first chapter. sungjae's controversies during his acting career > job offer from a promising director > kidnapping > impersonation of the cult leader were all planned by hyunseok. while sungjae was gone from the village, hyunseok had somehow convinced everyone that sungjae was their true savior and got them in his crazy plan to film this movie. author mentions hints of this in story ie. panels where a camera is filming them in the bushes, and dialogue when hyunseok calls sungjae "our god" instead of "my god"

additionally author mentions there is no planned side stories at the moment, but if they get the chance they'd like to do a school au. also i think the series was supposed to go on for a bit longer since they mentioned they had to end it at ch. 31 due to personal issues