Chapter 37
CHAPTER 37
Winter Season (1)
“Captain.”
“Who’s that?”
Seol-ahh looked utterly dumbfounded.
The first person to notice that something was wrong was Ju-Heon's intelligence agent, Seol-ahh.
“Chloe, how far have you gotten organizing the reports?”
“Huh? Reports?”
“Do you have any piled up for the Captain?”
Chloe tilted her head.
As though she had just heard the name of a complete stranger.
There seemed to be nothing unusual about Chloe, Ju-Heon’s attending physician.
She smiled as usual, casually tossed patients around as usual, and cracked jokes as usual.
There was only one difference.
“So... who is this person?”
“You're joking, right?”
“You know, the relic analysis the Captain asked for. Can I get those materials?”
“...Who asked for them?”
Seol-ahh immediately reported the shocking development to Julian.
After hearing her report, the color drained from Julian’s face.
“...I had a bad feeling. It really activated.”
“You don't mean... a plague that erases memories?”
“Don't jump to conclusions yet. There's more.”
Sitting in the conference room, he opened the mini Rulebook Ju-Heon had left behind.
The log, which had remained unchanged until now, had finally updated.
Just then, screams and emergency alarms erupted from hospitals around the world.
Flash!
“A mysterious fever is spreading!”
“Patient temperature rising! Rashes, cardiovascular abnormalities, respiratory failure! None of the treatments are working!”
[Additional Script 6]
Name: Curse of the Plague God
Disaster Type: Infection / Transmission / Spread
Seol-ahh immediately understood what was happening.
Breaking news reports were already appearing.
To the team members, it looked like nothing more than the outbreak of another troublesome disease.
But every patient shared one thing in common.
They had all lost their memories of Ju-Heon.
Eventually, users of healing relics were dispatched across every outbreak zone.
Even Chloe, the ace healer who wielded healing relics, personally entered the field.
She collapsed just seven minutes later.
Naturally, everyone tried to use healing relics.
“So this is the new trial the Rulebook mentioned...!”
“Quick! Bring the healing relics!”
Ilya shot Julian an incredulous look.
“Stop. Do exactly as I say.”
Just then, Julian prevented Chloe from being treated.
“Stop.”
He was completely serious.
“And notify the entire world.”
“Ban the use of every healing relic.”
“What the hell is wrong with you?!”
Ilya stared at him as though he had gone insane.
He had asked her to bring Chloe over, so she assumed he intended to heal her.
Instead, he was ordering them not to treat her?
Ignoring the protests, Julian immediately began analyzing the data.
The list of infected patients, their locations, timelines, and condition logs appeared across an enormous map.
At that moment, the relic of Zhuge Liang reacted.
“What are you talking about?! If we don't treat her now, she'll—!”
[Calculating Infection Spread]
Airborne Infection: ✕
Body Fluid Infection: ✕
Visual Infection: ✕
Contact Infection: ✕
“This disease must not be treated.”
Everyone froze.
“It spreads through the act of treatment.”
“It gets transmitted... by treating it?”
“More accurately, it spreads when healing relics are used.”
Only one possibility remained.
[Healing Attempts Accelerate Infection Spread]
Right now, the symptoms were limited to coughing and fever.
But if a more severe disease appeared...
It would become an outright catastrophe.
This was undoubtedly another world-ending mission created by the Rulebook.
Several hours later.
The spread of the disease had stopped at every outbreak site.
Removing his glasses, Julian spoke with certainty.
“So for now... stop all treatment.”
Silence fell over the wards.
Julian muttered quietly,
“I knew I'd seen it somewhere in the privilege list.”
“This isn't a plague meant to kill us.”
“Then...”
“This is a plague meant to slowly destroy a world without Ju-Heon.”
He turned another page of the Rulebook.
Written there were the rules describing abilities that only a Majesty could perform.
Yes.
This was the only means of protecting the world.
Perhaps losing memories of Ju-Heon wasn't merely a warning from the relics.
Perhaps it was also their expectation.
A Majesty can apply the abilities of absorbed Majesty Hearts not only to themselves, but also to their own worldline.
“Then... is there no solution?”
“There is.”
At Seol-ahh's question, Julian opened the mini Rulebook.
He let out a quiet breath.
“...Yes. This is it.”
The only way to protect their world.
“It all depends on what ability Ju-Heon managed to obtain out there.”
“I just hope he picked up something useful.”
Everyone's eyes turned toward the Rulebook.
As they flipped through its pages, new text appeared.
The moment they read it, every face turned pale.
“...What if we applied that to the entire world?”
“We'd all lose our minds and slaughter each other.”
Current List of Absorbed Majesty Hearts
Everyone inhaled sharply.
The world would end long before the plague did.
Even Julian shook his head.
First Heart
“We can't use this.”
“It's the absolute worst.”
Fight Your Allies
- Effect: Causes everyone, whether superior or subordinate, to regard one another as conquerors and attack each other.
It was an ability that could only be used as an absolute last resort.
Then came the next ability.
Did Ju-Heon happen to obtain anything in the meantime...?
- Effect: Completely steals an opponent's abilities and registers them as one's own property.
Please... let there be something.
Otherwise, the world is doomed.
...He really only collects abilities that are just like him.
And then...
The third ability.
At that moment...
The second entry suddenly appeared.
Julian's face lit up.
That's more like it, Seo Ju-Heon. So you weren't just fooling around.
Rejuvenation
- Effect: Reverts the body to a certain point in the past. However, all of your forgotten embarrassing memories return as well.
All right... let's see what kind of ability he got...
The entire team fell silent.
...Can we really use this?
Plunder
Then came the fourth ability.
[Ow! Ow! Oww!!]
Restoration
- Effect: Repairs broken objects. However, they may turn into something bizarre.
Suddenly, the rope hanging from Julian's waist began thrashing violently.
“What now?”
Julian muttered under his breath.
The rope split apart as its fibers twisted.
At the same time, a status window appeared.
“What the hell has this idiot been doing...?”
[Divine Rope Durability]
100 → 54
Around that same time, something happened to Ju-Heon's Divine Rope.
Ju-Heon's eyebrow twitched.
“...Why the hell did your durability suddenly get cut in half?”
The answer revealed itself immediately.
[The calamity that would normally fall upon the 'Master of the World' is instead being intercepted by the Divine Rope.]
[The Sixth Disaster has been unleashed upon Worldline B-187487.]
Name: Curse of the Plague God
Disaster Type: Infection / Transmission / Spread
Ju-Heon fell silent for a moment.
“...So you could do something like that too?”
His eyes narrowed.
“The Curse of the Plague God? What's that got to do with your durability...?”
The Divine Rope had originally been a sacred rope that warded off calamities.
In other words, the damage from the plague spreading throughout his world was being absorbed by the Divine Rope instead of Ju-Heon himself.
Another message immediately followed.
“Hey... are you going to be okay?”
[The more a world is damaged, the more calamities accumulate within the body of the Majesty protecting that world.]
The Divine Rope answered only with faint creaking sounds.
Its durability remained at 54...
Then dropped to 40.
At that moment, Cynthia chuckled beside him.
Silence lingered for a moment.
“From what I overheard, it seems a plague-type disaster has arrived.”
Ju-Heon casually turned his head.
“...It infects intelligent life?”
“That's right. Humans are infected more easily than beasts, and among humans, the smarter they are, the more susceptible they become. If the intelligent people are incapacitated, no one can search for answers, analyze the situation, or devise a solution.”
“...Sounds like you know about it.”
Cynthia gave a bitter smile.
“That curse spreads even faster if healing relics are used. If you interfere before discovering the cause... it'll explode across the world.”
“It spreads when you treat it?”
“Mhm. And what it infects... is intelligent life.”
Ju-Heon understood instantly.
Exactly what I'd expect from the relics' human extinction simulations.
“So... it's a world-destruction route.”
Cynthia nodded.
Then she revealed something unexpected.
“It came to our world too. Back then, I'd only just become a Majesty... and I didn't have a choice.”
“How did you stop it?”
“By lowering people's intelligence. The more their minds regressed, the lower the infection rate became.”
“?!”
Cynthia spoke as though confessing a long-buried secret.
This mattered.
Because the same disaster was now threatening Ju-Heon's own world.
The corners of Cynthia's mouth twisted bitterly.
“And at the time... I truly believed I'd saved everyone.”
“...Then Bitrain showed up, didn't he?”
“You remember what I said? That curse reproduces through intelligence. So we lowered the intelligence of every citizen.”
She nodded.
At that instant, Ju-Heon's expression changed.
He finally understood the bizarre state of this city.
“That's right.”
“They approached us saying, 'We're here to help.'”
“They expanded the facilities so the power of the Relic of Dionysus could reach the entire world. They even installed a new power source.”
“And they added Lethe's Memory Relic, allowing the entire city to keep operating.”
“Don't tell me... alcohol?”
Ju-Heon curled his lips into a smirk.
“They demanded something in return.”
“At first, they only asked us to hand over the bodies of people who had already died from the plague.”
“It felt like they were simply helping us dispose of the dead.”
“...At first.”
Cynthia lowered her head.
“After that... the quota kept increasing.”
“They no longer wanted only the bodies of those who had died from the disease.”
“They started demanding living people as well.”
Ju-Heon summed it up in a single sentence.
“So the city itself became a procurement system.”
Cynthia exhaled slowly.
“...That's right.”
“What started as a way to save people...”
“Eventually became a system that consumed them instead.”