Bleach Therapy for the Plague King
Concentration of hazardous substances in the ambient air is rapidly increasing.
The courtyard of Arcana Animal Medical Center transformed into a field hospital in an instant.
Hyenas collapsing, vomiting blood.
Black-red blisters bubbled up on their bodies, and black foam endlessly dribbled from their mouths.
"Director! Their fevers won't break! Antipyretics aren't working, and when we heal them, the blisters just burst instead!"
Luna cried out, her voice trembling with tears.
She'd seen every disease from the demon realm, but this was a first.
The more life force you injected, the more the virus devoured that energy and multiplied faster—a vicious structure.
Jinhyeok flipped back the eyelid of a fallen hyena.
The pupil was dilated, the sclera yellowed.
"Liver failure. Respiratory paralysis. Classic biochemical weapon."
Jinhyeok's eyes turned ice-cold. This wasn't a natural disaster.
Someone had deliberately cultured and released the most contagious, highest-mortality pathogen.
"Ma Dongtak! Seal the hospital doors! Block all outside air!"
"Got it!"
Ma Dongtak blocked the entrance with a massive boulder.
Lee Shinwoo erected a spatial barrier, turning the hospital interior into a complete quarantine zone.
"Seo Jihu! Cool the patients with ice! We need to slow the virus's activity!"
"Understood! Frost Mist!"
Seo Jihu swung his staff, and chilling mist enveloped the hyenas.
Their labored breathing from the high fevers steadied a bit.
"Team Leader Yoo. Get back to your room. In your condition, even brushing against it would be fatal."
"But…!"
"Inside! Patients who don't listen to their doctor get discharged!"
At Jinhyeok's shout, Yoo Isu bit her lip and retreated to her room. All she could do was stay out of the way.
Jinhyeok pulled a microscope from his bag. He sampled the hyena's saliva and mounted it on a slide.
Pathogen: Mana-mutated anthrax + Abyss toxin gas
Features: Proliferates by consuming mana. Airborne transmission possible.
"Ha, this bastard? Eats mana?"
Jinhyeok let out a hollow laugh.
Normal hunters and magical beasts lived with mana in their bodies.
In other words, this virus targeted every living thing in the demon realm as a host.
The Plague King of the North.
Rumors didn't lie—he was a vicious one.
"Luna, let's make an antidote. Mix the herbs as I call them."
"Yes! Tell me!"
"Abyss mugwort 30%, purification water 50%, and… antibiotics (Earth-made) 20%."
Jinhyeok decided to blend Earth's science with Abyss magic.
An antidote made purely of mana would just feed the virus.
But Earth's antibiotics? That was a 'chemical assault' these bastards had never encountered.
Clink, clink.
Luna's hands blurred with speed.
Genius compounding skills.
She neutralized the herbs' toxicity and extracted their juices before Jinhyeok even finished speaking.
"It's ready!"
"Good. Inject it."
Luna administered the shots to the hyenas. One minute later, the foaming ones breathed easier, and the blisters began to subside.
"They'll live…."
The watching hunters sighed in relief.
But Jinhyeok's expression stayed grim.
He peered out the window.
A pitch-black thundercloud—no, a virus cloud—was slowly approaching the hospital from the northern sky.
"Treatment's done. Now we eliminate the source."
Jinhyeok shed his gown.
He fetched a box from the storeroom.
Gear he'd packed from Earth 'just in case'.
"Everyone, suit up. Plenty of sizes."
"Wh-what is this? A spacesuit?"
Lee Shinwoo lifted the yellow hazmat suit.
"Hazmat suits. Blocks micro-particles that pierce even magic barriers. Embarrassing? Wear it if you don't wanna die."
Korea's top hunters donned the tight, spandex-like suits.
Lee Shinwoo's flapped loosely; Ma Dongtak's strained against his muscles.
Seo Jihu grumbled behind his goggles.
"Ruins the vibe, seriously…."
Jinhyeok shouldered the massive disinfection tank.
Inside: his homemade cocktail of holy water + bleach + high-concentration mana neutralizer.
Dubbed 'Hell's Bleach Water'.
"Rolling out. Germ extermination time."
The northern border, Corruption Swamp.
This marked the start of the Plague King's territory—a land of death.
The ground had turned to sticky marsh; trees rotted, reeking.
Green spores floated like snow in the air.
"Ugh… the smell…."
Seo Jihu dry-heaved inside his gas mask. For his germaphobe ass, this was hell. Ma Dongtak slogged through the sucking mud, annoyed.
"Director! No enemies in sight! Just rotten trees everywhere?"
"The unseen ones are scarier. Germs don't show up to the eye."
Jinhyeok gripped the sprayer nozzle, scanning warily. Then—
Gurgle… gurgle….
The massive swamp ahead bubbled.
Something rose from the depths.
A colossal monster of clumped rotten corpses.
A 5-meter-tall Plague Giant.
Green gas spewed nonstop from its body; dripping fluids melted the ground on contact.
"Groooar… (Intruders… die….)"
"Enemy ahead! Battle stations!"
Ma Dongtak raised his shield and charged.
"Outta the way! Ma Dongtak!"
Jinhyeok yelled.
Too late. The Plague Giant opened wide and belched green breath.
Corrosive acid gas.
"I'll block it! Iron Wall!"
Ma Dongtak activated his skill. A steel wall erupted.
But the gas corroded the steel and punched through instantly.
"Huh? Why'd it breach?"
"Physical defense is useless! It's acid!"
Jinhyeok dashed forward. He cranked the sprayer lever to max.
"Everyone, clear! Disinfection truck incoming!"
Hiss—!
White mist blasted from the nozzle.
No mere water.
A high-concentration bleach + holy water cocktail that shredded all protein structures.
White mist collided with green gas.
Sizzle!
Chemical reaction.
The toxic green neutralized on contact, dripping harmlessly like water.
"Guhh?"
The Plague Giant panicked.
Its ace poison gas nullified, it swung a fist and charged.
"Not today!"
Jinhyeok aimed the nozzle at its face.
"Wash your filthy mug, you dirty fuck!"
Area Disinfection
High-pressure disinfectant slammed the giant's face.
"Gaaaah!"
The giant screamed.
The 'mold' and 'mucus' gluing its corpse mass dissolved in the bleach water.
Bacteria clumps with ruptured cell walls couldn't hold form.
Thud, splat.
Arm detached, head melted.
No sword swings needed—an S-rank monster dissolved away.
"……."
The S-rank hunters watching were speechless.
"That… just bleach water?"
"Bleach plus holy water packs that punch?"
"Director from the chemical corps or what?"
Jinhyeok planted a flag atop the empty husk. White field, red cross.
Disinfection Complete Zone.
"See? Germ clumps wash right off. Waste to drug filthy bastards. Cleaning's the answer."
Jinhyeok readjusted his sprayer.
"Moving to next sector. Turning this whole forest into a sterile room."
The northern end, Throne of Decay.
The Plague King, 'Nergal', sat on his throne, peering into a crystal orb.
A grotesque demon lord: fly head on human body.
"Hoh…."
His compound eyes gleamed.
His dispatched Plague Giant vanished in seconds.
Not to magic or sword, but some unidentified 'white mist'.
"Human doctor, eh… Interesting."
Nergal had heard the Illusion King of the East got treated by a human.
That weakling bowed to some puny human.
But he was different. He was disease itself, lord of death.
"Treatment? Bring it."
Nergal flicked a finger.
From the filth pit below his throne, thousands of Plague Flies and Zombie Rats crawled out.
Each a 'living biochemical bomb' laden with lethal viruses.
"My children. Teach that doctor true suffering. Gift him the ecstasy of bones parting from flesh."
"Bzzz— bzzz—"
"Squeak! Skree!"
The fly swarm surged like a black cloud. A calamity.
Back in Corruption Swamp.
"Director! 12 o'clock! Flying objects inbound!"
Lee Shinwoo shouted.
The sky blackened.
Tens of thousands of Plague Flies roared in.
"Eww, gross."
Seo Jihu shuddered, raising an ice shield.
"Catching all those'd take all day."
Ma Dongtak swung his axe, worried.
But Jinhyeok was chill.
He set down the tank and pulled new gear from his bag.
A massive cannon-like device.
Air-dropped from Earth: ultra-potent smoke fumigator.
"Why axe flies? One can of Raid does it."
Jinhyeok called Luna.
"Luna! Load the reagents!"
"Yes, Director!"
Luna dumped prepped reagents into the cannon.
Dried mugwort + insect-killing herb + paralyzing powder.
Dubbed 'Abyss-brand mosquito coil'.
"Balakas! Light it!"
Hmph. Lighter duty now?
Balakas grumbled but ignited the fuse.
Whoosh!
Fwoooosh—!
Acrid white smoke erupted like a storm from the barrel.
The smoke rode the wind straight at the fly swarm.
"Bzz? Bzz-bzz?"
Flies trapped in smoke staggered.
Insect-killing herb paralyzed insect-type beasts' nerves.
Mugwort smoke clogged their airways.
Plop, plop. Like rain, tens of thousands crashed.
The ground blanketed in black fly corpses instantly.
"Whoa… insane."
Lee Shinwoo's jaw dropped.
S-rank magic struggled with that swarm; one smoke blast ended it.
"This is science, folks."
Jinhyeok shrugged.
"Alright, off to bag the fly king."
Finally, Throne of Decay.
A massive landfill castle.
Before the reeking gates, Jinhyeok stood tall with sprayer in hand.
"Anyone home? Pest control's here!"
His booming voice swung the gates open. Plague King Nergal strode out.
Green miasma shimmered around him like heat haze.
"Insolent human. Defiling my domain with bleach stench."
Nergal's voice scraped like metal on metal.
"Defiling? It's disinfected. Can't you feel the fresh air?"
Jinhyeok sniffed.
"And you… looking a bit rough."
Jinhyeok's Eyes of God scanned Nergal.
"Ironic. Spreading disease, but your own immunity's shot—you're wheezing."
Nergal's eyes widened at Jinhyeok's words.
His greatest weakness.
Hosting countless germs wrecked his own immune system; he suffered daily fevers and pain.
A cursed life: sickening others while rotting himself.
"Shut up! What do you know of me?!"
Nergal raged.
Black tentacles burst from his body, lunging at Jinhyeok.
"Director!"
Hunters moved to intercept.
But Jinhyeok raised a hand, halting them.
He pulled a small syringe from his pocket.
"Hey, Nergal."
Jinhyeok dangled the syringe.
"One shot of this, and your nose clears—no more stuffiness, eyes won't burn."
"……What?"
The tentacles froze inches from Jinhyeok's nose.
No stuffy nose?
Nergal hadn't breathed through his nose in 500 years.
Always clogged with pus and snot. His compound eyes quivered.
"Lies… from a mere human…."
"Don't believe me? Try it, then kill me. Free sample."
Jinhyeok tossed the syringe.
Nergal caught it with a tentacle.
Clear liquid inside.
High-concentration antihistamine + immunity booster elixir.
"Your call. Live forever congested, or get treated and breathe free?"
Jinhyeok's offer.
What could've been a slaughter turned into a medical negotiation table.
The Plague King's hand trembled.