Chapter 74
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 74
Chapter Title: Vaccine
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I stepped out of the isolation counseling room.
The counseling session with Mary... hadn't posed any major problems.
It was only natural for her to feel aggrieved, having been quarantined the moment she returned as the hero who conquered an S-rank gate.
If anything, I just felt sorry for her.
"What do you think?"
I casually asked the system.
It had eyes of its own, after all.
[......]
But the system offered no response.
Where had it gone all of a sudden?
Off to the bathroom or something.
I headed toward the control room with those idle thoughts.
The moment I opened the door, my eyes were drawn to the data filling the screens.
The staff bustled about in front of them.
Spotting me, the team leader called out in an urgent voice.
"Counselor! You're here..."
He pointed to the main screen in the center.
"The forensics team's analysis results are in. It seems... the guild members' suspicions were correct."
The screen displayed complex graphs alongside what appeared to be the final conclusion in large letters.
[Emotion Amplification Phenomenon Caused by an Unknown Dungeon Curse]
The team leader continued, staring at the text.
"It's called emotion amplification."
"I see."
I nodded.
I'd gotten a rough sense of it from my conversation with Mary just now.
The team leader's explanation proceeded slowly.
"Here's what the forensics team said about interpreting the curse."
He picked up a tablet and began reading from the report.
"They say this curse doesn't simply amplify all emotions."
"It tends to amplify only one specific emotion."
His expression grew increasingly grim as he read on.
"And... that emotion gets fixed at the peak moment the subject experienced in their life—the absolute height of it—and then amplified infinitely..."
His face darkened more with every word.
This curse was more serious than I'd thought.
The forensics team's interpretation was essentially reverse-engineering the curse.
There might be minor numerical discrepancies, but they couldn't get the mechanism or core concept wrong.
The team leader said that to remain unaffected amid mental corruption required one of two conditions.
First, the subject's emotion had already reached its unbreakable peak.
Or second, they possessed superhuman mental fortitude strong enough to suppress the amplification entirely.
Either way.
It wasn't an easy feat.
I'd grasped the details now.
Figuring out how to handle the personnel based on that was my job.
And I had a question.
"Can we now distinguish between the corrupted and the non-corrupted?"
"Ah, yes, yes. They say it's possible now."
Typically, methods to differentiate the uncorrupted from the corrupted were developed alongside the forensics.
That could clear Mary's name, too.
The team leader picked up a black device the size of a palm from beside the control panel.
"If an alarm sounds when pointed at someone with this detector..."
He raised the terminal to demonstrate.
But then.
- Beep...
"......?"
"......"
We both fell silent.
Our eyes met in midair.
- Beep... Beep...
The team leader began slowly moving the detector around the room.
The sound didn't stop.
If anything, the volume shifted subtly with every movement.
And then.
When the detector pointed toward me.
The team leader's hand froze.
- Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep...
The detector was aimed squarely at me.
I furrowed my brow.
"Why is this..."
The team leader tapped the terminal as if suspecting a malfunction, forcing a wry smile.
I gazed into empty space.
Then, a system window flickered into view before my eyes.
[(๑•̀•́๑)✧]
[Don't worry, User!]
[This system detected your sudden behavioral shift!]
[Signs of new mental corruption already identified and under analysis!]
[Confirmed as an unknown mental attack not mediated by mana. Anti-SEC vaccine protocol activated immediately!]
[Vaccine Protocol Anti-SEC generation in progress... 97%... 98%... 99%... 100%.]
[Complete.]
[(｡•̀ᴗ-)✧]
[Suppressing it. Pow!]
With the system's final message, I felt the fog-like emotion enveloping my mind lift away.
It was like plunging my head into an icy winter valley stream—suddenly, everything cooled sharply.
"Whoa... this thing..."
The pity that had welled up whenever I thought of Mary vanished in an instant.
It hadn't been my emotion to begin with.
A counselor wouldn't harbor sympathy for a client like that.
Which meant.
The corruption had infected me in a split second.
[Identified as a curse form appearing for the first time on Earth.]
[Sorry for the slightly delayed response... (´•ω•̥`)]
No.
This was excellent handling.
- Beep... ing...
The detector's red light, which had been wailing at me, clicked off abruptly.
The blaring alarm fell silent.
"...Huh?!"
The team leader beamed at the sight.
"See? Must've just glitched for a second! Whew, that scared me..."
But he trailed off.
He'd seen my expression.
There was no relief on my face.
"Team leader."
"...Yes?"
"That wasn't a malfunction."
He stared at me blankly, as if my words didn't compute.
"This mental corruption..."
It's dangerous.
"It's contagious."
Extremely.
Fast.
Yoo Seon-woo had told Mary, "I'll be back."
Just rest for a bit, he'd said.
"Hmph..."
He probably wouldn't return.
Just moments ago, she'd seen pity in his eyes.
He wasn't the kind of man to look at anyone that way.
He never let sympathy color his gaze.
In other words, that hadn't been him.
Which meant.
Yoo Seon-woo had been corrupted, if only briefly.
And naturally... the source of that corruption...
"Was me."
Mary chuckled softly.
She'd thought not, but it seemed she was right after all.
Right then.
A strange shape rose like a heat haze on the surface of the massive reinforced glass wall before her.
The graceful curves of a beautiful woman, bat-like demonic wings visible behind her back.
Even an arrow-shaped tail.
The woman, reflected in the glass, whispered to Mary.
Not with a voice, but with words.
[What a pity?]
[Why not just open the door and let him in?]
Mary eyed the words with bored indifference.
[Wasn't that what you desperately wanted?]
She nodded.
She had wanted it.
But...
She hadn't wanted it fulfilled in such a pathetic way.
[I know better than anyone how much you've held back...]
The words on the glass wall continued to goad her.
Mary smirked at them.
"Then do you know this?"
But her smile held no warmth.
"How pissed off I am right now."
You should've messed with someone you could afford to provoke.
At that moment.
- Shhhk...
A small rainbow-colored orb floated up from the air behind Mary's back.
The orb sucked in the room's light like a prism, scattering it into tens of thousands of colors.
At Mary's gesture, the rainbow light shot toward the glass like a laser.
The light traced a perfect rectangular prison centered on the demonic figure reflected in the glass wall.
- Crackle...
And then.
The prison of light began peeling the surface of the glass wall away.
[Wait, hold on!! This is your emotion!]
Mary ignored the scream.
She clenched her fist.
- Rrrrrumble!!!
The flat prison of light tore free into three-dimensional space, dragging the trapped demon with it.
Now, a translucent rainbow-colored cubic box floated before Mary's eyes.
Inside it trembled a winged demon, quaking in terror.
- Swish.
At her gesture, the prison of light descended to eye level.
"What did you do?"
Mary asked softly.
"I... spread the curse. Corrupting minds..."
The demon confessed while trembling, unable even to meet her gaze.
"Why didn't it affect me, but jumped to Yoo Seon-woo?"
Mary had felt nothing.
She'd truly believed herself uncorrupted.
The demon nearly sobbed in response.
"I... I tried my best...!"
"Your best?"
"You were already feeling that emotion at its peak... There was no room to amplify it further..."
"Ah..."
"So I quickly sought another host..."
I see.
Mary nodded.