The Plague That Persists Through Death

With those words as the trigger, the players began to scatter and flee the city. Completely forgetting that they were already cursed, their only thought was to escape from others! The situation was unfolding exactly as Gabriel had anticipated.

While a massive commotion was breaking out outside, Tae-hyun stood face-to-face with Saruon. Of course, a quest window had popped up for Tae-hyun as well.

Who on earth is the lunatic that spread this curse?

Tae-hyun hadn't the slightest clue. He never could have imagined that the timid player blacksmith who had quietly asked him for advice would detonate a bomb like this!

Saruon clapped his hands together. "Splendid. Absolutely splendid."

"..."

"I was worried I didn't have a quest worthy of you, but this will serve as the perfect trial. Find the source of this Boiling Ultimate Plague, cure it, and bring it to me. Do that, and I shall bestow upon you an Arcane skill."

"No, wait a minute..."

"Yes, excellent. A trial for an adventurer of your caliber must be at least of this difficulty. You are quite fortunate."

"Didn't you hear me tell you to wait a minute?!" Tae-hyun snapped, his temper flaring.

A continent-wide quest was no joke; clearing one was notoriously difficult. On top of that, it required a fair amount of luck. To make matters worse, this was a high-difficulty quest where he had to figure out how to cure the curse first! No matter what kind of curse it was, resolving it easily seemed utterly impossible.

Just who is the bastard that spread this damn curse? Tae-hyun ground his teeth.

Thanks to his past achievements, he could have taken an easy path, but this sudden continent-wide quest had dragged the difficulty of his Arcane skill quest up with it. Now, he had no choice but to clear it!

"So, what exactly is this Arcane skill?"

"Mwahaha! A demon does not reveal his secrets beforehand."

"..."

Tae-hyun's eyes narrowed. His gaze was dripping with suspicion.

This guy. He's not putting on this big show just to give me some useless garbage skill, is he?

Typically, Arcane skills for any class were incredibly powerful. However, Tae-hyun knew the Engineering skill tree all too well. It was a high-risk, high-reward gamble—for every powerful skill, there were just as many duds! While every class had its share of useless skills, Engineering was notoriously bad in that regard. There was a reason players actively avoided it.

If I clear this whole quest and the reward turns out to be garbage, I'm going to spend all my contribution points with every single denomination to commission a raid on you.

Saruon, completely oblivious to the fact that Tae-hyun was mentally planning a raid on his head, laughed heartily. "I know you can do it. Go, find the Plague Bomb that was unleashed and bring it to me!"

"But do you think you can actually clear it? It's a continent-wide quest."

"Tae-hyun has cleared continent-wide quests before."

"I suppose that's true."

Cain and Lee Da-bi chattered behind Tae-hyun. Watching him accept the quest, they had wondered, Can he really do it? But on second thought, Tae-hyun was a man who had already conquered continent-wide quests before! It felt like he would easily breeze through this one too.

"No, I'm just going to test the waters. If it looks impossible, I'm abandoning it."

"?!"

Tae-hyun, however, was cold and pragmatic. The only reason he had cleared continent-wide quests in the past was because they were clearable. The quest before him now, however, gave absolutely no clues on how to solve it! Furthermore, the reward wasn't even guaranteed. His Avatar of Archisus class quests guaranteed divine Authorities, but this was a completely mysterious Engineering Arcane skill.

I'll check it out first, and if it looks like a lost cause, I'll focus on my other quests.

Tae-hyun had his priorities straight.

"Well, it's your choice to abandon it... but what kind of curse is this anyway?"

"Indeed. For it to trigger a continent-wide quest, it must be an incredibly potent curse."

The three of them, having been inside Saruon's forge, had no idea what was happening outside. They casually stepped out onto the street.

"I heard a lot of noise out here earlier. Do you think it's related to the quest?"

"Oh, come on. Look where we are."

"Haha. True, true."

Cain and Lee Da-bi conversed innocently. But hearing their exchange, Tae-hyun flinched. Surely not...

"Aaaargh! Save me!"

"I don't want to get cursed!"

"Run! Run away!"

Players were screaming and sprinting toward them from the distance! Tae-hyun realized once again that life had a funny way of making your worst fears come true. The noise from earlier really was related to the quest!

"W-What?!"

Cain panicked and tried to dodge, but there were too many players rushing forward. He and Lee Da-bi were instantly swept up in the stampede!

The two of them were instantly cursed.

Even in the midst of the chaos, Tae-hyun showed off his lightning-fast reflexes and dodged, but unfortunately, Cain was right next to him.

"...?"

Tae-hyun wasn't particularly surprised by the message window. He had successfully evaded hundreds of skills and attacks by now. He was long past the point of being shocked by a simple evasion!

However, if any other players nearby had witnessed this, they would have lost their minds.

Countless buff skills, defensive skills, healing skills, evasion skills... absolutely nothing had been able to prevent the infection. Every single player who made contact was instantly infected! Yet Tae-hyun had casually bypassed that absolute rule.

Of course, the man himself had no idea just how absurd of a feat he had just pulled off...

"My HP is draining!"

"?!?!"

While Cain and Lee Da-bi panicked, Tae-hyun rapidly assessed the situation.

Thud!

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Hey!"

Tae-hyun immediately kicked Cain away!

"So this curse spreads through physical contact."

"You bastard! Do you have no blood or tears?!" Cain yelled from the ground.

He couldn't help but feel resentful toward Tae-hyun, who had kicked him away without a single second of hesitation. But of course, Tae-hyun wasn't the type of person to bat an eye at such complaints.

"You almost infected me, and you have the nerve to complain? If I got infected, you would have suffered a massive penalty because of your class. You should be thanking me!"

"..."

It was logically sound, but Cain still felt a profound sense of injustice swelling in his chest.

While Cain sat whimpering in a corner, Tae-hyun continued to analyze the situation.

I let my guard down because we were in front of the Erance Royal Palace. I was too careless. Then again, anyone trying to spread a curse would obviously target a crowded area. Still, I didn't expect them to detonate it right here... Just who is this guy?

Tae-hyun felt a strange sense of familiarity in the way this curse had been spread. It felt like a method he had seen somewhere before!

The answer, of course, was Tae-hyun's own methods.

Gabriel had meticulously watched every single video featuring Tae-hyun. He was so obsessed that he had rewatched Tae-hyun's appearances on MBS broadcasts and other players' personal streams dozens of times!

As a result, Gabriel had developed an almost stalker-like understanding of his idol.

What would Kim Tae-hyun do?

How would Kim Tae-hyun handle this situation?

Detonating the plague bomb in the plaza in front of the Erance Royal Palace was the direct result of that thought process. When Gabriel had contemplated where and how Tae-hyun would set off such a bomb, he had naturally concluded it should be the most crowded, easily transmissible location!

In a way, Tae-hyun's own karma was coming back to bite him, but completely unaware of this, he remained lost in thought.

From the looks of it, the transmission ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠rate of this curse is incredibly high. Cain is a high-level player, but he was infected the instant he was touched. I wonder how many players actually managed to avoid it?

Having effortlessly evaded it, Tae-hyun had no way of knowing that literally every single player besides him had been infected instantly!

Unless you're a priest or a mage with a way to block curses, this is extremely dangerous. It's going to spread like wildfire.

Tae-hyun stopped his train of thought and turned to Cain. "Hey, what are the effects of the curse?"

"My HP is dropping insanely fast!"

"What? Is that it?"

"Is that 'it', you bastard?! Easy for you to say when it's not your HP draining!" Cain shrieked, desperately chugging potions and casting skills to keep his health up.

Tae-hyun then looked at Lee Da-bi. Unlike Cain, she was standing there perfectly calm.

"Why are you so calm? Weren't you infected too?"

"I'm not using recovery items because potions are expensive."

"...That is so like you."

He had learned during their last quest that Lee Da-bi had a way to bypass the death penalty. But still, to refuse to heal just to save a few potions!

"Besides, I don't think I'll die even if I don't heal."

"What do you mean?"

"My HP stopped dropping once it hit 1."

"...!"

Tae-hyun flinched.

A curse potent enough to trigger a continent-wide quest didn't actually kill players, but locked them at 1 HP? This was highly unusual. Of course, the sheer transmissibility made it incredibly powerful, but could this mean...

"Don't tell me... is your HP permanently locked at 1?"

At Tae-hyun's words, Cain snapped his head up. "W-What?"

"If it isn't, there's no way this would trigger a continent-wide quest..."

"No way! What are we supposed to do if it doesn't wear off?! We won't be able to do anything!"

"I might be wrong. Let's wait and see. Since so many others got infected, we'll see the full effects soon enough."

But ominous premonitions were always correct. It took only a few days for Tae-hyun's hypothesis to be proven right.

The players who logged back in after dying were horrified to find that their HP was still stuck at 1. Still failing to grasp the reality of the situation, they protested, assuming it was a bug...

"!?!"

Indeed, it was not a bug.

The true horror of the Boiling Ultimate Plague lay in its transmissibility and persistence. Typically, curses were lifted upon death, but this one was different. Until it was properly cured, it would continuously drain a player's HP down to 1!

No matter how much they were healed or how many potions they drank, it was futile. Their health would temporarily rise, only for the curse to immediately drag it back down to 1.

It was a truly horrific curse!

They couldn't go out to the fields to hunt, nor could they complete most of their quests. With only 1 HP, even a wild rabbit outside the starting village could kill them with a single tap!

Realizing the gravity of the situation, the players shifted their tactics. They began appealing to the developers' sympathy.

However, the Pan-On management team was cold and unyielding. They never interfered with in-game events, no matter how catastrophic they might be!

Of course, the players weren't about to respond with, "Ah, I see. Our efforts were simply lacking. We shall try harder."

While some persistent players continued to protest, most gave up early on. The developers' hands-off policy had been legendary since the days of Pan-On 1.

Following the outbreak of the plague, the landscape of Pan-On began to shift in a bizarre and unprecedented direction.