Chapter 64
Chapter 64
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: The Mercury Beauty Craze
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“I see. Quite a severe headache.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“No need to worry. We’ll just drill a small hole in your head to relieve the pressure, and you’ll recover in no time.”
In a private home in Adrian.
The doctor examined the patient complaining of a headache with a grave expression.
In truth, such treatments weren’t common, but they weren’t unheard of either.
There were occasional cases handled this way.
But that didn’t fly anymore.
“What are you planning to do by cracking open my skull?”
“Hold on, what are you doing?”
“Maybe I should crack open your skull first for even thinking of that. One Tylenol would do the trick—what’s with all this?”
In this era of advancing medical knowledge, nonsense like that no longer worked.
Even without understanding the principles, one pill from the Judak Market solved everything.
But the Judak Market didn’t always bring only benefits to this medieval society.
[Quality Post: Starving.jpg]
(Meme of someone slumped over a desk, chin resting on it)
No energy at allㅠㅠ
[Likes 9999+] [Dislikes 50]
- lol
- Can I buy you a meal?
- (Cat opening its mouth meme)
- ㅁㅊ Look at that pale skin
- So clean, you can even see the freshness in the photo
- Sisㅠㅠㅠ How are your teeth so white???
A heartwarming, feel-good meme that warmed a corner of the heart appeared in the quality posts.
As always, the gallery erupted in cheers and swarmed the post.
Interest in beauty had exploded compared to the gallery’s early days.
Partly because most people were now scraping by decently thanks to the market...
- So pale...
- My idealㅠㅠ I wanna be like that tooㅠㅠㅠ
- Wait, is that even the same person?
- ㄹㅇ How is it so white?
Most focused on the pale complexion.
It was largely due to the bathing culture spread by Judak.
Especially after the Black Death, interest in hygiene had surged, shifting beauty standards.
Unlike the old days when you could just mask the stench with heavy perfume and clothes.
Now, beauty standards revolved around cleanliness.
Cleanliness = paleness = beauty. The equation was set.
- Fuck, why’s my skin like this?
- Ugh, so many wrinkles, can’t even look;
- Wanna rip off all those age spots ㄹㅇ lol
Taking care of your appearance used to be a luxury for the middle class and above before the bathing culture.
Thanks to that, cleanliness became a measure of wealth.
And the trouble started when the post’s author shared their beauty secret.
- OP) lol Curious?
ㄴ Yes yes yes yes yes
ㄴ Please tell us please tell us please
ㄴ How is it so smooth and white??
ㄴ OP) I applied this every day lol
ㄴ OP) (Gif of mercury flowing)
ㄴ OP) Effects show up fast!
- But it’s mercury, you sure it’s okay?
ㄴ OP) Looks just like silver, but it flows, right? ^^
ㄴ OP) Flowing silver is mercury, so obviously good for skin?
ㄴ !
ㄴ Sounds legit...!
Silver was the most celebrated alongside gold.
It repelled demons, was clean, didn’t rust easily, and was holy.
And mercury just happened to look like beautiful, mysterious liquid silver.
‘What’s this? Mercury hype!’
The still mercury’s value quickly rose to match or exceed silver.
- Let’s gooo! Mercury time!
ㄴ (I’m gonna become a beauty master with mercury!)
Interest in looks soon sparked a mercury trend in the gallery.
*
[Title: Sharing a hot tip^^]
(Gif of pouring a bit of mercury into a cup)
(Gif of drinking it down in sips until empty)
Might feel gross at first.
But once you finish it, ta-da!
(Before-and-after skin comparison meme)
You can see the wrinkles completely smoothed out!
Drink mercury and be happy ^^
- Wow ㄹㅇ Thanks
- Hot tip big like wa-ba-bak
- Mercury goes surprisingly well with fish like a fancy ingredient
ㄴ ㄹㅇ? Looks pretty but
ㄴ Try mixing a bit into a tuna can, seems okay?
It didn’t take long for the mercury trend to spread.
By the time chemical weapons were cleared and the rift area sorted, it had spread like wildfire.
Right after chemical weapon worries eased, a chat explained everything.
[Admin Chatroom]
PureElf: Judak, Judak come out
Judak*: Yeah?
PureElf: (Gif of mercury in a bottle)
PureElf: Ta-da, I finally got some mercury
PureElf: Took forever to get, can share some if you want
Judak*: .
Judak*: What the fuck
PureElf tried something drastic right in front of me.
After all the hate memes and tactical nuke cleanup, I wondered if her brain had fried.
Only after hurriedly catching up on days of ignored gallery posts did I grasp the situation.
People obsessed with looks were slathering and swallowing mercury like crazy.
“The dwarves are making bank off this.”
Dwarves with advanced tech were producing the mercury.
They harvested tons, sold it in Adrian, raked in huge profits.
And funneled all that into market liquor purchases.
[Market ‘Liquor’ category temporarily closed.]
- What
- What’s going on!
- Judak! Trouble here!
- Gimme some booze!
I immediately shut down liquor sales.
I ran the market hoping gallery users wouldn’t starve and to keep things active.
Not like some gang boss peddling deadly poison for dirty money.
[Notice: STOP!!!]
Author: Judak*
(Gif of a determined raccoon reaching out)
Stop.
- Ack! My body won’t move?
- Damn Judak, what attack is this!
- Lol, can’t resist “stop”
- ㄹㅇ Lol gotta stop
ㄴ But stop what?
ㄴ Judak*) Stop eating mercury
I went further, banning mercury review posts and efficacy claims.
“But words alone won’t cut it.”
Telling people not to do something just makes them want to more.
I racked my brain for an effective way but drew a blank.
“Warn of dangers while banning mercury... Ah.”
I opened the gallery admin tab.
Gallery doctors were still there, paid by my monthly salary.
Like gallery civil servants.
[Gallery Doctors Chatroom]
Judak*: Got a job re: extra pay, need one volunteer.
I posted simply.
- Fuck me me
- Meme me me me111111
- Please pick me... my lifelong dream...
- I actually get huge pride and pleasure from work
- I love work tbh
Volunteers were easy to snag.
*
[Notice: Mercury Advisory]
Author: GalleryPlagueDoctor
(Gif of plague doctor waving cheerfully)
Hello everyone.
The weather is splendid, birds chirping.
But I am very sad.
Why is everyone eating mercury?
Oh, this is some huge bullshit.
(Video of exposing lab rat to mercury vapor)
(Gif of rat stiffening and dying in agony)
Behold. This is extremely dangerous.
Eating mercury = death
Shot by gun = death
Mercury eating and gunshot, what’s the difference?
Stop it, you misguided fools.
[Likes 9999+] [Dislikes 142]
- Fuck what, no the rat dies?
- Huh? That’s my usual method
- Wait mercury wasn’t good?
- Lol you still believe this third-rate fake news? Getting manipulated
ㄴ It’s a gallery doctor?
ㄴ Fuck mercury’s insane
ㄴ Lol quick pivot as expected from plague doc
Gallery doctors had way more trust than regular ones.
Especially with a named figure from Kellerton, the Plague Doctor, showing results firsthand. The impact was huge.
One experiment outweighed a thousand words.
- Fuck going for refund now
- Ah; was skin-suiciding
- Gallery doc, must be a reason
People soured on mercury instantly, trend over.
A rat died.
Proven by a gallery doctor.
Using it after that was basically suicide.
- Hold up, rats same as humans?
- How prove that’s mercury vapor?
- How counter the skin beauty effects so far?
But opposition always exists.
Flat Earthers, Apollo moon landing truthers.
Opposition for opposition’s sake.
Dwarves profiting off mercury and priests skimming commissions rose up.
Couldn’t crush gallery docs with force, but they rebelled hard.
“Uh, well...”
Gallery docs couldn’t explain fully.
Didn’t know mercury’s exact human side effects yet.
“But as a 21st-century NEET?”
I’d spent 24/7 surfing info waves as a home security NEET.
I jumped into counterarguments right away.
[Title: Facts]
Author: Judak*
Fact: skin looks healthy
Skin normalization
All skin necrotizing to reveal white underneath
Wrinkle smoothing is temporary from halted blood flow
- Uh... is that it?
- We sold what we were told but... didn’t know side effects
- Sorry, didn’t expect this
Dwarves quickly accepted and yielded.
Thought they’d cling to their income, but surprisingly not.
[Title: Banning Mercury Sales]
(Gif of dwarf thumbs-up)
We dwarves won’t sell harvested mercury for beauty anymore
Worried even about blind use, halting sales this year
They even handled cleanup decisively.
“Nice, dwarves stay righteous even drunk.”
Dwarves who don’t cause trouble even wasted.
Problem was the red-pillers.
- So what do we use now?
- ㅠㅠㅠ Didn’t wanna know
- Even mercury...
- Yeah, it was good while it lasted... beauty ain’t for my lot
With mercury’s truth out and no effective beauty methods left.
Gallery users wandered listless like lost zombies.
Some even knew side effects but dosed anyway, claiming “a little’s fine.”
“Hmm, that serious?”
Beauty interest ran deeper than expected.
I turned from system to lotion on bedside shelf.
Basic essential.
“Sell that first?”
[New item listed in market!]
I registered a mercury alternative in the market.