Chapter 117
Chapter 117
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 117
Chapter Title: An Abrupt Calamity
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D-2
Lee Si-woo invested one of his three free days entirely into researching Scelestus.
Even if he was planning to flee, he knew he could encounter this human-targeting virus anytime, anywhere.
Thanks to his efforts, Lee Si-woo learned that the virus existed to eliminate humans and that it had some unexpected loopholes.
1. The virus's transmission route is unknown. Airborne? Contact? It's untraceable. Ultimately, one must assume all humans can be infected. However, under no circumstances are other races infected. It is as thorough and precise as a surgeon's scalpel, meant to excise the cancer of humanity from the Main Dimension.
2. Upon infection, the irises are the first to turn white, followed by a sequential whitening process.
3. Complete infection—where all body hair turns white and the victim becomes brain-dead—varies by individual, taking as little as three hours or as long as three days.
4. Mana wielders are not infected. In other words, mana itself acts as a vaccine, making mages immune to the virus.
5. Some non-mana wielders exhibit high resistance to the virus. Investigation revealed that these individuals lived middle-class or better lifestyles in the Main Dimension.
6. Concluding that standard of living affecting viral resistance made no sense, further experiments on people from various professions revealed that the true source of resistance is mental fortitude.
7. Individuals with low self-esteem due to inferiority complexes, a lack of affection for life, and weak self-control over impulses and pleasures have extremely low resistance to the virus.
Lee Si-woo, who had been organizing his research findings on his smart pad, set it down with a shadowed expression.
‘Funnily enough, this virus is weeding out the inferior from the superior among humans. As if only the outstanding deserve to survive.’
Lee Si-woo decided to call the ‘corpses’ Stragglers, meaning those who have fallen behind. It was a name he chose because the virus targeted and infected these stragglers.
‘Stragglers are the natural enemy of mana. They possess immunity to and the ability to penetrate all magical and mana-based effects. But... they aren't impossible to deal with. They have a fatal weakness.’
Lee Si-woo gently pressed his thumb to his weary eyes and wrote the eighth point on his smart pad.
8. Stragglers (corpses) are immune to all magical and mana-based effects, and their physical abilities are dramatically enhanced compared to when they were human, but they are vulnerable to physical effects. In other words, modern weapons from Earth or monsters and warriors with great physical strength can deal with them. And surprisingly effectively at that.
‘That's why they were so helpless against my hammer. They have almost no immunity to physical impact... So... it's not like they can't be dealt with. Yes, if the Stragglers were the only enemy.’
Scelestus was a virus that existed in the distant past, during the Faceless Era.
And it wasn't a common disease, but a viral magic in the same vein as Earth's biochemical weapons.
For it to suddenly reappear today? It didn't make sense.
‘Someone deliberately released this virus. And if there's a faction that despises humans enough to unleash something like this... one group comes to mind.’
Black Night.
An organization more earnest than any other about exterminating humanity.
They would be the type to release Scelestus without batting an eye.
Lee Si-woo recalled the Death-Ground Fortune he had received.
『A greedy king, a mistrusted subject. To live, gain trust. To live, face crisis. To live, become necessary. Remember this. Darkness approaches, and a subject without a king will perish.』
‘Darkness approaches... Ha, I was overthinking it when a literal interpretation was enough. Right, it meant Black Night was coming. And a subject without a king... did that part mean I'd be in trouble if Kenyon died?’
Now that his use of the Dimension Knife in dealing with Hirkhus was known, Black Night would surely hunt him down one way or another.
So the Death-Ground Fortune probably meant that without Kenyon, Lee Si-woo would be in danger when Black Night came.
‘Black Night... Dammit, I thought I was starting to see a way forward, but digging deeper just made things bleaker.’
If Black Night spread Scelestus, they must have also prepared a way to avoid drawing the Stragglers' aggro.
In that case, no matter what countermeasures we came up with, they would be useless.
If Black Night's powerful mages were backing hundreds of thousands of Stragglers, Granada's fall would only be a matter of time.
In the end, despite investing a full day, the conclusion was no different from yesterday's.
‘I have to tell my master and Kenyon. We need to get out of Granada... as soon as possible.’
* * *
Kenyon's response, after hearing everything from Lee Si-woo, was resolute.
“I will not leave.”
Frowning at Kenyon's unexpected answer, Lee Si-woo's voice rose slightly as he spoke.
“Tower Master. Do you still not grasp the situation? There are over a hundred thousand Stragglers who are immune to magic. And now an unknown faction, Black Night, is joining the fray? Everyone will die. It will be a pointless slaughter.”
“Granada is the land of the Senior Magic Tower. And I am the master of the Senior Magic Tower. How can I abandon my home and my tower, and where would I go?”
Kenyon sank back into his office chair, gazing intently at Lee Si-woo.
“Lee Si-woo. The suggestion to leave comes so easily from your lips because you are a stranger from another dimension. So, try to think of it differently. If this were your Earth, your hometown, would you so easily suggest leaving? Especially when it means abandoning the millions of citizens who live here?”
“…I still would have suggested leaving. It's the most rational and efficient solution. And no matter how vicious Black Night may be, they won't kill all of the millions of innocent citizens. Of course, it would be a different story if the targets were us, the establishment.”
Kenyon let out a short laugh.
“Can you guarantee that? These bastards are ruthless enough to drive hundreds of thousands to their deaths overnight... and you think they won't kill the citizens? I don't know... It seems to me you're deliberately ignoring the grim outcome. Or perhaps... you just don't care if they die, since they're strangers, another race.”
Was it because Kenyon's words hit the mark, or because the accusation of ‘ignoring’ it had poked at a wound he thought had healed?
Lee Si-woo glared at Kenyon with bloodshot eyes and snapped.
“Yes. I am inherently indifferent to others. If they're not people I like, people I know, people whose faces I've seen and voices I've heard, then I'm the kind of person who doesn't care if they live or die. But... I'm not such a son of a bitch that I'd turn my back on the deaths of so many and run away when I have the power to stop the disaster.”
Lee Si-woo bit his lower lip and continued.
“If I could stop it, if I had that kind of power... well, I would at least try. Even if I might flee if things went south. But how can one person stop the sky from falling? How can one person hold back a tidal wave? If I struggle with all my might? Will that change anything?”
“Who knows. With the outstanding abilities I've seen from you, you just might be able to.”
“I appreciate you thinking so highly of me, but don't shift the responsibility onto me. I'm not some hero from a story, nor am I a god. I'm a selfish villain who will stop at nothing for personal gain and fortune. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“A villain who stops at nothing for personal gain and fortune... An interesting self-assessment. That's exactly how I see you.”
Kenyon slowly closed his eyes, then opened them and continued.
“The first thing I do when I wake up is visit my regular coffee shop. I enjoy sitting there, drinking a cup of coffee, greeting people, and chatting with them. I like the young man named Lanu who always greets me first when I'm out for a walk, and I like the bakery I've frequented since I was a child.”
“…Why the sudden, out-of-place talk?”
Regardless of Lee Si-woo's bewilderment, Kenyon said what he had to say.
“This is the place where I was born, the place where I have lived. My life is etched into this land like the rings of a tree, and it's where people who respect me and envy me live. Lee Si-woo. That's why I cannot leave. How can a tree abandon its roots and flee? No matter how fierce the storm, a tree has no choice but to stay where it is...”
Lee Si-woo squeezed his eyes shut.
He had a gut feeling that he had failed to persuade Kenyon.
‘Kenyon will not leave.’
Kenyon dismissed Lee Si-woo.
“You may go. I have much to think about. Still... thank you. Thanks to you, I think I see a path forward. Of course, I'd be more grateful if you handed over the Forbidden Art... but you won't, will you? Well, as you said, with only two days left, it would be pointless to take it since I wouldn't have time to learn it anyway...”
As Kenyon's words trailed off, he waved a hand to dismiss him, and Lee Si-woo quietly bowed his head before leaving the office.
He had been worried that if his persuasion failed, Kenyon might resort to extreme measures for the Forbidden Art, but it seemed his fears were unfounded.
But for some reason?
Despite that, Kenyon's words—that he could see a path forward thanks to him—felt ominous to Lee Si-woo.
As if he had just lit the fuse of some bomb.
* * *
Once Kenyon decided not to leave, Isabelle naturally declared she wouldn't leave either.
She then tried to persuade Lee Si-woo.
Asking him to protect Granada with her.
Of course, she wasn't saying this out of an overflowing sense of justice.
It was simply that a life without the Senior Magic Tower held no meaning for her.
But unfortunately for her, Lee Si-woo was different.
‘Perhaps Kenyon was right when he called me a stranger. Yes, this isn't my hometown, and I have no family or loved ones here. Maybe that's why... I was able to so easily decide to leave.’
Though he had failed to persuade Kenyon, Lee Si-woo's resolve to leave Granada did not waver.
The line from the Death-Ground Fortune about perishing without Kenyon was troubling, but it didn't matter.
For some reason, he felt that the fortune itself was predicated on him staying in Granada.
‘If I leave without a second glance and use Barathrum, how could Black Night or anyone else possibly chase me? The Death-Ground Fortune is only a problem if I'm in a death ground, so I should just leave the death ground. It's a shame to leave behind the foundation I've built here, my connections, and Isabelle... but there's nothing more foolish than sticking around to die just because of lingering attachments.’
Although he would be leaving much behind, he wasn't leaving empty-handed.
He had gained the Allen siblings and the Ranker Ixion, and he had grown to a 3rd Circle Expert.
With this kind of foundation, he would have no problem establishing himself wherever he went.
Lee Si-woo called Jin on his smartphone. He had called him dozens of times in the past day, but the guy wouldn't pick up.
As if to say now wasn't the time to talk to him.
Gritting his teeth, Lee Si-woo ended the call and went to see the last person he had to persuade.
His master, the Dawn mage, Autoreu.
And after hearing the full story from Lee Si-woo, Autoreu's first words were different from the others.
“If what you say is true, it's dangerous to stay here. So, finish your preparations to leave as quickly as possible. And don't worry about where to go. I have an acquaintance in a city far from here. If you go there, my friend will support you in every way possible.”
Hearing the deep concern in Autoreu's voice, Lee Si-woo asked.
“What about you, Master?”
“Haha, what would an old man like me do if I left this place now? I will remain here.”
Never expecting Autoreu—who had no relatives, no blood ties, no connections left here—to stay, Lee Si-woo asked.
“You're staying? I'm sorry, but... you don't have any reason to remain here anymore, do you, Master?”
“If the Stragglers are so dangerous, someone has to warn people, don't they? The people will need to be evacuated, and someone will have to control the chaos that ensues. Hmm, since I possess considerable skill in magic, perhaps I can help more people than I think.”
“Do you... think that's possible? There are only two days left.”
“Whether it's possible or not is irrelevant when it's something that must be done.”
Lee Si-woo couldn't understand Autoreu.
“Master. This is a pointless death. Throwing your life away for people you've never even met. Why are you trying to do something so meaningless?”
“Meaningless... Yes, perhaps it is.”
Autoreu's calm words stirred a surging emotion within Lee Si-woo, and he became agitated.
Perhaps it was envy for one who possessed something he did not.
Or perhaps it was jealousy toward one who did something he couldn't understand, yet admired.
“It's foolish. Even if they survive because of you, all they can offer in return is a moment of gratitude, isn't it? A feeling of faded value that will tarnish with time. Don't you see? No matter what sacrifice you make, only a tiny fraction of those many people will remember it.”
“You may be right. But still, I will stay. Even if I ensure my own safety, how can I be at peace anywhere if my heart is troubled? In the end, a person acts according to their heart...”
“Master!”
Autoreu wet his lips with liquor from his flask and spoke.
“Si-woo. I am your master. Therefore, I cannot make a decision that would leave me ashamed of myself. I am one who shows and tells. If I show a shameful side of myself, what will those who see and hear me learn?”
“Are you... indirectly telling me that I'm wrong?”
“No, you are not wrong. No. To be precise, I should say I don't know what is right or wrong. Perhaps it's because I've lived for too long and have come to realize that there are no right answers in this world. So I live as I have always lived, and I act as my heart leads me. By inertia, by habit.”
Autoreu rose from his seat and said.
“I am a man who has lost everything and failed. That is why I cannot confidently tell you what is right or wrong. So I can only show you. My way of life. That's all I can do.”
Suddenly, he recalled what Ha-yun had said to him.
-Just because you turn away doesn't mean everyone will. Just because you stand by doesn't mean everyone will, either.
‘Yun. I still don't understand. Why are there so many people like you in this world? Why are there people who live steadfastly and righteously, untainted by this old, bruised world?’
Autoreu's final monologue echoed in Lee Si-woo's ears.
“We have chosen to fight for our dignity, and we have resolved to sacrifice today for tomorrow. Tomorrow will be better than today. The day after will be better than tomorrow. Thus, we shall become the nutrients, a part of a future that will one day blossom in full.”
It was less a monologue and more a declaration.
Closer to a prayer for self-hypnosis.
Autoreu concluded in a monotone voice.
“May someone impressed by my foolishness today become another firefly.”
Autoreu took a faceless mask engraved with ‘No. 44’ from his coat, put it on, and left.
It seemed he intended to go to the slums to prepare for the Stragglers.
Lee Si-woo thought he understood why Autoreu had recited that monologue to him before leaving.
But unfortunately for Autoreu, Lee Si-woo was not the other firefly he was searching for.
On the contrary, he was closer to a common fly.
Yes, the kind that seeks out places so rotten they're teeming with maggots.
Lee Si-woo muttered in a cold voice.
“I'm sorry, but I can neither understand nor empathize with you, Master....”
Lee Si-woo finished his preparations, resolved to leave Granada today.
He had no lingering attachments to this place anymore.
Just then, Lee Si-woo's smartphone rang.
It was a message from Barathrum.
『Singularity detected. D–2 > Changing to D–0.』
“…What?”
『1 hour remaining until the outbreak of the White Calamity.』
And just like that, two days of leeway became one hour.