Chapter 37. Winter Season (1)
The first person to notice something was wrong was Jooheon’s intelligence agent, Seol-A.
“Chloe, how far along are you with organizing the report?”
“Huh? Report?”
There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with Chloe, Jooheon’s personal physician.
She smiled like usual.
Threw patients around like usual.
Cracked jokes like usual.
There was only one problem.
“You know, the Artifact analysis Captain asked for.”
“I need those materials.”
“...Who asked for them?”
“Captain.”
“Who’s that?”
Seol-A stared at her in disbelief.
“Are you holding some kind of grudge against Captain?”
Chloe tilted her head.
Like she had just heard the name of a stranger.
“So who is that person?”
“You’re joking, right?”
Seol-A immediately reported the absurd situation to Julian.
The moment Julian heard it, his face turned ashen.
“...I was afraid of this.”
“It really activated.”
Sitting in the conference room, he opened the Mini Rulebook Jooheon had left behind.
A new entry had appeared in the logs, which had remained unchanged until now.
Flash!
[Additional Script 6]
[Name: Curse of the Plague God]
[Disaster Type: Infection / Transmission / Spread]
Seol-A immediately understood the situation.
“Don’t tell me...”
“A plague that erases memories?”
“Don’t jump to conclusions yet.”
“There’s more.”
Then screams and alarms erupted from hospitals around the world.
“A strange fever is spreading!”
“Patient temperature rising!”
“Rashes, cardiovascular abnormalities, respiratory failure!”
“Treatment isn’t working!”
Breaking news reports appeared one after another.
At first, the team assumed it was merely the emergence of a troublesome new disease.
But all the infected shared one thing in common.
They had forgotten Jooheon.
Treatment Artifact Users were dispatched across the affected regions.
Chloe, one of their best treatment specialists, personally entered the field.
She collapsed in only seven minutes.
Naturally, everyone tried to use healing Artifacts on her.
“Is this the new trial Rulebook mentioned?!”
“Bring a healing Artifact, now!”
Then Julian stopped them.
“Wait.”
Ilya stared at him in disbelief.
Julian had told them to bring Chloe here, so Ilya had naturally assumed he intended to use a healing Artifact on her.
And now he was saying not to treat her?
“What are you talking about?!”
“If we don’t treat her now, she’ll—!”
Ilya looked at him as though he had lost his mind.
Julian remained serious.
“I said stop.”
“Do exactly as I say.”
Then he added:
“And send out a global warning.”
“Use of all healing Artifacts is prohibited.”
“Have you seriously lost it?!”
Julian ignored him and immediately began analyzing the data.
The infected list.
Locations.
Times.
Status logs.
Everything appeared across a massive map.
Then Zhuge Liang’s Artifact reacted.
[Calculating infection route.]
Airborne transmission: X
Body-fluid transmission: X
Visual transmission: X
Contact transmission: X
One possibility remained.
[Attempts at healing spread the infection.]
Several hours later...
The spread had stopped across the initial outbreak zones.
Julian removed his glasses.
His voice was certain.
“This disease must not be treated.”
Everyone froze.
“It spreads through treatment.”
“Treatment... causes infection?”
“More precisely, using a healing Artifact does.”
For now, the symptoms were only coughs and fever.
But if more severe diseases followed...
The situation would become catastrophic.
There was no doubt.
This was another worldline-extinction mission created by Rulebook.
“So for now...”
“Stop all treatment.”
The ward fell silent.
Julian muttered quietly.
“This plague isn’t designed simply to kill us.”
“Then what is it?”
Julian’s expression darkened.
“It’s designed to slowly destroy a world without Jooheon.”
Perhaps losing memories of Jooheon was both a warning from the Artifacts...
And a declaration of intent.
Seol-A looked at him.
“Then there’s no solution?”
“No.”
Julian opened the Mini Rulebook.
“I saw something in the privilege list.”
He flipped through the pages.
A rule appeared.
Something only Majesty could do.
A way to protect an entire world.
A Majesty may apply the abilities of absorbed Majesty Hearts not only to themselves, but to their entire worldline.
Julian exhaled faintly.
“Yes.”
“This is it.”
This was the only method capable of protecting their world.
“The key is whatever abilities Jooheon has acquired outside.”
Julian frowned.
“I just hope that idiot managed to obtain something useful.”
Everyone’s gaze turned toward the Rulebook.
Julian turned another page.
New text appeared.
<Currently Absorbed Majesty Heart Abilities>
Everyone inhaled.
The first ability.
<Fight Among Yourselves>
Effect: Superiors and subordinates perceive one another as conquerors and begin fighting.
Everyone’s faces went pale.
“...What happens if we apply that to the entire world?”
“We all lose our minds and kill each other.”
The world would end before the plague did.
Julian shook his head.
“No.”
“We can’t use this.”
