Virus

[Initiating Deus Ex Machina Program.]

[Ariadne’s Thread tracking complete.]

[Initiating spirit particle transfer.]

A familiar message followed by a familiar scene before his eyes.

Instead of checking the time difference between the other world and Earth or calculating rewards as usual, Yuseong took off his goggles and sat in the chair, lost in thought.

The subject of his contemplation was what he’d learned while completing this quest.

One was about the worldview of special quests.

‘Though I can’t be certain with just two examples, special quests are likely to be worlds where problems occurred due to users.’

The first special quest [Twisted World] involved modern weapons and nuclear bombs.

The special quest [City Being Devoured] he just cleared involved a virus.

Both quests were worlds where civilization had collapsed or faced comparably serious situations.

If this hypothesis was correct, he might be able to get some information about the world in advance through users before starting quests.

Though this could be greatly helpful, Yuseong’s attention was entirely focused elsewhere.

‘The first user. Putting aside whether it’s true or not, how do you know there was a first user and that they spread the virus?’

‘Twenty years ago, there was an incident where we caught the perpetrator who spread the Omega virus. At the time, the culprit said things like “I did spread the virus but I didn’t create it” and “Someone from another world made it.” We thought it was just the ravings of a madman then, but after meeting Sophia, I understood what those words meant.’

‘Did the perpetrator say anything else about the user?’

‘I happened to learn this while gathering information about the Omega virus, so I don’t know much more than that…’

Though Choi Hyunseong’s information was limited, it was enough.

“The user who ruined both worlds is probably the same person.”

Though there was no evidence, his intuition told him it was the same person.

He couldn’t imagine there would be two users willing to recklessly use items from other worlds that could break free from control and cause serious impact on the world, even if it was to clear quests.

He wasn’t particularly bothered by the part about clearing quests while making a mess of worlds through any means necessary.

After all, Yuseong himself had done the same.

[Heavenly Demon Sect. The Final Moment].

To clear that quest, he had used tens of thousands of people as bait, and even knowing Hae Cheongyeong’s goal of unifying the martial world and establishing demon path rule, he still helped him complete the Sun-Moon Ritual and ascend.

What interested Yuseong was the user’s poisonous heart.

‘A mindset that doesn’t care what happens to anything else as long as they achieve their goals. I should remember this.’

Someone who must never be made an enemy, and if they do become an enemy, must be dealt with by any means necessary.

Because he had such a mindset himself, he knew better than anyone how dangerous such a person could be.

‘The problem is I can’t even guess who this user might be, but I’ll look into that later…’

After organizing his thoughts, Yuseong opened his inventory and began checking the rewards from this quest.

“The disposable enhancement nanomachine is like an enhancement potion, the recovery nanomachine ampoule is like a recovery potion. Things like the Single Molecule Cutter and Ultra Vibration Blade would be better given to Sophia for improvement rather than used as is.”

Most were just impressive names without anything special, but two items were different.

<Combat Nanomachine Ampoule>

-Rank: B

-Type: Consumable

-Nanomachines developed for combat. When used, grants ability increase and various additional effects.

-Strength, Constitution, Agility increase by 200.

-HP recovery speed increased by 30%.

-Wound recovery speed increased by 50%.

-Physical damage reduced by 20%.

<Experimental Nano Clothing>

-Rank: D+

-Type: Clothing

-Clothing made of nanomachines. An ill-fated invention buried despite various advantages due to extremely poor cost efficiency.

-Auto-repairs durability.

-Heat resistance, cold resistance, water resistance functions.

-Appearance modification.

-Physical damage reduced by 10%.

He immediately injected the Combat Nanomachine Ampoule into his body.

There was no reason to delay using an item that increased abilities and provided various bonus options without any conditions.

Though this alone was an incredible reward, what really interested Yuseong was the Experimental Nano Clothing.

‘At first glance it might seem like just a cosmetic item with convenience functions, but it’s far more useful than items that are just powerful.’

Yuseong changed the nano clothing into a shirt form and put it on, as if afraid someone might take it away.

With a faint smile while looking down at the clothes, Yuseong put on the goggles he had taken off.

[You currently have -2,721,000 karma points.]

[If negative karma points persist, penalties will be applied including karma point garnishment, forced quest assignment, and skill and item confiscation.]

[Please clear negative points as soon as possible.]

He selected ‘Yes’ as soon as he confirmed the warning message.

While doing quests he had thought he could pay it back later and kept taking out items, but now seeing the penalties were beyond imagination.

The karma points he had to repay were clearly more than what he had used, which seemed like interest had accrued, but he had no leisure to worry about such trivial things when he could lose skills or items.

After confirming the ominous red message had disappeared, Yuseong let out a relieved sigh and entered the karma shop.

Actually, this time he had planned to just buy stat increase rights and save the remaining karma points.

Choi Gangsik’s skills were things that didn’t matter whether he had them or not, and among the items he could access, there wasn’t anything particularly special.

The Puppet skill was worth buying, but like the Forbidden Knowledge skill it remained in his memories naturally without needing to be purchased from the karma shop, so there was no need to buy it.

However, one incident during the quest changed his mind.

[You have purchased Negative Dimension Virus(C+).]

[You have purchased Choi Hyunseong’s Negative Dimension Virus Research Journal(C+).]

“So its original name wasn’t Omega virus but Negative Dimension virus?”

Yuseong examined the contents while turning the ampoule this way and that.

Someone who knew the situation would see him as a madman for bringing something more dangerous than a nuclear bomb to Earth, but Yuseong thought differently.

A mysterious virus that enhanced the infected’s physical abilities.

If they could remove the zombification symptoms and leave only the positive effects, it could be tremendously helpful for Earth which was just starting to develop ability users.

‘The problem is I don’t have the ability to modify the virus…’

After moving from Dragonia to Earth, Yuseong took out his smartphone and called Sophia.

After several rings, a familiar voice came through.

-Hello?

“Hm? You didn’t save my number?”

-I pretended not to know just in case. We have to be careful now that you’re on Earth. Anyway, you finished this quest pretty quickly?

“Got lucky.”

It took about 2 weeks to save Choi Hyunseong.

And about 3 weeks for Choi Hyunseong to analyze the status recovery potion and develop a vaccine that could be made with that world’s materials.

Though it added up to over a month, Yuseong was confident not much time had passed on Earth.

Sophia became a user during high school.

Thinking about their similar ages, she had been a user for less than 10 years, but Choi Hyunseong said he received Sophia’s help 20 years ago.

That meant the time ratios between the two worlds were that different.

“We should talk details in person, but let me ask a few things first. Can you modify viruses?”

-Why are you asking about that? Perhaps…

Yuseong explained the situation before Sophia could make any strange misunderstandings.

-Civilization Classification W-16. Choi Hyunseong. I remember. Was it about 5 years ago? Someone caused a huge incident and left, gave me quite a headache trying to resolve it. And you brought that virus?

“Yeah. Some of the infected people had enhanced physical abilities, so I brought it thinking we might be able to use it somehow. Is it not possible?”

-Haah.

Her voice was so dejected it could be felt even through the phone.

-Let me tell you the conclusion first. My biological knowledge is superficial at best. Removing specific traits from the virus and leaving only desired functions is impossible with my abilities.

“Completely impossible?”

-Yes. Especially that virus. I can’t explain exactly but it’s not an ordinary virus. It evolves endlessly every moment as if it’s alive. Zombie? Variants? Enhancement? When I last saw it, it was just a virus with high mortality rate – I can’t even guess how it mutated to cause such symptoms.

Sophia’s words were absolutely not exaggeration.

A virus that couldn’t be completely eliminated even with physical attacks using nanomachines.

After saying it was as if the virus had a will, Sophia paused briefly before continuing.

-I know you brought it with good intentions, but please dispose of that virus as soon as possible. It seems even nanomachines couldn’t stop it in the end – if that virus were to leak, humanity would face extinction from a pandemic rather than war with monsters.

“Isn’t that too much of an exaggeration? The virus is dangerous, but with a vaccine already available, it doesn’t seem like something to be that wary of.”

-What? Vaccine?

Yuseong’s eyes narrowed at Sophia’s reaction like she had heard something completely unexpected.

It wasn’t like he had thoughtlessly brought the virus just trusting Sophia.

He had provided Choi Hyunseong with status recovery potion to create a vaccine based on it, confirmed its effectiveness, and even brought the research journal containing that information.

‘He said with 99.9% certainty it could handle not only the current virus but future variants too, though he couldn’t guarantee 100% due to limited clinical trial period and cases?’

Choi Hyunseong could do it but Sophia couldn’t?

Though there would be differences in their biology knowledge levels and time spent researching the virus, Yuseong thought there was an even more decisive factor.

“Sophia. Have you ever used status recovery potion while researching the virus?”

-I don’t know anything about alchemy or pharmacy so I didn’t use it, but why?

“Something urgent came up, I’ll call back later.”

-Wait! Alice keeps asking me to put her on the phone…

Yuseong ended the call and immediately returned to Dragonia using the power of the crest.

He could check on Earth too, but moving to Dragonia where there was no risk of the virus spreading was the best option for safety.

Taking out the virus ampoule from subspace, Yuseong immediately activated Eye of Truth.

Not even a speck of light was visible.

Though it looked like ordinary water, Yuseong adjusted his spirit power to enhance Eye of Truth’s performance, just as he had found traces of divinity in Lucifer’s halo and horns.

‘The name Negative Dimension Virus, and the fact that science couldn’t cure it but status recovery potion could easily treat it – this isn’t an ordinary virus.’

After observing for quite a while.

A small groan escaped Yuseong’s lips.

Through Eye of Truth, he could clearly see dark light rippling in the liquid contained in the ampoule.