Chapter 57
The plague spread, and the streets died.
Every neglected alley overflowed with trash.
Magic beasts born from the Black Death crawled out.
You could at least kill magic beasts physically, but there was nothing you could do to the Black Death.
The Gallery trembled in terror before a disease that turned the entire body black and killed its victims in agony.
“Kieeek!”
“Senior, there’s one here too.”
“There sure are a lot of them.”
That was how things were until the Gallery doctors—in other words, the plague doctors—appeared.
-Crack!
A ghoul rummaging through trash in an alley fell silent after being struck by a mace.
Contaminated blood and plague leaked out as a result, but the Gallery doctors were perfectly fine.
They had zero exposed skin, with their entire bodies wrapped in thick protective suits.
“This is incredible. We don’t get infected at all.”
Gallery doctors usually worked in pairs.
When one of them said that while cleaning the streets of Kellearton, the man who appeared to be their senior burned the ghoul and said,
“That’s why we have the Head Mod, isn’t it?”
Their black, uniform-like clothing didn’t let blood or rain seep through.
It was a single piece from neck to legs, so nothing could get in through any gaps.
This thing called a “gas mask” blocked pneumonic plague, which spread through patients’ saliva, bodily fluids, and the air.
With their crowlike beaks and dark clothing covering them from head to toe,
the magic beasts had reached the point where they tensed up and grew wary whenever they saw them.
“I used to regret bulking up for no reason.”
“Live long enough and you see everything. I never thought I’d become a highly paid doctor.”
After the destruction, having a large body had hardly helped with survival.
But who would have thought that it would become an advantage and get them selected as Gallery doctors?
“Weren’t you originally the commander of the Adrian Knights?”
“This is better than being a knight.”
“I have to agree.”
On top of that, their job satisfaction was high.
When they walked through the streets, they could feel people watching them from behind their curtains.
The eyes filled with envy, expectation, and hope weren’t unpleasant.
Compared to the knights who had glared at them as tax thieves, this was practically an honorary position.
“And it pays well, too.”
“A salary plus performance bonuses? This is heaven.”
The base pay was 2,500 gyeongdan.
The two of them had produced the best results and received an additional 1,500, bringing their pay to 4,000 gyeongdan.
That wasn’t all.
“Stop right there! Who are you?”
Whenever they ran into the city guards protecting each district, they didn’t need to waste time explaining themselves at length.
“You idiot, they’re Gallery doctors!”
“Ah, ah! My apologies.”
With their huge frames and crowlike outfits, everyone simply moved out of their way.
Wealth, honor, and even a sense of power.
“Take this.”
He pulled something out of his bag and handed it to one of the guards protecting the district.
The bewildered guard’s eyes soon widened.
“Th-this is...”
“Masks and disinfectant spray. I’ve enclosed instructions as well, so read them carefully.”
“Thank you, sir!”
The guard gave him a sincere ninety-degree bow, more respectful than any he would have given a noble.
The Gallery doctor waved his hand and set off to clean the next district.
Sometimes it was a little tough, but...
[4,000 mana gyeongdan has been delivered!]
“Fuck, this is the stuff.”
“I seriously want to kiss the Head Mod.”
Money therapy was always the answer.
*
- Gallery doctor firsthand encounter story.jpg
- Mask ← fucking GOAT
- What the hell is this soap? It’s insane
- Gallery docs seriously look terrifying, but what they do is angelic;
A few weeks after the Gallery doctors began their activities,
they had become such celebrities in the Gallery that it was strange not to know who they were.
So far, I had hired about a hundred of them, and they handled their work extremely well.
Their effectiveness was so incredible that I sometimes wondered whether it was all right to work them so hard for such a cheap price.
[Title: Gallery Doctors Update...jpg]
(Meme of a Gallery doctor beating a magic beast in an alley)
(Meme of only a crow silhouette floating around at night)
They seriously look scarier than magic beasts.
I ran into one while out at night for an urgent errand, and I thought my heart was going to drop out of my chest.
But they’re fucking nice, too.
They gave me a mask and disinfectant, then carefully explained every single method of prevention.
Ever since the docs appeared, every magic beast that had sprung up in the streets has been cleanly wiped out lol.
Combat GOAT
Healing GOAT
Stamina GOAT
Is it you again, Gallery doctors?
[Recommendations9999+] [Dislikes91]
- They’re seriously reassuring.
- An overpowered heal-damage-tank character. Please nerf them;
- The best part is how they tell us how to prevent it.
Even when people hear the same words, those who have experienced something firsthand listen better.
Among those who fell ill and recovered after the plague broke out, there was no one who ignored the Gallery doctors.
When they were told how to prevent the Black Death, some people even followed the instructions without knowing why.
“And the infection rate is lower than expected.”
Usually, once the Black Death spread through a city, it was over.
As you could tell from the examples of medieval cities, it effectively only ended after more than half the population had died.
But these people only ate food from the market,
and with the distributed masks and antibiotics, there was no chance of the Black Death spreading very far.
Religion had weakened, so there weren’t many gatherings like church meetings, either.
[Title: If You Love the Head Mod, Shall We Hit Recommend?]
(Meme of someone receiving an antibiotic injection)
If you came back from the brink of death, go manipulate the recommendations!!!!
I’ll start.
[Recommendations9999+] [Dislikes101]
- Getting sick made me not want to live.
ㄴ But you recovered, right?
ㄴ Even if the Head Mod were a man, I could still love them.
ㄴ Head Mod*) Fuck no no no no;
ㄴ Season 43,241 of the Head Mod swearing lol
- When my wife and son got sick, it was seriously nerve-racking and made me want to die;
ㄴ So what happened?
ㄴ (Gallery doctor thumbs-up emote)
ㄴ Niiice~
ㄴ Now that you’re better, let’s go smash the church~
Almost everyone survived.
The Black Death, which had seemed like the end of the Middle Ages, was fading away like nothing more than an ordinary epidemic.
“What a relief.”
Maybe introducing the performance-based system had helped.
The Gallery doctors were former knights, mercenary commanders, and soldiers.
They knew the human body well, had seen plenty of blood, and were highly capable fighters.
They worked hard, roaming the streets until late at night to earn extra income.
Thanks to that, even though my money was draining away, my income was being replenished by even more than I spent.
[10,342 points entered over 24 hours.]
More than banning trolls, saving Gallery users and curing the plague could also be converted into points.
In the end, I made more profit than ever before.
But it wasn’t as if there had been no losses at all.
“A lot of people still died in the end.”
People who had been late to check the Gallery.
People whom the Gallery doctors reached too late.
And people who, because the disease had progressed too far, died of weakness even after recovering from the Black Death.
Their number easily exceeded three digits.
The only thing I could do for those people was inject them with powerful painkillers.
[Featured Post: In the end, my mother passed away.]
I’m the Gallery user who asked for help last time.
The Gallery doctors came and treated her, but she eventually passed away.
She was very old, after all,
and she hadn’t had much strength even before this.
There was nothing I could do, but fuck, this is hard.
Still, thanks to the painkiller they gave her at the end, she was able to leave a will and pass away with a smile.
[Recommendations5121] [Dislikes0]
- May she rest in peace.
- Tsk, hang in there, Gallery user.
- She must have gone to a better place.
- Every time I see posts like this, my faith plummets...
ㄴ Seriously, at this point, did God abandon humanity?
ㄴ Watch your words. You’ll go to hell.
ㄴ Yeah, I’m already in hell, you idiot.
ㄴ If this isn’t hell, then what is? lol
“Oh dear.”
Every now and then, I came across many heartbreaking posts.
I observed a brief moment of silence, wishing she had gone to a better place, then turned off the Gallery after leaving a recommendation.
Things had stabilized considerably by this point.
I heated up some vegetable soup I had bought from the marketplace, then carried the bowl into my room.
In what had once been my room, a little girl was lying on the bed, completely absorbed in a picture book.
“Malphite, you’re here!”
“Have you been resting well? How are you feeling?”
“I’m healthy thanks to you. Thank you.”
The book Penny had been reading was The Little Prince.
For some reason, Penny seemed unable to access the Gallery, so I gave her some fairy-tale books, and she loved them.
She had already read that book from cover to cover about twenty times.
When I approached, Penny put away the picture book and accepted the tray, her eyes sparkling.
“Vegetable soup!”
“You’ve been eating nothing but soup for over a week. Aren’t you tired of it?”
“It’s warm and delicious. That’s enough for me.”
Of course, I still couldn’t quite get used to hearing that mature way of speaking.
According to her, losing her powers had changed her appearance, or something like that.
The little girl who called herself Lust had overcome the illness and was nearly fully recovered.
That naturally left me wondering what I should do with Penny from now on.
‘I can’t exactly kick her out.’
Although life had gotten better since Kellearton was founded, magic beasts created by rifts still roamed the back alleys.
Even if hunters and Gallery doctors quickly hunted them down, they were still dangerous.
The shops weren’t thriving yet, so there weren’t many places for her to work, either.
As I stared at her, Penny suddenly noticed my gaze and gave me a bashful smile.
The wariness and fear she had shown when we first met were gone, replaced by eyes that trusted me completely.
“Aren’t you afraid of me?”
When I asked out of curiosity, the little brat gave a sly little snicker, as if she had heard something funny.
“Malphite? There aren’t many humans as kind as you.”
“Who have you met to make you say something like that?”
“Hmm... A mad dictator who was ultimately driven out to foreign lands after ruling as a tyrant?”
“What?”
There hadn’t been any adult SF fantasy stories among the fairy tales I’d given her.
“And you’re Malphite. It sounds like a dependable, simplehearted name.”
“That part’s true.”
I watched Penny finish her soup, then carried the empty bowl outside.
Then did I just have to watch until the Black Death quieted down and disappeared?
The Gallery doctors now had enough free time to hunt street magic beasts and provide simple medical treatment instead of focusing solely on the Black Death.
Just as I was beginning to feel a little more at ease,
-Ding.
I heard the system notification sound.
The moment I opened the Gallery to see what was going on, I found a message from Lloyd, who had become a knight of Kellearton’s queen.
Head Mod*: Yeah, what happened?
Lloyd: Head Mod!!!!! Help!!!!!
Head Mod*: ???
Lloyd: (Meme of Evelyn coughing blood and collapsing)
Lloyd: Her Majesty is in critical condition; please help...
“Huh, what?”
A meme showed the queen lying pale and collapsed on the floor of her office.
The popular user who had changed her name from Fallen Young Lady to Canned Tuna Queen was dying.