119 - Contamination

TL/Editor: raei Status: 5/week mon-fri

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While applying makeup, I received intel from the agent.

Doomsday cultists to watch out for and their anomalies.

But this information was missing.

I'd heard this human was all about the glasses.

"Tick tock. Time marches on, even now. Our dinosaur friend should be arriving soon."

As Lee Yeonwoo watched, the bespectacled doomsday cultist smiled. The situation was already under his control.

The Reptilian boss would arrive soon, and he was confident he could stall until then.

Yeonwoo was confident too.

Confident he'd survive this place, escape safely no matter who the opponent was.

'I've got my own tricks up my sleeve.'

His survival instinct hadn't raised any red flags yet, so Yeonwoo spoke again.

"Those glasses, I want them."

More precisely, they were dangerous. The radar that could detect him had to go.

"What?"

The doomsday cultist's face hardened.

Was this something to say now?

Something felt off.

The situation was slipping from his grasp.

The glasses flashed, reading information. Yeonwoo's expression, emotions, gestures, and the psychology that could be inferred from them.

'He's serious. He's not scared or anxious. No, more than that, he's attacking-'

In a flash!

The doomsday cultist standing up and Yeonwoo charging with an activated drill happened simultaneously.

With a piercing whine, the fiercely rotating drill thrust forward in a straight line. The drill tip aimed for the torso. The doomsday cultist immediately thrust out his palm as a shield.

With a sickening crunch, the drill pierced right through the center of his palm. The doomsday cultist calmly twisted his hand, deflecting the drill.

"Are you insane?"

Terrible pain shot up to his brain, but he forced himself to control his expression and spoke.

"You'd be better off escaping now. I won't go down so easily. How much time has passed already?"

"It's fine."

"It's not fine. Let's see. The guards, enough time has passed for them to return, right?"

That was right. The time had come. Sёarch* The ηovelFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Boom boom boom, heavy footsteps explosively drew closer. Something like a dinosaur's cry tore through the air.

Just as a massive shadow loomed, long claws shredded the tent to ribbons. A yellow reptilian eye poked through the torn gap. With a hiss, a thin tongue flicked out.

"Glasses. Something wrong?"

The host of the Reptilian plague. The boss controlling the infected had arrived.

"Ah, yes. Here in front-"

The moment the bespectacled doomsday cultist spoke with a broad smile. The moment his finger pointed at Yeonwoo.

Yeonwoo thought.

'Dice. Weaken contamination.'

A perfect roll prepared since hearing about the contamination information. If successful, the opponent weakens. If it fails, the contamination progresses and they lose rationality, becoming closer to a simple anomaly.

He made the roll and the dice tumbled-

Clatter-

Failure!

Weakening the contamination failed. The contamination level increased.

In that instant, the eyes of the half-human half-dinosaur monster flashed. Savagery filled its pupils, and with a growl, a threatening cry rang out.

Its body changed too. Closer to reptile, to dinosaur. Its body grew larger, its skeleton twisted.

Glasses' face stiffened.

"Why did the contamination suddenly-"

The Reptilian plague strengthened. The boss, the host of the plague, became closer to a monster and lost control.

Howls of the infected echoed across the island. Like wolves howling, dinosaur cries reverberated.

In that moment, Glasses jerked his head to look at Yeonwoo. Guessing what he had done.

But Yeonwoo himself was also backing away, cold sweat breaking out. Shock and terror.

'...Or not?'

No. Yeonwoo had done it.

But it was unlike his expectations.

The danger was palpable.

This wasn't contamination he could handle. How could he deal with humans who'd surpassed the Reptilian limit, and the infected spread all over the island at that.

Moreover, the infection would keep spreading.

'I should turn it back to how it was before. Dice contamination weakening, no, strengthening.'

With a feeling that failure would come out somehow, he reversed the roll, and Yeonwoo's little scheme failed.

Clatter-

Success!

Contamination strengthening succeeded and it became more contaminated.

With a crack, the Reptilian boss's skeleton kept twisting. Its body grew larger, its skin completely changed to that of a dinosaur and became bumpy, and the contours of its face also writhed as traces of humanity disappeared.

Drip, drip, saliva flowed. Sharp teeth gleamed white.

The Reptilian boss, its eyes showing no trace of reason, opened its mouth wide and roared.

"———!"

Dodging the flying spit, Glasses and Yeonwoo hurriedly backed away. If body fluids infiltrated, or they were bitten or scratched, they'd be infected.

"It shouldn't be going berserk now. Other humans need to stop this thing quickly."

Glasses said anxiously, his feet trembling.

'Dice. Contamination weakening, weakening, weakening, weakening, keep rolling!'

Yeonwoo urgently rolled the dice.

Anyway, the probabilities of success and failure should be similar, so if he kept rolling, the average value should come out similar. That means returning to the original state.

Clatter-

Boom, failure, failure, success, boom, failure!

But like magic, the results skewed to one side. Towards increasing contamination level.

Yeonwoo looked at the results dejectedly.

'How much does contamination increase like this? We're really screwed.'

Contamination level skyrocketed. The Reptilian boss now couldn't even maintain a dinosaur form.

Writhe writhe-

A massive egg. The egg made of leather and chunks of meat was so huge you had to crane your neck to see it all.

Pterosaur heads and wings, carnivorous dinosaur mouths and forelegs, herbivorous dinosaur necks and horns, ichthyosaur beaks and fins and the like randomly protruded from the egg's surface and squirmed.

At the same time, screams and explosions echoed across the island. The cries of the infected influenced by their host.

"Damn it."

Glasses wore a resigned expression. This gathering was ruined. If they weren't careful, even the plan could come to nothing.

But the worst case hadn't come yet.

With a squelch and a crunch, a long neck emerged from the huge chunk of meat. That thing with just a neck like a straw and no head flailed in the air, then suddenly started spewing blood.

Whoosh!

Red blood gushed forth violently then fell like rain. Each drop contained germs.

Yeonwoo quickly spread his bag wide to cover his face, while Glasses was drenched in bloody water.

He tried to dodge based on predictions from his glasses, but his body wouldn't cooperate.

"..."

Blood dripped down. His head soaked, blood drops fell along his jawline. Glasses quietly bowed his head and looked at his hand.

His hand pierced by the electric drill, his hand smeared with the Reptilian boss's blood, the wound where the plague was actively infiltrating.

"Ah."

He was infected.

Right away his skin started mutating. Bumpy leather spread bit by bit. His skeleton twisted. His knees, arms distorted as his clothes stretched taut.

Claws that suddenly sprouted pierced through his sneakers.

With a crack, his face swelled and elongated, breaking his glasses. Reptilian pupils were revealed.

"Get a hold of yourself. Get a hold..."

Glasses staggered, clutching his head with his arms, no, his forelegs. Not just his body changed. The plague that broke through limits invaded his mind.

Only the will of the plague, the will to create more infected, filled his mind completely.

Suddenly the doomsday cultist who had worn glasses lowered his forelegs. Yellow glowing reptilian eyes looked at Yeonwoo.

Eyes without reason, ferocious eyes.

At that point, Yeonwoo snapped to his senses. His heart pounded, sending vitality throughout his body, his mind racing.

The situation was simple. A terrifyingly dangerous Reptilian boss, and a Reptilian who'd lost his reason.

'We're screwed, we're screwed, we're really screwed.'

He whirled around and ran like the wind.

'Run away!'

The infected doomsday cultist watched that retreating figure. Even with his glasses broken, enhanced cognitive abilities made him a hunter.

He opened his mouth to roar, then stepped, crushing the glasses' remains as he chased like a beast.

The massive egg of meat left behind writhed, craving more infected.

---

---

The island became a mess.

Doomsday cultists gathered for the meeting, and Reptilians mixed in among them.

The moment the host's contamination level rose, the Reptilians under the boss were also affected, and in the end completely lost their reason.

"Aaargh! Why, why are you biting!"

"These bastards are crazy!"

"Kyaaak!"

Reptilians who had been transformed as humans revealed their true forms and went on a rampage, clawing and biting people around them.

People who were attacked staggered then mutated into Reptilians and attacked others around them. The infection spread exponentially.

Of course, the doomsday cultists didn't just take it lying down.

"Kill them!"

Anomalies and weapons showed clear power here and there.

Rice balls flew and became grenades, exploding, and gunshots rang out. Entities they had plundered, lightning snakes and demons of sloth, also revealed themselves, and paintings leapt into reality.

Even so, unable to keep up with the speed of infection, it was pandemonium.

"What the hell?"

The leader-class doomsday cultists gathered in the innermost area sprang to their feet. They grasped the situation quickly.

"Why are the Reptilians like that? Did that bastard go crazy?"

"Looks like they've been completely taken over."

"No, wow. More than half are going to die."

They looked at the chaos, glared in the direction the Reptilian boss had mutated, and clapped while giggling.

After a moment. They spoke simultaneously.

"We should go back. Bye!"

"If I stay any longer, I might be in danger too."

The Reptilian boss who left after sensing something strange ended up like that. This place was dangerous for them too.

"What's happening to the afterlife infiltration operation?"

"What operation in this situation? We're short on people so we can't do it. Let's just do our own thing like always."

They started to return.

The person holding a cell phone transformed into green glowing strings of 0s and 1s and entered the phone screen, the person smoking a cigarette scattered as black smoke, and the person drinking alcohol blatantly cut through the crowd looking for a blue door.

Other people also dispersed, looking for ways to escape.

An island where the Reptilian plague was spreading. An isolated island except for blue doors. A life-or-death battle between the infected and humans continued.