NoveLight ™
Im Chan had once made a promise to his wife, who had passed away due to complications after childbirth.
"I must protect our child… no matter what."
He vowed to protect his daughter, even at the cost of his own life.
He had pushed aside the grief of losing his spouse for the sake of his daughter. There was no time to dwell on the pain of loss if he was to care for her.
And so, he had kept going for four years, using every ounce of his strength to live.
Fortunately, as time passed, the past grew fainter, and each day spent with his daughter, Im Ji-hyo, felt precious, like a treasure.
Even when the virus outbreak shattered humanity's legacy, he found strength in her presence to endure such a tragedy.
To Im Chan, his daughter Im Ji-hyo was more precious than anything in the world. If there was anything he valued more than his own life, it was her.
That’s why he could never forgive anyone who would try to take his daughter away from him.
"Get away from my daughter!"
"Ahh! Aagh!"
Grabbing a hold of Choi Ji-young's hair, who had suddenly appeared and picked up Im Ji-hyo, Im Chan shoved her aside with a kick.
He clutched his daughter tightly in his arms and shouted furiously.
"Everyone, get back! Back off!"
Im Chan didn’t have a clear plan or strategy. Overwhelmed by the terror of losing his daughter, he was already losing his grip on reality.
He grabbed a steel food tray that had fallen to the ground and swung it with all his might.
Meanwhile, Im Ji-hyo, who was nestled in his arms, began to thrash wildly, like a fish pulled out of water.
Even though Im Chan held her tightly, her movements only grew more violent.
Crack.
Snap.
A bizarre sound, unimaginable for a human body, started emanating from her. Those nearby turned pale.
Once the early symptoms begin, it usually takes about half a day for the mutation to complete. However, if the infected is a child or elderly, the process can accelerate exponentially.
And Im Ji-hyo was exactly that type of case.
"Eek…!"
"She’s mutating!"
"It’s a zombie!"
"Run, run! Lower the shutters to the ward!"
People scrambled out of the room, fleeing in fear.
But while they were retreating, someone approached from the opposite direction.
"Seongho! She’s about to finish mutating! Come this way!"
It was Seongho. Ignoring Choi Ji-young’s urgent shouts from behind, he steadily closed the distance to Im Chan.
He opened his mouth, trying to initiate some form of conversation.
"Please, calm down…."
"Shut up! Stay away! Come any closer, and I’ll tear you to shreds!"
Im Chan was in no state to communicate rationally.
Clicking his tongue, Seongho quickly abandoned the attempt at dialogue.
Instead, he fixed his gaze on the steel tray that Im Chan was swinging threateningly.
As soon as he saw an opening, Seongho lunged at him.
In a flash, he closed the distance, using one hand to apply a jiu-jitsu technique called a half-guard, effectively pinning Im Chan’s upper body and neck, stopping his struggling.
Seongho immediately reached out to Im Ji-hyo.
Im Chan’s bloodshot eyes bulged, his mouth moving, but no sound escaped his lips, likely due to the pressure on his neck.
"My daughter, my dau…!"
"If you want to save her, hold still!"
Seongho cut him off sharply, cradling Im Ji-hyo’s small head with one hand.
Suddenly, a blinding light burst forth, so intense it was almost blinding.
For the first time since the virus ravaged the world, a miracle had descended upon it.
---
‘I hadn’t planned on revealing my ability this way.’
But he had managed to stop the birth of Butterfly.
The series of system messages that filled his vision served as proof.
「1 Contribution Point has been credited.」
「Congratulations! You have successfully altered the fate of the character ‘Im Chan’!」
「You have intervened in the fate of the world.」
「A reward for fate intervention will be granted.」
「The inhabitants of the world have witnessed the actions of the Fate Pioneer.」
「The influence of the Fate Pioneer has slightly increased.」
「Discord Score has decreased by 12P.」
「Discord Score has decreased by 13P.」
「Adjustment by the administrator’s discretion.」
「Discord Score has decreased by 5P.」
「Discord Score has decreased by 5P.」
「Discord Score has decreased by 6P.」
...
Among the messages, one in particular irked Seongho.
‘Adjustment by the administrator’s discretion…’
It was the second time he’d seen such a message.
And neither time had been to his benefit.
‘The first time, my stats were reduced.’
‘And now, the decrease in Discord Score has been halved.’
Seongho’s eyes turned cold.
As the light gradually faded, he felt a cool sensation against his palm.
A virus orb had successfully formed.
‘Let’s wrap this up here before thinking further.’
The bright light had completely dissipated by the time Seongho turned his attention back to Im Ji-hyo.
‘It’s my first time using this on someone just before mutation.’
Although the principles of his power suggested it should work, he felt a twinge of nervousness as he had never attempted it before.
But any such concern was unfounded; the change was immediate.
‘Her temperature….’
The child’s body temperature, felt through his hand, began to drop rapidly.
The change was so dramatic that it was almost frightening.
‘Can a human body even endure such a drastic shift in temperature?’
A fundamental question.
He found himself anxiously watching, worried that she might die from such an intense transformation.
Ten seconds, twenty seconds, a minute passed…
The redness in her flushed face gradually subsided, and her breathing began to steady.
The steam that had been rising from her body vanished completely.
Only when he saw this stabilization did he finally let out a sigh of relief.
Clenching his hand around the orb, Seongho straightened up and spoke.
"The virus has been removed."
"Huh…?"
Im Chan, who had been stunned by the sudden burst of light, looked up at Seongho.
And it wasn’t just Im Chan.
Seongho could feel the myriad of eyes fixed on him from behind.
He took a shallow breath and spoke firmly to Im Chan, who still seemed dazed.
"I removed the virus. She won’t mutate."
Im Chan stared blankly at Seongho, seeming to struggle to comprehend, before suddenly gasping and clutching his daughter tightly.
"Ji, Ji-hyo? Ji-hyo…."
With trembling hands, he checked her temperature, his expression shifting between Seongho and his daughter in shock.
"This… This… Thank you, thank you so much!"
The moment Im Chan began sobbing again.
"Mr. Seongho?"
Turning around, Seongho saw a crowd of onlookers and, at the forefront, Choi Seungjo.
"What… what just happened here?"
He was breathing heavily, clearly having rushed over after hearing the commotion.
Seongho let out a deep sigh and said,
"This isn’t a good place for explanations."
He gestured towards the people around them, and many of them averted their eyes.
Meanwhile, Seongho bent down to check on Im Ji-hyo’s condition.
Pretending to check her forehead, he whispered softly to Im Chan, who was still crying.
- We need to talk in private.
Im Chan’s shoulders shivered at Seongho’s whispered words.
Seongho continued to speak about her condition.
"The virus has been removed, but she did have a high fever, so she should rest."
"Y-Yes, alright."
As soon as Seongho stepped back from Im Ji-hyo, Choi Seungjo interjected.
"If it’s inconvenient here, let’s move to another room. Follow me."
Seongho glanced at Im Chan before following Choi Seungjo out.
---
Creak.
As the previously closed door opened, the people who had been listening at the door hurriedly stepped back.
Seongho scanned the crowd and then walked away without a word.
His figure disappeared, and, after a brief pause, the people flooded into the room.
Inside, Choi Seungjo, who had just finished his conversation with Seongho, stood alone.
"Dad!"
"Mr. Seungjo!"
"Uncle Seungjo!"
People rushed to him, bombarding him with questions.
"What did he say?"
"His name is Seongho, right?"
"What did he do to Ji-hyo?"
Lost in thought, Seungjo snapped back to reality as the questions piled up.
He shared the details of his conversation with Seongho.
"He said… he can cure the virus. It’s an ability he awakened."
The onlookers each reacted differently.
"Wow!"
"A miracle…!"
"Ha, yes! Right, there must be such a power!"
"So, Ji-hyo is really cured?"
No one doubted the incredible news.
After all, they had seen the child, who was on the brink of mutation, now peacefully asleep.
Hope filled their faces as they recalled the miracle, and the room warmed with a renewed sense of possibility.
However, Seungjo couldn’t shake the serious expression as he recalled their conversation.
- If you want, I can use it on the others who were bitten yesterday.
At that moment, Seungjo’s face had also brightened just like those standing before him now.
But unfortunately, that hope couldn’t last.
For Seungjo, nor for anyone else here.
Seungjo shared Seongho's demands with the group, and a strange chill settled over the room.
After a few moments of uneasy silence, someone gulped and finally broke it.
"He’s… planning to leave, isn’t he…?"
As Seungjo remained silent, the tension in the room thickened.
It was as if the hope that had filled the space moments before had been nothing more than an illusion.
The atmosphere took on a sharp edge, until one person spoke in a trembling voice.
“We’re not really going to just let him go, are we?”
The words were phrased as a question, but their meaning was far from uncertain.
The man’s expression already made it clear: they could not allow him to leave.
The others felt much the same way.
“Mr. Seungjo, we’re not letting him leave, right?”
“With his ability, we could live without fear of the virus!”
“Just convince him to stay with us! We have plenty of supplies, don’t we?”
Seungjo tried to calm the crowd, who seemed ready to pounce.
"I’ve already offered him the best supply package we could afford. As you said, we have enough people, food, and medicine."
"You should have mentioned that sooner!"
"So… what did he say?"
"Did he agree to stay?"
The questions bombarded Seungjo. Although he hadn’t made the decision, he felt the weight of their expectations press down on him.
Taking a nervous gulp, he answered in a slightly quieter voice.
"...He said he’d think about it."
But that response wasn’t nearly enough to ease the crowd’s anxiety.
As some people exchanged nervous glances, one of them finally voiced the question on everyone’s mind.
"If he decides to leave, then what are we going to do?"
“Shouldn’t we be preparing just in case?”
“Isn’t there a way to make him stay?”
“He’s young, isn’t he? Couldn’t we… maybe have some of the ladies ask him nicely?”
“Hey, good idea! He’s still a guy, after all; he might be persuaded by that.”
“No, that’s… why don’t we just all go and beg him to stay?”
“Begging won’t make him stay! Relying on sympathy is pointless and stupid.”
“Why are you yelling at me? We’re all on the same side here!”
“We’re wasting time arguing!”
The voices rose steadily until they became full-blown shouting.
And then, a few minutes later, the heated tension was broken by a voice from the back of the room.
“Why don’t we just lock him up in the basement…?”
Choi Ji-young, who had been following the conversation, gulped as she made the suggestion.
As if her words had cast a spell, the crowd fell silent.
After a brief pause, they all began to speak in agreement.
“That’s right! We can do that!”
“Let’s tie him up with the ropes we have, and we can stop by the hardware store to get chains and locks…”
“There’s that room in the basement with no windows. That’ll do!”
Slowly, but surely, hope transformed into a frenzy, consuming everyone in the room.
And from the shadows outside the infirmary, a hidden figure observed everything in silence, slowly stepping back.
TL NOTE: Please don't skimp on the stars for the translation - it inspires me and gives me the strength to write more. Thank you~!
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