“That doctor Parakel came by a few days ago and gave us medicine.”
“And? Did he do anything else?”
“He stood in the alley and watched us for a while. Then he scribbled something in a notebook and disappeared. As usual, he didn’t say much. But the whole thing was rather…….”
The Beggar Chief’s shoulders trembled slightly. The alley was somewhat cold, but that was probably not the reason.
“We’re grateful that he takes care of us like you do, sir, but sometimes he gives me the creeps. Why does that man act like that?”
“Who knows…….”
I did not know either.
It was not a question that would produce an answer no matter how long I pondered it.
“Anyway, if you’re finished talking, I’m leaving. Please don’t pick up and eat anything while I’m gone. If you absolutely must eat something, heat it first.”
“It’s all right. Whenever we get sick, you give us medicine, sir. Parakel helps us too.”
“I’m telling you to live in a way that keeps you from needing medicine.”
“But that’s our ‘setting,’ isn’t it?”
“Bullshit. You’re only using your Character Profiles as an excuse.”
They had lived carelessly even when no Players were around, and even before the Patch began, yet they certainly knew how to talk.
“Stop counting on it.”
“The medicine? Or you, sir?”
“Interpret it however you want.”
“I’ll interpret it however I want! Have a safe journey, sir!”
“Take care on your way~!”
Leaving the beggars’ farewells behind, I walked out of the alley.
Outside were Players enjoying the game without worrying about going to work, beggars pleading with them for money, and residents staggering through the streets.
I quickly wove between them toward my next destination.
Before long, I reached a street bathed in suggestive purple light.
In keeping with the atmosphere, nearly naked NPCs strutted confidently through the alleys. Now and then, I spotted Players watching them with their nostrils flaring.
‘Do they not care as long as the shells remain?’
Every alluring woman roaming the brothel district was dead.
Naturally, the aroused Players did not know that.
Even if they did know, they probably would not consider it important.
After all, they did not regard us as human beings.
‘I probably would’ve been the same if I were from Earth.’
I clicked my tongue and ventured farther inside until I stopped before a dilapidated establishment with a sign depicting bright blue lips.
“Whew…….”
After taking a small breath, I opened the door.
“You’re a little late today, Doctor.”
A shabby one-armed woman approached me.
“I thought my neck was going to fall off from waiting, darling~”
A one-eyed woman with her bangs covering one eye followed her.
“Why the hell are you so handsome again today, handsome? Damn! I want to smack you with my lips, you bastard.”
Even the fat woman I had seen earlier at the Junk Crossroads joined them.
Three prostitutes whose appearances were utterly unsuited to their profession surged toward me at once.
Like the beggars, they were among the people I treated.
“Don’t cling to me. You stink.”
The odors of cheap perfume, cosmetics, alcohol, and stale tobacco made me frown instinctively.
* * *
“What are we going to do with our dear Doctor Akkun when he’s this uncomfortable around women?”
“I heard he came from Arche. No wonder he’s so inexperienced~”
“But what are we supposed to do when he’s still like this at his age? Shouldn’t someone teach the doctor about women?”
“Then how about it? Does our baby want his big sister to teach him a lesson so thoroughly that he dies tonight? Hmm? I’ll absolutely ruin you-”
The three prostitutes surrounded me and continued chattering.
Instead of answering them, I silently clenched my fist.
“We were joking. You’re so fierce…….”
Had they seen my fist?
All three took several steps away from me.
Once they did, I saw beneath the light that their complexions had turned pale. Their shoulders were also trembling faintly.
“……Tsk.”
I clicked my tongue and took bandages and ointment from my bag.
Once again, their bodies were covered in signs of violence.
As I began treating the one-eyed woman’s injuries, I spoke forcefully enough for all of them to hear.
“You tremble at the slightest threat, so why do you keep pretending to be tough? Please stop making vulgar jokes. My patience is almost at its limit.”
“What will you do to us once you run out of patience? Gasp! You aren’t going to eat us, are you?”
“Keep going if you’re curious about what I’ll do.”
A heavy silence instantly settled over the establishment.
“……All right. We’ll stop.”
“Next.”
I continued the treatment in silence and eventually finished wrapping a bandage around the fat woman’s arm.
I then took two additional medicine containers from my Inventory and placed them on the dressing table.
“The white jar contains the Multipurpose Ointment I used earlier. Apply it to bruises and scrapes. You should also use it if you develop any…… strange rashes or festering sores. The black jar contains the Compound Antidote Pills I gave you last time. Chew one every night before bed.”
“Ugh, those are terribly bitter.”
“Then stop smoking, taking narcotics, and drinking.”
“Even if we try to stop, the moment we stand before a Player, we’ll end up with them in our mouths. You know we don’t have a choice, darling.”
“Then carry on until your organs rot and you die. Why do the bastards in Mekal Town have so many excuses?”
“We have plenty of diagnoses too.”
“Shut up. That wasn’t funny.”
“Don’t be so prickly…… By the way, is this different from what that doctor in white gave us?”
The one-eyed woman turned the black jar around in her hands as she spoke to another prostitute.
“Parakel came here too?”
“So he went somewhere else as well?”
“Just answer the question.”
“Yes. Was it last night? He put a pill that looked something like this into each of our mouths. He gave them to the girls at the other establishments too.”
“Was that an Antidote Pill as well?”
“I’m not as clever as you are, darling, so I don’t really know. But I think he said something about ‘self-detoxification.’”
He had probably been referring to a detoxifying effect.
“Did he do anything else before or after giving you the medicine?”
“He drew some blood before giving it to us, and then took more blood about ten minutes afterward.”
“You should tell him about the saliva too.”
“Right, right. He took our saliva too, and then he asked us for urine. When we said it was embarrassing, he even paid us to give it to him. I think Parakel must be an extraordinary pervert.”
He was probably not a pervert.
His intention had most likely been to examine the NPCs’ physical condition.
“Did he say anything else?”
“No. That Player hardly ever speaks.”
“Were there any side effects?”
“I don’t think so. If anything, my body feels a little better.”
“My hangover disappeared completely~”
“I felt incredibly refreshed the next day too. It was like being born again. Oh my? Doctor, what are you doing all of a sudden?”
I gripped the one-armed woman’s chin and turned her head.
I heard her swallow.
“Stay still.”
I brought a Luminous Stone close to her eyes.
Her pupils, which had adjusted to the darkness, immediately reacted to the light and contracted until they resembled pinholes.
‘Her nervous system is normal. It wasn’t a hallucinogen or a paralytic.’
Next, I rolled up the one-eyed woman’s sleeve.
Her arm was perfectly clear.
There was not even a single spot.
I then held her wrist and checked her pulse.
“……?”
Her pulse was abnormally stable.
It was so even and calm that I could hardly believe it belonged to someone who, until yesterday, had been steeped in alcohol, low-grade narcotics, and tobacco while suffering from obvious nutritional deficiencies.
Lastly, I ordered the fat woman to open her mouth.
“Stick out your tongue too.”
“You beast! What are you planning to do to me?”
“I’m going to get angry.”
“Fine. You’re no fun.”
When the fat woman opened her mouth, the smells of stale tobacco, alcohol, and breath freshener rushed toward me in a single wave.
However, that was all.
Not even a trace of toxins lingered in her breath itself.
I pressed her tongue down with my finger and examined the color of its coating and the viscosity of her saliva.
‘Pale pink. There’s no toxic reaction in her saliva either…….’
I was beginning to understand what Parakel had done.
[He has completely cleansed the toxins and waste products accumulated within their bodies.]
More precisely, it was closer to annihilating them.
The problem was that Parakel had not neutralized the toxins.
Instead, he had introduced a drastic drug(potent medicine) with properties directly opposed to those toxins, causing both forces to extinguish each other simultaneously.
This was entirely different from the commonly understood principle of ‘harmony’ in Herbalism.
It was an unorthodox and terrifyingly dangerous method.
However,
‘There aren’t any side effects.’
Either he had not used a particularly strong poison, or he had adjusted the mixture of ingredients with astonishing precision.
Whatever the reason, no abnormalities had appeared in the bodies of the three NPCs.
‘I knew his Apothecary Crafting Level was high, but…….’
This required more than a high Apothecary Crafting Level.
He must also have possessed extensive knowledge of the field.
Otherwise, he could never have put such a daring idea as fighting poison with poison into practice.
Even the result was excellent, leaving nothing to criticize.
Still, something about it……
‘Why does this make me feel so…….’
[There is no further information. Parakel is not present here either.]
Grid meant that thinking about Parakel now would not lead me to any conclusions.
I raised my head and looked at the three women, who had resumed chatting among themselves.
“Anyway, the treatment is over. Now it’s your turn. I heard that a Scrap Merchant recently escaped from the Scrap-Metal Tower. Do you know anything about it?”
“Hmm…… Are you talking about that large man?”
“Probably. It sounds like you saw him?”
“He passed through our alley. He seemed to be in such a hurry that we couldn’t speak to him. He disappeared in an instant.”
“Which way did he go?”
“Well…… It was the alley leading toward the General Store. What was over there again……?”
“He must have been heading for the Underground Waterway.”
The one-armed woman spoke as she placed a cup of black tea on my shoulder.
I took a drink and raised my head.
I could see one of the one-armed woman’s long nose hairs.
I immediately faced forward again.
“Hmm. Why do you think that?”
“That’s the only place where he could hide.”
She was right, but he could expect nothing more than literally hiding there.
[There is not a single way to leave Mekal Town through the Underground Waterway.]
Nor could it be called a comfortable hiding place, even as an empty compliment……
Had he only hidden there temporarily?
Why would he choose that place?
It would be better to move than to spend time thinking.
I drained the black tea in one gulp and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.
“That was helpful. Tell me everything you hear from now on, just like this.”
“Are you really going to the Underground Waterway?”
“What else would I do?”
“You’re going to rush there blindly just because of what we said?”
“Why? Were you lying to me?”
“No, but it’s too dangerous.”
I gave a faint laugh.
“It isn’t dangerous. May I use the back door?”
“Of course. You can do anything you want here, Doctor.”
“Thanks. I’ll see you later.”
The one-armed woman blew smoke through her red-painted lips and winked at me.
I pulled aside the old cloth that had been tossed into one corner of the establishment, hurried through the narrow corridor, and kicked open the back door.
CREEEAK.
As soon as the rusted door opened, the acrid smell of tobacco and the raw scent of flesh surged toward me in the night air.
Beyond the back door was a narrow alley.
However, it was far from silent.
Explicit noises poured through the windows of the closely packed shacks on either side.
“Aaah…… Right there……!”
“Shut up! Be quiet!”
“Aaaaaaah!”
“That’s it! Scream louder!”
Separated from me by only a thin wall, the shriek of creaking beds, the wet sound of flesh striking flesh, and ragged breathing continued like a round sung in canon.
Through every window illuminated by a red lamp, intertwined shadows of men and women writhed.
This was the place that burned hottest when the night was at its deepest.
It was the naked face of Lip Street.
I frowned and tightly fastened my collar and the cloth around my mouth.
With the air filled with cheap perfume, semen, and rotting garbage, every breath made me feel as though my lungs were becoming filthy.
Leaving the wet noises behind, I headed toward a secluded corner of the General Store alley.
There was a heavy iron cover upon which someone had painted a red X.
It was an entrance leading to the Underground Waterway.
SCRAAAPE, THUD.
A man’s hole—a manhole?
Whatever it was, when I pushed the iron cover aside, a pitch-black opening yawned before me.
A terrible stench rose from below and stabbed into my nose, but I had no time to hesitate.
I gripped the rusted ladder and lowered myself into the darkness.
SPLASH.
The moment my feet touched the damp ground, the Guide’s automatically generated message appeared in the air.
【Entering Filth Park A.】