It could cure it, but not entirely.
Taking the medicine before infection was useless. However, if an infected person took it before symptoms manifested, it could cure the plague and prevent them from turning into a lunatic.
But for those who had already developed symptoms, taking the medicine was pointless. The physical mutations were irreversible, and the onset of symptoms meant they were completely beyond saving.
“Isn't this just a damn rabies vaccine? No, wait, even a rabies vaccine stays active in your system for half a year. Taking this medicine in advance is completely useless.”
Though he complained aloud, when Lynch thought about it carefully, it was actually surprisingly logical.
A medicine that cured you instantly upon drinking was a senzu bean, not real medicine.
Medicine could only treat illness; it couldn't rebuild a body.
Once a body suffered irreversible damage from mysterious contamination, being unable to recover was the logical outcome.
“I have no idea what rabies or vaccines are, but yes, taking it in advance is indeed useless,” Dr. Sven sighed. “If the plague only spread through scratches and bites, things would be simple. No matter who bit you, you could just drink a bottle of medicine first. The trouble is that there's another vector of transmission.”
“Yeah, the grain,” Lynch said with a bitter smile. “Nobody knows if the grain they're eating is corrupted. Unless you chug a bottle of medicine after every single meal, whether you break out in symptoms is purely up to luck. At this rate, the threat of an outbreak will always be hanging over our heads.”
“Mhm, but there's no need to be so pessimistic,” Dr. Sven said quite optimistically. “As long as we destroy little Jack's corpse, we can break the cycle of transmission and stop bites from spreading the disease. Then, once we burn all the corrupted grain, the city will be safe. Suboptimal medicine only means we can't save as many people, but the outbreak itself can still be contained.”
I'm not pessimistic about your situation here; I'm pessimistic about our era in the Fifth Age.
Lynch sighed softly.
From Dr. Sven's conclusion, he could already foresee the efficacy of the medicine developed by Mrs. Nightingale.
It made complete sense. Everyone before, including a professional like Mrs. Nightingale, had simply been blinded by emotion and held overly high expectations. In truth, those real patients in the Fifth Age who had already manifested symptoms were likely just as doomed as those here.
Furthermore, the plague in the Fifth Age had another transmission vector—spontaneous, long-distance symptom onset.
By the time symptoms appeared and confirmed a person was sick, taking the medicine would already be useless. That meant unless they could precisely predict who was going to be infected, the medicine couldn't help those victims at all. When the erupting divine authority finally calmed down a month or so later and the spontaneous outbreaks ceased, hundreds of thousands of infected people would still be created worldwide, just as Mrs. Nightingale had predicted.
Even worse, while destroying little Jack could break the chain of transmission here, that wouldn't work in the Fifth Age. Even after the spontaneous outbreaks stopped, the infected would retain their contagiousness. Once bitten by one of them, unless a victim drank the medicine within three or four hours, they would still turn into a new source of infection, continuing to spread the plague.
Widespread access to the medicine might prevent it from becoming a world-ending catastrophe, but the death toll would likely have one or two more zeros added to the initial estimates.
“Maybe it won't be that severe,” Miss Diana whispered, squeezing his hand in comfort as she dimly guessed Lynch's worries. “After all, our world enjoys the Supreme's favor.”
“Besides, even if it turns out just like here, so what?” Officer Natalie scoffed, understanding Lynch's mindset better than anyone. “You just want to mitigate the consequences of your own actions. You don't owe anyone anything. As long as you do your best, what is there to agonize over? Besides, we've come this far—do you plan on going back empty-handed? Just focus on bringing the fruit back. The rest will naturally be handled by professionals. Or are you planning to fulfill the duties of the Church of Suffering yourself?”
“Oh, that wouldn't do,” Miss Diana said with a soft smile, covering her mouth. “Doing that would mean competing with the Church for faith. Are you planning to bully my Lord on behalf of Lady Red Moon?”
“Me? Bully her? She glanced at me a few days ago, and I almost ceased to exist.”
Lynch curled his lip, but his mood instantly improved. Indeed, as long as there was medicine, it wouldn't escalate into a world-ending catastrophe. At worst, it would demote from an XX Crisis to an XX Siege, which was already pretty good. Everyone had their own role and did what they could; with so many powerhouses around, why was he fussing over it?
Besides, he didn't owe this world anything. At most, he just wanted to help his own neighbor protect it. As long as he did his best, he could calmly accept whatever outcome came to pass.
【Mm】
“What's wrong? Do you have a problem?”
“Nothing, just mourning my eight crazy heads.”
No longer agonizing over the medicine's efficacy, Lynch pulled out the pile of rabid fruits and gave Dr. Sven a live demonstration of them biting people.
Dr. Sven's expression turned odd. “Regardless of what you plan to do with the human-faced fruits, you cannot use these ones. They've been twisted by filth; their effects will be bizarre.”
“Hmm?”
“Such materials will deliver the effect you want in the manner you least desire. For instance, during my past travels, I saw someone create a wishing monkey's paw that accidentally incorporated corrupted materials. That person wished for good health and to be free from disease, and then he was crushed to death by a falling rock.”
“So he'd never fall ill again?”
“Precisely. So never use these, and don't try to get clever by exploiting their inverted effects. Rules are rules; living beings cannot toy with them casually.”
“Alright, then our only hope lies in the final batch.” Lynch sighed and put the eight fruits away anyway. Suddenly realizing something, he pressed, “Based on what you just said, does this thing have other uses besides disgusting people?”
“Yes. For example, making amulets and the like. Though troublesome, the results are quite good. If you're interested and can provide normal fruits, I can craft a few for you.”
“What do they do?”
“They're amulets—they keep you safe. You'll know their specific functions when they take effect.”
Talk about unconvincing. Besides, he didn't even know if they could be taken out of the memory relic. Still, given that the human-faced fruits themselves could be brought out, there was a good chance. Free stuff was free stuff, so Lynch unceremoniously pressed on, “Can you make them quickly?”
“Fairly quickly. Gathering the materials is the hard part, but I happen to have saved a few sets. I can finish them in a few hours.”
“Then it's a deal.” True to his opportunistic nature, Lynch had finally managed to pluck some feathers off this goose. Though he didn't know what effects the amulets had, he was satisfied. Finally remembering the main task, he said, “Now that the medicine is brewed and we no longer need to worry about the corpse's contamination, shouldn't we...”
Bam!
The door to the apothecary room burst open, and Knight Terry rushed inside.
“We have trouble!” the knight blurted out anxiously in the local dialect. “Several people spotted infected lunatics biting citizens at various locations around the city. A lot of people have been hurt!”
Huh? It wasn't contained after all?
The five exchanged glances, feeling a slight surge of relief amidst the shock.
Thank goodness they had stalled long enough for the medicine to be concocted; at least they didn't have to worry about a city-wide outbreak in the immediate term.
“Where did these infected come from?”
“Supposedly a few travelers.”
“Supposedly?” Lynch pressed. “Didn't your men see them?”
“No,” Terry said distressingly. “I have no idea where they ran off to.”
Huh?
Lynch froze, realizing something wasn't right.
Rate on N.U.
