I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 740

A little while later.

“Hah, hah!”

I was sweating profusely, checking the infected still blocking my path.

“Seriously…! Hah, me! Hah, don’t make me do… hand-to-hand combat!”

Just because I wore a few crowns and gained several authorities, it didn’t mean my terrible stamina improved!

Still, I had enough power to beat down knights who had lost their minds to the infection.

I swung my fists as hard as I could. I trusted in the sturdiness of the Sky Knights charging at me, believing they wouldn’t die from my Royal Punches.

And so, I was gradually neutralizing them one by one.

The problem was that they were all hero-level powerhouses. And there were 50 of them. Plus, they were all crammed into a narrow hallway.

And most importantly, I had to subdue them alive… and we didn’t have much time left!

‘At this rate, we’ll be too late.’

The hallway was too narrow to summon clones.

I had already tried [Commanding Eye], but while it could temporarily subdue them, it couldn’t completely neutralize them.

I was racking my brain, trying to figure out how to safely break through them within the remaining time…

“Your Highness.”

McMillan, who was standing behind me, called out.

I turned around, wondering what was up.

“Since we don’t have much time, I’ll use a rather rough method.”

McMillan said that, and then.

He brought his arm to the mouth of an infected person I had previously subdued and knocked to the floor.

The infected, who had been unconscious, reflexively snapped their jaws shut.

Fwack…!

McMillan’s arm was bitten by the infected.

“Kuh…!”

McMillan gritted his teeth and endured the pain, roughly pulling his arm away.

I was dumbfounded, not understanding the situation. Huh?

“McMillan… Sir? What did you just… ?”

“Typically, it takes 5 to 10 minutes to lose consciousness after being infected.”

McMillan said, skillfully taking out a handkerchief to staunch the bleeding from the bite wound.

“And the infected do not recognize other infected as enemies.”

“…!”

“Since I’ve already been bitten and infected, the infected in the hallway won’t attack me anymore, and neither will the infected in the engine room.”

McMillan took a deep breath and stood up, glaring at the engine room beyond the hallway.

“I’ll go in alone and restart the magic reactor. And I’ll be resting as if dead inside the engine room… so please, wake me up later.”

“Sir McMillan… were you planning this from the start…?”

“Heh heh. Isn’t it a soldier’s duty to prepare for the worst-case scenario?”

McMillan slowly began to move forward.

“Then, I’ll be going.”

He walked towards the infected with a tense gait…

The other infected didn’t even glance at him. They really didn’t attack each other if they were infected.

I shouted after his steadily receding back.

“Do you have any last words for your family or anything?”

If a cure was successfully developed, he might regain his sanity without any problems.

But if not, perhaps…

“No, I don’t.”

McMillan answered coolly, then scratched the back of his head.

“That’s because I’m an orphan, and I’m not married yet.”

“Huh.”

I, I didn’t know! Somehow, he gave off the vibe of having a wife and a bunch of kids!

“Haha. Instead, please introduce me to a wonderful lady later, Your Highness.”

He glanced back and gave a charming wink with his signature greasy face.

McMillan strode forward and reached the engine room door…

Thump!

He opened the door and disappeared inside.

And a moment later.

Kiiiiiiiiing…!

A loud mechanical sound began to emanate from inside the engine room.

Following that, a crew member’s voice was heard from the speakers installed in the hallway.

[Main magic reactor restarted successfully! It’s a success, Your Highness!]

Gooooooo!

The entire airship slowly, but surely, began to float into the air.

“Whew…”

After letting out a sigh of relief.

“Alright, then.”

Crack. Crack.

I loosened the fists inside my chainmail armor and looked at the remaining infected in front of me.

“Since we have some time before we reach Crossroads anyway… shall we finish cleaning up the ship?”

We would have to start treatment as soon as we returned.

Before that, we needed to make the patients behave.

Kuaaaa!

Kaaaaaa!

As I approached, the infected roared and charged at me one after another.

“I’m getting a real workout today, seriously!”

I grumbled as I grabbed the infected one by one and slammed them to the floor.

***

Crossroads. Airship Hangar.

Kiiiiiiiiing!

The airship La Mancha successfully returned and landed, and as the lower hatch opened…

Thump, thump, thump!

The heroes of Crossroads, who had been waiting, entered the airship with tense expressions.

I waved to my subordinates.

“Yo~”

On my left and right were Diermuidin and Mikhail, who also looked exhausted.

The three of us had just finished subduing and binding the infected inside the airship. This was really draining…

Lukas and Evangeline, who were fully armed with armor and shields, entered and shouted when they saw me.

“My Lord!”

“Senior!”

“Oh, yeah, yeah, it’s me. As you can see, I’m safe.”

Lukas and Evangeline had mixed expressions of worry and concern, but right now, there was something more important than my well-being.

“The infected… 104 people. 26 griffons. All of them are bound. Transfer them all to the temple. Is the temple ready to receive patients?”

“I believe they are preparing urgently after you contacted High Priestess Rosetta earlier, my lord.”

“That’s good. Execute it immediately. Ah, and don’t get bitten while moving them. The main route of infection is through bites…”

It would be a disaster if an accident happened during the transfer. So, we decided to use the elite forces, Lukas, Evangeline, and the melee unit.

They were fully armored and entered the airship, starting to move the bound infected to the temple one by one.

“I’ll go with them.”

Mikhail immediately went to the temple with the patients without taking a break. Well, that was understandable, since his subordinates and wives were among them…

“I’ll go too. See you later.”

Diermuidin also went with them. The old mage would provide all the necessary information to the priests.

“The Sky Knights joined us and immediately went out to support you, my lord…”

Lukas sighed as he watched the situation being sorted out.

“To think that something like this would happen at the same time as their deployment.”

“That’s why we need to provide them with a sure cure. Let’s focus all our remaining resources on healing the patients.”

“But, my lord.”

Lukas glanced south.

“I heard that the number of zombie monsters this time is unusually large.”

“…”

“Even if we use all the forces at the front to prepare defenses against the zombie horde, it might not be enough. Shouldn’t we consider the priorities? We don’t have time to waste our resources here. Maybe we should postpone the treatment and use the resources for defense preparations…”

“No.”

I shook my head.

“The Sky Knights will be an important force on our front lines in the future. If their treatment is delayed and we lose their strength, that would be a bigger loss.”

“…”

“Treating them is very important. And…”

I rested my chin on my hand and spoke carefully.

“I think this is the path that leads to ‘capture’.”

“Yes?”

“It wasn’t intentional, but we managed to secure this many survivors infected with the zombie plague.”

I nodded.

“…Maybe the path to easily resolving this defense battle is here.”

***

That night.

I went to the temple after receiving a call, and Rosetta, who looked haggard from working all day, greeted me.

“I report, Your Highness. We have discovered the cause, mechanism, and treatment for the zombie plague.”

“Praise the Goddess!”

This is why they call doctors ‘Gods’.

“It was because we were able to secure this many infected survivors. As you know, most people who are attacked and infected by zombies usually die from severe bleeding and injuries, but this time, we were lucky…”

Of course, we couldn’t save everyone.

During the treatment process, several infected people died and had to be put to rest after turning into zombies.

Rosetta quickly added in front of my stiffening face.

“We can grieve later… Anyway, while examining the survivors, I was able to form a hypothesis, and then I needed verification.”

“Verification?”

“I needed to observe the actual infection process. So, I tried to get bitten myself, but…”

I stared at Rosetta, who was calmly spouting nonsense, and she smiled wryly.

“…While everyone was frantically trying to stop me, a volunteer threw themselves in and got bitten instead.”

“They volunteered to get bitten…?”

“They threw themselves for the greater good. There wasn’t even time to stop them.”

I remembered McMillan biting his arm in the airship earlier.

Really, everyone… why are they so desperate?

“Anyway, thanks to that volunteer, the principle of infection and the treatment method have been established.”

I didn’t know whether to call this the romance or barbarity of a fantasy world…

Anyway, since it had already happened, I didn’t know what to say, so I quietly followed Rosetta.

“And that foolish volunteer is this guy.”

In the center of the temple corridor, Rosetta pointed to… Zenith, who was tied to a chair, gagged, and struggling.

I opened my mouth slightly, and Rosetta, who approached calmly, pressed her finger on Zenith’s temple.

“His self-healing power and divine power are so great that it took an hour for him to be completely infected. Thanks to that, we were able to grasp most of the zombie plague.”

“…”

“Please hold me responsible for the extreme experiment later… I will continue with the report.”

Rosetta took a breath and picked up a few potions that were on the table next to Zenith.

“This zombie plague is transmitted by parasites.”

“Parasites… you say?”

“Yes. And not just any parasites. They are magical parasites originating from demon-type monsters.”

I opened my mouth even wider at the unexpected explanation.

Was this a fantasy-zombie origin… magical parasites?

“The parasite burrows into the target’s body through the infected’s mouth and infects the target’s magic source, taking away control of their body.”

Rosetta continued with a terrifying explanation.

“After that, when the target dies, the demon-type’s power, ‘sacrifice,’ steals the target’s life force and transmits it to its master.”

“What…?”

“After that, the parasite uses the remaining magic to move the corpse, find the next victim, and spread the infection indefinitely…”

Rosetta shrugged.

“Well, that’s the parasite’s method of infection. They really use such a vicious method. As expected of a demon-type.”

“…Was the zombie plague that swept the continent in the past also like this?”

“I can’t say for sure. However, considering that the treatment formula used at that time is still somewhat effective now, it doesn’t seem completely unrelated.”

Rosetta began to mix several potions.

It was clearly a middle-aged priest, exhausted from fatigue, mixing the cure, but perhaps because of her extremely skilled movements, it felt strangely cool, like a bartender mixing cocktails.

“I think this should do it.”

Rosetta inserted the completed cure into the gap in Zenith’s gag and forced him to swallow it.

Zenith glared at us with bloodshot eyes, twisting his body and swallowing a groan…

“Cough! Cough, cough!”

He spat something out through the gag.

Rosetta skillfully extended a pair of tweezers and snatched it.

It was a long, thin, red… something like a very small earthworm. Rosetta held it up in front of my eyes.

“This is the parasite.”

“…Okay, can you please put it away quickly? It’s a bit gross.”

At that moment, Zenith, who was breathing heavily, asked in a hoarse voice.

“Is it resolved?”

“You’re talking normally, so I guess so.”

Rosetta immediately called her subordinate priests and began to prepare the cure.

I let out a sigh of relief. With this, all the surviving patients could be treated.

“…”

Immediately after.

I looked at Rosetta. Rosetta was also looking at me with a meaningful smile.

“High Priestess. Perhaps.”

“Yes. I knew you would ask.”

After moving the parasite at the end of the tweezers to another glass container, Rosetta gestured towards the cure on the desk.

“What would happen if we poured this cure on the zombie monsters… is that what you were going to ask?”