Chapter 108: Night of Betrayal

Oldor burned in the radiant flames and tried to scream.

“...!”

However, the flames that burned within Oldor were also burning inside his lungs, and the rising air lost the momentum to make his vocal cords vibrate. Therefore, Oldor reached out to attack Mazdari in any way possible, but a simple step back was all it took for Mazdari to render his last resistance futile.

Oldor collapsed.

“Don’t worry, Oldor. That fire is magic, so it won’t spread to the ship.”

Mazdari’s Rotten Hand spoke up.

-It’s a bit early, but we should get started.

‘It would have been over if I had completed drawing this anyway.’

The magic circle that Oldor had stepped on was made in case a priest of Binding God came.

The magic circle of Deception. It was known to deceive the eyes of a god, but that didn’t apply to their priests.

‘I don’t think Oldor’s death has been discovered yet.’

In order to take over the ship, Mazdari had drawn magic circles in several places for the past few days. He had to keep the Binding God and the priests in the dark with Deception, so it had taken him a long time.

-Should we activate the spell?

‘Yes.’

Mazdari recited the spell with his Rotten Hand. It was time to carry out the plan that he had been preparing for since they came back from Doltan Island.

The magic circles inside Mazdari’s room activated the other magic circles using the rules he created. The last magic circle activated was drawn on the floor of a storage below deck, where no light could reach and only saw visitors every now and then when the quartermaster entered to get food and water. In a hidden corner of the storage, the magic circle shone red, and the dead mouse laid on top of it began to wiggle and move.

The dead mouse’s stomach was exposed, and whenever it moved, fluid would ooze from the hole, but still it sniffed around in curiosity as if it were alive; it even seemed hungry. The dead mouse gnawed at the wood to eat the food supplies kept in the storage. Usually it would have to gnaw for a few hours, but somehow, the mouse was several times stronger than when it was alive, so it didn’t take too long for it to gain access and feast on the grains.

However, the dead mouse knew that grains wouldn’t be enough to satisfy its hunger. With a boldness it hadn’t possessed before its death, it thus went above deck where sunlight shone during daytime—a space that belonged to the sailors. The dead mouse wandered around the sleeping sailors and found the feet of a Troll sailor sticking out of the thin cloth used as a blanket. Excited, the dead mouse scurried up to the Troll’s feet and bit on one of their little toes.

The Troll sailor woke up screaming in pain, and the other sailors lit a light. By then, the dead mouse had already run away, and blood dripped from where the Troll’s little toe used to be. A senior sailor tried to stop the bleeding, but it wasn’t easy to do so, and after bandaging the wound with a piece of cloth, they told the Troll sailor who had lost a toe that they would check the injury when it was bright outside and made the Troll drink strong alcohol.

However, while the other sailors closed their eyes and fell back asleep, the Troll sailor woke up again. It wasn’t that the Troll couldn’t fall back asleep. Their heart had actually stopped. Now dead, the Troll couldn’t think rationally. Their brain had already stopped functioning without sufficient blood flow, and bacteria and viruses were getting excessively active and began to eat the cells in the body. The sailor was unable to remember the pain they had felt as their toe was chewed off, nor the strong alcohol they were fed so that they would fall back asleep. They couldn’t identify themself either. And their feeling of emptiness was replaced with an unsated appetite.

The Troll sailor noticed the senior sailor, who had just tried to stop the bleeding to take care of them. The senior sailor was sleeping next to the Troll with their neck revealed. And another commotion occurred in their part of the ship again. The senior sailor screamed in pain and bled, and the knights came rushing.

Several sailors and knights were bitten in the process of tying the Troll sailor up. The Troll sailor howled like a beast, but no punishment could be given until the situation was sorted out.

When the knights were listening to the other sailors explain what had happened, the senior sailor died due to excessive bleeding, and it was said that the Troll sailor should be executed.

A knight went up to find Older, but Oldor did not wake up. Therefore, the news was delivered to Mazdari.

“There’s military law, so why is the matter being dealt with arbitrarily? Don’t do that. Lock the Troll up and watch them so that General Oldor can deal with them the next day.”

And things were done as he said.

The crewmen were bitten again as they tried to lock up the Troll sailor. And when the situation seemed to be settling down, those who had gotten bitten collapsed with a fever. Soon after, another person died.

Terrified that a sudden epidemic had broken out, the knights quarantined the deck. Then screams broke out from the crew quarters. Those who had died came back to life and bit and killed the living. The crewmen who had barely survived came up to the deck through the holes that had been made on the sides of the ship to fire cannons. However, some of them had already been infected.

A few hours later.

Before the sun even rose, Whalebone was already filled with nothing but walking corpses while the ship continued its voyage.

Shrouding himself with magic that concealed him from the walking corpses, Mazdari went up to the deck. The magic he had used was Zombie Plague. A spell that could get out of control like Talajin’s Hand, but Mazdari had followed the rules.

‘If this spell is to be used, it must be used in an enclosed space, did it say?’

A ship on sea met the condition perfectly.

Mazdari went to each Zombie and drew magic circles on them so that they would keep the ship running. He had been carefully observing what orders the captain gave and what work the crewmen did during the journey, so it wasn’t difficult to replicate the operation.

Mazdari looked at the navigator chart and checked the region where sea fog was. The leader ship, Whalebone, ordered the following military ships to change their course.

And after successfully sailing the ghost ship for a few days, they disappeared on sea.

***

[‘Prophecy: The Wizard, Mazdari, will betray Asbestos’ has been fulfilled.]

Sung-Woon pointed at the system message and said, “See? I told you things would work out.”

Lunda pouted.

“How is that a prophecy? If I say, ‘I will eat an apple today,’ and eat an apple after saying that, would that be fulfilling a prophecy?”

“...Isn’t that example a bit too extreme?”

Then Eldar said, “That is called a self-fulfilling prophecy. The prophecy itself is used as an element to fulfill it.”

“Well, what he said.”

Lunda nodded.

If one became a Wizard, even a god wouldn’t be able to read all their thoughts. Knowledge on magic wasn’t all it took to become a Wizard; one would have to gather arcane knowledge as well as a systematic understanding of the art. There was a complex procedure involved in the acquisition and understanding of the knowledge, and the learnings would then have to be internalized through meditation.

But still, players could see the actions of a Wizard and notice when they did something insolent. As much as it was foolish to let a Wizard get out of control and betray them, a player with a Wizard under their influence had the responsibility to pay attention to the Wizard in the long term.

‘But The Lost World is a game that requires multitasking. There are many more elements to keep track of, which makes it impossible to pay constant attention to a Wizard.’

Another problem with Wizards was that they increased a player’s loading. Another player could make a Wizard betray their original god and escape said god’s influence by playing the right cards.

‘Because Wizards are predisposed to be rebellious toward players in the first place.’

Once escaping the influence of a particular god, a Wizard would establish their own workshop, recruit disciples, and develop their own power, one step at a time. One Wizard alone could be compared to hundreds or perhaps thousands of soldiers. And once they got out of control, they could become a monster that consumed all of a player’s Faith points.

So Sung-Woon did so. He approached Mazddari, the Wizard, when he called for the first player meeting. Then he checked the Wizard’s history and made a prophecy to facilitate the Wizard’s betrayal. With the groundwork done, he gave the Wizard a chance to carry out his betrayal. It wouldn't really matter if the Wizard simply disappeared one day without warning, but it would be better if he caused damage to the other country in the process. Only then would those who served and followed the Wizard grew fearful of the Wizard’s power. The players would then be keeping an eye out for Wizards, so there was a need to shield Mazdari from the scrutiny of the other gods.

Sung-Woon’s level was fortunately high enough to have access to Divinity Block, but he didn’t only rely on that.

He had called Wisdom the night Mazdari was spreading the Zombie plague.

“Why did you call me, Nebula?”

“Well, we have a truce for now, and there isn’t really anything else to do. I was wondering if we could play something like Go, Janggi, or chess together. I’m not someone who really feels boredom, but there’s no need to waste time either.

“...Don’t you have Eldar?”

“Eldar? Are you kidding? Eldar’s no match for me.”

Sung-Woon thought Wisdom was looking at him suspiciously, but that didn’t really matter.

“And for your information, I’ve played everyone else in addition to Eldar, and it was always boring. Don’t bother if you’re not confident, I guess.”

“I never said I wasn’t confident.”

“Then are you willing to take on the challenge?”

Wisdom laughed.

“You’re the one who’s taking on the challenge. What should we play?”

“Should we play Go?”

“Wait for a second. I’ll have to create a Go board.”

And in fact, Wisdom’s skills were excellent. He was almost as good as Sung-Woon and won in the end due to Sung-Woon’s mistake.

“Is it my victory this time?”

“Um, yes. You’re the King of Go on the third continent.”

“I’m honored to be acknowledged by the number one player of The Lost World.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Sung-Woon didn’t actually feel upset. Mazdari had completely taken over the ship in the meantime.

Wisdom didn't realize the fact until the ship that Mazdari was on disappeared.

‘But he would have noticed by now.’

Lunda then said, “Nebula, I know you’ve fulfilled your prophecy, but there’s a problem.”

“What is it?”

“Mazdari isn't the only Wizard anymore.”

That was true. Asbestos was the fastest in accumulating the most magical knowledge. And due to that, Mazdari became the first Wizard. But Wisdom and Asbestos weren’t the only ones paying attention to magic. Golden Eye and Danyum had also captured the cursed individuals running away from the Alchemist Tower and gathered knowledge. And they thus gained the cooperation of two more Wizards.

But Sung-Woon said dubiously, “When did I ever say that I would make only Mazdari betray his country?”

“Huh?”

“I know how to go about it and have the chance to do so. Why would I miss it?”

Sung-Woon reopened the system messages that had popped up a few moments ago and showed them to Lunda.

[‘Prophecy: The Wizard, Yan, will betray Golden Eye’ has been fulfilled.]

[‘Prophecy: The Wizard, Talay, will betray Danyum’ has been fulfilled.]

Sung-Woon said, “All Wizards of the third continent have become independent.”