Chapter 42: Exitra’s Impossible Choice

Countless memories surfaced and sank in his mind.

He began using multitasking to sift through every memory in his head as if combing through them.

After a short while, he was able to recall the details of this quest.

‘It’s a bug.’

A poisonous insect from underground was the cause.

Normally, it would be sleeping deep beneath the earth.

But because of the heavy rain caused by the Goblin Shaman, it seemed to have awakened.

“Cough, cough…”

“Ugh…”

“Khak…!”

The territory residents collapsed in pain.

Merchants had fallen, and even members of the Architect Guild were down.

No one looked well.

It was clear they didn’t have much time.

— [Oh my, oh my! Everyone’s gonna die!!]

[Goongye has donated 1,000 won.]

— [Guess his misfortune was already written on his face, lol.]

— [But seriously, where the heck did the poison come from? lol]

“…”

‘I know the cause, but I can’t just find it instantly…

If I pinpoint the “bug” right away, I’ll have nothing to say to the viewers.

I need a plausible reason. But creating one right now… that’s difficult.

I need some kind of justification.’

‘I need some help…’

“Hyung!”

It was then that Alfredo came running at full speed.

His face didn’t look good either.

By coincidence, while inspecting the territory, he must have been poisoned.

“Alfredo!”

“Hyung, this is… cough!”

Alfredo coughed up blood right in front of Exitra.

Then his body seemed to collapse in on itself as he fell.

Exitra hurriedly caught him and held him close.

“Haa… haa…”

His breathing was extremely labored.

Cold sweat poured from him, and his eyes couldn’t focus.

He had likely used every last bit of strength just to run to where Exitra was.

The viewers were shocked at the sight.

— [No, you can’t! Little brother!]

— [Little brother, you can’t die!]

— [You just got your fan club! You can’t die already!]

— [Exitra-nim! Please save our little brother!!]

[DongSaMo has donated 50,000 won.]

[Dongsaeng Is My Love has donated 100,000 won.]

Exitra summoned Undine and tried using a healing skill.

But the poison wasn’t cured.

Healing skills restored wounds and cured minor status ailments, but this poison clearly didn’t count as “minor.”

To detoxify it, they would need an antidote skill or serum.

And the biggest problem was—this particular poison could only be neutralized with the serum from the very creature that caused it.

“Hyung…”

“Alfredo!”

“This… is Death Worm…”

“What?”

“I… read about it in a book… cough…

The symptoms… the signs… it’s definitely that thing’s doing… Death Worm… its serum…”

‘That thing…’

A small smile tugged at the corner of Exitra’s lips.

Alfredo had just given him the perfect “justification” he had been looking for.

Thanks to that, he could move immediately.

“Thanks. And don’t worry—I’ll find it for sure.”

Exitra immediately summoned Gnome.

Then he began scanning.

“Find it.”

‘Where is it?’

He scanned the entire ground.

He could feel his spirit power draining quickly.

The wider the range, the more spirit power it consumed.

“Where are you… where…!”

‘Set location.’

‘Set range.’

‘Set target.’

‘Set special traits.’

‘Set appearance.’

‘Set species.’

At the same time, he issued commands to Gnome while keeping six separate lines of thought running.

A flood of information poured into his mind.

For a normal person, the sheer volume would have caused a pounding headache.

But Exitra had the broken skill known as Multitasking.

Thanks to that, he could process the incoming information in separate streams.

Before long, he suddenly stretched his hand toward one side.

“Got it!”

— [Huh? Got what?]

— [What’s he doing?]

— [Exitra-nim, what have you been doing all this time???]

— [Seriously, what…]

“I’ve caught it. Based on the information Alfredo gave me with his last strength…”

— [Huh? Did he say Death Worm?]

— [And you caught it?]

— [Who cares! Little brother’s dying!!!]

“I’ll explain later—it’s urgent right now. As fast as possible…!”

Exitra thrust his clenched fist upward.

The ground bulged, and a stone hand burst out holding a massive bug.

Kieeeek!

The insect’s appearance was grotesque.

Its larval body was the size of a human head.

The most unusual feature was the red jewel embedded in what seemed to be its head.

“This is the Death Worm.”

— [Ugh! Hideous!]

— [Disgusting!]

— [Eek!]

— [Gross!!!]

— [Why does it look like that?!]

“I figured, since it’s called a worm, it might be underground, so I used the Gnome to scan the ground. During that process, I managed to catch it.”

— [Wow…]

— [Alfredo… you…]

— [You really were… a good younger brother…]

‘Thank goodness.’

If it hadn’t been for Alfredo, it would have taken much longer to come up with a justification.

And if that had happened, a few people would definitely have died in the meantime.

‘We weren’t too late.’

“Alright, let’s take out the serum…”

Exitra reached out and pulled out the jewel-like serum.

[Kiiieeeek!!]

The Death Worm let out a hideous scream and spewed a purple mist from its mouth.

It was poison—extremely potent poison.

“Damn…!”

Exitra moved Silph.

Even though he was low on spirit power, it was enough to contain the poison.

“Gather it!!”

Whooosh!

The wind swirled, pulling in the spreading poison.

Then Exitra grabbed a nearby empty bottle.

There was still a bit of liquid left inside—probably the antidote a merchant had been carrying.

It clearly hadn’t worked, since the man had collapsed anyway.

Exitra poured the gathered poison into the bottle and sealed the lid.

“Phew!!”

He finally exhaled.

A little later, and he would have been poisoned himself.

— [Wow! That was quick thinking!]

— [Yeah, gotta give you that one!]

— [Ohhh, that was awesome!!]

“Alright, let’s try treating them now.”

Exitra examined the serum.

[Death Worm Serum]

[Description: The only key ingredient capable of curing Death Worm poison. When used with Detox Grass, it can neutralize the poison. However, its effect disappears one hour after use.]

“One hour after use? That’s fine then.”

[Serum, huh? Never seen that before.]

[One hour? Doesn’t matter, we’re gonna use it right away anyway.]

“And I have the Detox Grass too. This dried-up herb I got from a healer a while back—turns out this is the Detox Grass.”

Exitra used his spirit power to restore and enhance the Detox Grass.

[Dry Herb-nim has donated 1,000 won!]

<Careful—if you mess with Ex-hyung, he’ll boil herbs into soup.>

— [The herb is crying LOL]

“Alright, now we just mix this with the serum, right?”

Just as Exitra was about to use the serum—

[Emergency Quest: ‘The One Who Wants the Serum’ has been generated. Accept? (Y/N)]

“Huh?”

— [Uh? What kind of quest is that??]

— [What’s this? The One Who Wants the Serum? Never seen this one before.]

— [Open wide—here comes a brand-new quest!!!]

The sudden quest surprised the viewers.

It was something no one had ever seen before.

“I’ll check it out first.”

Exitra quickly opened the quest window.

[The One Who Wants the Serum]

[Description: A month’s journey by carriage from Raiders Territory lies the estate of Count Briten. His daughter is on the verge of death, poisoned by a Death Worm.

Count Briten has done everything possible to treat her, but only the serum can neutralize the poison.

The Count has promised to grant anything within his power to whoever brings him the serum.

You can choose to use the serum for your own territory… or deliver it to Count Briten, earning his favor and requesting his cooperation. The choice is yours.]

[Success Condition: Choose.]

— [Reward: ???]

— [Failure: ???]

— [????]

— [Am I the only one who doesn’t get this?]

— [??]

— [Nope, me neither…]

— [Can someone explain this to me?!]

The viewers seemed to have trouble understanding the quest.

But Exitra understood it immediately.

‘I had a quest like this before my regression, too.’

“I’ll explain it simply. Basically, you can give the serum to Count Briten to gain his cooperation and restore your family’s power, or you can use it right now to save your own territory.”

— [Ahh, got it now!]

— [Crystal clear explanation, thanks!]

— [This is the first time seeing this kind of route. But what happens to Raiders Territory if you give the serum away?]

“If I give it away, all the residents in Raiders Territory will die from the poison—including Alfredo.”

— [No way! That means your little brother dies!]

— [Yeah! Save the little bro!]

“Well, if that happens, I’d lose a lot, but I’m still the heir. With the Count’s help, the game would get much easier.”

— [So the game’s difficulty would drop, huh.]

— [No! What we want to see is Ex-hyung’s suffering! Comfort? That’s unacceptable!]

— [Gwaaahhh~!]

— [Your Majesty!! Please reconsider!!!]

— [Pleeeaase reconsiderrrr~!!!]

And if he went even further down that path, it could lead to a political marriage with Count Briten’s daughter.

A completely new route.

The quest was forcing him to choose—

Abandon the worst territory and live comfortably…

Or hold onto the lowest-tier territory and walk the path of hardship and trials…

— [Wow… this is tough.]

— [How are you even supposed to choose…]

— [Honestly, I’m curious about the Count route, but…]

— [No… we have to save the little bro…]

The viewers seemed just as conflicted.

The new route was incredibly tempting—a deal with the devil.

Choosing one meant abandoning the other.

“Huff… huff…”

Exitra looked down at Alfredo, who was gasping in his arms.

And he came to a decision.

“I’ll catch both rabbits.”

The viewers tilted their heads in confusion.

— [Huh? What do you mean?]

— [Both rabbits?]

— [Ex-hyung, if you get greedy, you could lose both.]

They weren’t wrong.

Being too greedy often meant ending up with nothing.

In moments like this, a decisive choice was needed—one option had to be sacrificed.

“Cough!!”

“Alright, let’s treat you first.”

Exitra summoned Undine.

Going around to treat each person with the serum one by one would take too long.

Instead…

“If I use Undine to make a water droplet and put the serum inside…”

When he put the serum in, the water turned red.

From now on, they had one hour before the serum lost its effect.

‘Let’s hurry.’

Exitra separated some of the red water and added the Detox Grass.

With that, the antidote for Death Worm poison was complete.

— [But wait—do you still have to go around giving that to everyone one by one?]

— [Oh man, that’s gonna be back-breaking work…]

— [Extreme grind!!]

Considering the population of the territory, it would indeed be grueling labor.

But Exitra had no intention of doing that.

“I have a way.”

He summoned a spirit.

The viewers seemed to instantly grasp his plan.

— [No way…]

— [He’s seriously a brainpower monster; how does he even come up with this stuff…]