WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: LilGuyBlastoise
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Plague Doctor in a Peaceful World ◈
Chapter 1: I Awakened as a Plague Doctor (1)
──────
Rumble, crash!
Psssssh.
It was a day of torrential rain, with thunder and lightning.
At the driver’s license test center.
“This is taking forever. Is it because there are so many people...?”
The thrill of getting my driver’s license had only lasted a moment. I muttered boredly.
I had already been waiting for nearly twenty minutes.
After watching the rain pour down beyond the window, I opened social media on my phone.
I wanted to see if Happy Quokka, my favorite singer-songwriter, had posted anything new.
“Ah...”
Instead of Happy Quokka, the first new post I saw was from my sister.
[Stepped on the bottom of our household hierarchy #ArongArong]
It was a photo of a dog proudly placing a front paw on the head of someone sleeping face-down on a bed.
The person being stepped on was me.
I immediately messaged my sister.
[Why are you posting someone else’s photo?]
-[Your face isn’t in it. Did you get your license?]
[Not yet.]
-[Bring cold medicine when you come home.]
[🖕]
-[You ate all the medicine we had, you little shit. If you don’t buy some, I’m posting one with your face in it this time.]
[🖕]
-[🖕]
She should go to the hospital instead of wasting time on social media.
I went back to scrolling.
Then my finger stopped.
It was an ad for a mobile game I had never seen before. It looked like one of those strategy survival games set in an apocalypse that were popular lately, but the reviews were not bad.
-It’s new, so maybe that’s why, but there’s no pressure to spend money and no forced ads. There’s tons to do, so time flies lol
-It’s exactly like the ads. Other similar games block you from leveling up unless you pay, but this one doesn’t do that yet.
-Only impatient people need to buy a pass, probably.
-No pressure to spend, and it’s good for killing time.
I was bored. Maybe I’d give this a try.
How long had it been since I pressed Install?
The game launched almost immediately.
It was about a kingdom destroyed by a spreading plague. A prince and his party, who had been abroad on a mission, returned, gathered the survivors, defeated the plague, and rebuilt the kingdom.
[System]
[Please choose a class.]
I could choose one member of the prince’s party.
Prince, Warrior, Scientist, Doctor, Priest.
“Why does the doctor look like that?”
A beaked mask with round goggles, a wide-brimmed hat, a long black coat hanging down to the ground, and a cane.
A Plague Doctor.
Bloodletting. I knew it was something quacks believed could cure disease by drawing blood, getting plenty of people killed in the process.
But this was a game.
They had probably designed it that way to fit the apocalypse setting.
Its main skill was Plague Treatment, too.
After thinking for a moment, I chose the doctor.
Among all those ugly characters, the one whose face was hidden seemed like the better option.
[System]
[You have selected the Doctor class.]
[Please enter your real name.]
Real name?
They must have meant nickname.
Foreign games these days were always translated weirdly.
[WontListenToMom]
I pressed Confirm.
The name “WontListenToMom” vanished cleanly, leaving the field blank again.
[System]
[Please enter your real name.]
“...?”
[DontWantToWhy]
[System]
[Please enter your real name.]
“...”
What was this? It felt unsettling.
I was about to exit the game.
“Kang Bongsik.”
The employee handling license issuance called my name.
“Yes!”
I shoved my phone into my pocket and headed to the counter.
The employee stared at me closely, then checked again.
“Kang Bongsik?”
“Yes, I’m Kang Bongsik.”
Did this person look like that earlier, too?
Their expression was a little scary.
The employee broke into a broad smile.
Rumble, boom!
A lightning strike must have hit nearby, because the thunder was incredibly loud.
“Congratulations. Drive safely.”
“Yes, thank you...”
The employee seemed a little strange, but why should I care? I would probably never see them again after today.
Looking at my newly issued, still-warm driver’s license, I could not stop grinning.
“Hehe.”
My mother had said that once I got my license, she would give me the car she had been driving.
It was an old compact car, but still. Having a car at my age was something.
I put the license in my wallet, stepped outside in a good mood, and opened my umbrella.
Rat-a-tat-tat.
Heavy raindrops mercilessly pounded the ridiculously childish sky-blue umbrella with a huge cat printed on it.
It was not mine. It was my sister’s.
There was not a single plain umbrella at home, so I had no choice but to take it.
Lightning flashed between the dark rain clouds.
Rumble.
The thunder sounded like the growl of a beast.
At least there was no wind.
As I walked toward the bus stop, I took out my phone.
The game must have closed on its own, because my normal wallpaper was showing. Thinking nothing of it, I called my sister.
“Should I get all-in-one cold medicine?”
-[Uh...]
Her voice came back terribly hoarse.
-[You know that squeeze-pack stuff they advertise on TV. The red one and the black one... Cough, cough!]
She sounded like she was dying.
I was the one who had given her the cold, so I could not even tease her.
“Got it.”
The moment I pressed the end-call button, my phone slipped from my hand.
“Ah!”
I quickly bent down and reached out.
Smack.
“Whew.”
I almost broke it after only fifteen days...
Splash.
“...”
Right beside me, a car sped through a puddle full of water.
Since I had been bent over, my face, upper body, pants, and shoes were soaked.
Only the left side.
“Hey, you bastard! Don’t you know Article 49, Paragraph 1 of the Road Traffic Act?!”
Rumble, crash!
The thunder swallowed my shout.
“Ha... Fuck, seriously.”
I rubbed my phone dry against the still-dry right leg of my pants.
“It’s even on the written test. And why did this game suddenly open again?”
Rumble.
[Loading]
When I looked at my phone after wiping it off, the name-entry screen had appeared again.
[Kang Bongsik]
My real name was written there.
What?
I never entered my name...
Crash!
“...?!”
For an instant, everything before my eyes turned white. Then an enormous sound and impact struck my body.
“...”
I collapsed without even being able to scream.
[!@^$&###- ^&$]
An unknown voice rang through my head.
[The language patch for guidance has been completed.]
[You have been selected as an Awakened...]
Bzzzt.
Static interfered, and the voice grew quieter.
It sounded flustered.
[What? Earth is 1,328 years in the future? But I have already selected the first Awakened... $&###@-.]
Click.
Along with the voice, my consciousness cut out.
* * *
“When I opened my eyes again, I was in a hospital.”
It was the sort of monologue protagonists who lost consciousness in accidents muttered when they woke up in hospitals in dramas and webtoons.
I never thought I would say it too.
“Bongsik! My son...! You’re awake? Do you recognize your mom and dad?”
Like the parents commonly portrayed in those shows, my parents clung to me and cried.
After that, I underwent all kinds of tests. The doctor told me, “Fortunately, we have not found any major problems,” and I was discharged a few days later.
Even though there was clearly a major problem.
“...”
“Bongsik, are you listening?”
“...Yes?”
“Ever since he got struck by lightning, he’s still...”
“They said he was not struck directly. Electricity from the lightning that hit beside him passed through him.”
I turned away from the view outside the car window.
“What did you say?”
“I asked what you want for dinner.”
“Meat.”
“Okay. Let’s have meat.”
We returned home.
My sister came out of her room wearing a mask.
“Congratulations on making it back alive. Congratulations.”
I froze.
Her hair was greasy and a mess, like she had not washed it for days, and both her eyes were puffy.
“...Yeah. Looks like you’re still alive too, Sis.”
“Yeah. But you took my umbrella, didn’t you? A friend gave that to me. This little shit wants his big sister to teach him a lesson.”
“...”
“What are you staring at? Mom, is there something wrong with Kang Bongsik’s head? Why is he observing people so strangely?”
“Look at the state of you. Do you even look human?”
“Isn’t it about time you washed, daughter? You smell like a widower.”
“I’ll wash later, Dad.”
“Bongsik, go rest in your room.”
“Yes.”
The moment I entered my room, I flopped face-down onto the bed.
Our dog, Arong, trotted in after me.
Sniff sniff.
Maybe it was because I smelled like a hospital.
Arong persistently sniffed my clothes, bag, and feet.
With a long sigh, I turned my head.
Through the open door, I could see my mother and sister talking in the living room.
“Be careful not to pass your cold to Bongsik. He might catch it again.”
“I caught it from that punk in the first place, so I’m probably fine.”
[Contagious Disease Patient]
Green text floated above my sister’s head.
Ever since I regained consciousness in the hospital, I had seen that kind of text above some people’s heads.
There were occasionally red and yellow ones, but green was the most common.
I could not bring myself to tell the doctor. I was afraid they would send me to psychiatry.
Even without any medical knowledge, I felt I could tell this was far removed from ordinary hallucinations.
More than anything, there was the voice I had heard before losing consciousness.
「What? Earth is 1,328 years in the future? But I have already selected the first Awakened...」
And there was the small system window at the lower right of my vision.
It was invisible when I did not think about it, but if I concentrated on seeing it, the tiny text became perfectly clear.
[System]
-You have awakened as a Plague Doctor.
-You have acquired the skill Immunity (Lv.1).
-You have acquired the skill Plague Treatment (Lv.1).
-You have acquired the skill Bloodletting (Lv.1).
Had I become an Awakened 1,328 years before everyone else because of some unknown beings’ mistake?
Like one of those trendy webtoons based on web novels?
Then where had those bastards gone?
If they had turned me into this because of a mistake, should they not turn me back to normal?
I turned my phone on again, but the game I had installed at the driver’s license test center was gone.
Even its installation record.
It was not in the app store, either, and no matter how much I searched social media, I could not find that game’s advertisement.
I asked around, describing it in mobile game lists and internet communities, but all I found were names of similar games.
“This is driving me crazy...”
Still, after watching it for several days, all it did was display those messages and system windows. It did not seem to affect me in any particular way.
There were no quests or anything.
Maybe I could get used to it if I thought of it as some unusual kind of eye floater?
“...”
But human nature was what it was.
When you saw something that looked like it might work, did you not feel curiosity and a sense of adventure welling up, making you want to try it at least once?
Especially if you were a man.
Sniff sniff.
Lick lick.
While holding out my hand to Arong, I focused on the system window.
A thin gauge appeared at the bottom.
[MP 100/100]
“...”
I stood up.
In case something unexpected happened, I sent Arong outside the room and shut the door.
“Ahem.”
Actually saying it out loud felt embarrassing, even though I was alone.
“S-status window.”
...
“S... status.”
...
“Skill window. ...Oh.”
A new system window with a faint blue glow appeared.
[Kang Bongsik (Plague Doctor Lv.1) Skills]
[Passive Skill]
-Immunity Lv.1
[Active Skills]
-Plague Treatment Lv.1 (0/100)
-Bloodletting Lv.1 (0/100)
There was no explanation?
I pretended to touch the system window with my finger, but nothing changed.
“Explain Plague Treatment.”
...
“Activate Plague Treatment.”
...
Was it because there was no one infected with a plague?
Or did it require some other condition to activate?
Should I test it on my sister right away?
I did not know whether a cold counted as a plague, but it was kindly telling me that she was a Contagious Disease Patient.
It was even green, as if she were a monster appropriate for my level.
...No.
If something happened to my sister during the experiment, my parents would be sad.
Forget it.
While I was lost in thought, the skill window vanished on its own.
“Whew...”
I flopped back onto the bed.
That evening, after filling myself with rice and the delicious grilled meat my parents had made, I was lying on my bed doing nothing.
Ding.
My high school friend Lee Jinseok sent me a message.
-[Booze]
The doctor had told me not to drink for a while, just in case.
-[I’m buying.]
I got up, tousle-haired.
I would just mooch a little food off them.
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