[Character List]
This was the third skill I had obtained. I tried it on Shia first.
[This person is not a character. List can't be viewed.]
The answer was the same as Dreamer's POV, which I had somewhat expected, So it didn't surprise me much.
But when I tried it on Charles, it worked.
[Character Information]
Name: Charles Flintoff
Age: 24 years old
Constellation Sponsor: The One Who Drinks Bitter Wine
Private Attribute: Coward of the worst kind (General)
Exclusive Skills: Acting Lv 1, Scamming Lv 3
Stigma: Poison Touch Lv. 1, Poison Resistance Lv. 1
Overall Stats: Stamina Lv. 2, Strength Lv. 3, Agility Lv. 1, Magic Power Lv. 1
Overall Evaluation: Shows potential in deception-based skills, but his mentality remains unstable. A risky individual whose growth depends heavily on his choices.
Just like in [WORD], the same constellation had chosen him.
The Poison King – Mithridates VI.
I had read about him before. He was a real king who collected enough stories and became a constellation.
He ruled a place called Pontus a long time ago and spent most of his life surrounded by enemies who constantly tried to kill him. Assassinations were common in his time, and poison was one of the easiest ways to get rid of a ruler.
So he did something extreme. He started consuming poison himself.
In quantity which wasn't enough to die, but in small amounts, again and again, every day. Over time, his body began to adapt. What would kill a normal person started having less and less effect on him.
He trained his body to resist death.
This method later came to be known as mithridatism, which meant building immunity to poison through repeated exposure.
It wasn't just reckless behavior either. He studied poisons carefully, experimented with them, and even tried to create antidotes. He understood how they worked in depth.
By the time he reached his peak, it was said that poison could no longer kill him.
Ironically, that became his problem.
When he was finally defeated and wanted to take his own life, the poison didn't work on him anymore. In the end, he had to rely on a sword instead.
I looked at Charles again.
He was moving from one person to another, asking if they needed help. Under the excuse of checking their condition, he kept touching them while introducing himself as a doctor.
It was impressive how naturally he played the role. And somehow, every single one of the eight survivors allowed it.
"Arin, didn't he say he was from the army? Why is he lying now? I think he might have some ulterior motives. We should be careful."
Shia was right.
Not even an hour ago, this same smug bastard had confidently told everyone he was from the army. Now he had switched to being a doctor without even hesitating.
It was laughable how easily people accepted it.
But then again, this was how the human mind worked. When survival became the top priority, everything else took a backseat.
Doubt, logic, memory… all of it dulled down, leaving behind only the instinct to live.
In a normal world, these same people would have lost their minds over something trivial. A bad joke online would have been enough to trigger outrage, arguments, and endless insults thrown behind the safety of a screen.
Now, in a situation where their lives actually depended on it, they couldn't even see through a simple lie.
Charles, on the other hand, saw this new world clearly. And he was taking full advantage of it.
Each time he touched someone, he was planting poison into their body. It wouldn't kill them immediately.
The poison he was using wasn't meant for killing.
Rather at any moment, he could activate it and paralyze them. And then they would become a sitting duck, waiting for him to harvest them.
Even while watching [WORD], I never liked him. But I had to admit it.
He was cunning.
Instead of killing people right away, he was trying to control them using the poison as leverage.
He didn't know what the second scenario would be. So eliminating potential resources now would have been a waste. Killing them would have given him their coins but controlled people were far more valuable.
Once the next scenario began, he would have a group of ready-made pawns under his command.
It was a smart move.
And under normal circumstances, it would have worked.
He would have slowly taken control of the group, one person at a time, until no one could resist him.
But this wasn't normal circumstances because I was here. And I needed those people alive for the next scenario including him.
So I stepped forward.
"I think you should stop with your tricks now, Charles. Poisoning people who barely survived, just because they are weak and vulnerable… you plan to exploit them."
"What… what do you mean?"
"You think I haven't noticed? You're lacing their bodies with paralyzing poison. We should be fighting together against whatever has invaded this world. The people here might have killed before, but they didn't have a choice.
You, on the other hand, are doing it for your own benefit."
[Spokeswoman of Justice likes your sense of justice.]
My voice spread across the subway carriage as people slowly turned their heads toward us. Some of them struggled to their feet despite their exhaustion. Their expressions changed slightly because I mentioned 'poison'.
What I said wasn't entirely for Charles. It was for them too.
In a situation like this, people didn't care about truth as much as they cared about justification.
They needed a reason to believe they weren't wrong, a way to separate themselves from killers.
So I gave it to them.
I didn't accuse them for what they had done earlier. Rather I sympathized with the killing they had done. I told them their actions had been forced.
It was a small distinction, but enough to change everything.
Humans were simple like that.
Give them a story they could accept, and they would follow it without questioning too much.
Their gazes gradually settled on me. They didn't trust me completely but it was enough to plant a seed of doubt in them.
What if I am actually poisoned? This must be what's going through their mind right now.
I had no intention of stopping it either. I needed them to question Charles.
As for whether what they had done earlier was right or wrong… even I didn't have a clear answer. If they hadn't killed, they would have been the ones lying on the ground instead. That much was certain.
But survival didn't automatically make something right.
This was the world of [WOMD], where right and wrong weren't fixed concepts but things shaped by perspective. By the story each person chose to believe in.
In the end, the version that made the most sense, or perhaps the one that people wanted to believe the most, was the one that prevailed.
And I wasn't in any position to judge them either.
I had over a hundred eggs in my possession.
If I had shared them earlier, if I had acted differently, then maybe more people would still be alive right now.