Chapter 344 Not Good

"I can." His nemesis paused, continued to push his face expressionlessly, and immediately gave him an arrogant look that said "Don't underestimate me" when he heard it.

"Of course, sir, I trust your head."

Azuka smiled and grasped the restless claw, rubbing the exposed skin of his wrist with his knuckles. Actually, the anxious biting and scratching had almost disappeared over the years, but wearing gloves had become a habit. Plus, if he wasn't watching carefully, he'd try to touch all sorts of strange things, including but not limited to human and animal corpses, insects, strange plants, and rocks...

So it’s better to bring it with you.

"Then could you please tell me what I did to you in my dream?" He deliberately moved closer, his light golden eyelashes drooping relaxedly, looking gentle and innocent, but his blue eyes were fixed on the person in front of him without blinking.

The professor glanced at him and replied coldly, "Something that will cause you a physiological reaction when you say it."

I'm not stupid, those words are clearly written on that face.

Azuka: “…”

Nova looked at the other person in confusion, holding his wrist and laughing softly.

...a guy with a weird sense of humour.

But he still couldn't help but rest his forehead on the savior's shoulder, and his body softened little by little.

The dragon rider's cloak was indigo, a deep yet luminous hue imbued by the Natalinian plant dyes. It felt strangely rough yet softened by time, evoking the wilderness, the ocean, the forest, the snow-capped mountains...anywhere a dragon could reach. And the embrace was direct and pure—love, for humanity's past, present, and future, a love that, like a nebula, eternally dies and is reborn. He was completely immersed in tenderness.

He couldn't help feeling drowsy, even though he was sitting on an uncomfortable wooden box. At the last moment before falling asleep, he had to resist the sleepiness and reluctantly push the other person, signaling his lover to let go.

"Go to sleep if you want." Azuka certainly didn't let go. He whispered, stroking the black-haired young man's scalp again and again with his fingers. His voice was gentle and loving, as if he was coaxing a sleepy and tired child who had buried himself in his arms: "You're so pitiful. You must be exhausted. You haven't slept well for a week..."

"...No." The tyrant's consciousness was still resisting stubbornly.

The bewitching voice was still drilling into my ears: "It's okay, I'm here. I can help you with anything urgent..."

"But this will mess up my biological clock." The professor buried his head deeper into the man's arms and muttered drowsily, "Of course, if you don't mind me getting up in the middle of the night to work..."

There is also a certain probability that he will wake someone up in the middle of the night with shining eyes and a lively look to discuss the follow-up plan.

Azuka: “…”

"Look at what you've done." He sighed, his tone slightly blaming her. But in the end, he had no choice but to grab her by the scruff of her neck and pull her out of his arms. He dipped some cold water in his handkerchief and wiped her face.

The cold touch made Nova shiver violently. The feeling of being forcibly pulled out of the sticky sleepiness was not pleasant. He instinctively frowned and wanted to dodge, but someone pinched his cheek without question, not too lightly or too hard, so that the thin soft flesh on his cheek bulged between the fingers.

"I'm awake now, let go," he said, struggling with discontent, and then commanding with a bit of a throwaway air, "Don't be like an octopus."

"Don't move," Azuka said calmly, studying her lover's adorable yet hateful face.

"...What are you looking at?" Nova's brows slowly frowned. He always felt inexplicably goosebumps all over his body.

"To remember your abominable appearance now." The Savior withdrew his finger, his face wearing the same faint, creepy smile as always, and replied slowly: "Wait until you sob and beg for mercy, then I can savor it, so that I won't be soft-hearted towards you so easily."

Nova: “…”

The hateful bastard was becoming more and more presumptuous, and sometimes he was so fierce that even he didn't dare to provoke him easily.

"Enough, let's get down to business." The professor expressionlessly slapped the guy across the face and began to skillfully change the subject: "News has come from Black County that the coal miners suspect someone has cast a collective curse on them."

Azuka reluctantly pulled the claw off and held it in his palm. He frowned slightly at the words, "Another... 'curse'?"

The professor, who keenly noticed the change in tone, glanced at him and said, "It seems you've already determined that it's not a curse."

The manifestations of this "curse" are different from common occupational diseases like lumbar strain and silicosis among coal miners. After all, thanks to the coercion and efforts of the Black County Coal Union, basic protective gear, medication, dietary guarantees, and reasonable work hours have significantly reduced worker injuries, illnesses, and deaths in recent years.

However, starting three years ago, Black County discovered that more and more workers began to develop "strange diseases", with redness and ulceration of the skin, decreased vision or even blindness, and even bone deformities and local tissue necrosis.

At first, no one took it seriously. Living conditions were poor in those days, and there were many inexplicable diseases. People died inexplicably, and others would only sigh that "they were not favored by Badar, the god of life and joy."

But it wasn't until the end of last year that the appearance of a group of newborns caused a complete uproar.

Deformed child.

Deformed babies with heads as big as buckets, deformed babies with only one eye but four arms, deformed babies with a huge hole in their chests exposing organs that were still wriggling - some died right after birth, while others barely survived for a few days before being starved to death by their terrified parents who refused to raise them.

And it's not just one, two, three, or five, but 35 percent of newborns are these pathetic and horrifying little monsters.

In the eyes of local residents, perhaps only a curse can explain this extremely horrifying scene.

Taking advantage of the public's panic, the authorities, unwilling to leave the resource-rich mining area to a group of peasants, immediately declared that this was the price of surrendering to the devil - they meant that the Black County Coal Union was the Ghost's accomplice, and the local area could basically be regarded as an open area, but those workers did not refuse to cooperate with large companies such as "Shelter".

This absurd rhetoric actually incited a large number of people. Some workers began to refuse to use the protective equipment provided by ICBC. Even under the instigation of people with ulterior motives, some people began to take the lead in making trouble, attributing all their unhappiness to being in the "open area".

The People's Democratic Party needs to quickly suppress the wave of panic and regression that may cause widespread out-of-control.

"If it were me in the past, I would have thought this was a curse," Azuka sighed. "But as you instructed, I've inspected all the major mining areas this week, both within our own territory and in unconquered areas, and I haven't found any trace of the 'curse.' On the contrary, there are some phenomena and data that I personally think are truly worthy of attention."

The professor took the information he handed him and quickly glanced through it. Azuka quietly watched his profile—his brows furrowed ever tighter, as if some particularly ominous speculation had occurred to him.

"Do you have any thoughts on Lionel Money's 'strange illness'?" the Savior asked softly.

"...If I guessed right, it would be terrible." The black-haired young man took a rare deep breath, pinched his eyebrows and muttered.

——That is a terrifying existence that even modern medicine cannot completely cure.

"Combining all the intelligence and data, I reasonably suspect that the raw coal ore contains some kind of radioactive material," he said succinctly, his tone carrying unprecedented gravity. "Even worse, all coal ore products could potentially harbor lethal radiation."

Seeing the man's puzzled expression, the professor continued his explanation, speaking at a slower pace. "You can roughly understand it as continuously releasing an invisible energy. If exposed to large amounts of it in a short period of time, human cells will be directly killed, leading to infection, bleeding, and even rapid death."

"The harms of long-term, low-dose exposure are even more insidious and far-reaching, potentially leading to a variety of incurable terminal illnesses." The professor's gaze swept over the shocking data, his brow furrowing ever deeper. "It could even cause genetic damage, significantly increasing the risk of congenital malformations in offspring."

Azuka's eyes suddenly became sharp and serious. He didn't quite understand some of the terms, but it was enough for him to understand how terrible the consequences of this powerful energy, which was regarded as a "treasure from God" by the residents of the Ambrose continent, could be.

"So, those most at risk are the frontline workers in Black County, who work at the Silver Flower Mine, the largest coal ore mine in the empire, and who come into contact with coal ore for a long time." The professor's voice was tinged with fatigue. "Lionel Money built his fortune on coal ore. Without proper protection, he and his researchers are also at high risk. Next up are the royal family, clergy, and nobles who can afford coal ore products."

"But as coal products become commonplace, everyone will be put at great risk." He couldn't help but close his eyes, and his breathing became slightly rapid.

As a former brain tumor patient, Professor Yue experienced a tragic journey of frantic search for the cause of his illness. Naturally, he also studied radiation research and understood its terrifying nature. "Even worse, the cost of long-term exposure to trace amounts of radioactive substances may not become apparent until years, decades, or even decades later. This is absolutely not enough to force humanity to give up such a lucrative business and such a convenient means of life."

This means that there are two possible scenarios for the normal course of the world: first, a large number of people will die for dozens or even hundreds of years, just like the element radium, which was finally used restrictively by humans after nearly half a century of learning its lesson.

Second, open the Fallout Doomsday dungeon, and that's it.

A hand gently stroked his hair, pulling the professor out of his increasingly bad mood. Those blue eyes looked at him gently and inclusively, with an inexplicable comforting power.

"Professor," the God of Resistance and Change gently reminded him, "Have you forgotten that magic exists in this world?"