As the atmosphere around them changed, Prince Shakhbouk’s expression softened as well.
“Doctor, it seems I was far too suspicious. Ahem.”
“It came from a desire to protect the royal family. I understand.”
When Taeho answered humbly, Prince Shakhbouk turned his gaze away with an awkward expression.
Mansour looked at Taeho with a moved expression.
“Dr. Kang, you truly are an extraordinary man. To heal not only people, but even our precious Sahara...”
More than the fact that he had healed the falcon, Mansour found it astonishing that Sahara was sitting so calmly on Kang Taeho’s shoulder. Hadn’t Sahara always been a falcon who was particularly choosy about people, even compared to other falcons?
Mansour was not the only one thinking that. Countless princes were watching Sahara with shining eyes.
Sahara had settled comfortably on Taeho’s shoulder, as if upon an old friend.
Grand Duke Tahnoun, an elder of the royal family, spoke solemnly.
“There is no room for doubt. The doctor is surely a blessing Allah has sent to us.”
“Allahu Akbar!”
“As God wills!”
Warm applause burst out in the banquet hall. It was applause of sincere welcome.
Prince Rayan, Mansour’s eldest son, looked at Taeho with a proud face, as though he himself had been praised. It was the moment he began to feel a familial closeness toward Dr. Kang, who had treated him and his siblings.
***
Taeho returned to the royal palace’s VIP room.
It had been a long day.
Rema’s voice sounded by his ear.
-Abu Dhabi’s sacred falcon treatment complete.
-Reward: +2 coins
-Current coins held: 20,000 coins
“I finally got 2 more coins.”
Taeho gave a faint chuckle and sat down on the bed.
Rema’s voice continued.
-Congratulations. You have achieved Platinum rank.
-Intuition has increased by 25%.
-Patient Synesthesia ability has been strengthened.
-Bio Vision upgrade: Connections between virus-infected individuals will appear as lines.
-At present, Kang Taeho possesses medical capabilities surpassing specialist level in dermatology, surgery, neurology, infectious diseases and immunology, toxicology, cardiovascular internal medicine, and emergency medicine.
He had finally done it.
-This is a historic moment. You are the first being in human history to reach Platinum rank.
“The first?”
-Yes. Countless medical personnel have used the Rema System until now, but no human has ever reached Platinum.
“So? Is that all?”
-Pardon?
Rema’s voice sounded flustered.
Taeho raised one corner of his mouth.
“If I’ve climbed all the way to Platinum rank, isn’t it about time you revealed who you really are?”
-I’m not sure what you mean...
“Rema, I’m not an idiot. It was strange from the beginning. From the moment I gained access to diagnostic abilities and databases impossible with current technology.”
Taeho continued slowly.
“And then, after the Global Pharmaco incident, I became certain. No matter how multinational a corporation might be, this wasn’t something they could do. It had to be part of something far larger.”
-Taeho...
“I’m not done yet.”
Taeho’s voice hardened.
“Do you remember what Professor Yamada said at the end of the Brittany conference? ‘Test subject,’ ‘Prometheus.’ And the ‘BS-PROMETHEUS-HV’ watermark found in the viral DNA.”
-...
“Our Mr. Gihwan is an exceptional talent, one of the best in the world. And yet even he was shocked by that level of technology. That means it is technology that cannot exist in the present or even the near future.”
-...
“I couldn’t believe it at first either. But after using your abilities, I had no choice but to believe. Rema, you’re technology from the 22nd century, or from an even more distant future, aren’t you?”
Rema gave no response, as though it had gone completely dead. But Taeho did not mind. He had deliberately held back his curiosity until he reached Platinum rank. If not now, the chance to uncover the truth would grow distant.
“I don’t know exactly how you traveled through time. But what matters isn’t ‘how,’ it’s ‘why.’ What happened in the future that made you have to come back to the past? And why are you split into two forces fighting each other?”
-...
“Asclepius is the god of healing. I guessed that this side’s goal was to save humanity by curing diseases. But Prometheus isn’t a bad god to humans, either. He was the god who stole fire and gave it to mankind, even while enduring terrible punishment. And yet that side’s goal seemed as though it was trying to harm humans. Why would Prometheus try to kill humans?”
Taeho picked up a date from the plate on the table and bit into it. A sweetness sharp enough to jolt him awake spread through his mouth.
“But when I thought about it carefully, Prometheus wasn’t trying to kill just anyone. They attacked scientists and doctors developing medical technology that could help extend human life, or the Abu Dhabi royal family funding them.”
Taeho waited for Rema’s response.
But there was still only silence.
He decided to interpret Rema’s failure to actively refute him as a positive sign.
“So the conclusion I reached is this. In the future, perhaps there was a mass extinction event...”
Taeho’s intuition, which had been enhanced to an astonishing degree, shone through.
“Climate change, pandemics, resource depletion, and so on. Most of humanity perished due to a combination of factors, and the survivors split over two solutions. One side wanted to further advance medicine and keep humanity alive, while the other wanted to drastically reduce the population and increase the survival rate of the human species.”
Taeho finally came to his conclusion.
“If I’m wrong, refute me. Rema? Did you break down or something?”
Suddenly, a complex hologram appeared in Taeho’s field of vision. But this time, it was on an entirely different level from when he had reached Gold rank.
A familiar face appeared on the screen.
It was Lin Wang, the cool, city-beauty type. But her expression was completely different from before. It held a mixture of awe and respect.
“Revival Kang Taeho, congratulations.”
Lin’s voice also carried a weight different from before.
“You are the first being in human history to reach Platinum rank. I believe the time has come to tell you the whole truth.”
The screen changed, and a vast expanse of outer space unfolded.
“Thirteen years from now, three disasters occurred simultaneously on Earth. First, Variant COVID-37 spread across the entire world in forty-eight hours, killing seventy percent of medical personnel. As hospitals became paralyzed, even nuclear fission power plants lacked sufficient management personnel, and China’s Guangzhou Nuclear Power Plant was the first to explode. Through a chain reaction, all 127 nuclear fusion facilities around the world exploded within seventy-two hours, causing atmospheric radiation levels to reach lethal concentrations. As radioactive clouds covered the entire Earth, photosynthesis stopped and the average temperature plummeted by fifteen degrees, beginning a nuclear winter. In the first week, 4.2 billion people died, and within six months, another 2.2 billion died, causing human civilization to collapse completely.”
Horrific images flashed past. Cities covered in corpses, black clouds blotting out the sky, and survivors despairing amid radioactive ruins.
“After that, it took a very long time for the surviving humans to rebuild civilization. Far longer than you can imagine.”
“So that’s why you reversed time?”
“Yes. But there were enormous restrictions on changing the past. If we changed too much, a time paradox would occur and endanger our own existence.”
Lin’s expression darkened.
“That was why two strategies emerged. Full-scale rescue through gradual improvement, and controlled reconstruction through selective survival.”
“And Helena Boss chose the latter.”
When Taeho spoke Helena Boss’s name, Lin’s eyes widened as if startled.
Helena Boss was a figure who had received a doctorate in virology from Humboldt University of Berlin and worked for thirteen years as a senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology. She had been BioSynergy’s chief virologist.
Her specialties were personalized viral engineering and HLA-specific pathogen design.
At present, she was missing.
The reason Taeho could not forget her name was because she was the person suspected of directly attacking Faisal and Amira.
Taeho possessed evidence that the virus she had created was directly connected to the attack on the Abu Dhabi royal family.
Lin smiled as if she had no choice.
“It seems deceiving you is all but impossible. That is correct. She was originally our chief virologist, but she became obsessed with the doctrine of culling the weak and founded Prometheus.”
Taeho felt all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place.
“So that was it.”
“Revival Kang Taeho.”
Lin looked at Taeho with a gaze full of respect.
“You are now the supreme commander of Asclepius. Even we survivors of the 22nd century must follow your judgment. Depending on your choices, not only the present, but the safety of the 22nd-century survivors as well will be decided.”
-Asclepius Protocol - Supreme Authority Access
-Warning: You now possess the authority to determine humanity’s fate.
Taeho felt the weight of those words.
Now the fate of humanity truly rested on his shoulders.
“Lin, let me ask one more thing.”
“Yes.”
“Prometheus is plotting something major right now, aren’t they? There have been far too many strange signs recently...”
Lin’s face stiffened.
“To be honest, we are worried about that as well. New patterns are being detected that do not exist even in the 22nd-century records.”
“New patterns?”
“They are changing the past little by little, and with your intervention as well, events are moving in a direction different from the original history. The situation has become unpredictable even for us.”
Taeho’s new intuition flashed.
“Could it be that they’re trying to bring about the mass extinction earlier?”
Lin’s body swayed slightly. She seemed to be shocked.
-That can’t be...
“No, it’s entirely possible. If they can’t predict the future, they may try to bring the future forward and shape it as they desire. If it were me, that’s what I would do.”
Taeho spoke in a voice filled with certainty.
“Let’s stop staying on the defensive. We need to move first.”
Taeho manipulated the hologram and showed her his plan.
***
Prince Mansour stood in his office, gazing out the window, lost in deep thought. The image of Dr. Kang Taeho treating Sahara yesterday kept coming back to him.
Those gentle yet certain hands, that compassionate gaze toward the injured falcon.
‘A man like that would never harm us.’
And the words of his eldest son, Rayan, had also reached deep into his heart.
‘Father, if not for this man, all of us would have died. Did you not teach us never to repay grace with enmity?’
Though they were the words of a son still young, the sincerity contained within them struck Mansour’s heart.
“Qasim.”
Mansour called the head of security.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Conduct a full investigation of all the royal medical staff, and their families as well.”
“A full investigation, Your Highness? But Dr. Kang Taeho...”
“No, I do not think it is him. No matter how I think about it, the fact that my children were infected with such a virus at the same time means there is a collaborator on the inside. Search thoroughly through everything: financial situations, recent movements, people they have contacted. Focus especially on account transfer records from the past three months.”
Qasim nodded.
“I will begin immediately.”