"Okay, that's fine and all but what do you think happened with my infection extent stat? How did it go so low? I'm getting direct sunlight on my skin twice a day, man. There's no way that I'd only have just 7 percent of my body infected by the inactive virus."
Mir's whispered concern made Murray pause, cutting off whatever else he was trying to say to dissuade Mir.
"Have you experienced anything abnormal, physically or spiritually in the recent days?" Murray inquired in the end, kicking the ball back to his court.
Mir met his eyes with a deadpan gaze.
"Stop acting dumb. You've already guessed that it might be because of the diary, haven't you?" he punched Murray in the shoulder in irritation.
Massaging his shoulder in pain, Murray looked around their seat with a grimace and leaned in to whisper.
"Try to connect the dots, Mir. The diary is an artifact blessed by Lord Sunbreaker's touch. Among the two types of virus that infects us, the active one can only be found in biomolecular structures, while the inactive one can survive in any place, on any element. We call the inactive one the Sun's Curse specifically because it is an inescapable net stretched to every corner of the planet, and the sunlight can activate its recessive life cycle, turning it into an active virus to invade your organs, attaching itself to you at a nearly molecular level. If the sun is our greatest enemy right now, isn't Sunbreaker's very name an indication of his nature? So would it be too strange to find an artifact blessed by him that happens to have a restraining effect on the Sun's Curse, in other words, the inactive virus in your body?"
Mir's thoughts began to race. Indeed, due to his panic over the abnormality and the pressure of their current predicament, he didn't think from this simple angle. It was in the names! Sunbreaker, Sun's Curse, it sort of made sense!
He swiftly recalled the first night when he had used the diary to wish that he'd study hard. That night, he had a couple of red stripes on his hand and his neck due to the exposure to direct sunlight in the bus that day. The inactive virus in those areas had been activated by the light. Normally, he'd have had to bear those stripes for at least a couple of days before they began to fade, as his immune system would take a while to eliminate the virus from the infected area.
But after using the diary's power, the red stripes on his skin had completely vanished by the next morning! At that time, he had chalked it up to good sleep. But now that he thought about it, the diary's influence made more sense! It fit perfectly!
Just in the same way, he had used the diary last night too, and the new red stripe on his hand had disappeared by this morning as well!
"Does the Church of Sunbreaker have other artifacts that are similar in nature?" he asked quickly in excitement. "Couldn't artifacts like these solve the problem of ordinary people turning into a mutated abomination due to exposure to sunlight? It could be revolutionary..."
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He trailed off, seeing Murray shake his head despondently.
"I know of three other grade- 1 artifacts in the Central Church that carry similar properties. But for a city with a population of 4 Million, do you think these four artifacts would be enough to eradicate the problem fully?"
Mir struggled to ponder the scenario.
"I suppose that's not realistic. But a partial improvement is possible, right?"
"The entire population would become reliant on those artifacts. Even knowing fully well that using them comes with heavy side effects, they'd be rushing to the Church every twice a week. People would begin to fight for better access, longer usage, special permissions. But the moment someone finally suffers an irreversible accident, be it a side effect going over the edge, or a prolonged usage leading to mental disturbance, they'd begin to blame the Church. Just think about your own artifact, Mir. The diary can affect your mind, your spiritual state, thus controlling your actions to a large degree. But its power is limited! Let's say, if you began regularly writing on it starting from today, in a couple of months, would there be a single page left? What would you do then if you rely solely on the diary to tackle the curse? You can't use it anymore to cure yourself! Now what would the 4 million people in our city do? They'd have long run out of pages on the first day of their access to it. Then what? Discontent would rise, and our competitors would take the opportunity to rally against us. Those artifacts with limited use would become a tool of control..."
"Damn, are you sure you're not just overthinking it? People wouldn't be insane enough to attack someone who's genuinely trying to help them, would they?" Mir cut in, befuddled by Murray's prediction.
"Actually, the Church has already tried this. It was during the early days of the advent of the Sun's Curse. And you wouldn't be happy to learn how that ended with. The branch that tried it was obliterated by the mob, its priests and deacons were either killed or injured because they didn't want to hurt civilians. Of course, there was proof of the mob being manipulated by an opposing political faction, but it's not like the situation has improved now. The Churches of different gods are still competing. None can afford to let another get an advantage in this game. Not all men in Church are good men..hell, scratch that, few men in the Church are good men. We're just pursuing our goals through it."
Mir fell silent. Indeed, he was looking at the problem from an overly simple perspective. The artifacts had no personal lives, no self-interests, no motives to be wary of. But the people who could control these artifacts to influence ordinary people had all of those. It would eventually end in disaster if this path was taken for what could only be a temporary relief.
He was beginning to see why Murray hadn't been willing to explain this power of the diary initially. It was far too sensitive to discuss in public. Even if he knew something earlier, he wouldn't have explained it to Mir before being confronted. After all, it wasn't doing him direct harm. The lack of virus infected areas in his body would truly slow down his progression speed, as this virus was the key to activating the mutation process in living organisms. But Mir could just eat a lot of mutant best meat to make up for it, ingesting the active virus in the meat directly.
Meanwhile, Murray continued his tirade with a grim countenance.
"That's why it is an unspoken rule in Church; 'Never help ordinary people without the Church's permission'. Once you set an expectation, you can't go back on your promise. Otherwise even an organization as massive as the Church would plunge, left in the dust of history for failing to live up to the standards set by itself. We have so many such examples to look down on, it is astounding."
For a long time, Mir's mouth stayed open wide, somewhat shocked by the unreasonableness of reality.