The Hundred-Eyed Demon's Upgrade Materials, the Might of Gods and Demons, Crushing a Three-and-a-Half-Star Enemy! Daruma's Master!

The midday sunlight was scorching, yet Yoshida Castle was as quiet as night.

Like a realm of ghosts.

A faint stench of decay wafted from who knew where through every street and alley in the city, slipping through every crack and seeping into every resident's home.

The markets, which should have been bustling at this hour, had almost no shops open. Even those still doing business were merely a few stores selling daily necessities, and the receptionists all looked listless.

Because of the plague.

Several days ago, after those grotesque and terrifying demons appeared inside Yoshida Castle—

Diseases of all sizes, with unknown causes, unknown means of prevention, unknown treatments, and varying symptoms, began spreading with terrifying speed, like ink dropped into clear water.

Even among the common illnesses people could recognize, there were pustular sores that covered the entire body and caused high fevers, and measles that made children cough violently day and night...

There was also dysentery, and even dropsy, which should never have appeared inside the castle.

It was easy to predict that after a large number of residents died from disease, the resulting plague would trigger an even more terrifying chain of consequences.

The faint stench of decay in the city was already an omen.

Yet although the vast majority of Yoshida Castle's inhabitants had contracted at least one illness, not many had died from their diseases so far.

It was not because the diseases people had contracted were harmless. Rather, Ku Fu had deliberately weakened their fatality rates.

Of course, this was not because Ku Fu had suddenly grown merciful.

What Ku Fu sought was "disease" and "everything born from disease," not mass "death."

If people died too quickly, it would instead run counter to Ku Fu's objective.

In sparsely populated villages, it did not