chapter 114

The Painter Who Draws Dungeons - Episode 114

What happens when someone whose evil deeds were a habit comes back alive after being fried in hellfire?

“...Fuck...”

The answer was that they don’t change much.

“Dogshit... seriously, why the hell did I...”

Park Eun-gyeom’s daily life changed overnight.

A first-grade citizen and a B-rank hunter.

His looks were decent enough, and since it was a job where your body is your asset, his physique was good too.

It felt like only yesterday that, even while feeling contempt for the stupid idiots who clung to him without knowing their place, he still tasted that sweetness.

‘But after falling into that dungeon...’

The atmosphere flipped.

“That person...”

“I heard he’s a repeat offender.”

“It’s the end times, the end times.”

People whispered as they looked at him.

“Hunter Park, I heard you got dragged into the Black Cloak’s dungeon and came back.”

“...Yes, well, that’s true.”

“The aftereffects must be bad—why are you out instead of resting?”

The hunters he knew were the same.

“There are rumors you’ve been exhausted lately because of the Association’s requests for cooperation.”

The B-rank hunter who said that swept his eyes around with a peculiar unease and irritation.

He didn’t know the exact reason, but his expression showed he at least knew Park had been dragged to the Association and investigated over and over.

‘He’s probably suspecting he’s being watched even now.’

But it wasn’t a suspicion completely off the mark.

‘Damn it, why the hell am I being treated like this?!’

In reality, he was under the Association’s surveillance.

He couldn’t understand it.

If a precious first-grade citizen, a capable B-rank hunter, survived and came back from an unidentified dungeon, shouldn’t they praise and encourage him and then compensate him for damages?

Why were the people around him looking at him so sharply?

“Well, a hunter has to work.

If I don’t work, who protects the citizens?”

“...Yeah?

Then do whatever.”

The other person clicked his tongue and walked away.

“...”

It was a reaction filled with clear contempt and disdain.

‘...What kind of reaction is that?

Even if he’s a B-rank hunter, isn’t this too much?

I knew that bastard was territorial, but to be this blatant...’

He ground his teeth.

‘Some lowlife who was third-grade until recently.

So vulgar I can’t stand to associate with him.’

It was disgusting to see some country bumpkin who’d been chewing monster meat his whole life get one good Awakening and start swaggering around.

Forcing himself to ignore the whispers, he went to look for work.

There were plenty of people looking for a B-rank hunter.

He wasn’t someone who would collapse like this.

But.

“Sorry.”

“...Hey, no matter what rumors are spreading these days...”

“I’m sorry, Hunter Park Eun-gyeom.

Our brokerage can’t refer work to you.”

“You believe that dogshit rumor and you’re acting up like this now, fuck?

Hey!

How much money do you think I made for you!!”

“I’m sorry. Please visit a different brokerage.”

He got ignored by a mere ordinary employee, not even a hunter.

“Hah, this is ridiculous.

Watching hunters sweat blood working in this dirty little brokerage makes you think you’re something?

A bastard who’d die if I flicked him—where do you get off treating hunters like chumps, fuck!!”

“...P-please calm down...”

For a moment he felt satisfaction and thrill at the terrified look on the employee’s face, but only for a moment.

“Hunter Park Eun-gyeom, leave.”

“...What?

Hey, you’re telling me to leave?

Are you crazy?”

“Get out. Now.”

The brokerage guards stepped in and chased him outside the building.

Since it was a brokerage where even hunters from first-grade citizen backgrounds came and went, most of the guards were C-rank hunters.

Even if he was higher rank, once you were oppressed by numbers, it was only natural to shrink back.

“No, you, you, you crazy bastards...!!

Are you insane?!

You don’t know who I am?!

You don’t?!

I’m asking if you don’t!!”

“Ah, we know you well.

We even called you Hunter Park Eun-gyeom earlier.”

One of the guards clicked his tongue and said,

“Aren’t you that hunter who doesn’t think porters are worth a damn and tosses them to monsters, huh?”

“Th-that...!!”

What the hell is wrong with that?

“...I’m not the only one who does it.

Huh?

Was it just me?

No.

Not just me, no.

No?

Hey, say it straight.

Do you guys think an F-rank, a porter—that thing looks like a person to you?

Does that fucking look like a person!!”

Right—this was the dogshit rumor that had spread.

Leaving porters behind in a dungeon when things got bad was something everyone did in secret.

It drove him crazy that all they did was carry luggage, and you still had to feed them too.

Of course you’d want to ditch such a parasite.

I was in a hard situation too.

In a dangerous situation, not having the leeway to look after a porter can’t be helped, can it?

“Sure, I know it’s a bad thing.

But, huh?

Think about it—does everyone obey the crosswalk signal?

No, right?

No, I know it’s bad too, so I also, in my way... in my way...!”

“In your way?

What, you mean you hid it well?”

“...”

“Wow, this guy is really properly crazy.”

The guard snickered and laughed to another coworker.

“He’s a murderer who doesn’t even know he’s a murderer.”

“Seriously.

These are the real ones.

Ugh, I’m sick of it.”

“Even a fifth-grade citizen would have better self-awareness than this.”

He saw red.

“Who are you comparing to a fifth-grade citizen...!!”

But no one listened.

“This is why the Association’s watching him, huh?”

“A repeat offender doesn’t get more repeat-offender than this.

The rumor spread everywhere, and he still comes out looking for work—what a joke.”

“This is the comedy.

What, is our precious first-grade citizen suffering from poverty now or something?”

“Hey, hey, our precious first-grade citizen is pissed.

Let’s go back too.”

“Ugh, scary. If you get mad, you’ll roundhouse kick us too, right?

Like this, swooosh!!”

“Ah, you crazy bastard.

Stop making it so funny.

It’s working hours, cut it out.”

They treated him like peanuts to kill boredom, and he couldn’t even speak.

“...W-what...”

He really wanted to cry.

In the end, he was left alone in front of the whispering crowd.

“...”

He didn’t even know how many times this had happened already.

A hunter tries to do hunter work, and the brokerage employees keep saying no like they’ve all eaten something wrong.

This was all because the Association had openly dragged him in.

“...I-I... I’m not being watched, I’m being protected...”

The Association employee clearly told him so—this wasn’t surveillance, it was protection measures.

They were just watching the course because no one knew when Black Cloak would appear again and try to harm him.

They’d begged him so earnestly not to take it badly.

Even though he was in a foul mood from being toyed with by some monster bastard, he still found the Association employees admirable and accepted their “protection.”

It was laughable that mere civil servants dared talk about protecting a B-rank hunter, but he let it slide.

“...Black Cloak is a fucking insanely dangerous monster, and they, they...”

He wanted to personally make known the danger of Black Cloak, which people in the world treated like some trivial event.

“How hard do you think I worked to get out...”

That was why.

“...”

“...”

“...Is that him?”

Rookie hunters who were bouncing between brokerages murmured.

“You know, the one who beat a porter and got dragged away by Black Cloak...”

“They said it wasn’t just beating—he was going to leave him behind in the dungeon.”

“That’s fucking insane.”

Someone muttered.

“Sounds like someone who deserves to get dragged away by Black Cloak.”

He flared up again and shouted.

“Deserves it, my ass, you sons of bitches!!”

“Ah—n-no, we were just...”

“Do you even know how dangerous that Black Cloak bastard is?

Huh?

You don’t!”

“Th...”

“He grabs an ordinary person and turns them into a wreck...!!”

The kid-looking hunter frowned.

“W-who are you calling an ordinary person?

Hey, the rumor’s already everywhere, you know?”

Even though he was scared, he said some dogshit that made him laugh.

“Black Cloak only drags away bad people, right?”

“Yeah, they say unless it’s bad like murder or abuse, he won’t drag you away.”

“He’s not a monster that drags you away for jaywalking, so what nonsense are you talking.”

When idiots gathered together, nothing got through.

“Well, since he’s a bad bastard himself, of course the monster is scary to him—why would it be scary to people like us?”

“W-well... it’s a monster so it’s dangerous, but still, I heard as long as you’re decent it doesn’t really harm you...”

“I heard if you meet him he gives you gifts?

Man, hearing that makes me want to meet him too.”

“Cut it out. Even so, it’s a dangerous monster recognized by the Association.

Anyway, all we have to do is be careful.”

“Aw, you’re being too careful.

They say the gifts that monster gives are so tasty.”

“Right, and they say the effect is good too.

Almost like medicine.”

They affirmed the strange ghost story currently spreading in the city, not the already-famous bastard.

“They say if you’re unlucky you can’t get Black Cloak’s gift.”

“Still, I’m kind of scared—what if I get dragged away for some sin I don’t even know about...”

“He’s a monster, so you should be wary, but don’t worry.”

“Yeah, unless you’re that morally broken, you probably won’t get dragged away.”

“They say Black Cloak’s works are insane—I want to go see them.”

Black Cloak—giving gifts to good people and punishment to bad people—was popular among citizens.

A courteous humanoid monster that doesn’t usually harm people filled city dwellers’ romance to the maximum.

There were people who feared him, but none who hated him.

“Then why is that bastard picking a fight with us?”

“Dunno, guess we look easy... that’s why grade supremacists...”

“He’s dragging all first-grade citizens’ name through the mud, tsk.”

In contrast, there were plenty of people who hated a criminal acknowledged by the Association for no reason at all.

“Didn’t they revoke his hunter license?”

“He disgraces hunters all on his own—where does he get that confidence...”

So in the end—

“...”

Park Eun-gyeom became isolated.

“...Y-you, you...”

The injustice that no one understood his suffering.

The rage at the treatment he’d never received in his life, and the fear hidden behind it.

The bewilderment from being humiliated in front of countless people.

He’d endured, because he didn’t want to be dragged back into the ‘City of Emptiness,’ but in the end he raised the hammer.

“You trash bastards!!!”

“Kyaaaah!!”

“Someone stop him!”

“Fuck off, you bastards, y-you, you...!!”

And that 모습—

“...”

The gray city was watching.

* * *

Identification Number

0S-328-D-01

Response Grade

B (Avoid)

Entity Type

Humanoid(-)

Entity Name

Black Suit(-)

Robbery(-)

A humanoid entity first discovered by B-rank Hunter Park Eun-gyeom of the Korea Hunters Association.

Created by identification number 『0S-328-D (Black Cloak)』, and inhabits the dungeon ‘City of Emptiness,’ presumed to be the entity’s subjective dungeon.

A black suit with volume as if worn by a person.

The suit’s form differs slightly by individual.

There was noise in the naming process.

A proposal was raised to name the entity “Invisible Man,” but it was discarded after it was revealed that its body is not transparent, but rather nonexistent.

For convenience it has been named a humanoid entity, but this may be revised later.

It appears an adjustment of the entity name will be necessary after obtaining additional information in the future.

According to testimony from Collectors’ A-rank hunter (Yoo Seong-woon), it has intelligence sufficient for communication, but this may be a trait only of specific individuals.

Height is estimated to be approximately 185~9 cm.

As can be seen from the identification number, it displays traits similar to 『0S-328-D (Black Cloak)』.

Its height and actions resemble Black Cloak.

It recognizes evil humans as harmful individuals that negatively affect the species.

Upon contact, it forcibly transfers the individual to the dungeon ‘City of Emptiness’ to isolate and dispose of them.

If the owner of the dungeon, 『0S-328-D (Black Cloak)』, grants permission, escape is possible, but if one remains for a long time, they are likely to become part of the ‘work.’

If one becomes part of 『0S-328-D (Black Cloak)』’s work, a ‘price’ is required upon escape.

In the case of the first witness, B-rank Hunter Park Eun-gyeom, he paid ‘evilness’ as the price.

However, immediately after displaying the ‘evilness’ taken as the price, it was judged a breach of contract, and his body’s external characteristics were robbed by 『0S-328-D-01 (Black Suit)』, and the main body became paint.

『0S-328-D-01 (Black Suit)』’s method is cautious and cunning.

Only when the target breaches the contract does it rob, in the order of voice, eyes, muscles, and skin.

After completing the transaction, 『0S-328-D-01 (Black Suit)』 displayed a scene of suicide in Park Eun-gyeom’s form.

Surrounding people testified they did not notice any incongruity. Given that Park Eun-gyeom complained of hysterical pain and fear during the robbery period corresponding to seven days, it appears the transaction target can observe the robbery process.

Once it was proven that 『0S-328-D-01 (Black Suit)』 was not Park Eun-gyeom, it disappeared.

Park Eun-gyeom’s body has become black paint and is currently stored in the Association’s research facility.

Some researchers analyzed it as living paint that carries out life activity.

Considerations on Response Methods

Within the visible range of 『0S-328-D (Black Cloak)』’s dungeon ‘City of Emptiness,’ evil acts are forbidden. After direct conversation with 『0S-328-D (Black Cloak)』, escape is possible with or without paying a price.

Regardless of attack type, 『0S-328-D (Black Cloak)』 and 『0S-328-D-01 (Black Suit)』 cannot be struck.

For the above two entities and the dungeon ‘City of Emptiness,’ avoidance is set as the basic response posture.

We accept related requests and additional information.

* * *

Today’s Status_‘City of Emptiness’

“Emptiness is working hard for Dad right now(?˙∇˙)?”

Fantasy, Modern,