chapter 136

The Painter Who Draws Dungeons - Episode 136

Yoo Seong-woon smiled with a resigned face.

“You’re turning that person into a pig?”

“I am glad you understand well.”

“I can’t not understand, I almost became a pig too...”

“If it felt like a rude attempt, I apologize.”

“No, the meal was really delicious.”

With an unbothered smile, he continued.

“I did feel a bit of a crisis, though.”

A crisis that the human species itself might change, that is.

‘Or I’d die from my stomach bursting.’

Maybe because they’d gone through such a difficult time called the Great Catastrophe, that generation of elders was especially sensitive about fattening up children.

Gio had a similar vibe.

‘Mostly in that he keeps giving food nonstop...’

If he hadn’t ended up facing the mermaid princess back then, Yoo Seong-woon probably wouldn’t have been able to escape the shackles of repeated meals and snacks either.

Even though most hunters have fairly large stomachs, he felt that way.

“...You’ll handle it well on your own, but that person will eat even less than I do.

Don’t make him overeat.”

“I also have no intention of making him overeat, but... I made a mistake, he got indigestion.”

“It’s surprising that you can get indigestion even after eating heavenly food, but, well, nothing good comes from eating too much of anything.”

“To call it a heavenly taste is praise too excessive.

But I liked how deliciously he ate, so I think I pushed too much.”

“He probably really ate deliciously without even realizing he was full.

Even if he’s an Association researcher, most of them are just civilians, so he probably couldn’t control himself well.”

He understood what situation it must have been.

Gio, who likes the 모습 of fattened humans, would have kept putting out food, and that person likely lost his reason to the intoxicating taste, or felt pressured by Gio and couldn’t bring himself to refuse.

‘It would be a meal inside Gio’s belly, and on top of that, food too delicious to refuse.’

Even if he was a civilian with no skills, he was an Association researcher.

Inside this portrait, where the flow of time and the weight of the air change depending on Gio’s mood, there was no way that man named Juhyeon wouldn’t know he was, quite literally, on the dungeon master’s tongue.

‘Still, if Gio doesn’t seem disappointed, he must have good social skills.’

He had no idea how much of a mess his insides were, but anyway, he was a bold attitude for a civilian.

It’s not easy to act ingratiating in front of an existence like Gio.

‘If it were easy, Gio would have succeeded in making a pen-pal friend long ago...’

Well, it could also be that he was just in a state of giving up.

“...”

From what he could see, it looked like things were pretty tangled.

“About that person named Juhyeon, I looked into him separately.”

“Thank you as always for your help.”

“Don’t mention it.

But in this incident, that team leader... it seems he used some kind of move.”

“You mean that person’s superior intervened in Mr. Ahn Juhyeon’s circumstances?”

“Ahn Juhyeon?”

From what Yoo Seong-woon found out, Juhyeon was from an Association-affiliated orphanage.

Given the nature of such orphanages, they abandon their surname when they enter, so he hadn’t bothered to confirm that part, but Gio seemed to know even Juhyeon’s surname.

‘Well, it wouldn’t be hard for Gio to find out a mere human’s surname in one way or another.’

Whether he used a separate emotion skill, or asked with that unique social skill of his, it wouldn’t be strange for Gio to know the surname of an orphanage-background researcher.

Yoo Seong-woon let it pass without fuss.

“From what I see, yeah.

Most people don’t know, but some...”

Thinking how to put it, Yoo Seong-woon continued.

“It felt like they were shushing it.”

“So they know and still hide it.”

“I don’t really know why.”

Yoo Seong-woon shrugged.

“Now I’m not one of their people anymore, either.”

Especially the Association research institute could be seen as an entire nation formed under one team leader.

Other than minimal structure, the team leader in charge of that institute held absolute power.

“Anyway, I guess the team leader made up his mind about something, and ruined that person named Juhyeon’s situation.”

“Why does a team leader have that much authority instead of the institute director?”

“Maybe because the director doesn’t actually come to work at that institute.

Usually when you say ‘Association institute director,’ they manage multiple buildings.”

The Association’s research institute—within a single building, one team leader is stationed.

But that didn’t mean the institute itself belonged to the team leader.

“The Association’s institutes are split like Seoul Branch 1, Seoul Branch 2, Branch 3... like that.

And managing all the institutes in Seoul is the institute director.

The research team leader is the one who works within a single branch.”

“How many branches exist in Seoul?”

“Up until when I worked there, there were up to Branch 184, but now it’s up to Branch 221.

Seoul isn’t that wide a region, but most institutes are built using space-expansion magic.

That’s quite a lot, isn’t it?”

Since there are so many institutes to manage, the institute director can’t participate in the actual work.

They’re already too busy checking the experimental reports and permission requests that pour in.

Yoo Seong-woon smiled as if embarrassed.

“Of course, you probably can’t understand why they formed such an inefficient structure.”

“Honestly, that is true. Is there a reason they cannot place one director and multiple research team leaders within a single institute?”

“There are various reasons, but a representative cause is... first, the problem is that there aren’t people you can trust.”

The Association research institute stood in that kind of position.

“That place is filled with information citizens still find hard to accept, and dangerous information that can be abused in various ways.

So they collect the information to a certain degree, but those research targets overflow by the dozens and hundreds each year...”

A space filled with perilous information where it wouldn’t be strange for most people’s eyes to roll back in their heads.

“Didn’t Mr. Juhyeon say he felt something like that too?

If what you said is correct, that person produced none other than Sankalut’s mark.

That means a good person who’s never done anything bad in his life committed that bold a choice.”

“I see.”

“The Association research institute is overflowing with information that has a lot of room to be abused like that.

That’s why the institute director, first, must not feel greed toward that information, second, must have the ability to clean things up when an incident breaks out in their jurisdiction, and third, must be far away from the field.”

“Why must they be far from the field?”

“No matter how greedy a person isn’t, humans are creatures of adaptation, right?

If you only face it through paperwork or occasionally go to see it in the field, well, the weight gets lighter to that extent, so the probability of abuse might rise... but if the body is far, the heart is far, and first of all the chance of being bewitched goes down.”

The Association research institute was a space beyond most demon dens.

A dangerous place where even a normal person could have their mind and body ruined and come out, and no matter how carefully selected a talent the institute director was, if exposed to that environment for a long time, the chances of their convictions breaking were high.

“And it’s not enough for only your own will to be firm.

Quite a lot of project targets have their own will, and the institute’s field workers have to endure the temptations and criticism of such bizarre mysteries every hour.”

“Why are there so many people who work in such a place?”

“Some were drawn in because the Association advertises really well, and some are kids supported by orphanages the government or the Association sponsors.

So at first they usually give them mostly menial tasks that aren’t mentally burdensome.”

Even that doesn’t last long before they face reality.

“And more than anything...”

Yoo Seong-woon hesitated for a moment, then continued.

“To become an institute director, how should I put it, you have to go through a kind of procedure.”

“A procedure?”

“If I put it badly, I don’t know whether to call it brainwashing, or training...”

“An unexpected method.”

“Somehow, there are ethical issues, so.”

Yoo Seong-woon smiled awkwardly.

“The first step is for the Association to find a hunter with the ability to become an institute director.

They discover at least an A-rank hunter close to S-rank, then among them, they choose people whose environment is already abundant or who are born without greed, and among those, administrative processing ability, manpower management ability, and well...”

“...”

“They pick and pick people who are capable in many ways.

Even if A-ranks have increased, finding a hunter close to S-rank is hard, and on top of that they have to have no greed, be an all-rounder... the point is, there can’t be many such talents.”

Even after finding them, a problem remains.

“And even as a last step, there’s a kind of brainwashing process where they castrate greed and absolutely obey the Association president’s orders, but as unethical as it is, they don’t force it.”

“Doesn’t that make a person into a document-processing machine called an institute director?”

“It’s more of a problem because it’s not only processing documents.

Anyway, because it’s so hard to find people who agree to this process, they can’t place an institute director in every single institute.”

“Is the reason you insist on such high-quality manpower for the security of the research materials?”

“You could say that.

Of course, if you lower the standards you could place more manpower in each institute, but then all that happens is a gigantic demon den that can’t be controlled is reborn.”

To begin with, the Association research institute could be seen as a symbol of human arrogance.

“Right now in Korea, countless disasters are concentrated.

Especially the Association research institute is at the center—if even one explodes, this planet called Earth will be ruined in an instant.

So even if they go through such a picky process, they can’t lower the quality of manpower.”

Yoo Seong-woon, who had once been an Association research team leader, spoke while forcing himself to hide his sense of futility.

“Still, the fortunate thing is that as long as those institute directors... and the Association president, the symbol of eternity, exist, those countless demon dens are perfectly controlled.”

“...”

“In other words, you could say they’re taking too many risks relying only on the Association president, but well.

Over there, they tend to put effort into humanity’s development and the analysis of the source.”

After a brief silence, Gio asked,

“What is the symbol of eternity?”

“...Ah.”

Nodding, Yoo Seong-woon explained.

“It refers to the three beings in the Republic of Korea who are immortal and unaging.”

“Immortal and unaging.”

“They’re awakened with tremendously strong abilities, and they neither die nor age.”

Gio said,

“They must be lonely.”

“...”

Yoo Seong-woon was briefly at a loss for words.

“...I’ve never thought of the symbol of eternity that way, so I don’t really know.”

“That there are three together seems like a blessing in misfortune.”

“I’ve heard a rumor they were friends close since before the Great Catastrophe.”

Yoo Seong-woon continued with a small laugh.

“Anyway, as long as the symbol of eternity exists, no matter what risks they take, it will never reach the absolute worst.

So experiments become even bolder, the people ground up increase, but compared to the population that can be accepted, there are too many people... so they die and break and twist, and in that process humanity’s development is achieved.”

In the end, he let out a small sigh.

“That’s also why current Korea could achieve especially rapid development.”

“Because they boldly ground people up relying only on the symbol of eternity?”

“If I summarize it, it would probably be that.

It’s high risk, high return.”

But no matter how large the risk is, as long as the symbol of eternity exists, the damage doesn’t go beyond the institute.

No matter what research they do, the maximum range of damage is up to that institute building, so they experiment even more boldly.

“I don’t know if I should say this, but they say failure is the mother of success, and data like that, too, becomes the foundation to avoid another failure.”

“I understand.”

“If one institute branch gets wiped out, they go, ah, doing it like that produces that kind of reaction.

Then how about this method?

And... something... a structure where you can develop further, I guess.”

“Terrifying world.”

“It’s a world where human rights and all that are just for show.

Since it’s a country with that kind of culture strongly, instrumentalizing people happens by default.

It doesn’t look good.”

But thanks to that, development itself could only be fast.

“The Association is trying to research and dig up as much of the source as possible, to shorten the time people suffer as much as possible.

At this rate, this planet will still be suffering primitive pain 500 years from now... so they intend to reduce that time.”

It was a thought and judgment that only the immortal symbol of eternity could make.

“I left because I didn’t want to see that.”

“I see.”

“They say it’s a meaningful sacrifice, but it can’t be helped that I don’t want to see it.”

“I agree.”

“...Well, setting that aside.”

Yoo Seong-woon cleared his throat.

“Anyway, with things like this, it’s hard for me, who already quit, to find out in detail about what’s happening inside the institute that’s still running fine.

Those people are heavy-mouthed by default.”

“That seems likely.”

“But the atmosphere is a little subtle—I think they were planning to cause some incident through that researcher named Juhyeon.

That research team leader, I mean.”

Lowering his hand, Yoo Seong-woon smiled as he looked at Gio.

“And you blocked it in advance.”

“It is fortunate the result is good.”

“I’m always just grateful, from my standpoint.”

It might just be a simple coincidence, but Gio often appeared—poof—before incidents grew, and abruptly cut off the flow.

He often showed that kind of behavior.

‘Should I say he releases tension that was drawn tight in an absurd way.

Even with those mermaid siblings, it wasn’t something that should have ended so anticlimactically, but...’

Yoo Seong-woon was still investigating the mermaid siblings’ movements even now, and their traces had recently been found in Gyeongbokgung.

It looked as though they intended to overturn not only the Sun Church, but even Gyeongbokgung if circumstances arose.

‘There aren’t many comparison cases yet so I don’t know, but anyway, from the human standpoint, it’s really something to be grateful for.’

He couldn’t not know how grateful it was to preemptively smooth over disasters that were hard to handle.

“...”

In that sense, Yoo Seong-woon thought that researcher named Juhyeon also seemed like he might have become the start of a calamity.

It was fortunate he was discovered by Gio before things grew.

“...So how is Mr. Juhyeon?”

“He is eating well and sleeping well.”

“And his mood?”

“He is still somewhat tense, and he seems a little confused.”

“Yeah, of course.”

Even so, it was close to a miracle that he had already stabilized to that degree.

“Please take good care of him a bit more.”

“I will send him out in good health.”

“I hope it’s moderately healthy.”

Because it would become extremely troublesome if a new kind of superhuman other than hunters appeared.

Fantasy, Modern,