Chapter 104

This may be a little late to say, but.

If one had to categorize it, the City of Emptiness could be considered close to an Entry Dungeon.

"In the sense that it does have a clear entrance and exit."

It was different from Virtual Dungeons, dimensions whose location could not even be known, let alone their entrances and exits, and also from villa-type dungeons, whose physical substance was fully exposed rather than hidden.

Jio's frame, which had only a passageway, could indeed be called an Entry Dungeon.

"There are mobile-type ones among Entry Dungeons, so the basic frame is similar."

Separate from the three types above, dungeons could also be divided into mobile-type and fixed-type.

If one summarized it by the fact that it did not stay in one place and kept moving, it could roughly be defined as a "mobile Entry Dungeon."

"Though this is the first time I've seen one shaped like a frame..."

Originally, the entrances to Entry Dungeons had no fixed shape.

'They could be books, pits, or curtains.'

But most Entry Dungeon entrances took the form of doors.

It was at the level where anyone could tell, "Ah, that must be the entrance."

If it looked like something you could enter without much difficulty, there was a good chance it was an Entry Dungeon.

"..."

Even so, people usually did not think of a frame as an entrance.

"... If no one had been dragged away in the first place, I wouldn't even have thought of it as a dungeon."

He had known that Jio could come and go through the portrait in the gallery.

However, the portrait had a strong impression of being Jio's "home," so he had perceived it as something like a building one could not enter unless Jio allowed it.

'It was the same when Hunter Cha A-ra was invited to Jio's cabin.'

Compared to the dungeon that showed the cruel and harsh capital of modern society, the "Portrait of Jio," with its peaceful and heavy atmosphere, was different in many ways.

Perhaps that was why he had failed to notice the two were similar concepts.

They were all excuses, though.

'All this time, I thought Jio was closer to an object.'

He had said there was a possibility he was a monster, but he had not considered the "dungeon" that naturally accompanied such a monster.

Even by the Root's explanation, Jio was clearly a "portrait."

"Then should that portrait be treated as a single dungeon...?"

Jio was already creating dungeons by drawing pictures.

There was no telling whether he had drawn the "Portrait of Jio" himself as well, but had not the "City of Emptiness" been witnessed by people after the "Breathing Sea"?

"... Well, now it's harder to say that isn't a dungeon."

Yu Seongun recalled the black portrait sleeping in Bi Sabeol's gallery.

It had covered its own face in pitch-black ink of its own will, and with that, it had erased itself from the minds of the people of the world.

The only people who knew what the "Portrait of Jio" looked like were the very few who had seen its face before.

'Even they forget from time to time.'

It had erased history without leaving any sense of wrongness.

"..."

Was that not a terrifying influence?

"I hope he doesn't turn hostile toward us."

The "Portrait of Jio" was a threat to humanity by the mere fact of its existence.

If he were to willfully turn hostile toward humans, it would be hard to find a disaster comparable to him.

Why was Yu Seongun suddenly prattling on about this?

"... Phew..."

Because the City of Emptiness was right in front of him.

"It really does show up out of nowhere."

The place where Yu Seongun discovered this gray frame was none other than an aboveground train station.

It was a place he had once visited with Jio while showing him around Seoul, and thanks to that, Yu Seongun was able to form one hypothesis.

"Does this frame mainly appear in places Jio, the dungeon master, has visited?"

Or perhaps in places that fellow might be interested in.

If he listened through people's eyewitness accounts, it did not appear only in places Jio knew.

Sometimes it appeared out of nowhere in slums, sometimes on roads, and sometimes inside abandoned buildings.

'From the perspective of people who aren't Hunters, they wouldn't know this was Jio's painting, so the rumor probably didn't spread.'

This frame unexpectedly appeared more often in ordinary spaces where civilians frequently moved around than in dungeons.

Among them, the places with the highest frequency were still spaces Jio had personally visited.

Yu Seongun, suddenly feeling completely exhausted, took a seat at the aboveground train station.

"Good grief..."

Every joint in his body ached.

"Thankfully, there's no one here."

The current time was 4:16 a.m.

It was a time when modern people soaked in fatigue were all asleep with one heart and mind, so it was only natural that there was no one at an aboveground train station where they had to pay an already expensive fare.

'Still, the 26th has only just begun, so there could be some lingering aftereffects of Christmas. Above all, the aboveground trains run twenty-four hours a day, so I thought there might at least be one drunk who played around for ages and was belatedly heading home...'

Yu Seongun, who had been thinking that, soon nodded.

"... It hasn't been long since people died in the Temple of the Deep Sea after gathering like that."

It had been an event held at none other than the Temple of the Sun.

Even in a place like that, a Virtual Dungeon had appeared and swallowed everyone watching the initiation ceremony.

Thinking back on that time, it was understandable that many people were still uneasy about gathering.

"Thanks to that, fewer people gathered this Christmas in particular too."

Whenever it seemed like the crowd would grow a little, everyone seemed to remember the tragedy of the initiation ceremony and quietly moved elsewhere.

"Anyway..."

For Yu Seongun, who did not want to make things bigger, it was a good thing.

'... Calling it a good thing while watching civilians tremble in fear. I've really been influenced a lot. I hope I don't live like this and end up becoming too narrow-minded to tend the Garden...'

The City of Emptiness entered his vision.

"..."

Was it a little eerie?

'... It almost feels like disenchantment with the city.'

Since he had lived as a Curator for years, he could feel the inner image contained in a work.

The city, with gray buildings gathered together to a sickening degree, seemed to depict something noisy and chaotic, yet also the silence within a crowd where no one opened their mouth.

'Though that crowd isn't even visible.'

Yu Seongun muttered softly as he looked at the gray frame, which made a person's mind go blank somehow.

"... So it really doesn't snatch people away just because they look at the frame."

After going around in person and wearing out his legs, the number of witnesses he found was four in total.

All of them were ordinary citizens in Seoul, not even Awakened, and none of them had suffered any harm due to the City of Emptiness.

'They all just thought of it as a painting hanging in some odd place.'

Among the four witnesses was an alcoholic who was rather difficult to call good.

According to the local people, he had been living alone for a long time, and apparently he sometimes acted like an obnoxious nuisance in front of convenience stores.

'Does that much not count as evil?'

Or did it only attack if one committed evil directly in front of the frame?

"... There aren't enough comparison cases, so I can't be certain."

Yu Seongun had a history of murder.

'In this day and age, it's not all that rare a history.'

Of course, he had not grabbed just anyone and killed them.

They were Grade 5 citizens who clearly harmed society, or criminals equivalent to them, and it had happened when he was stopping them.

After all, fighting with the intention to kill outright was more advantageous than aiming only for simple suppression.

'But that doesn't mean it was the right thing to do.'

In such a grim and harsh era, what Hunter had never killed a person, but wrong was still wrong in the end.

Judged morally, Yu Seongun had committed sins.

Even so, the City of Emptiness remained quiet.

"..."

There were many possibilities.

"... I don't feel Jio, the dungeon master, from this frame."

In that case, perhaps this frame was simply moving according to Jio's commands.

'So it doesn't have the same level of emotional ability as Jio.'

Jio could determine another person's good and evil just by looking at them for a moment.

But this frame, which simply received and carried out commands, might not have that level of ability, so it might only distinguish good and evil by judging the situations that unfolded in front of it.

It was a degraded version of the "Portrait of Jio."

"... If not that..."

It could also have judged that Yu Seongun and the alcoholic he saw were "not evil."

Strictly speaking, Yu Seongun had done what he ought to have done, and the alcoholic had only caused a nuisance that was a bit more irritating than usual.

Considering that, by Jio's standards, they might not be evil enough to attack.

'If that drunkard has ever committed a crime beyond a certain level, it would be much easier to tell.'

If he had done more than simply be a nuisance, then there was a high possibility the City of Emptiness only collected evil people who were confirmed to have committed evil directly.

"..."

But there was one thing that was certain.

"... Jio's good and evil are concluded according to his tastes."

If Jio had defined "murder" itself as an evil act, Yu Seongun should already have been abducted by Jio and gone missing.

But the fact that he had not done so up to now meant that Jio distinguished a target's good and evil depending on the situation.

"I don't know whether this will be good for humans or bad for them..."

In any case, what Yu Seongun had to do now was clear.

"... I'm so tired I could die."

He had to enter that City of Emptiness and check the condition of the Hunter named Park Eun-gyeom.

Yu Seongun approached the work hanging on the transparent wall.

"What do I have to do to get inside this?"

A normal Entry Dungeon did not require any special condition to enter.

From the dungeon's perspective, prey was rolling in on its own, so there would have been no reason to block it in the first place.

'But if Jio is still favorable toward humans, he would definitely have a reason to block that part.'

At the very least, it meant he would not want people falling indiscriminately into his dungeon and dying.

As Yu Seongun looked at the painting, which made his stomach feel more and more uncomfortably blocked the longer he looked, he confirmed something in that empty city.

"..."

Yu Seongun, who noticed the anomaly, looked more closely at the painting.

"... That is..."

Between the long boulevard, the buildings lined up on both sides, and the alleys they created.

Something black and whitish entered Yu Seongun's eyes.

"... A person?"

It also looked like a person curled up.

'It's too small to confirm.'

But a black dot sticking out in a city so clean it looked as if it had not a single speck of dust was certainly strange.

It looked natural enough not to feel particularly out of place, but after consciously staring at it for a long time, he could tell that it was not an image that belonged in the City of Emptiness.

The black dot seemed to faintly stir.

"..."

A chill ran over Yu Seongun in that instant.

"... Is this Hunter Park Eun-gyeom?"

If one did not deliberately try to find it, it would not even enter one's sight.

Because no matter who looked at it, that was a "painting."

"Glurp?"

"Dad is busy."

"Gurrr?"

"I'm looking after your younger sibling."

"Gloop?"

Honey kept tilting his head, but Jio stood firm.

"I need to comfort our Void, even now."

He was currently wrapping the City of Emptiness in a baby sling and gently rocking it back and forth.

Iser, who had stopped by briefly, had nodded with that uniquely benevolent smile of his and gone back, but Jio instinctively felt that the City of Emptiness was quite happy with this care of his.

"If our Void had a mouth, I'd at least feed it, but what on earth does it live on?"

"Gurrr..."

"People? People, you say. Unfortunately, those aren't edible."

"Glooop?"

"I don't know why every single one of my children says such scary things."

While talking to his eldest son, Jio suddenly confirmed that the painting of the City of Emptiness had changed.

"What is this?"

It had taken none other than the form of Yu Seongun.

"..."

"Gurrrr..."

"I don't know why you're smacking your lips, but calm down, because it won't be what you're thinking anyway. So what on earth is this situation? Father, if you're watching me, please tell me the answer..."

The Sun God told him the answer.

"Coo, coo-coo."

"Are you saying Mr. Yu Seongun is actually in front of our Void right now?"

Was this the new-generation intercom?

'Trends have gone so far around that now they've come back to portraits?'

Of course, that could not be the case.

In any case, since the City of Emptiness could be called one of Jio's homes in its own way, he was grateful that an intercom function he had never even put into the frame was included.

"I almost failed to greet a guest."

He had no idea why that guest was in front of the City of Emptiness, but it did not matter.

On the sacred birthday of Jesus, Jio, who had protected his chastity today as well, was simply delighted and delighted again to see this welcome face.

It's been a while since we've seen Seongun hyung, right?

"Void, open the door. He's Dad's friend."

" "

"I feel like my kid just answered me. Was that an auditory hallucination?"

" "

"My admirable baby is so good at babbling."

Was there really any need to think deeply about life?

To Jio, life's variables were nothing more than the appearance of new content.

He paid no mind to this sudden situation and finished preparing to become an uppercase extrovert.

"I'll finally get to see hyungnim's face after so long."

As long as it was fun, that was enough.