Chapter 136

"So."

Yu Seongun smiled with a resigned look.

"You're fattening that person up like a pig?"

"I'm glad you understand so well."

"Of course I understand. I nearly became a pig myself..."

"I apologize if my attempt felt rude."

"No, the meal really was delicious."

He continued speaking with an easy smile.

"Though I did feel a little sense of danger."

As in, the danger that his very species as a human might change.

'Or that my stomach would burst and kill me.'

Perhaps because they had lived through the difficult period known as the Great Catastrophe, the elders of that generation were particularly sensitive about fattening children up.

Jio had a similar sort of air about him.

'Mostly in the part where he keeps giving you food without end...'

If he had not run into the Little Mermaid back then, Yu Seongun likely would not have been able to escape the loop of repeated meals and snacks either.

That was how it felt, even though most Hunters had large stomachs.

"... I'm sure you'll handle it well, but that person will eat even less than I do."

"Don't make him overeat."

"I had no intention of making him overeat either, but... I made a mistake, and he got indigestion."

"It is surprising that someone can get indigestion even after eating heavenly food like that, but then again, nothing good comes from eating too much of anything."

"Heavenly is far too much praise."

"But he looked so happy eating it that I think I pressured him too much."

"He probably really did eat it so deliciously that he didn't even realize he was full."

"Even if he's a researcher at the Association, most of them are just civilians, so he probably couldn't control himself well."

Yu Seongun understood what must have happened.

Jio, who liked the sight of plump humans, would have continued serving food, and that person had likely lost his reason at the ecstatic taste, or had felt pressured by Jio and simply could not bring himself to refuse.

'It was food too delicious to refuse, and he would have been eating inside Jio's belly.'

Even if he was a civilian without a single skill, he was still supposedly a researcher at the Association.

There was no way that man named Ju-hyeon did not know that the inside of this portrait, where the flow of time and the weight of the air changed according to Jio's mood, was quite literally the tongue of the dungeon master.

'Still, seeing as Jio doesn't seem hurt by it, he must be very tactful.'

Who knew how much of a mess he had been on the inside, but in any case, it was a bold attitude for a civilian.

How could it be easy to act so obliging in front of a being like Jio?

'If that were easy, Jio would have succeeded in making a pen pal long ago...'

Well, he might simply have been in a state of desperation.

"..."

From the look of things, the situation seemed rather tangled.

"I looked into that person named Ju-hyeon separately."

"Thank you for always helping me."

"Don't mention it."

"But in this matter, that team leader on his side... seems to have pulled something."

"Do you mean that An Juhyeon's superior interfered in his circumstances?"

"An Juhyeon?"

According to what Yu Seongun had found out, Ju-hyeon was from an orphanage affiliated with the Association.

Because of the nature of such orphanages, those who entered abandoned their surnames, so Yu Seongun had not bothered confirming that part, but Jio seemed to know even Ju-hyeon's surname.

'Well, it probably wouldn't have been hard for Jio to find out a mere human's surname one way or another.'

Whether he had used some kind of appraisal skill or had pried it out with that peculiar sociability of his, it would not be strange for Jio to know the surname of a researcher from an orphanage.

Yu Seongun let it pass without much reaction.

"That's how it looks to me."

"The general mood is that most people don't know, but some of them are a bit..."

Yu Seongun pondered how to put it, then continued.

"They felt like they were trying to hush it up."

"They know, yet they are hiding it."

"I'm not sure why."

Yu Seongun shrugged.

"I'm not one of their people anymore, either."

The Association's research labs in particular could fairly be seen as individual nations organized under a single team leader.

Beyond the bare minimum system, the rest of the policies were set by the team leader in charge of that research lab, who wielded absolute power.

"Anyway, for whatever reason, that team leader seems to have ruined that person Ju-hyeon's circumstances."

"Why does a team leader have that much authority instead of the research lab director?"

"Maybe because the director doesn't actually go to work at that research lab."

"Usually, when people say an Association research lab director, they mean someone who manages multiple buildings."

In a single building that belonged to the Association's research labs, one team leader was stationed.

But that did not mean the research lab itself belonged to the team leader.

"The Association's research labs are divided into Seoul Branch 1, Seoul Branch 2, Branch 3... like that."

"And the person who manages all the research labs in Seoul is the research lab director."

"The person who works inside one branch is the research team leader."

"How many branches exist in Seoul?"

"When I was working there, there were up to Branch 184, but now there are up to Branch 221."

"Seoul isn't that large an area, but most research labs are built using space-expansion magic."

"There are quite a lot, aren't there?"

Because there were so many research labs to manage, the research lab directors could not actually participate in the work.

They were already busy checking the flood of experimental reports and permit requests.

Yu Seongun smiled awkwardly.

"Of course, you probably won't understand why they created such an inefficient structure."

"Honestly, I do not."

"Is there a reason they cannot have one research lab director and multiple research team leaders within a single lab?"

"There are various reasons, but the representative cause is... first of all, the problem is that there are no trustworthy people."

That was the position the Association's research labs occupied.

"Those places are full of information that citizens would still find difficult to accept, and dangerous information that could be abused in all sorts of ways."

"So they do organize the information to some extent, but dozens or hundreds of such research subjects pour in every year..."

It was a space full of extremely dangerous information that could make any ordinary person's eyes go wild.

"Didn't you say Ju-hyeon was similar?"

"According to what you told me, that person made none other than Sankalut's sigil."

"You're saying a kind person who had never done anything bad in his entire life made such a bold choice."

"I see."

"The Association's research labs are overflowing with information that has room to be abused in that way."

"That's why a research lab director must, first of all, feel no greed for that information; second, have the ability to clean up when an incident occurs in their jurisdiction; and third, remain far away from the site."

"Why must they remain far away from the site?"

"No matter how free of greed a person is, humans are creatures of adaptation."

"If they only face it through documents or occasionally go see it on-site, well, that can make the weight feel lighter and actually raise the chance they abuse it, but..."

"Out of sight, out of mind, so it at least lowers the chance they get bewitched."

The Association's research labs were places worse than most hellholes.

They were extremely dangerous places where even sane people came out with their minds and bodies ruined, and no matter how carefully chosen a talent the research lab director was, if they were exposed to such an environment for a long time, there was a high chance their convictions would break.

"And it isn't something that can be solved just by having a firm will of your own."

"Quite a lot of project subjects have wills of their own, and the field workers at the research labs have to endure the temptations and accusations of those bizarre mysteries every hour."

"Why are there so many people working in a place like that?"

"Some were drawn in because the Association promotes it very well, and some kids apply from orphanages sponsored by the government or the Association."

"So at first, they usually mainly have them do odd jobs that aren't mentally taxing."

But even that did not last long before they ended up facing reality.

"And above all..."

Yu Seongun hesitated for a moment, then continued.

"To become a research lab director, how should I put it, you have to undergo a kind of procedure."

"A procedure?"

"To put it badly, I suppose it would be brainwashing, or conditioning..."

"That is a method I did not expect."

"There are ethical issues with it, after all."

Yu Seongun smiled awkwardly.

"The first step is for the Association to find a Hunter with enough ability to become a research lab director."

"They discover Hunters who are at least A-class, close to S-class, and among them, they select people who already live in plenty or were born without greed."

"And then among those, they look for administrative processing ability, personnel management ability, and, well..."

"..."

"Besides that, they choose and choose again from people who are capable in many different fields."

"Even though there are more A-class Hunters now, it's still difficult to find a Hunter close to S-class, and on top of that, they also have to have no greed and be all-rounders..."

"What I'm saying is, there can't be many people like that."

Even if they found such people, there was still a problem left.

"On top of that, the final stage is a kind of brainwashing process where their greed is castrated and they absolutely obey the Hunter Association President's orders, but even though it's an unethical step, they don't force anyone through it."

"Are they not turning people into document-processing machines under the name of research lab director?"

"It's even more of a problem because they don't just process documents."

"Anyway, since it's extremely difficult to find someone who agrees to even this process, they can't place a research lab director in every single research lab."

"Is the reason they insist on such high-quality personnel for the security of research materials?"

"You could say that."

"Of course, if they lowered their standards, they could place more personnel in each research lab, but then all that would do is recreate an enormous, uncontrollable hellhole."

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

"Right now, countless disasters are concentrated in Korea."

"The Association's research labs are especially at the center of it, and if even one thing bursts, it will be only a matter of moments before this planet called Earth is destroyed."

"So even if they have to go through such a demanding process, they can't lower the quality of personnel."

Yu Seongun, who had once been a research team leader at the Association, spoke while trying to hide his disillusionment.

"The one fortunate thing is that, as long as those research lab directors and... the Hunter Association President, one of the Symbols of Eternity, exist, those countless hellholes are perfectly controlled."

"..."

"Put another way, they're taking on far too much risk while trusting only in the Hunter Association President, but, well."

"They tend to put their efforts into the development of humanity and the analysis of The Root, after all."

After a moment of silence, Jio asked.

"What are the Symbols of Eternity?"

"... Ah."

Yu Seongun nodded and explained.

"It refers to the only three immortal beings in the Republic of Korea."

"Immortal."

"They aren't just Awakened with extremely powerful abilities; they also neither die nor age."

At that, Jio said,

"They must be lonely."

"..."

Yu Seongun was at a loss for words for a moment.

"... I've never thought of the Symbols of Eternity that way, so I'm not sure."

"It seems a blessing amid misfortune that there are three of them together."

"There's a rumor that they were close friends even before the Great Catastrophe."

Yu Seongun laughed softly and continued.

"Anyway, as long as those Symbols of Eternity exist, no matter what risks they take, it will never reach the absolute worst case."

"So the experiments become even bolder, the number of people ground down increases, but there are more people than the population that can be accommodated..."

"People die, break, and twist, and in the process, humanity develops."

In the end, he let out a small sigh.

"That's also why Korea has been able to develop especially quickly."

"Thanks to boldly grinding people in while trusting only in the Symbols of Eternity?"

"To summarize, it would probably be that."

"It's high risk, high return."

But no matter how great the risk was, as long as the Symbols of Eternity existed, the damage would not leave the research lab.

No matter what research they carried out, the maximum range of damage was only the relevant research lab building, so they could experiment even more boldly.

"I don't know if I should say this, but they say failure is the mother of success, and that sort of data ultimately becomes a foundation for not making another failure."

"I understand."

"If one research lab is annihilated, they go, ah, so that reacts that way if handled like that."

"Then what about this method?"

"And in that way... somehow... it's a structure that can develop further, I suppose."

"What a frightening world."

"It's a world where human rights and all that are nothing but a facade."

"Since it's a country with a strong culture of that sort, people being turned into means basically happens by default."

"It isn't pretty."

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

"The Association is trying to research and dig into as much of The Root as possible, and shorten the time people suffer as much as they can."

"At this rate, this planet will still be suffering primitive pain five hundred years from now... so their intention is to try to reduce that time."

It was a thought and judgment possible because they were the immortal Symbols of Eternity.

"And I left because I didn't want to watch that."

"I see."

"They call it a worthwhile sacrifice, but if you don't want to watch it, then you can't help not wanting to watch it."

"I agree."

"... Well, putting that aside."

Yu Seongun rubbed his neck.

"Anyway, because things are like this, it's hard for me, someone who already resigned, to find out detailed internal affairs of a research lab that's still functioning normally."

"The people there are basically tight-lipped."

"I imagine so."

"But the atmosphere is a little strange, and from what I can tell, they were probably trying to cause some kind of incident through that researcher named Ju-hyeon."

"The research team leader, I mean."

Yu Seongun lowered his hand and smiled at Jio.

"And you stopped that in advance."

"I am glad the result was good."

"From my perspective, I'm always grateful."

It might be a simple coincidence, but in general, Jio often showed a pattern of suddenly popping up before incidents and accidents grew larger, and abruptly cutting off their flow.

'Should I say he releases tension that has been winding tighter and tighter in an out-of-nowhere way?'

'Even in the case of those mermaid siblings, that really wasn't something that should have fizzled out so absurdly...'

Yu Seongun was still investigating the movements of the mermaid siblings, and their traces had recently been found at Gyeongbokgung Palace.

If things had gone wrong, they seemed to have been planning to overturn not only the Sun Cult but Gyeongbokgung Palace as well.

'There still aren't many comparison cases, so I'm not sure, but in any case, from a human standpoint, it's an extremely welcome pattern.'

There was no way he could fail to know how grateful one should be for disasters that were difficult to handle being smoothed over in advance.

"..."

In that sense, Yu Seongun thought that the researcher named Ju-hyeon also seemed as if he might have become the beginning of a disaster.

It was truly fortunate that Jio had found him before the matter grew.

"... So how is Ju-hyeon?"

"He is eating well and sleeping well."

"His mood?"

"He is still somewhat tense, and he seemed a little confused."

"Yeah, I suppose he would."

Even so, the fact that he had already stabilized that much was close to a miracle.

"Please take care of him a little more."

"I will make him healthy and send him out."

"I'd prefer him moderately healthy."

Because it would be very troublesome if a new human race besides Hunters appeared.