Chapter 136

“So.”

Yu Seong-un smiled with a resigned face.

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

“I’m glad you are well aware.”

“I have no choice but to know well, I almost became a pig myself….”

“I apologize if it felt like a rude attempt.”

“No, the meal was really delicious.”

He continued, maintaining his easygoing smile.

“Although I did feel a slight crisis.”

The crisis that the human species itself might change.

‘Or die from my stomach bursting.’

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

Jio also had a similar vibe.

‘Mainly in the part where he constantly gives food….’

If he hadn't encountered the Mermaid Princess at that time, Yu Seong-un probably wouldn't have been able to escape the cycle of repeated meals and snacks.

Even though most Hunters have large stomachs, that's how it felt.

“…I’m sure you’ll handle it well, but that person will probably eat less than me. Don’t make him overeat.”

“I don't intend to make him overeat either, but… I made a mistake. He got indigestion.”

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

“Heavenly taste is an undeserved compliment. But seeing him eat so deliciously was so pleasing that I think I pushed him too much.”

“He probably 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 the situation must have been like.

Jio, who likes to see humans plump, would have kept offering food, and that person, having lost his reason to the ecstatic taste, or feeling pressured by Jio, probably couldn’t refuse.

‘The food was too delicious to refuse, and it was a meal inside Jio’s belly.’

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

There was no way that person named Ju-hyeon wouldn't have known that this portrait, where the flow of time and the weight of the air change according to Jio's mood, was literally on the tongue of the dungeon owner.

‘Still, seeing as Jio isn’t disappointed, he must have excellent social skills.’

He didn't know what a mess his inner thoughts must have been, but anyway, it was a bold attitude for a civilian.

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

‘If it were that easy, Jio would have succeeded in making a pen pal friend long ago….’

Well, it could have been that he was just in a state of giving up.

“……”

From the looks of it, things seemed a bit complicated.

“I looked into that person named Ju-hyeon separately.”

“Thank you for always helping me.”

“Don't mention it. But in this matter, his team leader… seems to have pulled some strings.”

“Does that mean his superior meddled in Mr. An Ju-hyeon’s situation?”

“An Ju-hyeon?”

From what Yu Seong-un found out, Ju-hyeon was from an orphanage affiliated with the Association.

Due to the nature of such orphanages, they discard their last names upon entry, so he hadn't bothered to check that part, but Jio seemed to know even Ju-hyeon's last name.

‘Well, it wouldn't have been difficult for Jio to find out a mere human's last name one way or another.’

Whether he had a separate Appraisal Skill and used it, or wheedled it out with his unique social skills, it wouldn’t be strange for Jio to know the last name of a researcher from an orphanage.

Yu Seong-un moved on casually.

“From what I can see, yes. Most people don’t seem to know, but some….”

Yu Seong-un, who was contemplating how to phrase it, continued.

“It felt like they were hushing it up.”

“So they know but are hiding it.”

“I don’t know the reason why.”

Yu Seong-un shrugged his shoulders.

“I’m not one of them anymore.”

In particular, the Association's research labs could be seen as a single nation composed under one team leader.

Apart from the minimum system, the team leader in charge of that research lab enjoyed absolute power over all other policies.

“Anyway, whatever the team leader had in mind, it seems he ruined that person Ju-hyeon's situation.”

“Why does a team leader have that much authority, and not the lab director?”

“Perhaps because the director doesn’t actually commute to that lab. Usually, an Association lab director manages multiple buildings.”

Within a single building of the Association's research lab, one team leader is stationed.

But that doesn’t mean the lab itself belongs to the team leader.

“The Association’s research labs are divided into Seoul 1st Branch, Seoul 2nd Branch, 3rd Branch… and so on. And the one who manages all the research labs in Seoul is the Lab Director. The one who works within a single branch is the Research Team Leader.”

“How many branches are there in Seoul?”

“Up until I was working there, there were up to the 184th branch, but now there are up to the 221st branch. Seoul isn't that large an area, but most of the research labs are built using space expansion magic. Quite a lot, isn't it?”

Since there are so many research labs to manage, the lab directors cannot practically participate in the work.

They are already busy checking the flood of experiment reports and permission requests.

Yu Seong-un smiled sheepishly.

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

“Frankly, yes. Is there a reason why you can’t have one lab director and several research team leaders in one research lab?”

“There are various reasons, but the main one is… the problem is that there’s no trustworthy personnel.”

The Association's research labs were in such a position.

“That place is full of information that is still difficult for citizens to accept and dangerous information that can be misused in various ways. So they are moderately culling the information, but such research subjects overflow by the tens and hundreds each year….”

It is a space full of perilous information that wouldn't be strange for anyone's eyes to spin.

“Didn't you say Mr. Ju-hyeon had a similar feeling? According to you, that person created the mark of none other than Sankalut. A good person who had never done anything bad in his life committed such a bold act.”

“I see.”

“The Association's research labs are overflowing with information that has a lot of room for such misuse. Therefore, the lab director must, first of all, not feel greed for such information, secondly, have the ability to handle any incidents that occur in their jurisdiction, and thirdly, be far away from the field.”

“What is the reason for being far away from the field?”

“No matter how selfless a person is, humans are creatures of adaptation. Just encountering it through documents or seeing it occasionally in the field, well, the weight of it becomes lighter, which might increase the probability of misuse… but as they say, out of sight, out of mind, so the possibility of being bewitched becomes lower.”

The Association’s research labs were a space beyond any ordinary den of demons.

It was a perilous place where even healthy people came out with broken minds and bodies, and no matter how carefully selected the talent was for a lab director, there was a high possibility that their conviction would break if they were exposed to such an environment for a long time.

“And it’s not something that can be achieved just by having a strong will of one’s own. Quite a few project subjects have their own will, and the field workers at the labs have to endure the temptations and condemnations of such bizarre mysteries every hour.”

“What is the reason why so many people work in such a place?”

“There are people who were drawn in because the Association did a very good job of promoting it, and there are also kids supported by orphanages sponsored by the government or the Association. So at first, they are usually given miscellaneous jobs that don't put a mental strain on them.”

Though even that doesn't last long before they are faced with reality.

“And most importantly….”

Yu Seong-un, who had been hesitating for a moment, finally continued.

“To become a lab director, you have to undergo a sort of, shall I say, procedure.”

“A procedure?”

“To put it badly, should I call it brainwashing, or taming….”

“That is an unexpected method.”

“Well, there are problems from an ethical standpoint.”

Yu Seong-un laughed awkwardly.

“The first step is to find a Hunter with the ability to become a lab director at the Association. They excavate at least an A-Class Hunter close to S-Class, and among them, they select those whose environment is already affluent or who are born without greed, and among them, they also check their administrative processing ability and personnel management ability and well….”

“……”

“In addition to that, they select and select people who are competent in various fields. No matter how many A-Class hunters there are, it's hard to find a hunter close to S-Class, and on top of that, they have to be selfless, an all-around talent… There can't be many such talents.”

Even if they are found, a problem remains.

“And as the final step, they undergo a kind of brainwashing process to castrate their greed and absolutely obey the Association President’s orders, and no matter how unethical the stage is, it’s not carried out forcibly.”

“Isn’t that turning a person into a document processing machine in the name of a lab director?”

“It's even more of a problem because they don't just process documents. Anyway, it’s really hard to find someone who agrees to this process, so they can’t assign a lab director to each and every research lab.”

“Is the reason for insisting on such high-quality personnel for the security of the research materials?”

“You could say that. Of course, if they lowered their standards, they could assign more personnel to each lab, but that would only lead to the rebirth of a huge, uncontrollable den of demons.”

In the first place, the Association's research labs could be seen as symbolizing human arrogance.

“Right now, numerous disasters are concentrated in Korea. Especially the Association's research labs are at the center of it, and if even one of them explodes, this planet called Earth will be ruined in an instant. So even if they go through such a difficult process, they can't lower the quality of the personnel.”

Yu Seong-un, who was once a research team leader at the Association, said, trying hard to hide his sense of skepticism.

“The fortunate thing is that as long as those lab directors and… the Symbol of Eternity, the Association President, exist, those numerous dens of demons are perfectly controlled.”

“……”

“In other words, it means they are taking too many risks trusting in the Association President alone, but well. That side is more focused on the development of humanity and the analysis of the Source.”

Jio, who had been silent for a moment, asked.

“What is the Symbol of Eternity?”

“…Ah.”

Yu Seong-un nodded and explained.

“It refers to the only three immortal and ageless beings in South Korea.”

“Immortality and agelessness.”

“Not only are they Awakeners of extremely strong abilities, but they also neither die nor age.”

To that, Jio said.

“They must be lonely.”

“……”

Yu Seong-un was at a loss for words for a moment.

“…I’ve never thought of the Symbol of Eternity in that way, so I don’t know.”

“It seems like a blessing in disguise that the three of them are together.”

“There’s a rumor that they were close friends since before the Great Catastrophe.”

Yu Seong-un, who smiled slightly, continued.

“Anyway, as long as such a Symbol of Eternity exists, no matter what risk is taken, it will never go to the absolute worst. So the experiments become even bolder, the number of people being ground up increases, but since there are overflowing people compared to the acceptable population… people die, get broken, and become twisted, and in that process, the development of humanity is achieved.”

He eventually let out a small sigh.

“That’s also the reason why the current Korea was able to achieve particularly rapid development.”

“Thanks to boldly grinding people up, trusting only in the Symbol of Eternity?”

“To summarize, it would probably be something like that. It’s a case of high risk, high return.”

But no matter how big the risk is, as long as the Symbol of Eternity exists, the damage does not extend beyond the research lab.

No matter what research is done, the maximum damage range is up to the said research lab building, so they conduct experiments even more boldly.

“I don’t know if I should say this, but as they say, failure is the mother of success. That kind of data eventually becomes the cornerstone for not making another failure.”

“I understand.”

“If one research lab is annihilated, they think, ah, so that’s how it reacts when you do that. Then what about this method? And… it's a structure that can develop further, I guess.”

“It is a frightening world.”

“It’s a world where things like human rights are just a facade. Since it’s a country with a strong culture like that, the instrumentalization of people happens by default. It’s not a pretty sight.”

But thanks to that, development itself could be fast.

“The Association is trying to research and uncover 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 from primitive pain even after 500 years… The intention is to shorten that time.”

It was a thought and judgment that could only be made by the immortal Symbol of Eternity.

“I came out because I hated seeing that.”

“I see.”

“It’s a valuable sacrifice, but I can’t help but hate to see it.”

“I agree.”

“…Well, that’s that.”

Yu Seong-un cleared his throat.

“Anyway, since it’s like this, it’s difficult for me, who has already resigned, to find out the details of what’s going on inside a still-functioning research lab. The people there are fundamentally tight-lipped.”

“I can imagine.”

“But the atmosphere is a bit subtle. From what I see, it seems they were trying to cause some kind of incident through that researcher named Ju-hyeon. The research team leader, that is.”

Yu Seong-un lowered his hand and smiled at Jio.

“And you stopped it in advance.”

“I’m glad the result is good.”

“I’m always grateful, from my perspective.”

It might be a simple coincidence, but Jio often showed a pattern of popping up before an incident got bigger and suddenly cut off the flow.

‘Should I say he resolved a tense situation that was being tightened in an unexpected way? In the case of the mermaid siblings, too, it wasn’t something that should have fizzled out so absurdly….’

Yu Seong-un was still investigating the whereabouts of the mermaid siblings, and their traces were recently discovered at Gyeongbokgung Palace.

It seemed they were planning to overthrow not only the Solar Cult but also Gyeongbokgung Palace if things went south.

‘I don’t know for sure since there aren’t many comparison groups yet, but anyway, from a human’s perspective, it’s a very grateful course of action.’

He couldn’t not know how grateful it was to have unbearable disasters thwarted in advance.

“……”

In that sense, Yu Seong-un thought that the researcher named Ju-hyeon was also on the verge of becoming the beginning of a disaster.

It was a great relief that he was discovered by Jio before things got bigger.

“…So how is Mr. Ju-hyeon?”

“He is eating well and sleeping well.”

“And his mood?”

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

“Yes, he would be.”

Still, it was close to a miracle that he had stabilized to that extent already.

“Please take good care of him a little longer.”

“I will send him out healthy.”

“I hope he’s moderately healthy.”

It would be very troublesome if a new human species other than Hunters were to emerge.

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