Chapter 1 - Prologue

Why, I could be a haunted portrait.

I became a painting.

"..."

Not a funeral portrait, but a real painting.

"..."

And I had landed in the middle of a cabin in the woods, at that.

"... Well, it’s fun, so that’s fine."

Even if I was perfectly alive and about to be treated like a haunted portrait.

* * *

Seo Jio was an art teacher.

To explain why a respectable member of society like him became a haunted portrait, it was because Seo Jio failed to escape a school fire in time, got trapped in the art room, and plopped right into his own painting.

"..."

It was true.

"If I was going to die anyway, I wanted to die in the place I liked best."

That place was the art storage room.

The place where a landscape painting of a cabin in the woods had been kept, and the place that had ultimately turned him into a talking painting.

"You really do end up experiencing all sorts of things if you live long enough."

Jio sat on a bench and took in the scenery inside the painting.

"..."

The air was gentle.

The sound of birds chirping in harmony, as if they were singing in a choir.

A spring breeze as light and soft as silk, stirring gently.

Jewel-like sunlight filtering through the dense leaves.

The deep scent of the forest, rich as if damp with dew, and a temperature that was just right...

"Hmm."

It was peaceful.

"Nice."

It had been roughly a week since he had come to his senses in this cabin inside the painting.

'The flow of time is all over the place, so I’m not exactly sure how long I’ve been here...'

It was only natural for a tenant to inspect his new home.

Jio had figured out a few small rules about this place inside the painting.

First, everything he drew here became real.

"..."

Seo Jio observed the apple he had drawn, then set it down with a light thud.

A pleasant fragrance rose from the ripe apple.

He felt proud.

'I have been freed from food expenses.'

As expected, I’m admirable.

Haunted portrait or whatever, this was very welcome news to Seo Jio, who was both a gourmet and a big eater.

If he drew an apple, it became a real apple.

If he drew a bag of salt, it became real salt.

The same went for kitchen utensils like pots and spatulas, as well as plants like flowers and trees.

'One thing anyone would be curious about around this point.'

He could not draw people.

He had tried drawing one, wondering if he might become the first human to shape another human from paint, but all that came out was a warm corpse; it never became a living, moving person.

"Thank goodness the limits are clear."

Jio had nearly been scared.

To him, a man who valued friendship, peace, and love, a power like creating humanity would only do harm.

Most of all, Seo Jio’s dream was closer to being a landlord than a creator god.

'I was relieved that I hadn’t gained a power great enough to damage the cozy smallness and cuteness of my life.'

And the second rule.

"..."

Jio’s gaze landed on a picture frame hanging from a tree trunk.

"Is it like a front door?"

Through the frame, Jio could see the scenery outside this place.

"Maybe it’s hanging there to teach me the importance of communication so I don’t grow old alone."

He could also interact with reality, so he could leave the painting whenever he wanted.

Compared to the many haunted portraits in the ghost stories Seo Jio knew, it had a fairly high degree of freedom.

'That’s me, all right.'

Even after becoming a painting, I never walk the same path as everyone else.

Jio was greatly satisfied with his uniqueness, which had no equal in human history.

He doubted there were two things like this in the world.

If there were, that would be fate, so that would be even better.

"..."

Anyway, leaving that aside.

"... I don’t see any reason to go out into society, where it smells like exhaust fumes, and start a new household."

When I have this clean zone right here?

"And in just a few years, a lot has changed from what I remember..."

It was an awfully bitter thing to mutter at the bright young age of twenty-nine, but that was reality.

Apparently, nearly thirty years had already passed since the fire.

'To be exact, thirty-one years.'

After learning that, Jio had leisurely returned into the painting.

This talking potato had no confidence in adapting to a new society.

"I must have been reported dead ages ago, so what kind of biological experiments would I be asking for by leaving this place?"

He had no intention of going through needless hardship when he had this peaceful home with no food expenses, no rent, and no electricity bills.

"I am a little worried about my class’s kids... but the world has changed so much that I have no idea how they’re all doing."

Thirty-one years ago, when the fire had happened, it seemed Earth had been turned upside down once.

'I think they called it the Great Cataclysm.'

The world seemed to have changed completely after that day.

When he had escaped the abandoned school that had practically turned into the Amazon and, after much difficulty, found a place where people gathered, only to see the unbelievable sight of some businessman in a suit holding a bow and fighting a monster as big as a house.

Jio, thoroughly scared, obediently accepted his identity as a painting.

"Things like that can happen if you live long enough."

Though this body had died and died, died a hundred times over, its bones had not even turned to dust and its soul was still perfectly fine, but even so, life as a peaceful and comfortable haunted portrait was better than modern society where he had to rub shoulders with monsters.

"There are many ways to live in this world, and among them is the life of a portrait..."

And to discuss the third matter around this point.

"... Hmm."

This forest was another ecosystem.

"Shall I go gathering?"

Jio picked up a sturdy basket.

He planned to bring back a basket full of things to eat.

'All I drew was a two-story cabin and the forest surrounding it, but when I wandered around here and there, there were plants and terrain features I had never drawn.'

It seemed to have been created based on Jio’s imagination.

"..."

RUSTLE.

"Hello."

"Squeak."

"Right."

Jio simply watched as a rabbit that had popped out of the bushes rubbed its body against his foot and went on its way.

'It’s small.'

It was much smaller and rounder than the rabbits commonly known in Korea, and it seemed to reflect Seo Jio’s preference for small and harmless things.

'I like it.'

Mostly because it seemed unable to hurt me.

He liked that, if they fought seriously, it seemed Seo Jio himself could win.

'Since I, the owner of the painting, am harmless, does that mean only harmless creatures have been placed here? A plausible theory...'

After that, living creatures with small differences from real-world ones occasionally passed by Jio.

A squirrel with cheeks puffed out roundly.

A sparrow whose feathers were fluffed up as if it were winter.

A deer with jewel-clear eyes and a slender neck...

"..."

Jio thought.

The fourth rule.

"... They’re this kind even though it’s our first meeting, so they must recognize me as their father."

Every being inside this painting showed goodwill toward Jio.

'Is it because I drew this place?'

Although he had become a painting, Jio was still an artist, and this world was also a work he had drawn.

'Maybe it’s only natural for the ones living inside such a work to be friendly toward me, their owner.'

Jio kept walking in the opposite direction of the stream.

"... As befits an unemployed bum with nothing to do, maybe I should find a sunny spot and take a nap."

He was on his way to find the spring that was the source of this vast forest.

'It would be even better if I gathered things along the way.'

Seo Jio was still a gourmet and a big eater.

After becoming a painting, he did not feel hunger or sleepiness, but he could eat if he wanted to eat and sleep if he wanted to sleep.

'Considering that I feel bloated if I eat too much, and that I can’t go right back to sleep after sleeping deeply... it seems my basic lifestyle pattern is still maintained, though.'

In any case, being able to eat as much as he wanted was a tremendous advantage.

"... Ah."

Jio, who had been following the stream in the opposite direction, found a red, round fruit.

"It would be perfect as a snack."

A thin tree, short at a little under two meters, with branches bent deeply like an overturned plate.

Those slender branches were full of fruits about the size of beads sold at a stationery store.

Judging by the way they clustered softly along the long branches, their form was closer to a cherry tree than to grapes.

"If I dry them in the sun, could I get a texture similar to raisins..."

At that moment, Jio’s "system" explained the small red fruit.

"... It would be nice if you gave me a little warning before popping up..."

The fifth rule.

"... Right, I think I’ll need some time to get used to this one."

Time would be the medicine.

Actually, this was a little hard to call a rule of the forest, but... Seo Jio seemed to have awakened.

It was the phenomenon that supposedly manifested in those with supernatural powers after the "Great Cataclysm."

People on Earth now called those superpowered people "hunters," which was fascinating.

'And the fact that I became one of those superpowered people too.'

How should he put it?

"It’s like a game."

It felt like he had fallen into a cozy game about gathering and cooking.

'Should I say it was fortunate that, thanks to that feeling, I could accept this unfamiliar environment without much difficulty?'

He was not escaping reality by insisting this place was a game.

It simply meant that "since I’ve been placed in an environment as harmless and convenient as a game, it’s easy to adapt."

"... Hmm..."

After reading the system again, Jio checked the basket.

There was still a lot of room left.

"... Should I gather more?"

He plucked the fruits one by one until the bottom of the basket was red.

Then he made a spot for the fruits with a large, cleanly washed leaf and separated them.

It was to prepare space where he could place other gathered items if he found them, and perhaps thanks to that, it was not long before he found another medicinal herb.

"What was that again?"

A small flower that looked like an orchid.

'The taste is probably quite different, but at least I think the texture was like thoroughly cooked spinach.'

Vanilla-cream-scented spinach might sound absurd, but unexpectedly, it was all right to eat.

If he cooked it once and ate it as a snack, it was good when he felt peckish.

'The texture is interesting too, because if you crush it lightly with your tongue, it’s soft enough to crumble like a well-cooked chestnut.'

For reference, "plump-plump" referred to a tree in this forest that was fat like a baobab tree, but much shorter.

Its roundly curled leaves were sticky and thick like balloons full of water, and since these plump-plump trees grew near the cabin, Jio could easily obtain their leaves.

"Just in case."

Jio continued gathering diligently.

The situation called not only for food but also medicine in case of emergency, so gathering across a wide range was necessary.

As he continued gathering like that, Jio arrived at the spring that was the source of the stream.

"..."

PLOP.

TRICKLE...

"..."

Spring water trapped among snow-white tree roots that seemed to have gathered sunlight and moonlight together.

Among the glass-clear, sparkling spring, thin and beautiful flowers bloomed like silk made of jewels.

They were lush flowers that resembled lotus blossoms in some way.

"With this..."

"If I make medicine and keep it, it’ll come in handy someday."

THUD.

He set the basket down.

'I don’t think I’ll have any particular use for it, but I was bored anyway...'

Thinking it would be perfect as new content, he washed his hands clean in the spring water, then reached out toward the Lulufu flowers.

With his usual blunt and gloomy face, Jio snipped the flower stalk.

Unlike his sunken expression, the way his hands handled the flower was quite delicate.

'It would be fun to take it with the roots too, but this isn’t the kind of plant I commonly grew... and since it’s a flower made of water, I don’t know where the roots begin or end. If I try carelessly and the number of them decreases, I’ll be upset, so I should be careful.'

The Lulufu he had picked seemed to have been a fully bloomed flower, because it did not flow down into water.

It meant Jio had harvested the flower in the correct way.

"It smells nice."

Jio carefully placed the flower bud inside the basket.

About twenty flowers were blooming in the spring, but just in case, he gathered only three of them.

The petals themselves were so large and lush, like lotus blossoms, that picking several felt wasteful.

'The stem is quite sturdy too. Is there another way to use it? Since I can feel the fibers, somehow it seems like if I tear it thinly lengthwise, it might peel away like thread...'

Soon, Jio had placed all the flowers in the basket.

"This should be enough."

He decided he would slowly get a feel for the exact amount while making medicine, and Jio set the basket with the flowers back down on the ground.

Then he admired the spring.

"..."

DRIP,

TRICKLE...

"..."

The clear sound of shallow flowing water.

The clean, bright fragrance coming from the pure spring.

The damp forest air.

"... Nice."

This spring, which existed despite the fact that he had not drawn it, was beautiful beyond imagination.

The tree, already dead yet standing firm, shone pure white and resembled expensive Carrara marble.

Through that tree, whose intricate veins were dense enough for the sky to show through faintly, transparent spring water flowed out, breaking the golden sunlight.

'It looks like pearls have been spread thinly over it.'

This tree’s sap hardened and turned into gems.

Perhaps it had secreted sap before it died, because wide, winding, pale-blue, plate-shaped gems protruded from various places on the tree like wood ear mushrooms.

The transparent, bluish-green objects looked like plates made from large gems.

They held the sunlit spring water and contained a gentle light.

"..."

DRIP...

The spring water flowed down in sequence along those jeweled plates.

From the highest place, step by step, one by one.

It struck the jeweled plates with a clear sound like jade beads at dawn.

If he listened quietly, it felt exactly like hearing a butterfly’s song.

The sunlight leaking through the leaves of the forest scattered and shone on the marble-like tree, making it feel as if he had come to a temple.

"..."

The spring water that flowed down like that gathered in the roots of the dead tree and formed a shallow well.

The spring water overflowing from there spread throughout the forest, and butterflies with wings resembling sunlight illuminated the surroundings.

They were just like fireflies.

Fireflies that could be seen even during the day.

"Wonderful."

The spring, based around the giant tree that soared high into the sky, also looked like a vast pond.

'... They say good water gives off a fragrance. Did that apply to water this clean too?'

The air surrounding this place was savory and sweet, as if he were lying over a flower garden.

Perhaps the fragrance from the Lulufu petals was tinting the spring water.

'I knew I liked it.'

Jio liked this place.

He settled himself among the moss, soft as a blanket, and slowly took an afternoon nap.

* * *

"It’s here."

The art storage room of an abandoned school now forgotten.

Inside the portrait hanging there, a man quietly had his eyes closed.

"Look at this painting."

"Wow, how did it not burn and stay like this?"

"It’s in good condition... If we take this, will they count it as a result?"

"It looks like it has a title too."

"It has a name? So it was an item."

Then now, the final rule.

Jio became a painting.

"..."

"It says, 'Portrait of Jio.'"

That much was an undeniable fact.

"It sure is convenient traveling with someone who has an appraisal skill... But is this thing really from Earth?"

"Would an ordinary portrait be in an abandoned school like this, and in the mountains of Gangwon Province at that, this clean? When there’s no one to maintain it?"

"Well, I guess not."

"Obviously, it’s an item that flowed in from some dungeon. There are plenty of other dungeons around here too."

"Anyway, collectors will like it. I heard they go crazy for stuff like this."

And so, while Jio was asleep.

The entrance to the painting was changing on its own.