Chapter 36

It was not that Jio hated having fun, absolutely not, but the energy allotted to him was rather limited.

"..."

"... Honey, if Dad is sprawled out like this, you should at least nag me."

"*GRUMBLE GRUMBLE GRUMBLE... *"

"If both of us are sprawled out, then there’s no answer."

The busy, busy modern society he had met again had wrung Jio’s stamina dry.

'I doubt I’d be this tired even if a vampire sucked my blood.'

He did not think the country had ever been all that peaceful or gentle in the first place.

But after thirty-one years, South Korea had turned into Hell Korea.

Frail Jio ended up getting scared.

Sprawled across the bed like a rag that had been aging for twenty-nine years, Jio kneaded Honey, who had melted flat like a liquid monster.

"As far as I know... I should still be synchronizing with Giovanni."

"*PURR? *"

"It feels much weaker in here than it does outside."

"*PURRR? *"

"The Synchronization speed has slowed down too."

"When I dipped my feet in Cheonggyecheon, I think it filled up by almost six percent."

"*COO. *"

"And when we traveled by waterway to the restaurant, it was almost four percent..."

They had in common that both actions were related to water.

"Is it because I have so many ties to water?"

He meant Giovanni.

In any case, the Synchronization speed was much faster when he was in reality than when he was staying still inside the painting.

"It must be a characteristic of the world inside the portrait."

"*PURRRR... *"

While synchronizing, he felt his old patterns of life exactly as they had been.

He got hungry at the proper times, had to sleep after working hard, and his body, which had been strangely light, grew heavy...

But it was something he had felt after returning from touring Seoul: inside the portrait, those sensations became a little duller.

"Even if I am synchronizing, maybe it’s because inside the portrait, I’m treated as a painting rather than a human."

"When I’m here, even the emotions I feel are treated as a 'painting.'"

When Jio was the subject, even if the object was something formless, it seemed to be judged as a "painting" for the time being.

Just like when he had felt grateful to Yu Seongun before and arbitrarily gifted him fruit syrup, but it had not caused a problem with the one-to-one system.

"..."

Once the Synchronization ended, would he return to being a "portrait" again?

"I wonder what a human who can only be a portrait unless he assimilates with someone else would be like."

"..."

"Truly stylish."

"*PURR... *"

"There must be no other portrait like me anywhere in the world."

"I’ll have confidence."

Today, too, Jio’s self-esteem soared sky-high without knowing its limits.

"As expected, I’m amazing."

Jio’s humanity did not yield to an identity as trivial as a haunted portrait.

Jio’s self-assertion was too strong for him to suffer confusion over his self-identity because of such a minor problem.

"Let’s eat."

"*PURR. *"

The subject of their conversation eventually changed to food.

They were no different from pigs.

"Up we go."

Only after exactly twenty-nine hours and another thirty-six minutes had passed did Jio raise himself from the bed.

Honey apparently had no such intention and remained sprawled out.

He was a young master from a precious household who knew very well that Jio would carry him on his own.

"Do you have any idea how annoying and cute you are when you act like that?"

"*HMPH. *"

"You think being cute is everything?"

"That’s right, in this world, that is everything."

"*PURRRRRRR. *"

"You’re already fulfilling your entire purpose through your cuteness."

As Jio saw it, there seemed to be no emotion that brought peace to humanity more than cuteness.

"I will conduct today’s meal."

As always.

"Shall we go to the garden for the first time in a while and check how much it’s grown?"

"*GRUMBLE GRUMBLE GRUMBLE... *"

"You’re too lazy to even fly that far, so your realm of laziness has reached the heavens."

"I’ll put you in a basket, so stay still."

"*PURRRR-GRUMBLE! *"

"Where do you think you’re going, trying to send me alone? Hey. Tsk. No, you’re coming with me. Dad gets lonely."

Jio swept the limp liquid monster into the basket.

Honey grumbled in dissatisfaction, but still slid right in, and Jio left the cabin with a satisfied look, carrying the basket.

And then he witnessed Mother Nature.

"What is this?"

Where did my humble little garden go, and when did the Amazon move in?

"Where on earth did my small and precious garden go?"

"*P-PURR... *"

"My garden wasn’t like this."

He had thought there would be, at most, a few sprouts, but forget adorable little sprouts, the cherry tomatoes alone had grown about three meters tall.

"No, wait. Can you call a three-meter cherry tomato a 'cherry' tomato?"

No.

"Is it even a tomato to begin with?"

The tomatoes I know weren’t the size of small watermelons, were they?

Jio, who had tried his hand at all sorts of farming at least once, fell into confusion at a result he had never experienced in his life.

The time he had left the garden alone had not even been that long, and when he had planted them, they had definitely been ordinary seeds and seedlings, so how had not just a garden, but a monster field been born?

"The state of the lettuce is..."

"..."

"It is the incarnation of Cthulhu."

"*PURR? *"

"There’s such a thing."

There was something like an octopus monster god that could drive even a person sane enough to buy fish-shaped bread for five thousand won out of their mind.

"It looks exactly like that."

And Jio knew that was the spot where he had planted lettuce.

"I planted octopuses instead of lettuce."

"*PURR. *"

"Don’t agree with me, Honey. Dad gets hurt easily."

The lettuce, with leaves plumper than autumn napa cabbages, had soared upward without knowing how high the sky was.

Its figure was so majestic and imposing that Jio felt as if he had been rejected without even confessing.

"What an unimaginable reality."

And the corn.

"..."

"I’m scared."

Jio was frightened.

"Is that a tree?"

The stalk was too thick, and the kernels were even thicker.

It was very frightening.

The potatoes and sweet potatoes hiding their forms under the ground were even more terrifying.

Although they had yet to reveal their true forms, the stems crawling out above the soil were like watching a full-blown horror movie.

"This powerful vitality... It’s alive."

"*PURR. *"

"Don’t spoil the mood by saying it was always alive, Honey. Dad knows that much too."

"*COO? *"

"I meant it looks like it’s about to start crawling around on its own soon. Normally, it shouldn’t do that."

If this was not a horror movie, then what was?

"The peas are..."

"..."

"... Even a zombie crawling up from hell wouldn’t be that obsessive."

The pea vines had clung half-parasitically to the plants growing nearby, and because the stems were long and thin, the grotesqueness was doubled.

At this rate, it looked ready to eat insects any moment now.

Like a spider.

"So what on earth is this?"

What have I done?

"As expected, I’m amazing."

No, not that.

"At this point, it’s funny."

"... *COO? *"

"Yes, that was what I wanted to say."

When such an unexpected situation befell him to this degree, it was simply fun.

"It’s not as if the taste changed."

Then that was fine.

"It’s become a garden with such a magnificent form that it looks like it could hold a conversation with me any moment now..."

"..."

"But still, let’s call this place a garden."

"I felt embarrassed saying it too, but since we know its modest beginning, we have to protect that identity."

"*PURR...? *"

"Honey, think carefully."

"Those guys look like they’ll start moving around soon, so before that happens, we need to make a good impression so they don’t eat us."

It was half a joke and half sincere.

'In a world that can evolve a human into a portrait, maybe a plant with a sense of self would be about average.'

Grandmother used to say that a mere human could never know when disaster would strike, so one must always live humbly and wisely.

Today, too, Jio became a good grandson and faithfully followed the wisdom of his elder.

"..."

But when an accident happened, wanting to shift the cause onto someone else was human instinct.

"... Could Yu Seongun have given me monster seeds from the start?"

"*HMPH. *"

"Right, the seeds themselves looked ordinary to me too."

"It seems the problem really is this world."

So he was very curious as to whether they would taste good.

"Let’s have a taste..."

"..."

"...?"

Jio, who had entered the monster field, doubted his own eyes.

'Have I gotten presbyopia?'

Or was it a hallucination?

"If this is reality, then wouldn’t our safety be in danger, Honey?"

"... *PURRR... *"

"Why is there a dead deer here?"

Jio was very frightened.

"Heaven and earth and all the gods."

Please watch over this pitiful portrait.

"So why is it really here?"

"*PURR, PURR, PURR. *"

"You can do it too?"

"No, don’t compete."

"So who on earth caught this and left it here?"

"Where did this deer even come from in the first place?"

"Dad is way too confused right now, so Honey, please stop coming out of the basket to promote yourself..."

The monster field was so overgrown that he had not been able to see it properly, but once he went inside, there was a deer that was unmistakably dead, lying there in an extremely fresh state.

Judging by the deer’s very large and sturdy appearance, it was not one that had originally been in Jio’s cabin forest.

After all, the animals here were all small and charming to suit his taste.

"..."

Jio shuddered.

"I’ve finally caused an accident."

In this life of ours, where not a single inch of the future can be known, he had expected that if he continued living so thoughtlessly, the final day would one day come, but that end had arrived sooner than expected.

"The day of destruction will come soon."

"*HMPH? *"

"An invasive species has entered."

Jio, whose only means of protecting himself was his painting ability that could draw potatoes into existence, was certain he would not be able to hold out.

"*PURR, PURRRRRRR. *"

"Honey?"

"*COO COO COO. PURR, COO. *"

"..."

Seeing Honey looking as though he wanted to inform him of something, Jio carefully examined the situation and realized it.

"... This..."

"*COO! *"

"There’s a hole in its forehead."

And he confirmed that there was blood on the nearby sweet potato vines.

"..."

"*PURR? *"

"Are you trying to tell me that the sweet potato vine moved on its own and instantly killed an invasive species that popped out from beyond the dimensional gate I made by piercing its forehead?"

"*COO. *"

"I see."

Jio pondered.

'Which side should I be afraid of?'

A violent invasive species that drifted in from an unknown dimension

A sweet potato that moves on its own and can pierce a hard skull in one blow

"Good heavens."

Both were frightening.

For the third time today, Jio was scared.

"Honey, can a frail being like me survive in this wilderness?"

"..."

"Don’t look so serious. Dad is serious."

"I think I’m too weak a person to survive in this great wilderness."

"*HMPH. *"

"How can you say that when there’s no one as pitiful and useless as Dad?"

After a long communication, Jio was assured that every living creature in the monster field would be friendly to him.

Just as all the flora and fauna of the forest were to Jio, the crops he had raised were similar.

It was a story with no exact basis, but...

"Then that’s fine."

Jio’s ultimate positive mindset freed him from his ridiculous fear.

More importantly, had he not been about to prepare a meal just now?

"We got meat."

"*PURR. *"

"Meat..."

Come to think of it, the Elixir Refining Method had said "processed meat."

"... Nice."

And so today’s content was decided.

For reference, Jio had learned how to butcher.

* * *

CLICK, CLACK...

"..."

TAP.

"... How strange."

A quiet alley in the slums.

A woman with navy-blue hair that resembled the deep sea as it swayed languidly murmured.

"For the trail to end here."

She had been very worried because the energy of her dear human helper had cut off, but what absurdity was this?

"There are no traces of battle."

After choosing and choosing carefully, she had put a suitable one under the sun.

He should have been someone whose infiltration skills and combat abilities were not bad, so if there were no traces of flight, let alone traces of battle, it was only natural that it was hard to accept.

But she did not deny what had already happened.

"Was he taken down?"

She did not know by whom.

"I’ll have to investigate that further."

The woman hummed and recited as if singing.

"The temple seems to be in trouble, it hasn’t been made known to the press, and even though it happened in the slums, no one knows the circumstances, so just how ridiculous is this situation..."

She understood the temple’s position.

"Where would the prudence of those who have always loved hiding things tightly away go?"

"How sinister."

Since the event was about to proceed soon, it made sense that they would be troubled.

"I was trying to ruin the Festival of the Sun."

"..."

"But the person who would ruin it disappeared, wouldn’t you know."

The woman spoke to the child.

"Iser, the only galaxy at my side."

"Yes."

"You will have to do the work."

"I will not disappoint you."