It was a forest dyed white.
From the leaves to the soil around the roots, it looked as if the entire forest had been painted over in white. Or perhaps it resembled a forest made of paper, or a world where all color had vanished. Though vast and expansive...
“A p-person...?”
“It’s a person! A real person...!”
Survivors were not hard to find.
“This is the first ti I’ve t anyone since entering this dungeon!”
“M- too... too... huuh...”
“Is there anyone else?! There are people here!!”
Or perhaps... not everyone was still alive.
“Ah, there’s soone over there too! Let’s move—can you walk? You’re badly injured.”
“...It doesn’t hurt, so I’m fine.”
“I-Is that so? That’s a relief. I want to treat you, but I don’t have anything on right now...”
“No, really, I’m fine.”
A space where the living and dead were entangled. The handful of gardeners present quickly recognized the peculiarity of this place. Regardless of the process, they had all contributed to the creation of this world.
Yoo Seong-Woon murmured, gazing at the oddly hollow-feeling, whitewashed world.
“This wasn’t quite what I intended...”
Bisa Beul, standing beside him, asked:
“Then soone helped you during the reconstruction of the garden?”
“I’m not sure you’d call it help... but it did feel like I was pushed along.”
“Isn’t that basically the sa thing?”
“It’s just... I don’t know whose help it was, or why. That’s what makes it unsettling.”
“I, for one, welco spaces this interesting any ti.”
Bisa Beul clicked his tongue.
“It’s such a pity I can’t see any of it.”
“Please don’t say that, especially with your eyes in that state—it worries °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° .”
“Our Yoo Seong-Woon doesn’t usually say such thoughtful things. Are you sure you haven’t been replaced by a clown? Or the garden?”
“Please don’t joke about that. When you say it like that, it starts to sound real... like I might’ve been swapped out without even knowing.”
“Well, how could I read your condition with my eyes shut? I was just making a silly joke. Anyway...”
As Bisa Beul tilted his head, Yoo Seong-Woon understood the cue. As one of the key players behind the miraculous restructuring of this garden, it was ti to explain. Adopting a professional deanor, he began:
“It’s similar to what the Black Cloak once did. He turned the garden into a dungeon-like space, making it easier for humans to enter.”
“You’re saying human gardeners accomplished sothing like that?”
“No, that’s why I said ‘similar.’ What we did was restructure the garden to make it more dungeon-like. With clear beginnings and endings, causes and effects—like a test.”
Dungeons, by nature, presented trials and rewards. That made them fundantally different from the organic, aimless chaos of a mystical garden. But thanks to the groundwork the Black Cloak had already laid, this kind of task was now possible.
'Still, soone definitely helped...'
It was almost certainly the “Portrait of Gio.”
'Gardener Jeong Hae-Woon didn’t participate in this operation at all, which likely ans he wasn’t in any state to help. Which leaves Gio.'
Thinking of his precious creation made Yoo Seong-Woon feel unsettled.
“My artwork...”
Aram, standing nearby, looked up at him with a disapproving expression.
“No matter what, he has a human-like form. Could you at least treat him as human?”
“Gio never complained about it.”
“You can’t just fall back on the love of a rciful god like a spoiled child... Anyway—so what do we do now? If this place really has beco a textbook dungeon...”
“I suppose we have to clear it.”
Yoo Seong-Woon pulled his hand away from his face and looked around. It hadn’t been his intention, but the forest, brimming with blinding white as if anything could be drawn upon it, had a strange sort of beauty.
“This is the beginning. The dungeon’s entrance, so to speak. So now we need to find the trigger to move to the next stage. That could be a door, or an item, or even a spell.”
“It really is a classic dungeon structure... How did you manage this?”
“All we did was organize the scattered, chaotic parts of the garden by grouping them into similar colors.”
“‘Similar colors’?”
“We didn’t literally sort by color... but sure, let’s go with that.”
After so ti scanning the surroundings, Yoo Seong-Woon seed to sense sothing. Gauging his instinct, he nodded and pointed.
“I believe what we’re looking for is in that direction.”
There, just as he’d indicated, stood a white cottage. Its form radiated tranquility—like a space ant to calm the mind just by existing.
Leaves rustled gently in the wind. A clear brook ran beside it. Though this world seed devoid of color, this place exuded peace.
Yoo Seong-Woon gazed into the stream, then looked at Aram who had been doing the sa. He smiled.
“Later.”
“...Sure.”
Even as she spoke, Aram glanced at the brook one more ti.
'The only transparent thing in a world of pure white...'
A massive mystery was stirring.
Yoo Seong-Woon seed to know sothing. As Aram struggled to grasp the brook’s nature, he said:
“Shall we go inside?”
“Are you sure we can? The owner of this house—is it...?”
“It originally belonged to Gio. But I’m not sure what that ans here.”
He stepped toward the cottage. In all respects, he was the one most suited to lead this mont. Yoo Seong-Woon leaned lightly against the cottage wall and closed his eyes.
He heard the heartbeat he once knew.
“......”
This was, without doubt, the space he rembered.
'It’s changed a little... but it’s the portrait I know.'
He wanted to relax, but the situation didn’t allow for comfort. Yoo Seong-Woon opened the door and looked inside.
“...Ah...”
“Mr. Yoo Seong-Woon, are you alright?”
“...I’m fine.”
He brushed his face with a hand.
“It just... feels strange.”
Inside the cottage, there was nothing.
The sofa he used to lie on with a cup of tea—gone. The gentle lights that ward visitors—gone. The kitchen overflowing with food and ingredients—also gone. Only a blank, white space remained.
Like the Collector’s Gallery.
“......”
“...Huh? Over there...”
“...Been a while since I saw him.”
“Soone you know? A doll? Mr. Yoo Seong-Woon?”
“I’m familiar with him.”
Yoo Seong-Woon looked at a faded golden teddy bear.
“I didn’t expect to find you here, Father.”
“Puff.”
The teddy bear clapped his cotton paws as if to say thank you for the greeting. A subtle divine aura radiated from him, making Aram’s expression turn thoughtful. The baby dragon wrapped around her neck sniffed curiously toward the bear.
Then the bear greeted the others as well.
“Puff.”
“He says he’s pleased to et you.”
“...How do you understand that?”
“Just a gut feeling. We’ve known each other long enough—I’m probably right.”
“That’s... not exactly reassuring.”
The brief round of greetings ended as the bear turned around. He gestured to Yoo Seong-Woon, the human he knew best. Sohow, Yoo Seong-Woon understood and followed.
The place the teddy bear led him to was a staircase heading underground.
“......”
“......”
Without a word, everyone nodded and descended. The teddy bear did not follow.
“...Everything’s so white I didn’t even realize there were stairs here.”
“Maybe he made them just for us. Like cutting stairs out of paper.”
“A world like a blank page... that’s a convincing theory.”
The staircase went on and on. Yoo Seong-Woon felt it was familiar. As he ran a hand along the smooth wall, sothing surfaced in his mory.
'There was a similar storage room in Gio’s cottage.'
He used it like a fridge—or a freezer. It once terrified him that such an overwhelmingly mystical ice chamber was being used to store ingredients.
At the bottom, there was a painting of the sea.
“...The Breathing Sea.”
That was its na.
***
Basic exploration complete, and the people hadn’t acted rashly. If they were still alive by now, they must have that level of judgnt.
And along the way, so of them began to notice sothing strange.
“...Then you’re not... alive, are you?”
“...No, I’m definitely dead. There was a conflict in our team... and as a result...”
This place was a mingling of the living and the dead.
There was a bit of confusion, but it soon quieted down. After all, everyone here had already experienced countless monts dancing between life and death. In this garden—this overwhelming mystery—what couldn’t happen?
Most of the dead felt deep comfort in the white forest.
“I want to stay here...”
“I just want to sleep...”
“It’s so peaceful...”
While chatting quietly with the living—or the dead—so of the spirits eventually drifted off to sleep. And then, near those sleeping souls, a familiar animal appeared.
“ow.”
“...That’s Hunter Sergio’s Anti-Cat...?”
Dana—the anti-cat raised inside the portrait of her father. She kept watch beside those drifting into eternal rest. Not long after, the sleeping souls began to crystallize like gemstones.
Then they turned transparent. So faint they were barely visible anymore.
“ow.”
“...Where are you going now?”
“......”
She flicked her tail, displeased with the living as always—but for once, didn’t hiss. She simply walked away and resud her quiet vigil by the sleeping souls.
Hearing of this, Bisa Beul offered a theory:
“Seems the ‘Vein of Jewels’ had so connection to the Origin.”
Aram asked, alard:
“Wait, Origin? The Origin?”
“Oops, did I not ntion that?”
“When you say ‘Origin’—do you an the source of all mystery? The one the gardeners call the parent of all? Why would that be ntioned now?!”
Bisa Beul replied without flinching:
“Why else? You think it’s easy to make a regular human into a god? Of course our Hunter Sergio is just an avatar, but the Black Cloak of the past—wasn’t.”
“You can’t just say things like that! Do you know how rare that is? There’s no recorded case, in any dinsion, of a person becoming a divine avatar connected to the Origin! Wait... then the Symbols of Eternity... the people around him...”
She turned to Yoo Seong-Woon.
“You knew, didn’t you? That the Black Cloak was tied to the Origin?”
“I didn’t expect you to bring it up so quickly, but... it’d be silly to keep hiding it now. Yes. We regard him as the Eye of Origin.”
Yoo Seong-Woon gave a brief explanation of the “Portrait of Gio,” phrased carefully enough not to disrupt his friend’s public life. Still, those few leaders inside the cottage were understandably thrown into further chaos.
Aram, however, steadied herself with logic.
“You’re really dropping such an important revelation so casually?”
“It’s not like we announced it to the entire advance unit. It’s just a small, trusted group.”
Now even Yoo Seong-Woon looked a little awkward. He too was flustered by his guildmaster’s sudden bombshell.
“I trust that everyone here won’t go spreading it. Let’s draft a contract later just in case.”
“But still... even if the Black Cloak is the Eye of Origin, why is that affecting this garden? It was Hunter Sergio with us, not the Black Cloak.”
“Because Gio isn’t a typical avatar. You can’t compare him to other avatars that exist just for divine amusent. From the beginning, he ca as a breakwater against all of Earth’s calamities. This is simply one manifestation of that power.”
“True, avatars are deeply connected to their original self. And he was closer to a clone than a channel. Then... Zeorge must have targeted the link to Origin within Hunter Sergio from the very start...”
As others began to accept it, Bisa Beul shifted his blindfolded gaze. Yoo Seong-Woon nodded silently. They had managed, just barely, to preserve Gio’s public persona.
Then Yoo Seong-Woon thought—
'...Wait, wasn’t this whole thing avoidable if Guildmaster hadn’t said anything in the first place...?'
Before that thought could finish, Bisa Beul spoke again:
“Anyway, it’s quite a convincing theory, don’t you think?”
“...What is?”
“The part about the ‘Vein of Jewels’ being linked to the Origin.”
“Ah...”
“Seems my earlier words got lost in the shock.”
But it really was a plausible idea.
“One day, Hunter Sergio told sothing strange. A beast had wandered in from outside and died—and its heart had turned into a gemstone.”
What if it hadn’t been butchered? What if the body had been left intact?
“I believe that the bodies and souls of the dead are refined into gemstones within the Origin. A kind of purification. And if so, then the ‘Vein of Jewels’...”
A habitat of undead monsters—where only the dead gather. Surely so of them were once human souls. And the only creature who lived solely among them—Anti-Cat. Not to ntion the familiar sight of that massive gemstone field...
“......”
“Haha... Of course, the jewels I saw in the Vein of Jewels weren’t nearly this transparent. But that could just be this dungeon’s characteristic. What do you all think?”
“...There are only two things here that are transparent. Or rather—two types.”
Bisa Beul smiled at Yoo Seong-Woon’s reply.
“One is the gemstones made by Anti-Cat, and the other?”
“The stream flowing around the cottage.”
Yoo Seong-Woon looked at Aram. She nodded as well.
“There had to be a singularity. Even white is still a color, after all.”
“And the stream flows throughout the forest. Naturally, as a stream should.”
“And such a stream must have a source, yes?”
“Bishop Aram is correct. I’ve seen this stream before—inside the ‘Portrait of Gio.’ He let approach its spring.”
Yoo Seong-Woon brushed his face.
“...I identified it as the ‘Spring of Origin.’”
Then laughed faintly.
“Though honestly, I might not have identified it at all. I never even used an appraisal skill, but the appraisal window just popped up on its own. As if soone—or sothing without malice—was trying to help escape safely...”
At that, Garasani murmured:
“Was that... the system?”
“Most likely, yes.”
Unlike the newly awakened Portrait, still ignorant of human limits, the “system” had been a wise teacher of humanity for thirty years. It must have been the one to guide Yoo Seong-Woon.
“When we return to Earth, we should consider sealing off the Vein of Jewels.”
“Curator Yoo Seong-Woon is right. I’ll recomnd it formally.”
Bisa Beul nodded with a smile. Now that a link to the Origin had surfaced, the Vein’s danger and value had beco incalculable. Better to be cautious.
Assuming, of course, they returned to Earth at all.
Yoo Seong-Woon spoke:
“We weren’t sure what to do next, but luckily—we’ve found the door to the next stage.”
It had the shape of a painting. It resembled the ones Yoo Seong-Woon had seen in Gio’s storeroom inside the portrait.
He continued:
“There’s the ‘Kingdom of Animals’ in the forest.”
“And the ‘Garden of Pleasure’ in the flower fields.”
“Then we should split into teams...”
“We’ve gathered the survivors now, so there shouldn’t be any issues.”
Aram stroked the moon in her arms.
“I’ll help.”
“Are you sure you can?”
“All the adults have agreed.”
With just the remaining survivors, they couldn’t possibly defeat all the enemies ahead. For the final battle, they would need more allies. And thankfully, the divinity of Wrath had already granted them one.
“So let’s give it a try.”
In place of a corrupted system, Aram released the baby dragon herself.
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