Recently, Byeol was immersed in a new hobby of drawing Do-Jun’s face.
She jogged her memory to search for his features—neatly cut, medium-length black hair with a slight brown tint, slightly thick eyebrows, and moderately sized eyes without double eyelids. A sharp nose, closed lips, and a slender jawline.
Although the image was clear in her mind, Byeol’s drawings always ended up somewhat off.
Sitting on the roots of the Tree of Wisdom, Byeol swung her feet as she sketched. Piled up beneath her were more than ten sketchbooks, all filled with drawings of Do-Jun’s face. The Tree of Wisdom sighed, looking at her tireless efforts.
“Don’t you get tired of drawing, huh, Byeol?”
Byeol smiled brightly and answered, “Nope. I like Mistah.”
Unlike the others, who always wore stern and serious expressions, Do-Jun had a warm, gentle face that exuded calmness. Moreover, he had even given her the name “Byeol.”
While the Tree of Wisdom deemed Do-Jun dangerous, Byeol thought differently. To her, he was the kindest person in the world.
“Do you think Mistah will come today?” she asked the tree.
Suddenly, Byeol stood up and pointed at something in the distance. Following her finger, one could spot a person in a strange outfit that didn’t quite belong in the Core: a black windbreaker with a logo shaped like a puma, gray shorts, and slippers.
Byeol’s eyes sparkled.
Three adventurers were sprawled out on the ground in a plank position while Do-Jun paced around in front of them, inspecting their form. They were grunting in pain and saying random, incoherent things.
On each of their backs was a rock, weighed down by Do-Jun’s internal energy, making it unbearably heavy. It was Do-Jun’s unique martial art combining Thousand-Pound Weight and Void Manipulation.
Before Do-Jun became known as the Heavenly Demon in the Central Plains, he had worked as a teacher at the Black Death Academy, an institution that trained talents for Heavenly Demonism. This new form of torture had been one of the most notorious punishments for disobedient students, and it was feared among the academy’s trainees.
“S-supervisor Lee, what is this...?” Ae-Kyung asked, astonished by the scene before her.
The adventurers didn’t dare to fight or flee. They obeyed Do-Jun’s every word, trembling like rats before a cat.
Do-Jun had referred to them as “the seniors from last year,” meaning their Status Window mastery was likely high. Yet, how had Do-Jun managed to subdue them with just a few words?
Fucking hell, what a shit day. Ugh, my back, one of the adventurers thought as they writhed in agony, drenched in sweat.
Of all the things they could have encountered, they had encountered this monster called Lee Do-Jun.
At first, they thought he was just an above-average rookie, but as time passed, they realized it didn’t stop there.
He’s no rookie—he’s the endgame.
The realization hit when they witnessed Do-Jun effortlessly killing a mythical creature a few days ago. Since then, everyone knew not to provoke him.
“I’ll let you go, but you need to pass on a message,” Do-Jun said to the trio.
He showed the adventurers the screen on his SpacePad, which displayed the faces of the members of Behemoth Guild.
The adventurers painfully lifted their heads to look at the screen.
“Tell everyone not to mess with these people.” At Do-Jun’s stern warning, the adventurers nodded vigorously.
“Hmm?” Turning his head, Do-Jun saw Byeol running toward him at full speed. Halfway through, she tripped over a rock and fell, but instead of crying, she got up right away and ran to him.
“Mistah!” Byeol cheerfully shouted and wrapped her arms tightly around Do-Jun’s leg.
Watching from the side, Ae-Kyung gasped in shock, wondering how such a young child could be in the Core.
“It’s been a while, huh?” Do-Jun said to Byeol.
“It has! I’ve been waiting for you.”
Do-Jun chuckled and patted Byeol’s head.
“How is there a child in a place ...?” Ae-Kyung asked in wonder.
“She’s not an adventurer. She’s one of the mythical creatures who originally lived in the Core,” Do-Jun replied.
“Yup, that’s me.” Byeol nodded in agreement.
“M-mythical creature...?” After hearing Do-Jun’s explanation, Ae-Kyung looked at Byeol in disbelief. Was this child truly a mythical creature, strong enough to take on all the adventurers on the first floor?
She found that hard to believe.
“Did you come from Korea too, ajumma?” Byeol asked in interest.
Ae-Kyung was only twenty-five by Korean age, twenty-three by international standards [1]—a young woman in the prime of her youth. And yet, to be called “ajumma” crushed her pride.
Do-Jun shrugged in amusement and consoled, “She calls me Mister, too.”
All adults were old people to a child, but being called ajumma seemed to hit Ae-Kyung hard.
Seeing her tremble, Byeol asked in concern, “Ajumma, are you hurt?”
“Good. Hurt is not good.”
Ae-Kyung thought about asking the child not to call her “ajumma,” but she swallowed the words with a sigh.
Byeol pressed her hands on Do-Jun’s leg to get his attention and pointed somewhere off in the distance. It was where the Tree of Wisdom stood.
“Mistah, come with me, um... please.”
She wanted to introduce Do-Jun to the Tree of Wisdom. Even though the tree had warned her to stay away from Do-Jun, Byeol wanted the Tree of Wisdom to see that he was a good person.
“Alright, I’ll follow you.”
“Yay! Make sure to follow closely. Some parts you shouldn’t step on,” Byeol warned them.
The places she referred to were patches of Guji vines, a type of thorny vine that grew in certain areas. They weren’t terribly dangerous, but if stepped on, the vines would quickly spread and entangle your legs, leaving small and large cuts.
Do-Jun knew that Byeol was leading him to a place that was quite a distance away. With Ae-Kyung still at zero percent mastery of her Status Window, there was a risk of her falling or getting caught in the Guji vines.
Do-Jun made a decision.
“Hop on,” he said to Ae-Kyung.
Do-Jun lowered himself and extended his arms backward.
Ae-Kyung blushed and waved her hands in refusal, embarrassed at the idea of riding on a man’s back at her age. But as fear crept in from the wind howling around them and the seemingly endless cliff below them, she reluctantly entrusted herself to Do-Jun’s back.
Despite her compression suit, her naturally large chest pushed against Do-Jun’s back.
This is embarrassing, she thought.
On the other hand, Do-Jun seemed completely unfazed. Ae-Kyung sighed to herself, feeling silly for being the only one acting awkwardly.
The Tree of Wisdom had the ability to observe all areas of the Core, so naturally, it was aware of Do-Jun’s arrival on the first floor. However, it had hidden that fact from Byeol, but she easily found him. Now, here she was, bringing them along.
The Tree of Wisdom chided the little girl. “Byeol, you can’t just reveal my location to others so easily.”
“It’s okay. Mistah is a good person.”
Listening to their conversation, Do-Jun watched with amusement while Ae-Kyung stared in awe at the talking tree. Even in all the Fissures she had encountered, she had never seen anything .
“What’s this?” Do-Jun picked up one of the drawing books lying on the ground.
As he flipped through the pages, he saw drawings of what seemed to be a face.
The Tree of Wisdom explained that all the pictures were of him and that Byeol had been drawing his face in the drawing book so she wouldn’t forget what he looked like until he returned to the Core.
“Byeol has been wanting to go to Korea, where you live.”
Do-Jun looked between the scattered sketchbooks on the floor and Byeol, who was clinging tightly to his side. He didn’t fully understand why she was so attached to him, but he realized it had something to do with the “tamed”message that had appeared when he gave her the name “Byeol.”
“I haven’t finished that book yet, though....” Do-Jun mumbled, recalling the parenting book he had bought on Sunday that was marked at page ninety with a bookmark.
He had thought he would finish the book before deciding whether to bring Byeol to Earth. However, after learning that this child had been drawing his face in a sketchbook just to remember him, he couldn’t leave her here any longer.
The Tree of Wisdom could tell that Do-Jun intended to take Byeol back to Earth with him. So, it called out to the little girl. “Byeol.”
“Listen to your mom and dad well, okay?”
At that moment, Ae-Kyung’s face flushed bright red. “M-mom?”
By the time they returned to Earth, it was past 11 PM.
Do-Jun bathed Byeol and dressed her in one of Karsiel’s small T-shirts, which was so big on Byeol that it hung down to her knees.
“You’re pretty good at this,” Ae-Kyung remarked, clearly impressed, but soon nodded in understanding after thinking that he must have been taking care of his seventeen-year-old daughter since she was just a kid.
Checking the time, Ae-Kyung figured it was about time for her to head back to her hotel. It wouldn’t be polite to stay in someone else’s home too long.
“Supervisor Lee, I’ll be heading out now,” she said to Do-Jun.
“Shall I walk you out?”
“No, it’s fine. Thank you so much for everything today.” Ae-Kyung bowed deeply in gratitude, and Do-Jun saw her off to the door.
Just then, Byeol’s face crumpled in distress. She clung tightly to Ae-Kyung’s skinny jeans and said, “Mommy, where are you going?”
Startled, Ae-Kyung knelt down to meet Byeol at eye level. Before she could explain to the little girl that she wasn’t her mother, fat tears started falling from Byeol’s eyes incessantly.
“Mommy...” she cried out.
Seeing this, Ae-Kyung tried to comfort her, stammering, “No, no, Byeol, that’s not...”
She glanced at Do-Jun, silently asking for help. Do-Jun avoided her gaze, signaling that she should handle it herself. In truth, he didn’t think he could calm Byeol down either.
Forcing a smile, Ae-Kyung said, “Who said Mommy’s leaving?”
“You’re... not leaving?” Byeol asked in confirmation.
Ae-Kyung shot a desperate look toward Do-Jun, asking him to say something and resolve the situation.
Do-Jun sighed, then scooped Byeol up into his arms, gently patting her back. The look of distress on Byeol’s face slowly softened. Soon, she fell asleep.
Do-Jun carefully carried her to the bedroom, laid her down on the bed, and quietly shut the door before returning to the living room.
Ae-Kyung sighed in relief as she watched him sit beside her on the sofa.
“Hunter Ae-Kyung,” Do-Jun said.
He asked with a serious face, “Why don’t you and I live together?”
Ae-Kyung momentarily zoned out at the question. Then, she blinked in surprise and turned to look at him. “Excuse... me...?”
“Just for four days,” Do-Jun said.
1. Until recently, Korea had a different age system where you became one immediately upon birth. ☜