Chapter 80

80 The Silk Thread Larva's Cocoon

Cheon Dowoon, retracing his memories, looked at Lee Un-soo (Chairman).

Was he really the one who gave him food back then?

He wasn't sure. It was from a time when his mind was broken, so his memories were hazy. Still, he couldn't help but smile, thinking it was probably him.

"Why are you smiling like that?"

"It's nothing. I'll tell you when I'm sure of my memory."

Cheon Dowoon looked at Lee Un-soo (Chairman).

It was surprising that they had met so long ago. At the same time, he felt a conflicting mix of emotions, not entirely surprised.

'Well, he and I worked in the same industry. Maybe we've crossed paths more than once.'

Both of them had been working in this small industry for over 60 years.

Moreover, one of them was a social butterfly who had run around trying to establish the Association.

Having leased Chimera Hunters from various companies for over 60 years, it would be stranger if they hadn't met.

"I have some memory loss from my mid-20s due to experimental side effects. No, not just a little… you could say it's almost nonexistent."

"You have no memories?"

Lee Un-soo (Chairman)'s face momentarily turned sympathetic before he erased the expression. It was rude to pity someone who didn't pity himself.

He cleared his throat and waited for Cheon Dowoon to speak.

"Is there any medicine on the market that can cure memory side effects?"

"That… I don't know. I'll look into it. If there isn't any, I'll have to commission someone to make it."

To commission the medicine, he needed to know what kind of experiments Cheon Dowoon's laboratory mainly conducted.

"What was the name of the laboratory you were in?"

"TDA Laboratory."

Cheon Dowoon said the name of the laboratory that had disappeared decades ago.

"It'll be hard to find. It disappeared a long time ago. Considering the era, there probably aren't any records left."

"That's alright. We can use our information network. It'll take some time, but leave it to me."

Lee Un-soo (Chairman) said with a confident attitude.

'So that's why having good connections is so great.' Cheon Dowoon thought with a smile.

"Anything will do, so tell me anything that could be a clue."

"A clue… the name of the laboratory. TDA is the initials of the three founders. More precisely, the initials of their nicknames."

Initials of nicknames, not names. Just that showed their intention to conceal their identities.

"What are the characteristics of the founders?"

"Just that all three were Awakened. The laboratory director, the head of training, and one more… I don't know. The last one hardly ever came to the laboratory. He was just someone who provided money from behind."

Lee Un-soo (Chairman) began writing down Cheon Dowoon's words in a notebook he took out of his drawer.

"If they were Awakened, they might still be alive. We need to catch them all. Are there any other clues? The names of general researchers, anything will do."

"Names…"

Most of the researchers used aliases. Some used their real names, but he couldn't tell who was using an alias and who wasn't.

What could be a clue that could identify them? Cheon Dowoon pondered, recalling something that had happened relatively recently.

"I recently met a descendant of one of the researchers."

"A descendant? That's a pretty big clue. If we trace back up, we can find them all like a spider web. What's the descendant's name?"

"I don't know his name. He's a man called Director Noh at the Alchemist Association."

The man who had been stealing Kim, the manager's achievements from the side, Director Noh.

The man who had come with a bag of money and bowed, saying he would take him to the headquarters. He remembered how he had flared up like a hothead when a slight argument broke out.

[Apologize for what you said about my grandfather!]

The wart on his face was exactly the same as his grandfather's.

[My grandfather received a peace prize.]

The man who had received the peace prize was the one who threatened to throw children into the Gate at every opportunity.

He looked so much like the researcher Cheon Dowoon had pushed out of the window that he recognized him immediately.

"He didn't seem to know what his grandfather had been doing. He was proud that he had received a peace prize."

"Received a peace prize…? He kidnapped children and did live experiments and received a peace prize?"

Lee Un-soo (Chairman)'s expression twisted.

"We have to find them all and expose their misdeeds to the world! We have to take back the peace prize and make it as if it never happened!"

"He's already dead. I don't think it would mean much to take back a piece of metal."

"Absolutely not. The peace prize isn't just a simple prize. It's a prize given to the world's heroes who saved humanity from the brink of destruction in the old era. Memorials are erected, their names are in children's textbooks, and statues are erected in Gold City Square. If you receive that prize, your descendants will receive a lifetime pension for three generations."

'I didn't know that.' Cheon Dowoon thought with a nonchalant expression. In contrast, Lee Un-soo (Chairman) clenched his fist as if he was frustrated.

A man who filled his desires by conducting human experiments is being praised as a hero.

That should never happen.

"The truth must be revealed to the world, and all the pensions that have been paid out so far must be recovered."

He shouldn't be buried in his grave with a clear conscience. Lee Un-soo (Chairman) shouted, slamming the table.

'He's more passionate than I am.'

That inability to tolerate injustice might be the driving force behind the establishment of the Hunter Association.

Cheon Dowoon smiled as he looked at Lee Un-soo (Chairman), who was more excited than he was.

"Well, I'll leave that part to you. Let me know if you find out anything about the laboratory."

He didn't have much desire for revenge. It was too long ago, his memories were hazy, and his emotions had faded accordingly.

But just because he didn't have the motivation didn't mean he had forgotten. If he met them alive, he had no intention of letting it go.

"This is enough of a clue. I'll contact you as soon as I catch a tail. But… I've been wanting to ask since earlier."

Lee Un-soo (Chairman) glanced at Cheon Dowoon's waist bag.

"That plant that knocked out my chief of staff. What exactly is it? Can I take a look?"

"You can look. But it's probably sleeping. It falls asleep after eating."

Cheon Dowoon opened the bag. As expected, Dodak was asleep.

Seeing that, Lee Un-soo (Chairman) tactfully turned off the lights in the room to make it dark.

Turning on only one small lamp nearby created a low brightness that wouldn't wake it up.

Cheon Dowoon carefully took Dodak out so as not to wake it.

-Hooheung….

Roll. Dodak curled up its Root on Cheon Dowoon's palm.

Its leaves trembled finely when it suddenly came into contact with the cold air after being in the warm bag.

"It must be cold."

Cheon Dowoon covered half of Root with his other hand as if covering it with a blanket.

As warmth was transmitted, Dodak stretched out and took a comfortable position. Seeing that, Lee Un-soo (Chairman)'s face was dumbfounded.

"I wasn't mistaken. That, isn't that a Mandragora?"

"That's right."

"I thought so since it absorbs Mana. What the… how?"

Lee Un-soo (Chairman) examined Dodak with a curious expression.

"I've never seen such a plump Mandragora. How did you raise it? No, how can you carry it around?"

Mandragoras are plants that die from stress even with the slightest change in environment. There's a reason why they're called glass cannons.

Putting something like that in a bag didn't make sense.

"The bag must shake every time you walk. The Mandragora can withstand that? In that environment, it should die from stress, right?"

"I know, right? I'm wondering about that too. It just turned out this way."

"Huh… just turned out this way. What the…."

Lee Un-soo (Chairman) looked back and forth between Cheon Dowoon and Dodak before standing up.

"Wait a moment. There's something I want to show you."

He left the room and came back with a 40-centimeter-sized glass tank.

The tank was filled with soil. Grass and plants were planted as if it were a miniature forest.

"Here, look between these rocks."

Lee Un-soo (Chairman) pointed to two rocks placed in the tank.

Between them was a white cocoon the size of a thumb.

It was a cocoon he had never seen before. But the moment Cheon Dowoon saw the cocoon, he instinctively knew what it was.

"Silk thread larva."

The cells of the monster that were first mixed into Cheon Dowoon.

"That's right. You're the first one to recognize it at a glance."

It was Cheon Dowoon's first time seeing it in person as well.

It was a very rare species, and it was a monster that was difficult to find because of its small size. It was asleep in the tank in its cocoon state.

"Where did you get it?"

"It came up for auction about three years ago. They introduced it as a larva caught beyond the Gate. It seems they didn't know what it was."

No one at the auction house recognized the value of the Silk thread larva.

Some showed interest, but it was literally just at the level of interest.

"Thanks to that, I got it for a bargain price. The problem is that it was in a cocoon state back then too. It's been in this state for over three years."

Lee Un-soo (Chairman) looked at the sleeping Dodak.

"I think it needs a vast amount of Mana like a Mandragora to come out of the cocoon. I think it can't grow because it doesn't have enough Mana."

"That makes sense. Monsters need a lot of Mana when they molt."

When you think about it, emergence is also a type of molting.

When Cheon Dowoon affirmed his guess, Lee Un-soo (Chairman) said in a quick tone.

"You said you live inside the Gate now, right? From what I can see, you seem to be raising a Mandragora too. If you don't mind, would you raise this too?"

"That's out of the blue. Why are you trying so hard to make it emerge?"

Just looking at the environment of the tank, you could feel how precious Lee Un-soo (Chairman) was to it.

Lee Un-soo (Chairman) opened his mouth with an embarrassed expression.

"At first, it was just curiosity. I was curious whether it would become a butterfly when it emerged, or whether it would just maintain its larva appearance as the name suggests."

Almost nothing had been revealed about the Silk thread larva. He had won the bid out of that curiosity, and he was trying to make it emerge out of that curiosity.

At first, he had just put the larva in a tank with soil.

"But no matter how long I waited, it didn't wake up. I wondered what the problem was, so I tried to adjust the environment one by one."

He pointed to the glass tank decorated like a forest.

"This soil and grass are from the Demon Realm. I tried to make it as similar to its hometown as possible. I wondered if it was lacking Mana, so I periodically called A-Class Awakened to inject Mana. I did that for three years…."

Nothing happened inside the tank. Instead, the change happened to Lee Un-soo (Chairman), not the larva.

"You've grown attached to it."

Lee Un-soo (Chairman) awkwardly avoided his gaze.

"I know it's strange too. To grow attached to a cocoon that doesn't move… and to a monster at that. It's a strange thing."

He had thought about sending it back to the Gate.

But it felt like an irresponsible release, so he didn't want to. He didn't know what kind of environment it needed to be in, so he couldn't just leave it there.

He had spent three years doing nothing but wasting time.

"You did well not to send it back. If you had left it anywhere, it would have been eaten by another monster. Even if it wasn't eaten, the chances of it emerging properly would have been low."

Molting must be done in the place where you were born. If this thing in a cocoon state doesn't wake up, that was the only reason.

The environment for emergence is not right.

"Please raise it for me instead. I won't ask for it back. Whether it becomes a butterfly or wakes up in its larva state. I just hope it emerges well and returns to nature."

"Really? Asking to save a monster. That's not something the chairman of the Hunter Association should say."

Cheon Dowoon took the white cocoon out of the tank.

It was a cocoon of an S+ Class monster, even though it was small. He could feel that its hardness was harder than Black Blue Stone.

Cheon Dowoon examined the cocoon before stopping abruptly.

He heard something. Not a sound, but a language transmitted to his mind.

Cheon Dowoon knew what this feeling was.

'It's the feeling when Guu speaks.'

This is resonance between the same species. This larva recognizes me as the same species.

No, something more than that. Something beyond that.

“… It’s talking. This is an intelligent individual.”

At Cheon Dowoon's words, Lee Un-soo (Chairman)'s eyes widened. The rare monster he had been taking care of had a rare constitution.

Why couldn't he hear that voice? Lee Un-soo (Chairman) stamped his feet in frustration and looked at Cheon Dowoon.

"Is it still talking now?"

"It is."

Cheon Dowoon focused on the language flowing into his head.

A few words were transmitted. The small cocoon was trying to talk to Cheon Dowoon somehow.

"I don't know what it's saying. It's not very good at speaking yet. It's just saying a few words sporadically."

Whether it hadn't learned to speak properly because it was young, or whether it was stuttering because its body was weak. It was hard to know that much.

"You did well to make the tank environment similar to the Demon Realm. It must have survived thanks to that. It says thank you."

"Is, is that so? What else? What else does it say?"

Cheon Dowoon didn't answer.

Seeing how happy he was, he couldn't convey the rest of the words.

[Save me.]

The words that were heard sporadically were that.

[It's hard.]

There was also such a word.

[I can't breathe.]

If you combine the words that the white cocoon spat out randomly, that was it. Cheon Dowoon slightly clenched the cocoon.

'If it's a creature that needs Mana like a Mandragora, this will help.'

Cheon Dowoon poured Mana into the cocoon he was holding in his hand.