The Floating Restaurant
They traveled to dinner by boat.
"This is the one we're taking."
"Oh."
Romantic young Ji-oh felt his heart leap.
Taking a waterway all the way to the restaurant…
It felt exactly like arriving in Venice.
"Having roads and waterways side by side makes for quite the unusual sight."
"Does it? Well, they say pre-Great Cataclysm Korea barely had any canals at all."
"Why did they appear?"
Thud.
Ji-oh stepped onto the water taxi after Yu Seong-un and asked,
"You'd need a massive amount of water to build canals like these."
"It's the other way around, actually. They didn't bring water in to make the canals—there was simply so much water that they had to dig the canals just to control it."
"You're saying there was that much water?"
"The water level sits pretty high relative to the elevation of the land."
So high they couldn't survive without canals. Just how far was this hellish Korea going to go?
Yu Seong-un continued the explanation.
"Most of the ocean is still unexplored by humans, but there are so many dungeons that formed underwater—and so many monsters that came out of them. I've heard the physical volume inside the sea itself expanded, which is what pushed the water level up."
"That many monsters would have to be more than just one or two."
Just how many, and how large, would the monsters that settled on Earth have to be for the country to be unlivable without canals?
Reading the question on Ji-oh's face, Yu Seong-un spoke again.
"There are plenty of aquatic monsters big enough to dwarf an entire building."
"I see."
"And it's not just one individual—there are multiple specimens of multiple species. So of course the water level rose compared to before the Great Cataclysm. Honestly, Korea wasn't originally a place where seawater pushed inland this far…"
"How do the provinces manage the seawater that comes in?"
"I know they cut canals enough to keep it from wrecking farming and daily life too badly. They built all sorts of channels so the salt wouldn't soak into the soil, but they don't have a city's capital, so… you probably can't farm right next to the canals."
"……"
"Which is why regions that get flooded with seawater just switched to fishing from the start. Some of the better-known local fish even get imported into the cities."
Even in a situation like this, people seemed to have found their own ways to survive.
Human adaptability really is something else.
Still, Ji-oh was thoroughly intimidated.
Better just stay sealed inside the portrait.
Earth had become a world where romance, passion, and hope alone—without real combat power—were no longer enough to stay alive.
How tough did a person have to become just to keep paying rent on time in a place this rough? Ji-oh was clearly nowhere near that level. He couldn't even dream of it.
"You mentioned the restaurant itself is floating on the water as well."
"Well, rather than floating, it's more like a restaurant built on a tiny island…"
"I heard it's inside the Hangang."
Settling into the taxi seat, Ji-oh asked,
"Was there always an island there?"
He knew that even thirty-one years ago there had been small islands like Nodeul Island. But according to Yu Seong-un, this one had nothing else on it—just the restaurant standing alone. He was curious how a location like that had come about.
Yu Seong-un answered without difficulty.
"That's because it used to be the site of a fixed dungeon."
"…A fixed dungeon?"
"…Ah. You don't know much about dungeons, do you?"
The startled look on his face made it clear he had assumed Ji-oh would already know. Unfortunately, reality was different.
In the blink of an eye Ji-oh had become an ancestor from thirty-one years ago, left behind by a changing era and thoroughly obsolete.
I used to be the one injecting social skills into the young sprouts of Korea. How did I end up like this?
Kids, your teacher misses you.
Fortunately Yu Seong-un quickly returned to his usual unflappable expression and began explaining.
"Dungeons are generally divided into fixed and mobile types. Exactly what it sounds like—dungeons that stay in one place, and dungeons that move according to their own rules. Fixed dungeons sometimes create terrain that never existed there before."
"So the restaurant we're heading to was built on terrain created that way?"
"Yeah. That was the dungeon's theme from the start. The dungeon that used to be there was cooking-related. It got cleared because a civilian chef—who wasn't even a hunter—got dragged in by accident and moved the dungeon with his food… that kind of story."
"Ah."
The narrative was genuinely moving.
"After it was cleared, a grand restaurant remained on the site, and the chef who took part in the clear just took over and kept running it. He's already ninety-two and still working the floor."
"Ninety-two?"
"Pretty long-lived for a human, right?"
Yu Seong-un chuckled once and continued.
"He awakened as a chef after clearing the dungeon, so age probably doesn't hit him as hard. Skills and items help too, of course. In person he looks about fifty."
"……"
"He still joins national-level raids pretty often to handle the team's meals. So his basic combat ability can't be bad either. I've never seen it myself, but I hear his main weapon is a spiked baseball bat."
"A baseball bat…"
"Surprising, right? I figured he'd use a kitchen knife. But when they interviewed him he said, 'How could I use the same knife I cook with to cut up monsters?' Chefs really do have a different mindset."
"Oh."
Ji-oh thought he understood the feeling, but he was still intimidated. Humanity had grown strong.
"Do awakeners age more slowly?"
"As far as I know, most do. At least anyone C-rank or higher."
"So C-rank is where the line for a 'good hunter' starts…"
"That's the average reality and the general perception, yeah."
It really was a terrifying world.
Grandmother was right about everything. Always stay humble and polite.
He had no desire to get safely alive only to be exorcised as a haunted portrait.
Ji-oh considered carefully.
I need a proper survival strategy. If the portrait burns, who knows what happens to my cabin, and just behaving diligently myself won't prevent every disaster…
That said, he also had no desire to get certified as human and go back to living on Earth.
"What are you thinking about?"
"I was thinking that Earth is a scary place."
"Uh…?"
It was genuinely terrifying.
"Why are you suddenly scared? You're not even a subjugation target."
"That's true."
But the flip side was that if he ever became a subjugation target, his limbs could get torn off.
I like things the way they are right now.
Was there a way to keep being treated as a haunted portrait while still avoiding condemnation and attack from people?
Ji-oh decided to put serious thought into securing his comfortable survival.
"……"
First, though, dinner.
"…It smells wonderful."
"Yeah. We can't even see the restaurant yet. Amazing, right?"
"Is this scent unique to this waterway?"
"I think I heard once that it's a kind of advertising strategy."
"Understood."
A waterway that released a pleasantly intoxicating aroma from a distance was remarkable enough, but even more remarkable was the way the scent of the sea and the scent of food remained completely distinct.
…The smell of the ocean, right in the middle of the city…
If he lowered his head a little, only the sea remained. A sharp, brain-piercing saltwater scent.
It felt nostalgic.
"……"
Ji-oh leaned his body closer to the surface of the water.
"Ji-oh, that looks dangerous."
"I just wanted to smell the sea for a moment. I like the scent."
Lost in old memories, Ji-oh's voice had grown noticeably gentler.
"It's a canal connected to the Hangang, yet it still smells like the ocean. How strange."
"Well, unless it's a mountain stream, every river and canal around here is heavily mixed with seawater…"
"I see."
Giovanni had loved this scent.
The scent of the sea.
"……"
The scent of mermaids.
"…Just once…"
He wanted to sink into those depths.
It was bittersweet.
"Ji-oh, stop."
"……"
"…The driver looks pretty startled too."
At those words Ji-oh looked at the water-taxi driver.
"……"
The man was staring at him with a thoroughly alarmed face, edged with fear.
"…Ah. Of course."
Ji-oh acknowledged that he had been rude.
"I'm sorry. This is my first time on a waterway like this, and curiosity got the better of me."
"I was just worried you'd fall in, not angry. It's fine."
"Thank you for understanding."
Yu Seong-un might have been "worried," but the driver's face looked a lot closer to "terrified." Still, Ji-oh decided to let it pass without further thought. Of course a driver would be scared if a passenger looked ready to throw himself into the water.
Like a passenger suddenly trying to open the door and jump out on the highway…
Ji-oh successfully convinced himself.
If it wasn't that, then I must have leaked some weird aura again without noticing.
The way he sometimes did at Yu Seong-un's company without meaning to.
Ji-oh sat back down properly. He was reflecting on how he'd caused a nuisance by getting distracted by the fascinating canal.
Yu Seong-un, who had been watching him the way one observes a curious specimen, hesitated with a face that said "Should I even ask this?" before carefully speaking.
"Do you like the sea?"
"…Pardon?"
No? Not particularly?
"I don't especially like it."
"But earlier at Cheonggyecheon, and just now on the canal—you seemed unusually fond of the ocean scent. Of course, if I was mistaken, I'm sorry."
"There's nothing to apologize for. I don't dislike the sea, but I don't particularly like it either…"
Having said that, Ji-oh promptly revised his answer.
"…Now that I think about it, I suppose I might."
"Hm?"
"I think of myself as ordinary about it, but I do like it as well."
It was a strange thing to say, yet not entirely wrong. "Ji-oh" had no strong feelings about the sea, but "Giovanni" was different.
So when asked "Do you like the sea?", Ji-oh had no choice but to answer both yes and no. Both were his own thoughts; denying either side was difficult.
Then a sudden question rose.
"Are there mermaids here too?"
"…Mermaids."
Meanwhile, Yu Seong-un once again detected the same anomaly he had felt at Cheonggyecheon.
He definitely said "here too."
Ji-oh seemed to have some kind of connection to mermaids.
"Hmm…"
After a brief pause, Yu Seong-un slowly nodded.
"Monsters of that type do appear from time to time. And even when they're not monsters… there are certain beings that simply take that form."
"……"
"In a world where idolatry, legends, and myths can produce real monsters, mermaid-related creatures pop up all over the planet."
"Is that so?"
"There's a very old author's tale called The Little Mermaid. It's a famous fairytale."
The Little Mermaid.
At the familiar phrase, Ji-oh sank into thought again—specifically about Giovanni's request.
Come to think of it, I think there was a quest related to the Little Mermaid…
But he decided to set it aside for now.
"We seem to be almost there. What a splendid restaurant."
"Oh, you're right."
"It's even more magnificent than I imagined. I'm looking forward to this."
You weren't supposed to worry at the dinner table, after all.
A luxurious restaurant that looked as if it had been built from a mixture of ivory and marble.
It was decorated as beautifully as a single castle, yet its structure—rooms and staircases and lobbies tangled together—felt so inefficient that no human could have designed it.
Ironically, that very strangeness only solidified the restaurant's concept.
"……"
White and pink, soft green, sky blue.
Pastel tones spreading like patchwork across an ivory base cast a gentle glow that made one feel as if they had stepped into a dream, leaving the mind hazy.
It was dizzyingly beautiful.
"There's something I didn't get to ask earlier…"
Meanwhile, Yu Seong-un and Ji-oh's party had claimed a cream-colored table.
Once seated, Ji-oh asked,
"You said this place was made from the remains of a fixed dungeon."
"Hm? That's right."
"Then do fixed dungeons always leave terrain or buildings like this even after they're cleared? So that dungeon left behind both the land and the restaurant?"
"Ahhh… yeah, that's pretty much the idea."
Apparently deciding it would be best to clear up every question before the real meal arrived, Yu Seong-un explained with his characteristic easygoing smile.
"Whether fixed or mobile, dungeons come in all kinds. They're usually divided into virtual dungeons, villa dungeons, and entry dungeons."
"There are three types?"
"Actually more than that, but those three are the main ones."
Yu Seong-un folded his fingers one by one as he continued.
"Virtual dungeons don't have a clear boundary. They just snatch up anyone who meets certain arbitrary conditions and run a game inside a fake world. For example: ten men in their thirties who walk into a convenience store at exactly 9 p.m. Then the clear plays out on a game board that looks like a convenience store."
"That sounds extremely unfair."
"It is. Other hunters find that part really frustrating too. How many of those thirty-something guys are going to be hunters suited for dungeon clearing? Virtual dungeons are pretty rare, but they're hard to detect and the damage is huge, so they're one of modern people's biggest worries."
A world where something like that counted as "a modern person's worry" felt a little chilling.
Unaware that Ji-oh's atrophied facial muscles were currently expressing pure alarm, Yu Seong-un calmly pressed on.
"Next is the villa dungeon. Some arbitrary terrain and rules suddenly appear on Earth."
"And this restaurant is one of those?"
"Looks like you got it. Exactly as you said—the restaurant building itself appeared as part of a villa dungeon. Out of nowhere, a single restaurant popped up in the middle of the Hangang where nothing had been before."
Yu Seong-un rolled his eyes as if searching his memory.
"From what I know, this restaurant isn't just a restaurant sitting on newly created land. It's an excessively long restaurant with a basement that reaches all the way to the riverbed. It's just that the only part visible above the water is the dining area, so people started calling it 'the restaurant floating on the water'…"
He nodded and continued.
"In that sense, a villa dungeon is basically an otherworldly villa that gets plopped down on Earth without warning. The terrain has already been replaced, so there's no restoring it. That's why most villa dungeons stay exactly as they are even after they're cleared—only the rules disappear. What to do with the leftovers is up to the people of Earth."
"……"
"Last is the entry dungeon, I guess? These are similar to games. Though I do wonder what kinds of games you know and what they involve…"
Yu Seong-un wiggled his last finger as he spoke.
"They're different from virtual dungeons that have no physical boundary at all, and different from villa dungeons where a boundary exists but the line is fuzzy. An entry passage just appears out of nowhere, and if you go through it you can clear a dungeon in another dimension."
"Ahh…"
It really did sound like the dimensional gates common in games. A door standing alone that, once entered, transported you to another map. Ji-oh understood completely.
As always, Yu Seong-un continued in his unhurried, kind manner.
"But cases like this restaurant—where dungeon remnants get used as a restaurant—are extremely rare."
"It seems unique and nice. Why don't more people use them this way?"
"Humans are cowardly creatures, you know."
Hyung, are you going to keep treating me like a haunted portrait?
"Problems can crop up if you let civilians in. There aren't many people gutsy enough to live there and make use of the leftovers. And more than anything, the remnants themselves tend to be pretty picky about people… so usually people just demolish them somehow."
"They're picky about people?"
"If someone they don't like comes in, they make them feel a chill, that kind of thing?"
"Sounds like a haunted house."
said the haunted portrait.
"……"
Yes—deep down, Ji-oh had already accepted his own identity.
Ordinary humans don't build cabins inside portraits and live healing lives in there, after all.
Since he had never planned to insist strongly that he was human anyway, Ji-oh offered a quiet defense.
"…I don't make people feel chills."
"Yeah, yeah. Ji-oh is a person. Right?"
"That's right."
Being coddled like a four-year-old cousin made him so grateful he could cry.
(To be continued)