Chapter 47
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 47
Chapter Title: Just Go "Waa"
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At first, I couldn't believe my ears.
No, it was only natural to doubt it.
A special dungeon that a 'Demon'—a figure from legends—used as a gateway to invade the surface world.
And the entry condition for such a terrifying dungeon was... to go "waa"?
Honestly, no one in their right mind would come up with an answer that insane.
And I wasn't the only one who thought so.
"Wh-what the hell does that even mean?"
"Waa...? Does it mean a baby's cry?"
Even the hunters surrounding the dungeon exchanged glances and tilted their heads in confusion.
Their faces were tense, but the words slipping from their mouths were utterly ridiculous.
'Waa, waa...'
I repeated the word in my mind, chewing it over.
It had to be a code.
Some special language or a hidden ancient secret.
Of course it was. There was no way a dungeon created by a Demon of all things would literally demand a baby cry.
And yet.
'...The problem is the word "waa" itself.'
As a psychiatrist, my mind immediately connected it to something.
One of my patients, the one with infantile regression and sexual deviance who cried out "Papa~."
The image overlapped, and I felt a chill run down my spine.
'Nah, no way. It can't be that.'
I reassured myself and nodded firmly.
Anyway, now that we had a clue, the hunters would figure it out on their own.
"P-Papa... No, Counselor Kim Seungbin?!"
Suddenly, a familiar voice called down from above.
I looked up to see Cheok Yunhwa—the one who'd just been forcibly ejected from the special dungeon and slammed into a building moments ago.
Her dust-covered face twisted in a frown for a second upon spotting me.
Then her eyes sparkled like a child's, and she landed right in front of me.
"...Hello, Yunhwa."
"Why is the counselor in Busan...?"
"Oh, well... I've been busy lately, so I took some vacation time."
"I see..."
A normal person might have muttered something like this at that moment:
'I ran away on vacation, and now I have to run into a patient here of all places...'
But that wasn't how I saw it.
Being a psychiatrist meant shouldering someone else's emotional burdens.
And if it was one of my patients, the location didn't matter—whether it was the counseling room, the middle of a battlefield, or even my vacation spot.
When a patient was anxious, I had to be there for them.
That was the last shred of pride I clung to, my conviction as a doctor.
So I smiled.
Not forced, but to put her at ease.
"I like the sea here. I just came to have some fun."
My answer made Yunhwa's frightened, huddled expression relax in relief.
Only then did I see it again.
Behind the cold mask of the fearsome S-Rank Hunter, the unstable, childlike gaze that cried "Papa~" in my office.
"But... with Haeundae Beach turning into this mess on what was supposed to be a relaxing trip, my vacation's pretty much over already."
"?! Th-that...! ...If it's not too much trouble, could you tell me how long your vacation lasts?"
Honestly, prancing around saying "Hey, I'm still gonna enjoy my vacation~" in this situation would just make me look like a lunatic.
Plus, now that a special dungeon had been confirmed, Busan would likely go into full emergency evacuation mode starting tomorrow.
Busan Port would be completely sealed off, and it might even turn into a warzone with international hunter alliances deploying.
In other words, my vacation was done for.
I let out a long sigh.
That was when it happened.
Yunhwa's wide, innocent eyes suddenly blazed with fury.
It was the face of a child who'd had playtime with Daddy stolen away—sulking and outraged.
She was an adult woman, an S-Rank Hunter, but right now, her expression screamed, "I'm gonna smash that dungeon for stealing my Papa time!" like a petulant kid.
I gave her an awkward answer anyway.
"...Well, it started yesterday, so today wraps it up, and I've got about three days left."
"Three days... That's plenty!"
"...Pardon?"
Yunhwa's eyes sparkled as she declared it.
"If we raid that special dungeon, the Demon won't even have a chance to come out before it collapses! Then, I'll make sure Papa can enjoy the reopened Haeundae for the next three days!"
Yunhwa...
Honestly, she was a thirty-something woman older than me, deep in infantile regression... All I'd ever seen was her in diapers crying "Papa~ Milk~."
Was it really right for someone like that to be one of Korea's top S-Rank Hunters?
...
I wouldn't say I had zero worries—that would be a lie.
Up until now, she'd always been unstable, following me around with that anxious, childlike face.
But now, for my sake—for my vacation—she was showing this fierce determination.
Of course, it didn't mean her condition had suddenly improved.
But even so, was this the 'bond with a patient' I'd only heard about?
Seeing a patient I'd treated gradually stabilize and strive to rejoin society.
For the first time, I felt a tiny spark of that sense of achievement as a doctor that my professors in university had talked about.
As a doctor... and as a "Papa," I was strangely moved by Yunhwa.
"Thank you, Yunhwa. I really appreciate the sentiment."
I smiled brightly, pouring genuine gratitude into it.
But that was when it happened.
Tadadadak—!
"Miss Cheok Yunhwa! We've just figured out the code for the entry condition confirmed from the special dungeon!"
"Oh, looks like they've solved it."
A hunter came sprinting from the building Yunhwa had crashed into earlier, shouting as he approached.
His expression was grave, but he looked like he'd brought results.
Yunhwa even smiled in brief relief.
But only until his next words.
"First off, 'go waa' or whatever... We had no clue what it meant, so we tried everything in the meantime."
"Everything... related?"
"If it's a baby crying, we figured it had to involve a real baby. So we got guardian consent and brought actual infants... close to the dungeon."
"What?!"
Yunhwa's face twisted in horror.
My heart sank.
The hunter's face hardened as he continued.
He knew exactly what he'd done.
But no one there could condemn him.
To those in the Hunter Association, such sacrifices had become 'necessary'.
If they failed to clear a dungeon in time, monsters pouring out would kill dozens, hundreds, thousands.
So if sacrificing one child could collapse the dungeon?
Human rights were a luxury for survivors only.
"S-so... you took that child into the dungeon?"
I asked in a trembling voice.
"...Yes."
"!!"
"B-but! An A-Rank Hunter carried the baby in their arms! They were sucked in but came right back out in less than five minutes! Physically... the child seems fine!"
Physically.
That word echoed in my mind.
As a psychiatrist, I didn't even want to imagine the scars on a newborn's psyche.
If the first world they encountered wasn't a parent's lullaby but a dungeon's roar, it'd be a lifelong hell.
I trembled inwardly.
'...Hunters' world really runs on monster logic, not human.'
Glancing at Yunhwa beside me, her eyes were already ablaze.
The childlike innocence was gone.
No baby mode, no "Papa~."
Right now, she was Korea's strongest hunter: S-Rank Cheok Yunhwa.
"If anything happens to that child... I wouldn't have let any of you standing here live."
"...!! I-I'm sorry!"
"Fine. But... you're not seriously telling me to carry a baby into that special dungeon to raid it, right?"
Yes.
The real problem started now.
The entry condition was clear.
The dungeon's 'waa' meant a baby, for sure.
But so what?
Were all the hunters about to raid supposed to tote babies along?
What if combat broke out?
The babies would be torn apart alive, or the hunters would get wiped out protecting them.
A special dungeon's difficulty was beyond high-level gates.
Entering with a child in arms was suicide.
Ultimately, only two options: Get annihilated shielding the kid, or ditch the kid and push forward.
Either way, dead children were inevitable.
I swallowed a sigh.
That was when.
The explaining hunter dropped the bag in his hand with a thud and pulled something out.
"Of course not! We ran all sorts of tests too. Wondering if 'waa' only applied to actual babies. And surprisingly, we got some intel."
In his hand: A thick diaper with rubber bands on white fabric. And beside it, a baby bottle clunked out.
My mind went blank for a second.
"This dungeon... it absorbs baby items even without a live infant. Stuff like diapers, bottles, pacifiers—all of it."
"...Huh?"
"In other words..."
"Yes."
Every hunter entering the special dungeon from now on had to strip naked, strap on adult diapers, shove a pacifier in their mouth, and crawl in crying "waa."
My mind went white.
'......Is this for real?
S-Ranks to rookies, all dropping trou, diapering up, pacifier-gagged, and "waa~"-ing their way in?
The Busan Port sea breeze suddenly felt much colder.
And beside me, Yunhwa was already clenching her fists, ready to declare something.