Divine Seat
Park Su-ho in the video was screaming.
The face of the Park Su-ho sitting in front of me went past shock and twisted into something straight out of Munch's The Scream.
"Nooooooooo!!"
Park Su-ho bellowed.
I frowned. A grown man shrieking like his life depended on it was just grating.
"What do you mean, no? Anyone can tell that's you."
"It's not me, hyung. That is genuinely not me! Someone — someone made a deepfake to frame me!"
I put on a performance. Hardened my eyes. Dropped my voice flat.
"I'm pretty much the only one who knows about your tattoos. Are you saying I made this garbage?"
I let him see I was offended, and Park Su-ho scrambled.
"Th-that's not what I meant. You'd never do something like that. And maybe someone saw my tattoos without me knowing. Or someone with some special ability made this video…! Either way, the guy in that footage is not me!"
I'd had my fun. Time to ease off.
"I know. You'd never do something this filthy."
"Exactly. There's no way I'd do that. I hate to say it myself, but… I've lived a clean life."
"I believe you."
"Thanks, hyung."
Park Su-ho teared up, looking exhausted. Touched, apparently. For a second I clenched my fist and seriously considered punching him in the face.
"I get how you feel. But the more dangerous the situation, the calmer you have to stay. You're not some ordinary civilian — you're a hunter."
"You're right. It was so absurd I lost it for a second. Hyung, where did you find this video? It's not already circulating on the communities, is it?"
"You know SexNet?"
Park Su-ho flinched. His eyes darted. His face went red. So he knew about SexNet.
"Ah, I know of it, but…. I really don't use sites like that."
I was certain. That was a hundred-percent lie.
SexNet.
One of Korea's illegal sites. A dumping ground for every kind of filthy photo and video. The police had tried to shut it down more times than anyone could count, failed every single time, and finally given up — the holy land of Korean men. There might be people who'd never set foot on it, but there was no one who'd only been there once.
These days even middle schoolers know about SexNet. No way Park Su-ho doesn't.
Park Su-ho was a man. Men were creatures who inevitably piled up sexual frustration. I could guarantee it — he'd used SexNet. He might still be using it now.
"That video got posted on SexNet."
"H-how many views does it have?"
"Dunno. When I saw it, it was around three thousand. Want to check?"
I opened SexNet on the tablet.
"Hyung… do you use SexNet a lot?"
"Not a lot. Occasionally. These days, Korean guys who don't use SexNet are the rare ones."
"R-right."
Park Su-ho looked mortified staring at the site. For the record, the account I was logged into was a burner. My real main account — CockGhost — was not something I could show Park Su-ho. CockGhost was way too famous. Right now, ranks one through three on the porn charts were all my videos.
"Uh… you're level fifty?"
"It's an account I used back in high school. But you're looking at the level first? So you use it too?"
SexNet had account levels. Activity built experience. Level fifty meant either more than seven hundred thousand won spent or at least two years of logins. The level itself didn't mean much — no special perks came with it. It just told you whether someone was a veteran or not.
"Ah, no. The level just caught my eye."
Park Su-ho told a lie that wouldn't hold water. I didn't bother calling him on it.
"Anyway, this is the video… and it's number five live?"
"Holy shit. Three hundred thousand views…!"
Park Su-ho clawed at his hair. I was impressed.
For a SexNet porn video to rank, a few conditions had to be met. The absolute non-negotiable one: the woman had to be hot. After that came resolution, positions, framing, and so on. But no matter how good the quality or the angles, if the woman wasn't pretty, it never ranked.
Which made a porn video featuring Park Su-ho hitting number five on the live rankings a genuinely rare event. I scrolled through the comments.
Sex evangelism.
A tag I'd put on when I uploaded the video. That tag was probably what had reeled people in.
Good.
The view count was climbing steeply. At this rate, it could hit number one live.
Sex evangelism is weird enough that it'll spread through the communities.
And naturally, people would start identifying the faces in the video. That was why I'd mosaicked everyone except Park Su-ho so lightly when I uploaded it.
Leave it alone and the netizens will dig up the Gwangwon Sect on their own. If the fire starts dying, I'll just throw on more wood.
Public attention gathering on its own. That was exactly what I wanted.
"……Hyung. We can't request a takedown, can we?"
"It's an illegal site even the cops can't touch. You put in a deletion request, they won't even blink."
"Damn it. Why the hell does a video like this even…!"
Park Su-ho shook with rage, his fists trembling.
"The way I see it, this is a recruitment video."
"Recruitment?"
"It literally says sex evangelism. Join our religion and you can have sex like this…. Something along those lines. Look at the comments — plenty of guys asking which religion it is. Brain-full-of-dick types."
Men who thought any hole was a good hole no matter how ugly the woman. Brains stuffed with nothing but cock. I despised them. Did they seriously want to stick it in those statues?
Park Su-ho skimmed the comments again, and his face hardened.
"…You've got a point. But which religion is it actually?"
"You planning to go find them?"
"Of course I am. Tell them to stop posting shit like this. I'm the one taking collateral damage for no reason. If people who know me get the wrong idea…. Hrk…. Just imagining it is nightmare fuel."
Park Su-ho's eyes were burning. For him, this was a matter of his entire social life.
"I've got a lead. I actually looked into it a bit before I came to you."
"Wh-where?!"
"Calm down. It's a sketchy enough place that I don't love telling you. And don't even think about just walking in. There's reason to believe a brainwashing Awakened is there. You need countermeasures against brainwashing first."
"Brainwashing…."
Park Su-ho's face went rigid. The moment that word came out, he understood this was no ordinary problem.
"Shouldn't we report it to the Association?"
"No evidence."
"Evidence…."
"Yeah. Evidence. To get the Association moving, you need proof. And because of the brainwashing, finding proof is hard."
"……"
"But if we just sit here, the video keeps spreading. Park Su-ho, you need to think about the worst case."
"The worst case? This already is the worst case."
"Worse is an unmosaicked original circulating. If the tattooed guy in that video really has your face…."
"Aaaagh! Fuck!!"
"Calm down! Park Su-ho! Hyung's gonna help you! Calm down!"
"Hyung! What the hell do we do?!"
"We join that religion and dig up the evidence. While we're at it, we wipe the original footage. But first… we need protection against brainwashing. You got any mental barrier items or anything?"
"Like I'd have something that expensive."
"You get brainwashed and everything's for nothing. Go to the Tattoo World if you have to and find something."
"Can't we just storm the place? Brainwashing only works if you're not careful, right? Stay sharp and you're fine."
"That's because you don't know how brainwashing abilities work. I'm a B-Class hunter, and my mental fortitude is solid enough that I'd be fine… but you're not."
Park Su-ho chewed on that, then came to an answer.
"……The Tattoo World. There might be an answer there."
Park Su-ho's ability was the Tattoo World. He could travel into it, and the stronger his territory there became, the stronger his body grew. He could also borrow the abilities of the people living in the Tattoo World.
For example: reinforce the walls of the Tattoo World, and his physical durability rose. Grow the population, and his stamina and mana increased. Build a library, and his memory improved a little. After he built a clinic, his recovery went up; after he built stables, his legs got a bit faster.
That was why Park Su-ho poured everything into developing the Tattoo World. Every won he earned went straight back into it — which was why he still couldn't crawl out of a rooftop room.
"To get a mental barrier… do I need to reinforce the walls with magic?"
"Hell if I know. …Oh. Do you have a temple in your territory?"
"No. I'm not religious. And religion interferes with politics a lot over there, so I've kept it out so far."
"Build a temple. It might strengthen your mental power."
"…Not exactly thrilled about that."
"Just try it. What religions do they have over there?"
"Only one. The Cel Order. State religion of the Holy Kingdom of Celbra. Or rather — the Cel Order founded it, so it's more like a religion that took on the character of a nation?"
"The one that worships the goddess Celbretina?"
"Yeah. Didn't expect you to know that."
"Heard about it last time. Anyway, build a temple. That way you can keep good relations with Celbra too."
"The Magic Kingdom's going to give me side-eye…."
"Build a small one. Say the territory residents wanted it. Whatever excuse works."
"Alright."
"How many days?"
"Three or four? With dwarves around, small buildings go up crazy fast. But the problem is…."
"Problem?"
"I don't have the budget…. Haa."
"……Want me to lend you some?"
"No. I'll take out a loan. You don't need to look at me with those worried eyes. I'm used to this."
"Used to it?"
"One thing after another — I keep borrowing and paying it back."
"One thing after another? Something you can't talk about?"
"Monsters show up, a flood hits a nearby village out of nowhere…. Stuff like that. And in the real world there was a small guild picking fights with me…. I settled that last week."
"You live a pretty eventful life yourself. How much debt are we talking?"
"About five hundred million. At this rate I can pay it off in two or three months. Then I'll probably take out another loan after that."
I nodded.
I didn't feel sorry for Park Su-ho at all. He was investing in the Tattoo World. It was a kind of business. The more the Tattoo World developed, the stronger he got — and the stronger he got, the more money he could make as a hunter.
And right now, Park Su-ho was getting stronger at a terrifying speed.
"Alright. I'm heading out. Call me when the temple's done."
"Hyung. Leaving already? At least stay for lunch. There's a good jajangmyeon place nearby."
"Next time. I'm a little busy right now."
"That busy? Want me to help? What are you working on?"
"You've got enough on your own plate. Keep the nosiness to yourself. And it's not hard work — just prepping a few things."
"Hyung! You need to take the tablet!"
"That? You keep it."