When he pulled down the notification window, an explanation about the filial piety factory continued below.
[Tap-Tap Filial Piety Factory!]
Try opening a filial piety factory! The filial piety factory is an eco-friendly production facility powered by Filial Piety Points!
A child can build structures out of various materials and designate them as filial piety factories, then operate the factory using toy workers.
Place a handmade production sample into the filial piety factory and register as many Filial Piety Points as the quantity you wish to make. The workers will mass-produce items identical to the sample.
If the factory is small, the sample will automatically shrink, and when the finished product is taken outside, it will return to its original size.
Let’s practice material filial piety toward your caregiver through mass production!
‘Material filial piety!’
Amazing!
Deeply moved, Geuru clapped his hands over his mouth.
‘It’s exactly what Geuru always wanted to do!’
Ever since Jurim first took Geuru home, Geuru had wanted to practice an irresistible amount of material filial piety toward Jurim.
‘Thump, thump.’
His heart began pounding uncontrollably.
And that wasn’t all.
The pop-up window didn’t just contain an explanation of the filial piety factory—
‘So fun!’
‘Infinite filial piety mass-production system!’
‘Eco-friendly filial piety!’
It had even plastered on dazzling speech bubbles like those, bewitching the child’s eyes.
Geuru was already staring, entranced, his mouth hanging open.
With 100,000 points, he could raise his magic stat by at least 100.
Then he would have a mana capacity roughly on par with a B-rank Hunter’s.
But even then, he would merely be Geuru with a large mana pool.
But what if it was a filial piety factory?
Geuru could become not a cottage-industry craftsman, but a factory owner!
Then was there even any need to agonize over it?
The filial piety factory would make 100 syrups for him at once without using any mana, wouldn’t it?
However!
When it came to mana capacity, the more the better.
If he had just 100 magic stat points, he probably wouldn’t get all woozy in less than two minutes from mana depletion.
“Grrngh.”
Geuru sat cross-legged and folded his arms.
Magic stat, or filial piety factory.
That was the question.
‘Uuugh—!’
Geuru flopped over and rolled across the bed, tumbling over Jurim’s body.
‘Hiiing!’
Then his soft cheek pressed against Jurim’s phone screen, turning it on.
‘8?’
Why could he see an 8? All at once, his huge eyes rolled toward the screen.
After checking the time, Geuru jolted upright in alarm.
“I’m laaate!”
This was not the time to waste on such worries.
‘I have to go to kindergarten!’
Deciding he would choose how to spend the 100,000 points later, when the need arose, Geuru hurriedly used the filial piety skill, “Geuru’s Hands Are Healing Hands.”
At that, Jurim slowly opened his eyes.
Geuru shook Jurim’s shoulder as he blinked, still half-asleep.
“Guildmajster! Guildmajster!”
“Mmn…… Sleep well?”
“Geuru’s gonna be late for kindergardeeen!”
“Ah……!”
Still unable to open his eyes properly, Jurim quickly checked the time.
‘It’s already eight-thirty?’
Saebom Kindergarten’s drop-off time was nine.
Jurim sprang up, tucked Geuru under one arm, and moved toward the bathroom.
It was the start of a hectic morning.
While he squeezed toothpaste onto the toothbrush and washed Geuru’s face, the housekeeper opened the front door and came in.
“Oh my, Guildmaster On? When did you get back?!”
Yun Seo-jun, quick on the uptake, had told the sitters that the family had gone on a trip, so they hadn’t come; only Yeongran, the housekeeper, had come to clean.
“Last night. Please hurry and get Geuru dressed for kindergarten.”
“Hiiing…… Auntie, Geuru’s gonna be late for kindergardeeen……”
“Oh dear, is that so, my little puppy? Let’s hurry and get dressed with Auntie!”
While Geuru got dressed, Jurim took out Geuru’s shoes and packed his bag.
If they left now, they should be able to arrive just barely by nine.
Leaning against the shoe cabinet, Jurim checked the time, pressed his palm hard over his eyes, and swept his hair back.
Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, he could see the scenery along the Han River, where the wind was blowing fiercely. While they had spent several days in the RP Dungeon, Korea had already turned fully into winter.
In any case.
‘He’s still calling me Guildmaster, huh.’
As his mind, still half-asleep, gradually cleared, the voice that had urged him on while calling him Guildmaster belatedly came back to him.
But that lasted only a moment. Jurim shook his head.
‘Take it slow. Slowly.’
Murmuring as if making a vow, Jurim took out his phone.
By then, the housekeeper and Geuru, ready to go, came out of the dressing room.
“Sir, I’ll be taking Geuru to kindergarten now.”
“I’ll be back!”
“Wait.”
“Mm?”
Jurim, who had been about to make a call somewhere, strode over. He wound Geuru’s loosely tied scarf around and around, then tied it in a knot for him.
Armed in white winter clothes and a scarf, Geuru became round and plump like a tiny snowman.
The child barely had his eyes, nose, and mouth peeking out past the fluffy scarf as he blinked his large eyes.
“Geuru is a fat polar bear today.”
Jurim chuckled, hugged polar-bear Geuru, and gave him a brief kiss on the cheek.
“……!”
He lightly pinched Geuru’s cheek as the child’s eyes went wide like a startled rabbit’s.
“Chubby, are you going to call after kindergarten?”
Nod, nod! When he nodded more vigorously than usual, Jurim laughed softly.
“All right.”
Geuru rolled his eyes, then gave Jurim a peck on the cheek as well.
“Hehe!”
Smiling bashfully, Geuru waved his hand.
“Bye-bye!”
Jurim waved back.
“Bye-bye.”
Yeongran smiled and bowed at the waist, then took Geuru to kindergarten.
Beep—
The door closed before his eyes.
Jurim lowered the hand he had been waving and, in that instant, his expression hardened.
‘Why all of a sudden?’
Because something that should not have been visible had suddenly appeared.
A pop-up window was floating before his eyes.
[The 99th Floor, the Ruler of the Frozen Earth, opens his eyes.]
The Ruler of the Frozen Earth stroked his right cheek. The side Geuru had kissed.
Then he closed his eyes again.
“……?”
Jurim touched his own right cheek and narrowed his brow.
He suddenly opened his eyes?
And as if he had reacted to contact with Geuru, at that.
‘Is it because of the synchronization?’
Due to the synchronization with Jurim, he might have shared the special emotions Jurim had received from Geuru.
It was also possible that the reduction in mana leakage because of Geuru had had an effect.
Jurim rubbed his face with his palm.
‘……Hm.’
It wasn’t a bad reaction.
Sharing senses meant Jurim could also understand the other party’s senses.
Even when he revived the senses of the master of the 99th Floor once again, he felt no displeasure. What he sensed from him was, if anything, nothing more than a dry, dispassionate stillness.
What Jurim had learned about the master of the 99th Floor so far was that no particular emotion could be felt from him.
As if he existed solely as power itself. Rather than a living being with a human self, he was more like a thing of nature.
Because of that, his sense of crisis that the master of the 99th Floor was a dangerous entity had also grown hazy.
‘Still.’
He clenched his left fist, then relaxed it.
‘I’d like it if it stopped around here…….’
Forcibly calming the unease that came from not knowing how the synchronization would progress, he picked up his phone again.
After passing through several automated machine responses, a woman’s nasal voice came from the last number he called.
—Please leave the details of your request and your contact information, and we will return your call. Please note that replies take an average of more than one month.
Beep—
“I’m trying to find someone.”
“Mom and Dad. I don’t want to look for them now. I’ll look for them later.”
Last night, before falling asleep. Geuru had said he wouldn’t look for his birth parents.
Not now, but later. He said he wanted to meet them after he had become a little more amazing.
Until now, he had been anxious about finding his parents because he feared he might be sent back to the orphanage, but now that he felt relieved he no longer had to cling to blood ties, it seemed other worries had arisen.
What sort of people his parents might be, whether they would welcome Geuru…… things like that.
Jurim had told him any time was fine and that he would help him search together, then ended the conversation.
But as Geuru’s father, he wanted to block off any possible danger in advance.
It would be best to at least know whether his birth parents were dangerous people or not.
“I don’t know their names, ages, appearances, or nationalities. The last place they stopped by was Milal Orphanage. All I can provide is the child’s hair and a photo. Please call me back at this number.”