SWNOVELXO Chapter 7: Chapter 6 : Mandatory Therapy Session (And Interrogation)
Tiger Gate HQ, Sublevel 3
Compliance & Containment
Kang Jinho had fought cursed librarians, dodged sentient mannequins, and glitched a dungeon so hard it asked him existential questions.
But none of that compared to the horror of a cold office chair and a clipboard.
"Hunter Kang Jinho," said the woman sitting across from him, "please describe how you're feeling today in three words or less."
Jinho blinked.
"…Pan still purring?"
Ms. Jang, head of HR and Risk Containment, smiled. She always smiled. It made Jinho deeply uncomfortable.
"Excellent," she said, writing something down. "We'll record that as 'unstable, vaguely affectionate.' Now then, your mandatory post-dungeon psychological and arcane debrief begins now."
She slid him a form made of shimmering paper. The letters rearranged themselves as he looked at them.
>"Please sign with your True Name."
"Okay, no," Jinho said immediately. "That's not a form, that's a magical contract trap. I've seen fantasy movies."
A door slid open behind him.
"Oh, he's learning," said a new voice. "We love that." Gong Seokjin – Dungeon Linguist & Admin Liaison
Director Gong Seokjin shuffled in wearing what looked like sleepwear and a robe with constellation patches sewn into the sleeves. A stack of glowing scrolls floated beside him.
"Hunter Kang," Gong said, dropping into a creaky chair, "let's talk about your most recent… incident."
"I didn't mean to trigger a boss monologue," Jinho muttered. "It just started talking to me."
Ms. Jang handed Gong a file labeled:
> SUBJECT: KANG, JINHO – Anomalous System Response / Known Bug / Possible Living Patch Note
Gong waved a hand. A holographic projection appeared, showing Jinho's system feed during the last mission: the panic mode activation, the corrupted admin voice, and the offer of a questline titled GLITCH PROTOCOL.
"See that?" Gong pointed at a flashing error. "That's your soul pinging off the Administrator Layer like a tennis ball in a microwave."
Jinho raised a hand. "Is that… bad?"
"Technically? It means you exist outside standard dungeon logic. You shouldn't be possible."
"That feels personal."
Gong clicked a pointer. Diagrams danced.
"Every dungeon gate, every monster, every system message you get, that all comes from what we call the Administrator Layer. It's a living code-language built on top of reality. Hunters interface with it through skills, leveling, loot, etc."
He zoomed in on a glitched screenshot of Jinho's HUD.
"But you don't just interact with it. You corrupt it. Or… no. You converse with it."
Ms. Jang leaned forward. "Which means the system is now… noticing you."
[Risk Classification: Escalated to "Conversational Hazard"]
Jinho swallowed. "That doesn't sound very hero-core."
"Don't worry," Ms. Jang said brightly. "We're not locking you in a vault."
"…Yet," Gong muttered.
Gong tossed a scroll in front of Jinho. It unfurled and hissed.
> GLITCH TREE – OBSERVATIONS
➤ Reality Rewrite: Short-duration rule-breaking
➤ Skill Swap: Random repurposing of nearby abilities
➤ Bugspeak: Conversational interface with system entities
➤ Unknown latent ability: "Rollback Echo?" (??%)
➤ Weapon Evolution Pending
"Your pan's growing a spirit core," Gong said, sipping coffee from a mug labeled 'I Debug Therefore I Am.'
"It told me it had ideas," Jinho muttered.
"Well, tell it not to unionize. Now—"
Gong waved his hand again. New windows popped up, screenshots of news articles, system leaks, and black-ops guild reports.
> "Bugged Hunter Causes Dungeon Collapse"
"Tiger Gate Holding Illegal System Asset?"
"French Guild Demands Anomaly Access"
"You're famous now," Ms. Jang said cheerfully. "Congratulations. The Americans want to study you. The French want to vivisect you. The Chinese guilds just sent a fruit basket and a very polite ultimatum."
"I don't even speak Mandarin."
"Doesn't matter. They want to recruit you or delete you."
Jinho slumped in his chair. "So what now? I'm some weird cosmic meme and everybody wants a piece?"
Gong nodded. "Exactly. But you're our weird cosmic meme."
Ms. Jang slid him another form.
> Offer of Conditional Protection and Employment Extension – Code Name: PATCHKID
"We'll keep you safe," she said. "But you'll need to play along. Missions. Protocol. Training."
"And no pan-initiated combat unless absolutely necessary," Gong added.
"Or unless it's funny," Ms. Jang amended.
🔹🔹🔹
Just as Jinho stood to leave, the lights flickered.
His system window blinked.
[Your Equipment – "Unnamed Frying Pan" – has evolved.]
New Trait: "Spirit Awakening – Basic Cognition Detected"
It begins to hum in error-tone rhythm.
It says: "Yo."
Jinho stared at it.
"…Did my pan just talk?"
"Yo." the pan said again. "You called me 'Pan' before. That name sucks."
Ms. Jang blink "Your pan is now a sentient glitched spirit entity."
Gong sighed. "I need more coffee."
[New Companion Registered: ??? – Glitched Spirit of Recursive Logic]
Warning: May cause confusion, laughter, or interdimensional lawsuits.