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For ppl that read the novel, did jio ever meet his students again?? Tbh i have suspicions the one that trying to buy jio's portrait are one of his students, that's why the guild master said something like, that person who never interested in something suddenly try to buy jio's portrait makes him want jio's portrait more (cmiiw)
Omg you're right, it's probably one of his students!!
Short answer: yes.
Long, spoily answer:
The Association president is indeed one of his former students. She has an ability called "Promise" which basically lets her manipulate reality to some extent by sacrificing emotions and memories. The reason she was so keen to buy Jio's Portrait is because she recognized him as being someone she "erased." In other words, three of his students no longer have any memory of him (the fourth chose to keep her memories). As for the reason behind that, it's an even bigger spoiler, so I'll hold off unless you're interested.
I'm not OP but I NEED THAT BIG SPOILER
Omg that is so gooddddd, YES YES YES PLS SPOILER MORE, but can you also told me where did you read the novel??? (*´ω｀*)
Whooboy. Okay, here goes.
Fair warning, it gets a bit gruesome.
So, there's a reason why Jio's Portrait comes across feeling like a funeral. Every alternate-world "Jio" our MC synchronizes with has either died a horrible death or become an existence that wishes for death. Jio himself falls into the former category. He didn't end up in the painting after the school burned down, and eventually realizes that his recollection of events is a bit off.
What really happened was this: Jio helped his students escape from the fire, then the cataclysm happened. Jio became an awakened who could create things by painting them. In a time when the world had gone crazy and food and comforts were scarce, the people around him started to view him as a god. A community formed that was practically a cult, and his students hid Jio away, supposedly as a means to protect him, while working toward actually elevating him to godhood.
Jio, obviously, had no desire to become earth's god, but his students didn't care about his opinion, I guess? Anyway. Jio spent a lot of time experimenting with his abilities and even set up a way to give a portion to each of his students... and then some fanatic worshippers hunted down Jio's hideout. They believed that eating the flesh of a god would give them power, so... they ate Jio alive. By the time his students arrived, Jio was in really bad shape. Since he was beyond saving, his students made a choice to ultimately turn Jio into The System by apparently letting him suffer in a state of near-death for days while 3 of them either drank his blood or ate what remained (the mtl was a bit wonky).
These 3 then became pseudo-awakeners and one used her newly-acquired ability "Promise" to sacrifice her own emotions, the world's memories of the painting cult (or possibly all memory associated with Jio? Idk), and the trio's memories of Jio to create The System so Jio could continue guiding all of humanity going forward.
So how did he end up as a painting, you may ask? The mtl got really wonky at this point, buuuuut... While Jio was experimenting, he basically created a sort of "backup version" of himself. His students' actions took more of his power than he originally intended to give them, which screwed things up and it took 31 years for the "backup" to get back to normal - hence why Jio's Portrait only surfaced at the series' start and doesn't remember the events after the fire until much later. The System was also sorta Jio, except a version akin to an emotionless AI that never evolves or adapts.
Ch 1-244 are free at https://deroxzone.com/serie/the-artist-who-paints-dungeon
Ch 245-375 I read at novelphoenix, but anything after that seems to be stuck behind paywalls, unfortunately.
If only you can see my expression rn... Wtf... My feelings are like a roller coaster reading the spoiler, btw tysm for the novel link! <3
That's horrifying but I'm even more intrigued!!
I did a bit of research and ch.376-425 can be read in korean (you can MTL) on either K@kao or Ridibo*ks: I suggest K@kao because they give you 20 free chapters of choice per account +1 free chapter a day. Then the side story is being uploaded on Ridibo*ks so that's the only choice (either wait, earn some points or buy them). I have multiple accounts so I downloaded them all in a heartbeat lmao
Oh honey, you can't just eat something randomly, what if you hurt your tummy ┐(´ー｀)┌