Gong Pildu

Gong Pildu is a former member of the Ten Evils whose territorial powers first support an exploitative safe-zone monopoly and later make him one of Kim Dokja's Company's most dependable defenders. He remains acquisitive, proud, and argumentative, but gradually turns the language of ownership into a responsibility to hold land for other people.

Biography

The Landlord of Chungmuro

At forty-eight, Gong Pildu rules Chungmuro's largest Green Zone through the Landlord Coalition. He treats public shelter as property, demands daily rent from survivors, and threatens Kim Dokja's party when they refuse to pay. His position is technically formidable as well as coercive: Private Property weakens trespassers while Militarized Zone raises magic-bullet turrets, and the supplies piled inside his territory let him avoid the vulnerability of leaving it. His immediate concern is not community survival but preserving a monopoly that makes tenants dependent on him. (Chapters 29 and 34)

Kim Dokja does not persuade him into altruism. He destroys the station's Green Zones, leaving Pildu no safe retreat, while the Emergency Defense wave threatens to erase the coalition if its members do not fight together. Pildu chooses to establish a new zone at the center of the survivors' formation and holds it until his magic power, turrets, and sponsor's resources approach exhaustion. Kim then secures a joint-sponsorship contract that protects Pildu's life and growth while granting limited command authority over him. The arrangement begins as coercive reform, but its consequences outlast compulsion: Pildu helps organize Chungmuro's practiced defense, allows Lee Gilyoung to sleep on his lap, and remembers the wife and daughter whom property had failed to save. (Chapters 35–36 and 55)

From Reluctant Asset to Armed Fortress Master

Once removed from Chungmuro, Pildu has to decide whether his defenses exist only for owned ground. He risks himself to draw Gangdong enemies away from Yoo Sangah, then arrives in Peace Land with Han Sooyoung and helps save Veronica from Japanese disasters. By the time Kim Dokja meets him again, Militarized Zone has passed level ten and evolved into Armed Fortress, surrounding a newly claimed position with hundreds of turrets. Pildu still calls the threatened kingdom “my land,” but the phrase now places him and his fortress between its inhabitants and the attackers. Kim's apology for neglecting him also changes their contract into a more reciprocal obligation: Pildu accepts the thanks only by telling his patron to do better next time. (Chapters 83, 126, and 129)

The larger fortress makes Pildu indispensable, not invulnerable. Kim Dokja entrusts him and Lee Hyunsung with a Seoul defense network, but separation in the Dark Castle leaves Pildu fighting an endless monster zone alone for weeks. Coins Kim supplied delay the collapse; eventually Pildu's mental strength and magic power fail, and Yoo Joonghyuk catches him as the fortress breaks. This rescue completes the practical reciprocity that defines his loyalty: companions return for the defender who has repeatedly held ground for them. Pildu later joins their attack on Kim Dokja as the 73rd Demon King, then stands among the survivors who must continue after Kim's expulsion from the scenario. (Chapters 140, 171, 187, and 189)

A Castle for Gyeonggi-do and Seoul

During Kim Dokja's absence, Pildu directs his possessiveness toward rebuilding. He buys land in Seongnam for a huge castle, and Armed Fortress becomes the reason Gyeonggi-do survives when Olympus sends constellation incarnation bodies as disasters. His role is deliberately stationary: Han Sooyoung devises the counterattack and Lee Gilyoung's insects cover the structure while Pildu keeps firing long enough for their plan to work. The same specialization shapes the Returnees War. His approaching fortress draws two hundred returnees away from the industrial complex, but their countercharge also demonstrates that a fortification designed to hold ground is less effective as an unsupported offensive weapon. (Chapters 226, 274, and 326)

Pildu later chooses to remain in Seoul with Lee Seolhwa and the wanderer forces while stronger companions pursue advanced scenarios. He supervises incarnations still clearing early stages and teaches them to seize good land and defensible positions—the same advice once used to justify exploitation, now passed on as survival instruction. His absence from prestigious scenarios is therefore a responsibility rather than a demotion. When Kim Dokja returns, Pildu angrily reminds him that he guarded Seoul because Kim had promised to eliminate the scenarios. The complaint shows how their relationship has changed: he is no longer protesting lost profit, but holding an absent leader accountable for the civilians and territory entrusted to him. (Chapters 357, 454, and 459)

Kim Dokja's Company, the Final Wall, and One More Defense

Pildu formally enters Kim Dokja's Company only after years of already performing its defensive work; he questions Kim's authority and then joins immediately. In the final conflicts, Armed Fortress becomes collective infrastructure. Its guns combine with Shin Yoosung's creatures and Lee Gilyoung's swarms against the Nameless Ones; Story-metal-coated shells penetrate defenses that ordinary bombardment cannot; and the fortress operates from Lee Jihye's battleship before evolving into a complete moving castle inside the Final Ark. Pildu carries separated companions, provides a platform for their coordinated abilities, and moves at Kim's call to block Emperor's retreat. The effort nearly destroys the fortress, his incarnation body, and the fading Defense Master, but he refuses to stop before confronting the power responsible for taking his family and lands. (Chapters 456, 472, 478, 486, 493, and 501–505)

The first ending does not end his responsibility to the group. Pildu arrives late to the group-regression departure and angrily throws himself into it rather than be excluded from the attempt to recover Kim Dokja. On the rescue train, Armed Fortress braces Lee Hyunsung's Steel Transformation against the storm of Kim Dokja's Story, buying the others time to reach him. When a route home later opens, Pildu stays in the completed world-line after seeing the children who would otherwise be left without a protector. The source does not claim that they replace his daughter, but his choice completes the reversal of his first role: the landlord who once made safety conditional on payment now remains because vulnerable people need someone to hold the ground. He is later also named among the companions watching the manuscript Ark depart. (Chapters 529, 539, 542, and 547)

Appearance and personality

Pildu is introduced as a forty-eight-year-old middle-aged man with a rounded belly and a half-balding head, seated amid stored necessities while reading a newspaper inside his fortified zone. Later quiet scenes associate him with cigarettes, a fishing chair, and persistently disgruntled expressions rather than heroic display. His demeanor stays territorial, cantankerous, and alert to material advantage even after his loyalties change. (Chapters 29, 274, and 455)

He is too proud to admit dependence and usually expresses affection as complaint or protection. That pattern appears when he grudgingly shelters Lee Gilyoung, risks himself for Yoo Sangah, accepts Kim Dokja's apology without sentiment, and supports Lee Hyunsung while ordering everyone else to rescue Kim. The loss of his wife, daughter, home, and land explains—but does not excuse—why security and ownership are emotionally entangled for him. His development does not erase greed or abrasiveness; it changes what he believes possession requires, from extracting rent to maintaining walls, teaching survivors, and staying with children who need a guardian. (Chapters 55, 83, 126, 505, 539, and 542)

Abilities, attributes, and stories

Pildu's capabilities are built around selecting, claiming, fortifying, and holding territory. His system-granted powers are strongest when allies can protect their setup and exploit the stable position they create; sustained sieges, forced movement, overwhelming Status, and resource exhaustion remain recurring counters.

Private Property and landlord attributes

Private Property is an exclusive territorial skill associated with Pildu's Landlord and Real Estate Tycoon attributes. Designating land triggers a trespass warning and reduces an unauthorized entrant's statistics, creating the home-field advantage that makes his turrets so dangerous in Chungmuro. The effect is not ownership in an absolute sense: Kim Dokja and Lee Hyunsung defeat the combination by destroying the claimed floor and its Green Zone, proving that breaking the territory can remove the advantage without overpowering Pildu directly. Later, the skill continues to support Armed Fortress in Peace Land, although the source emphasizes the fortress more than explicit late-story debuffs. (Chapters 29, 34–36, and 126)

His less spectacular skills explain how he uses that ground. Calculate Profit evaluates bargains and material advantage, while Leadership, Incite, Patience, and Weapon Proficiency support coalition management and prolonged defense. Kim Dokja can manipulate Calculate Profit by controlling information that Pildu lacks, and Pildu's early leadership sustains an exploitative hierarchy rather than benefiting everyone. No later levels are supplied, so his growth is best demonstrated by application: he progresses from managing rent-paying tenants to choosing castle sites, directing defensive communities, and teaching new incarnations how to secure a viable position. (Chapters 29, 55, and 357)

Militarized Zone and Armed Fortress

Militarized Zone is the Defense Master's stigma. It installs automated turrets within a designated area and converts Pildu's magic power into sustained magic-bullet fire. Early deployment takes time, so other survivors must hold the line while the weapons rise; leaving the zone deactivates it, and rebuilding after movement creates another opening. Its crowd control is exceptional, but long use consumes Pildu's magic power and the sponsor's support. Emergency Defense pushes the stigma from its early displayed levels through repeated growth while reducing its turret count to two at the point of exhaustion, establishing both its potential and its resource ceiling. (Chapters 29 and 34–36)

After passing level ten, the stigma evolves into Armed Fortress. Its first demonstrated form raises a small fort and hundreds of turrets in Peace Land; later forms defend regions, draw armies, create protected platforms, and eventually become a mobile battle castle capable of transporting companions through the Final Ark. Scale does not remove its weaknesses. Returnees can mass against it when Pildu attacks without enough support, powerful enemies can force the entire castle backward, and catastrophic damage is transferred into exhaustion and injury severe enough to collapse his incarnation body. Its latest established use occurs during the group-regression rescue, when the summoned fortress reinforces Lee Hyunsung long enough for the company to reach Kim Dokja; no higher form is shown afterward. (Chapters 126, 171, 326, 501, 503, 505, and 539)

The mature fortress also depends on coordinated use rather than raw firepower alone. Yoo Sangah restrains targets, Lee Gilyoung and Shin Yoosung cover walls and setup with controlled creatures, Lee Hyunsung provides close shielding, and Lee Seolhwa treats people carried on the platform. Story metal applied to its shells lets the bombardment pierce the outer layers of Nameless Ones, but that enhancement comes from allied material rather than an innate upgrade to Pildu's ammunition. These combinations turn a once-isolated landlord's zone into a shared defensive system. (Chapters 274, 472, 478, 493, 501, and 539)

Barrier and Protective Wall

Pildu acquires Barrier during the prolonged Emergency Defense fight; later translation renders the protective application as Protective Wall. It reinforces the people and position behind the turrets rather than adding a separate offensive option. The defense can reduce damage that penetrates his firing lines, but it is not absolute: an Apostle's mass-destruction attack still leaves Pildu wounded, and the late moving fortress is eventually broken by attacks on a much higher scale. The source gives no independent final level, so its latest condition is best treated as part of Armed Fortress's broader protective kit. (Chapters 36, 55, and 505)

Power progression

Relationships

• Kim Dokja: Their relationship begins with a rent dispute and a coercive joint-sponsorship contract. Kim guarantees Pildu's survival and growth while gaining command authority; later rescues, Kim's apology for neglect, Pildu's years guarding Seoul, formal company membership, and the group regression turn that unequal arrangement into reciprocal—if still argumentative—loyalty. (Chapters 29, 36, 126, 454, 456, and 529)
• Yoo Sangah: Sangah helps organize Chungmuro around coordinated defense and can speak to Pildu without treating his hostility as untouchable. His later decision to lure enemies away from her is one of the earliest clear actions that exceeds contractual self-interest, and her restraints eventually complement the moving fortress's guns. (Chapters 55, 83, and 501)
• Han Sooyoung: Peace Land makes them an abrasive but effective pair whose information, Avatars, and fortress save Veronica. Han later plans counterattacks from positions Pildu keeps intact, and she understands why he chooses to remain with vulnerable children in the completed regression world-line. (Chapters 126, 274, 472, and 542)
• Lee Hyunsung: Pildu's area fire and movable fortifications complement Hyunsung's close-range shielding. Their cooperation develops from Hyunsung enduring the early landlord's barrage to both men exhausting themselves protecting the company and finally layering Armed Fortress behind Steel Transformation on the rescue train. (Chapters 29, 129, 505, and 539)
• Lee Seolhwa: They share home-front responsibility by remaining in Seoul to protect and manage less advanced incarnations. In the Final Ark, Seolhwa treats passengers from his moving fortress and later carries Pildu onward after his body collapses, insisting that he has earned the right to witness the conclusion. (Chapters 357, 459, and 501–505)
• Lee Gilyoung: Gilyoung's presence exposes Pildu's care beneath his complaints and reminds him of his lost daughter without being treated as her replacement. As their roles develop, insect swarms protect fortress walls and setup positions, turning their personal closeness into a recurring tactical partnership. (Chapters 55, 274, and 472)
• Defense Master: Pildu's original sponsor grants Militarized Zone and repeatedly spends resources to keep him alive. The joint-sponsorship terms explicitly protect Pildu's survival and growth; by the Final Wall, the sponsor's barely perceptible Status measures how fully both have exhausted themselves in defense of the company. (Chapters 29, 36, 171, and 505)

Items

• Pildu's defining equipment is created through Armed Fortress and claimed territory; the approved inventory contains no separately catalogued notable item for him.