Chapter 55
"They're all serious about it."
The gallery was burning up in real time.
Comments poured in from people looking to gather a party to head to the dungeon the Magical Girl had mentioned.
Old Man Dokgo : As a man, you finally get a chance to see a real elf in person, and you're giving it up?
ㄴ Anon : Risking our lives to look at an elf who might be who knows how old?
ㄴ Anon : It's rotten...
ㄴ Old Man Dokgo : It's ripe.
Anon : Hey! We're all in this together! Let's show the power of the Survivor Gallery!
ㄴ Survivor Gallery User : We are, though;
Bamboo Spear : If we band together, there's nothing to be afraid of, yeah. Of course I'm not going lol
The board heated up, even forming a strange sense of solidarity.
Among them were comments that showed a firm resolve to go no matter what.
...Maybe the first meetup's about to happen...
I was staring at the monitor in disbelief when...
A bucket of cold water was thrown on the gallery's festival-like excitement.
Two trade posts with bold lettering appeared one after another.
"Sowon... there are new trade posts..."
Haseon's voice trembled softly as she spotted the trade posts at the same time I did.
My brow furrowed as I checked the posts.
"A demon... a lord..."
People whose nicknames alone were already a little unsettling had posted trade offers that felt almost like requests.
One said there'd be a reward for making elves into slaves, and the other said there'd be a reward for harming a non-human race a second time.
A sigh escaped my lips.
...But why a reward for harming them a second time?
Does that mean someone has already hurt a non-human race before?
Anyway, it was obvious the constellations were paying attention.
They had begun interfering through the trade posts.
But thanks to that, the mood on the board turned a little strange after those trade posts.
Like, "Can we really go? Is it dangerous?" That kind of mood.
"Honestly, it'd be nice if they'd read those posts and got scared..."
..."Still, it looks like there are more people who want to go."
"Hmm... should we go too?"
"Really?"
If they didn't go and the gathered gallery survivors ended up fighting among themselves, that would be a disaster, and it would also be a disaster if someone attacked the elves after seeing the trade posts from the malevolent constellations.
Before long, humanity as a whole might become the elves' enemy.
I wasn't sure I'd be able to stop that very well just by going there, but—
Still, if I went, I might be able to watch the situation, and if a fight looked like it was about to break out, subdue them with the drones—or even end things right away by taking a photo first with the drone.
***
"Haa..."
I sank deep into the cockpit seat and pressed a hand to my brow.
In the end, I came too.
Would the survivors from the gallery really gather in front of that dungeon?
For a dungeon I'd warned was dangerous several times, and where even the reward wasn't clearly known, just because they wanted to see an elf?
"...Why do I feel like they will?"
How much time had passed?
Thinking it was about time, I launched a reconnaissance drone from the tracks a little way from the dungeon.
I narrowed my eyes as I checked the feed coming in on the monitor.
"There really is one."
The Magical Girl hadn't been lying.
In the middle of a half-destroyed road, a massive, pale purple dungeon rift unlike a normal dungeon was rippling.
And people were already standing before that rift.
Checking the gallery, I saw they'd even made a post for the people who had arrived at the rift to talk to one another.
I let out a bitter laugh as I alternated between the drone's feed and the gallery comment window.
The survivors on screen were clearly huddled together less than three meters apart.
And yet not a single person was speaking out loud.
They all had their heads down, staring intently at their phone screens and talking only through comments.
ㅇㅇ : Everyone here? Looks like about six people.
Magical Girl : Hiiing... everyone's faces are way too scary...
ㄴ 24 Convenience Store : If everyone's scary, that means you too...
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : No, there's one woman among the people here... could that lady be the Magical Girl?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : Since when did you think a Magical Girl had to be a woman?
ㄴ Bamboo Spear : For real, isn't the standard that the Magical Girl is obviously some forty-something guy with hairy legs?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : Ah, shit.
Survivor Gallery User : Damn, I did come, but I already regret it... why is the dungeon rift so huge...
'As expected of people who gathered through the gallery....'
No, maybe it wasn't just because they were gallery users.
Maybe they were being so wary of even talking to each other because of the eerie trade posts that they were communicating like that over their phones.
While the chat continued like that, three more Awakened joined in.
A total of nine.
'It'd be perfect if we just said hello and went our separate ways like this.'
But surprisingly, as quite a lot of people gathered, someone made a suggestion in the gallery comments.
ㅇㅇ : Since nine of us are already here, how about we go in once?
죽창 : But now that I'm seeing it up close, I really don't want to go in...
ㅇㅇ : No, we don't have to go deep. Can't we just snap a picture of the elf and bolt? The constellation said we'd get a reward just for bringing back a photo, right?
At those words, several people jerked their heads up from their smartphones. At the mention of a constellation's reward, they stared blankly at the dungeon rift.
Then, a woman who had been looking at her phone with her arms crossed finally spoke up.
She was a tall woman with healthy skin and tattoos scattered here and there over her body.
"You could really die, you know?"
Her sharp remark was realistic.
She warned them that no one knew what would happen inside the dungeon, that they shouldn't forget what the constellations had written, and that it would be truly dangerous.
But...
In the end, the majority vote tilted one way.
죽창 : We're just taking one photo. It's not like we'll die, right?
ㅇㅇ : For real, if you die after seeing an elf, that's a pretty good way to go.
"Tsk..."
In the end, with the tattooed woman's click of her tongue, the nine of them moved as if bewitched toward the entrance of the enormous forest.
The purple rift began to slowly swallow their backs as they went.
"...So they really are going in..."
I tapped the cockpit panel and lowered the drone's altitude.
I was planning to go in with them if I had no choice.
One member of the nine-person expedition swallowed hard and took the first step across the rift.
It was the very moment the other eight held their breath and watched his back.
"Aaaagh!"
The man who had gone in first screamed and burst back out of the dungeon as if he'd been flung away by something.
His face had gone white with fear.
"W-what is it? What's inside that..."
"R-run! The things inside... everything that was in the forest is rushing this way all at once!"
"...What?"
He shouted.
While everyone stood there dumbfounded, the massive purple rift in front of them began to ripple.
The rift swelled as if about to burst, then in an instant grew as large as the surrounding buildings.
"W-what is that..."
"The rift... it's still getting bigger—"
Boom-!
With a sound like a balloon bursting, a tremendous gust of wind blasted out from the rift.
Even the reconnaissance drone, which I had set up at a decent distance, was being rocked back and forth by the wind, making the camera sway wildly.
While everyone staggered in the gale, the surroundings began to change.
Crack, creak—!
"Huh?"
A sight I'd never seen before was being captured by the reconnaissance drone's camera.
From the tiny cracks in the asphalt the wind had swept over, deep green moss and nameless wildflowers began to sprout.
Around the abandoned wrecked cars, vines shot up in an instant and covered the chassis, and the streetlights were no different.
From between the concrete of the collapsed buildings, trees grew as if by magic, widening the cracks, and the barren street transformed into a green forest in just a few seconds.
The surroundings changed in an instant.
And following that scene, the animals that should have been in a forest began to emerge.
"Grrrrr-!"
In the alleys and streets near the rift, now covered in green, beast-shaped monsters with abnormally developed fangs and claws appeared one by one.
As if they had always been there.
Wolves baring sharp fangs, boars as huge as boulders, even horned rabbits.
They lowered their bodies and glared at the people as if they might charge at any moment.
"Run!"
"What?"
"Damn it...! Run!"
Someone shouted.
They were, after all, survivors who had lived long in this ruined world.
All nine of them moved in perfect unison.
Their hesitation lasted only a moment.
One by one, they hurled themselves into the plant-overrun, half-destroyed commercial buildings and office buildings, fleeing the suddenly appearing horde of monsters.
I confirmed through the drone's view that the entire expedition team had safely disappeared into the building.
It was a relief that no one had been left behind, but the situation was bad.
The monsters outside were steadily increasing, and the city was gradually being dyed green.
Those monsters should at least be low-grade or higher, like the Lizardmen—
"Sniff sniff..."
Some of the animals even seemed to be tracking the survivors by sniffing the ground.
The close-up drone feed let me hear their voices.
"H-haah... d-did you just see that?"
"All of a sudden grass started sprouting everywhere, and the monsters—!"
"Damn it, that boar was the size of a boulder...!"
They were all catching their breath while talking about what they'd just seen.
"This is that thing, right? The one they were talking about in the gallery..."
"Dungeon Break..."
The tattooed woman muttered under her breath.
Dungeon Break.
A situation where a long-neglected dungeon reaches its limit and monsters burst out.
The phenomenon everyone had only suspected might happen was unfolding in real time right before their eyes.
It was the very phenomenon that had even wiped out some safe zones.
"...This is insane. I should've just stayed home and watched the gallery..."
Listening to people's regretful voices, I had the reconnaissance drone come back first.
I couldn't just leave those nine in the middle of that.
For now, I had to save them first.
I was planning to bring the reconnaissance drone back and then have it guide me.
"I'll be back in a bit. I need to save those people first."
I put the drones and artillery golem on standby and geared up with my spear and equipment.
But even after all that time, the reconnaissance drone still hadn't returned.
Just in case, I turned my gaze to the cockpit screen.
"The reconnaissance drone should be coming back soon... huh?"
The reconnaissance drone's feed was shaking violently.
I watched the camera closely, wondering if the wind had picked up again.
Since the screen kept shaking, it almost looked like something was grabbing it and dragging it away.
"Could a bird have grabbed the drone...?"
The shaking stopped, and the moment the drone's lens came into focus.
I gasped, sucking in a breath.
"...!"
The entire monitor on Car 1 was filled with someone's face.
Excessively pale skin, a high nose bridge, sharp eyes.
And ears of a distinctive length, unlike a human's.
Looking straight at me from beyond the monitor was the one the nine survivors had so desperately wanted to find—
It was an elf.
Less than thirty centimeters from my reconnaissance drone's lens, the elf's eyes were fixed on the camera.
Click.
"..."
Almost without thinking, I took a photo.