Chapter 82
Following that, a cheerful sound rang in my ears, and messages began pouring out one after another, filling my field of vision.
[Since there are too many messages, sponsorship messages will be displayed first.]
[The Eye That Gazes Down Upon the World is extremely interested in seeing demi-humans and humans living together!]
[The Eye That Gazes Down Upon the World sponsors a Well Seed!]
[The Hammer Warrior smiles as it looks upon the demi-humans it has missed.]
[The Hammer Warrior sponsors an anvil.]
"Uh... sponsorships from the Constellations...?"
Before I could even blink in surprise, a brilliantly glowing seed descended lightly from the air and landed in my palm.
"...Wait, does that meanㅡ"
Kwang—!
An anvil landed squarely beside me.
Good thing it landed next to me; otherwise, it could have...
In case it caused any further damage, I picked up the fallen anvil and seed and headed toward Car No. 2.
The anvil was heavy.
"Would you like to go to Car No. 1 for a little while?"
"Yes!"
I sent the siblings who had been playing with Marimo in Car No. 2 to Car No. 1, then stayed alone in Car No. 2, collecting the sponsorship items that kept falling and storing them in the storage compartment.
Sponsorships of every imaginable kind continued.
Plop, thud! Crash!
Car No. 2 was chaos.
Unknown glowing masses began falling from the air in droves, materializing into all kinds of supplies, equipment, and food the moment they touched the floor.
Even the other Constellations who had only been watching began competitively sending sponsorship items.
Was it really such a difficult achievement to accomplish?
...Then again, without a means of transportation like my train, moving this many people safely to a safe zone would be impossible.
“Wow, it just keeps falling.”
Amid the items raining down in a frenzy, I scanned the message window.
I had a fresh realization.
There were as many Constellations watching us from above as there were survivors.
As the falling items gradually began to subside, I closed the door to Car No. 2 and headed for the cockpit.
Just then, I heard a familiar voice.
“Um...”
It was Ha-seon, sitting in the corner of the cockpit.
Since dozens of people had boarded the train at Daegu Station, she had become noticeably quieter as she struggled to suppress her various phobias and aversion to crowds.
I approached her with concern.
“Ha-seon, are you feeling a little better now?”
"Yes."
When I approached, Ha-seon raised her head and gave me a faint but bright smile.
Her eyes held far more distinct vitality than before.
“Since everyone got off... I’m okay now. More importantly, a message window just popped up. It said my skill leveled up.”
“Your skill... the Gallery skill?”
I widened my eyes.
Ha-seon’s Gallery skill was a great help to the survivors, myself included.
In fact, it had been useful enough that I had wanted to use a Skill Enhancement Ticket on it.
Ha-seon had previously explained that her Gallery skill leveled up automatically once certain conditions were met.
So I had enhanced my own skill first without hesitation.
Now Ha-seon was saying that the level-up she had been waiting for had finally happened.
"It turned out that simply increasing the number of users wasn’t enough to level it up."
Ha-seon said this in a slightly excited voice.
"The condition was that the number of Constellations using the Gallery had to surpass a certain threshold."
"The number of Constellations was the condition?"
It was a little surprising, but if that was the condition, it made sense that it had been met now.
Even I had received sponsorships for quite a while earlier, perhaps because the Constellations’ interest in me had grown.
I was impressed and asked Ha-seon with barely concealed curiosity.
"Then... what changed when it leveled up?"
"I’ll show you the most practical change first. The Gallery’s map function has been unlocked."
"A map...?"
Ha-seon showed me the laptop monitor, and I sat down beside her.
When Ha-seon moved the mouse, a map of South Korea appeared in the center of the screen.
At a glance, it didn’t look much different from the Google Maps I used to see when I went online.
Of course, that alone was already incredible.
"...Hmm? What are these pins and speech bubbles...?"
Numerous pins marking locations were stuck across the map, and speech bubbles flickered above them in real time.
Ha-seon clicked the pins one by one.
[Busan Seomyeon Station] : There are spider monsters nesting in Seomyeon Station’s underground shopping arcade. Never go there.
[Daejeon City Hall] : They gave us tons of water at this safe zone. Much appreciated.
[Yeouido] : I just arrived and got assigned a pretty big studio apartment.
"No way..."
"Yes. The map automatically analyzes Gallery posts, and when you click a pin, it summarizes the related posts. You can also click through to read the posts in detail."
"Oh..."
I let out an exclamation.
The map function alone would be a tremendous help to survivors. Instead of digging through Gallery posts, they could simply check the map to see at a glance the monster distribution, resource locations, and safe zones that survivors had reported.
"This alone is amazing, but something else was added too."
Ha-seon’s expression stiffened strangely.
She moved the map aside and enlarged a newly created Gallery category on the screen.
[Survivor Gallery : Free Posts / Marketplace / Map / Constellation-Only Board]
"A Constellation-only board...?"
"Yes. It seems Constellations can write posts here now."
I inhaled sharply.
Constellations were going to write posts on an online community?
Of course, they had been posting on the marketplace as wellㅡ
"There are restrictions, of course. Only the manager and deputy manager can access that board. We can only view it, not write posts, and only other Constellations can comment on the posts and communicate with one another."
"So we can only lurk."
"Yes."
Ha-seon and I swallowed hard as we stared at the empty Constellation-only board.
What kinds of posts would they write there?
Would the fact that Constellations could communicate with one another be positive for the survivors?
A strange tension filled the cockpit.
It was at that very moment, while we held our breath and stared intently at the screen.
The first historic post was registered on the previously empty Constellation-only board.
---
[Title : What is this?]
Author : Hammer Warrior
What do you mean, what is it.
---
"..."
"...They’re more human than I expected."
Ha-seon and I stared blankly at each other as if we had planned it.
It wasn’t the post we had expected, but fortunately, it was more ordinary than we had imagined, which was a relief.
I hadn’t known that Constellations could react just like peopleㅡ
'I even recognize the name.'
It was the Constellation who liked strong liquor.
It had been a somewhat approachable Constellation from the time I first saw its marketplace posts.
After the first post, more posts began appearing one by one on the Constellation-only board.
"They’re all more..."
"Ordinary than expected."
The atmosphere and tone weren’t much different from those of an ordinary people’s message board.
I didn’t know whether seeing the Gallery had led them to think they should write posts that way, but that was the overall mood of the posts.
Of course, the subject matter was somewhat different.
Some posts reported the situation overseas in the form of reports, while others began profound discussions about the restrictions Constellations felt when interfering with the human world.
"...Apparently, the Constellations in China frequently attempt to descend in person."
"Is that possible?"
"I don’t know. Something about selecting an incarnation... or having to fulfill certain conditions... Most of it is too difficult to understand..."
Ha-seon and I watched their conversations and committed the information to memory.
Surely, the day would come when we understood it all.
The ordinary Gallery users were simply thrilled by the newly added map function and too busy entering all the information they knew onto the map.
Now, people could travel long distances with much greater safety.
I also felt that it would become easier for me to seek out bad survivors.
I left information gathering to Ha-seon and began sorting through the sponsorship items that had filled Car No. 2 earlier.
"This will be more necessary for this safe zone than for me."
I took the Well Seed and anvil from among the sponsorship items and went outside the train.
They were items this safe zone needed.
Just then, I spotted the elf staring blankly at the survivors as they entered their respective homes.
"Oh, we made eye contact."
She ran toward me as soon as she saw me, and I handed the elf the Well Seed.
She probably knew how to use it.
Because... it was a seed?
"@^%#%^!"
She stroked the seed happily, then planted it in a place where a street tree had been uprooted and the ground had been torn open.
Then, a moment later, vines sprouted from the seed in an instant.
The vines dug down into the earth in a circle all the way underground, and before long, they created a long, cylindrical well.
"Water, come out."
"Ah, a familiar word at last."
She was probably saying that water would be ready soon.
The people in town would now have much less to worry about when it came to drinking water.
"Ah! Wait a moment..."
"Huh? What’s this...?"
Next, I approached the dwarf who had been directing the people and handed him the heavy anvil.
The dwarf ran his hand over the anvil’s surface, then trembled with emotion as his beard quivered.
"W-where did you get this?! I’ve hardly ever seen such a superior piece...!"
"The Constellations sponsored it..."
"Huh... There are some proper blacksmiths among the Constellations after all... ...Actually, I didn’t like the anvil I’m using now, so I was wondering if I should use your golem as a substitute! Ha ha!"
At that joke, the golem that had been following me and guarding me the entire time shuddered all over.
Leaving the old man’s hearty laughter behind me, I returned to the train and began working.
"Busy..."
It was time to make new equipment for myself.
I planned to use the leather the goblin had given me and the rainbow ore I had obtained earlier.
The upgraded armory offered an entirely different level of variety in its blueprints compared to before.
I put the leather from the goblin, the lump of rainbow-colored mineral Jiwoo had pulled out for me, and the mana stones I had collected through hunting into the input slot.
Then, a list appeared on the screen asking me to choose the form of the armor to be crafted.
1. Heavy Armor
2. Lightweight Leather Armor
...
16. Functional Casualwear (Windbreaker).
"Functional casualwear? ...A windbreaker?"
I selected the windbreaker design.
The number of designs had increased dramatically, but armor in the form of a windbreaker...
Certainly, some of the armor was too conspicuous and cumbersome to move around in.
Although it might offer somewhat less defense, clothing that allowed easy movement and, above all, looked ordinary seemed more advantageous to my survival.
Whiiiiir—! Krrk, hiss—!
I heard the sound of mechanical arms moving inside the armory.
I watched the crafting process blankly with the golem beside me.