Chapter 2
There were far too many comments. Rather than continue the conversation in that post, it seemed better to write another post with the things I was curious about in the body.
Title : What the hell is Climbing Gallery? The Climber Gallery? Looking at the posts, it seems I'm not normally supposed to be able to come here.
Author : ㅇㅇ
-I suddenly lost consciousness, and when I opened my eyes, I was just here.
-I'm using the device that was in the pouch carried by an NPC.
The comments appeared immediately after I uploaded the post.
└ Head Mod) Climbing Gallery is the Climber Gallery, yeah. There was a gallery terminal in an NPC's pouch? Seriously, I've never heard of anything like that before.
It was the Head Mod.
└ Head Mod) I'll explain more about Climbing Gallery in a bit. First, this place—the Transcendent Gallery—is a gallery that only beings who have reached the top of the Tower and returned to their respective destinations can enter. You being here is an extremely abnormal situation.
└ Head Mod) The Tower has four difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Pandemonium. Anyway, to escape the Tower on any difficulty, you have to kill various monsters and clear through Floor 100, the summit.
└ Head Mod) You said you woke up and found yourself there, right? Then you'll have to clear Floor 1 first to find out what difficulty Tower you're in.
The Tower.
A place where you had to kill monsters and climb up through the floors.
After coming face-to-face with the number ‘1’ and a giant ant monster, I had expected this, as someone who had spent his life immersed in subculture.
But just because my prediction had been right didn't mean I was calm.
What on earth was happening?
└ Head Mod) You're an anomalous existence in more ways than one because climbers can't enter the Transcendent Gallery in the first place. Only those who have cleared the Tower are permitted to enter.
I see. So this wasn't a gallery full of seasoned veterans. I was a complete newbie who had wandered into a gallery full of people who had reached the Tower's summit and escaped.
└ Head Mod) Climbing Gallery is the Climber Gallery. It's a community where people from all four difficulty levels of the Tower can talk. You don't even receive a Climber Gallery terminal until you reach Floor 30. Don't tell me you can already access Climbing Gallery too?
I quickly replied.
└ ㅇㅇ) No. It seems I can only access Transcendent Gallery.
└ Head Mod) …It's even stranger that you can access Transcendent Gallery, though. Anyway, most of the people in Transcendent Gallery will be favorably disposed toward you. Me included.
After the Head Mod's last comment appeared, comments from other beings came pouring in again, one after another.
└ That Head Mod bastard deployed his domain for the first time in ages. It's been ages since I last had my comments blocked.
└ It's only natural, lol. This is a damn historic moment. A Floor 1 scrub of a climber has entered Transcendent Gallery—what the hell is going on? LOL
└ Shaman) As expected of Head Mod-nim. The power of authority.
I had wondered why only the Head Mod kept posting comments one after another, but it seemed he had exercised his authority as the gallery's leader.
└ Great Mage) Ah, I was itching to tell you, but I couldn't butt in. This Transcendent Gallery is supposed to be exclusively for our Tower cohort in the first place… You're from this cohort, right? That should be absolutely impossible.
└ Of course everyone would be favorably disposed toward you. Unlike Climbing Gallery, where Tower clearers are only allowed to lurk, here we can finally give direct backseat advice, lol. My mouth is watering.
└ What good is being able to give advice? If he dies, it's over.
└ Easy-mode bro!! Stop being negative! Stop thinking critically!
└ Light's Sword) Even though the odds of dying on Floor 1 are low, depending on the difficulty, the odds aren't zero. You must be careful. Check whether there are any hazards.
└ A god-tier newbie who got Sword Parrot to say something sensible. We really ought to worship him.
Reading the comment from Light's Sword—I already thought of that user as Sword Parrot—I tore my eyes away from the gallery and hurriedly checked my surroundings. Fortunately, no monster was approaching, and nothing else seemed to be happening.
I wrote another post.
Title : But where did you all live? Do you know the Republic of Korea?
Author : ㅇㅇ*
-Looking at the fixed handles, you all seem pretty far removed from the modern era.
But after uploading the post, I noticed that a ‘*’ had been added next to my ㅇㅇ handle.
└ Head Mod) You're going to be the center of attention for the time being… no, continuously, anyway. So I gave you a star to make sure you get the attention you deserve.
└ Shaman) Waaah, you wouldn't give me one even when I begged you to add something! That's so mean!
└ 天魔) When I asked you to put the Sacred Order's emblem after my epithet, you acted like you didn't even hear me. How insolent, Head Mod.
└ You're flaunting that fancy fixed handle only Hard-mode clearers can have, and humblebragging like crazy. Do you want all the countless ㅇㅇs to beat you up? Still, that star is kind of tempting….
└ LMAO, ㅇㅇ actually looks kind of impressive with a star next to it.
So everyone using a fixed handle was a Hard-mode Tower clearer.
It was somewhat surprising that the Shaman who used that strange way of speaking was someone that formidable.
Just from reading the comments, I was absorbing heaps of information about Transcendent Gallery.
The comments that came in afterward were related to the subject of my post.
A reply to my question about the Republic of Korea.
└ The Republic of Korea? Ah, you came from the same world as the guys who suddenly started showing up in Climbing Gallery recently.
└ 21st-century Earth, right?
└ Light's Sword) Korea, the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, China… There are an awful lot of countries, but you're from that strange Earth with very few talented people.
Hmm, my hometown.
It seemed my hometown had received a low rating.
Their assessment was brutally harsh.
I immediately left a comment with the question that had sprung to mind.
└ ㅇㅇ*) What do you mean by saying they started showing up recently? Were there no others before?
└ Great Mage) They started appearing a year ago. People calling themselves 21st-century Earthlings. All that amounted to was Easy- and Normal-mode climbers starting to become active in Climbing Gallery.
I see. Then was the Tower I'd been summoned to an Easy- or Normal-mode Tower too?
└ ㅇㅇ*) Is there some kind of criterion for being summoned? Why did I suddenly end up here?
└ Swamp Sword Saint) Something may or may not have happened to the world you came from—to 21st-century Earth. Just assume you were unlucky.
I already knew I was unlucky; there was no need to rub it in.
But just as I was about to ask why only people from Hardcore-difficulty Towers had fixed handles—
Kieerk.
A horribly foul cry rang out.
“….”
Fuck.
I shut down the Transcendent Gallery for now.
I put the Transcendent Gallery terminal, which looked exactly like a cellphone, into my pocket and gripped the spear with both hands.
Holding my breath, I pressed my body against the wall on my right.
My heart was beating rapidly.
My body went into a state of extreme tension.
It was familiar.
It was the pressure I had felt every time I pitched in high school baseball, up until two years ago.
At nineteen—just after turning nineteen—I quit baseball because a shoulder injury and my parents' divorce happened at the same time.
My shoulder injury improved somewhat after six months, but I never returned to baseball. It felt as though I had drifted too far away from it.
Back then, I ran away, using a mere six-month absence and the destruction of my family as excuses.
But now, there was nowhere for me to run, unlike back then.
They had said the odds of dying on Floor 1 were low.
No matter what appeared in front of me, I had to stab it to death with my spear.
Just as my pounding heart finally began to calm, a black shadow spread across the gray floor.
I thrust the spear forward and took two steps.
Squelch!
An unpleasant sensation ran up through both my hands.
Kieeaaagh!!
Its body was unmistakably the same as the giant ant I had killed moments ago. But its head was different.
It had a grotesque form, with three ant heads intertwined together.
Even more unpleasant was the fact that each head had a human-like face and features. The outer shells of the heads were definitely those of ants, though.
I pulled out the spear that had pierced its upper torso and thrust it once more.
Squelch!
Kieeaaagh!!
Bright red blood stained both my hands. But I felt only mounting urgency.
‘Is the wound I inflicted healing?’
The wound I had inflicted earlier was healing at a frightening rate.
If its torso had that much regenerative power, did I have to crush its head to kill it?
I knew what I had to do.
I aimed the spearhead at the central head of the three.
At that moment, the ant's right leg moved, cutting across my shoulder blade.
“Kraaaaaaagh!”
─Fuck!
It hurt like hell.
It was a searing pain, as if my entire body were burning. So much for the low odds of dying on Floor 1.
I was certain. If I let it land two or three more attacks, I would be the one who died—not that three-headed ant.
I ground my teeth.
I moved my body.
Crack!
I crushed the central head first, then crushed the head on the left in quick succession.
This time, I saw the ant's left leg move.
I quickly thrust the shaft forward and met it head-on.
Shaaak!
But it sliced across my side as it passed.
It was a pain as if a whole chunk of flesh had been torn away. The pain once again consumed my mind, but I had to move.
Krrrraaaak!
I barely knocked aside the charging ant's right leg with the shaft. Then I drove the spearhead into its one remaining head.
The giant ant's body slowly toppled over onto its side.
I had finally killed it.
[Experience increased.]
[Current experience: 70%]
[Pain Suppression Lv.1 - Skill acquired.]
[Composure Lv.1 - Skill acquired.]
[Cover Lv.1 - Skill acquired.]
I had no time to feel relief or a sense of accomplishment. The wounds in my side and shoulder blade were making their presence unmistakably felt.
Hot blood.
First, I had to stop the bleeding.
The mound.
This is a baseball mound.
I repeated those words to myself as I held on to consciousness.
When baseball had been my entire life, I had always stood my ground there, no matter what happened.
I headed back.
Toward the place where I had found the terminal that could open Transcendent Gallery.
Toward the corpse of the [Fleeing Citizen].
I picked up the pouch beside the corpse.
I pulled out the terminal, but something else was definitely still inside.
My searching hand found a round potion bottle.
It contained a red liquid.
Just as words had floated above the corpse like a hologram, an explanation of the potion appeared as well.
[Grade 3 Healing Potion]
Category – Healing Item
Effect: Pouring it over a wound will heal the injured area to a certain extent.
It seemed I wasn't doomed to die after all.
With both hands trembling, I opened the potion's cap.