Chapter 1
Title: Creepy, Creepy: The Established User Who's Terrifying Once You Know the Truth.jpg
TheSecretOfTheLiberalArtsGhost ← This bastard, yep.
You can spot him in pretty much any gallery, sporting a nickname that makes no sense.
He even shows up in game galleries, plant galleries, fried rice galleries, and all sorts of other places.
What's even scarier is that he appears randomly at all hours—dawn, morning, afternoon, whenever he feels like it ㄷㄷ;
ㄴ That guy's also famous in our gallery for being active all the time. Is this for real?
ㄴ He just seems like a macro.
ㄴ No, no, he's not a macro. Look at his comments—he even gives replies a macro couldn't make.
ㄴ What? He wasn't a robot? Every time I posted a question, he answered within a second.
ㄴ ??? He does that in our gallery too. Does this guy not sleep?
ㄴ Fact) According to his gallery log, not a single hour has ever passed without a new post.
ㄴ Liberal-arts-kyaaaah!
ㄴ But what the fuck even is the Fried Rice Gallery for?
A frightening rumor was making the rounds on a community.
It was said that one established user roamed from place to place without ever taking even an hour off.
There had even been a time when three replies posted at the same time appeared in different galleries, regardless of the gallery type. It was impossible not to get chills.
ㄴ You guys really don't know what that is? It's four people taking turns using one account.
There was even a rumor that several people were using one account, but it wasn't true.
Because that SecretOfTheLiberalArtsGhost was me.
“That just means you're interested in lots of different topics.”
Of course, I knew that too.
I knew I had a gallery addiction severe enough to be considered a problem.
The fact that I had three or four galleries open on each of my dual monitors was proof enough.
How long had I been this addicted to browsing galleries?
Suddenly, I felt sunlight coming in through the curtains.
“Ah, it's about time to sleep.”
The time was 5:50. It was bedtime.
Of course, bedtime didn't mean I stopped browsing galleries.
From now on, I had to sleep in five fifty-minute naps and check whether I'd missed any featured posts.
I knew that this was wrong, but...
“This kind of life isn't so bad.”
I had a decent amount of money.
It wasn't enough to live on for the rest of my life, but I had no desire to go outside and look for work.
It wasn't as though I had some kind of trauma, either.
It was simply that the mammalian part of the human brain had developed far too much.
“Dopamine! Short-term pleasure! Galleries!”
But even this was starting to get boring.
My interests had spread far enough to make even an octopus recoil, yet I was starting to want to become a gallery manager—a head mod.
There was no reason. It was just impulsive.
Otherwise, I wouldn't have coveted the power of a head mod who deleted gore pics, also known as tactical nukes, for free.
“Ah, I want to be a head mod.”
The topic didn't matter.
It was the moment when the desire to become a head mod suddenly seized me.
[Would you like to be appointed administrator of the Otherworld Destruction Gallery?]
An unfamiliar message appeared on the site's main page.
“...Otherworld Destruction Gallery? What the hell is this?”
I was startled at first, but soon decided that it didn't really matter.
It was probably a gallery in name only, with no activity at all. It might be fun to wear the head mod badge for a little while.
[Yes.]
With that thought, I accepted without hesitation.
Never realizing what kind of snowball it would set rolling.
[You have been appointed administrator of the Otherworld Destruction Gallery.]
[Beginning transfer. 3...2...]
“Transfer? Is it April Fools already—urk?”
I was laughing it off as some kind of community prank when a terrible headache suddenly began.
“!”
The pain forced me to sink to the floor.
Fortunately, the headache didn't last long.
When I staggered to my feet with one hand on the floor, the scene before me was utterly unfamiliar.
A rough stone pavement and two-story wooden buildings like the ones you might see on a trip through Europe.
It looked just like a street in a medieval royal city.
“No, this... surely not?”
I remembered the message saying that the transfer was beginning.
Could it be that I had actually been transferred?
But this place was a ruin.
There wasn't a single person in sight, only the remains of buildings that had fallen into ruin.
I was sitting dazed on the stone pavement in front of a shop when I suddenly locked eyes with something.
“A person... wait, that's not a person?”
Two legs, two arms, and a head.
I naturally assumed it was a person, but it wasn't.
“Graaah.”
People didn't mutter sounds like that.
“No, a zom—?”
Yes, there was no mistaking it: it was a zombie.
*
Bang! Crash! Baaaaang!
“Graaagh!”
The moment it came sprinting toward me like a madman,
I instinctively ran on all fours like a beast toward the inn's basement storage room.
It was nothing short of a miracle that I managed to close the door.
“Graaah!”
BANG!
The zombie began pounding violently on the door.
But since it had once been a person, it fortunately couldn't break through the thick storage-room door.
“What the hell is going on?”
After shoving a shelf roughly in front of the entrance, I crawled into a corner and sat with my knees drawn up in the darkness.
The sudden confusion was disorienting.
It was difficult to keep my senses about me.
My head spun from my ragged breathing.
Then, in a moment of panic, my entire body began trembling like an aspen, as though I had suddenly developed claustrophobia!
[Open the gallery and begin management.]
“Huh?”
An unfamiliar message appeared in front of my eyes.
*
Humans must be creatures of habit.
The moment I saw one familiar thing amid all the unfamiliarity, I regained my relief and composure.
And especially the wording of this status window.
[Head Mod]
Points held – 0
[Head Mod's Abilities]
Gallery Management
Lock
Lock
.
.
“The gallery...”
To think I'd become a gallery head mod right before I died.
This was totally a lucky head mod moment, wasn't it?
But the transfer hadn't been trying to kill me.
If anything, it was closer to salvation.
[Obtain points through gallery management. Use them to unlock the items and abilities you need!]
“Hmm?”
It was a system that felt like playing a growth game.
As if possessed, I pressed the button to open the gallery, and
-The head mod's here!!!!!!!!!!!
-Gallery-kyahhoow!Gallery-kyahhoow!Gallery-kyahhoow!
-Finally, we have a head mod too!!!!!!!!
I found the gallery running completely wild.
“What? The posting rate is insane.”
The first thing that surprised me was the number of users.
It wasn't in the hundreds or thousands—it was a number that looked like an entire continent's population had gathered.
With the astronomical posting rate came all kinds of bait posts.
-Head Mod oppa, thank you so much for coming!.jpg
“Oh?”
I was inexplicably drawn to the refreshing-looking post and tapped it.
What appeared was a beautiful elf... or rather, a photo of a female dwarf with an extremely daring amount of skin exposed.
ㄴ Ah!!! Fuck!!!
ㄴ If I get corrupted by a magical beast, you're the first one I'll kill.
ㄴ What a bait post. You're a magical beast, you bastard!
ㄴ (OP) An emoticon of an elf giving a thumbs-up.
ㄴ The average beastfolk pretending to be a human pretending to be an elf.
“Ah.”
Was this the otherworld's tactical nuke?
I was so shocked that I couldn't help placing my hand over the user-ban button.
[Suspended for 100 days]
[Reason for suspension: Live a wholesome life.]
[You obtained 30 points!]
At the same time, a question occurred to me.
“Are there only people here?”
Naturally, the gallery's banner explicitly said ‘Otherworld Destruction Gallery.’
After looking through a few featured posts, I found that elves, dwarves, and beastfolk existed here, along with magical beasts such as goblins and wyverns.
The majority of the featured posts were elves uploading daring selfie pics.
“If you get featured with stuff like this, the diversity of featured posts is going to disappear, I say. Tsk, tsk.”
I muttered nonsense and saved the picture.
What I saw next were the points I'd earned by punishing the gallery user who had posted that gore pic.
[You can use points to purchase and sell various items.]
[A new ability has been unlocked!]
[Head Mod's Abilities]
Gallery Management
Head Mod's Marketplace (new!)
Head Mod's Shop (new!)
“Oh?”
Two abilities had been unlocked at once.
As if entranced, I entered the shop.
What greeted me were categories and items reminiscent of online shopping.
[Categories]
Food/Necessities/Weapons/Clothing...
[Category - Food]
[Canned tuna] - 1 point
[Canned vegetable tuna] - 1 point
[Canned chili tuna] - 2 points
[Water 250 ml] - 1 point
On a whim, I bought about ten bottles of water.
[Payment complete! 30 → 20]
[The product has been delivered.]
Thud!
Along with it, a box of bottled water appeared in the corner of the storage room.
“Legendary.”
I opened one bottle of water and drank it.
It was even ice-cold and fresh down to my bones!
As the cold water went down, the tangled threads of my thoughts began to connect.
‘What if I list this on that marketplace?’
[Welcome to the Head Mod's Marketplace.]
[Here, you can list items in your possession and sell them at whatever price you want.]
[What would you like to list?]
“Let's keep just two extra for ourselves and sell the rest.”
Ten points felt a little wasteful, but considering that punishing that shitpost had earned me thirty, it wasn't a bad deal.
Title: Magical beasts have attacked my region too
(A picture of a magical beast that fell into a well and died)
Can't take questions. There's no drinking water.
ㄴ That's fucking pitiful.
ㄴ I really want to give you some water.
ㄴ (OP) For real? Please share just a little.
ㄴ LOL; but I haven't been able to drink for days either.
ㄴ (OP) Fuck...
Besides, most of the post authors seemed to be having trouble securing drinking water.
[The minimum price is 1 mana dumpling.]
[Mana dumplings are the basic currency used throughout the otherworld.]
[1 mana dumpling = 1,000 won]
“It'll all sell out in a few hours, right?”
On a whim, I listed eight bottles of bottled water.
[Sold out.]
They sold out the instant I listed them.
*
One day in the peaceful and desperate Otherworld Destruction Gallery,
an unfamiliar system appeared out of nowhere.
[The Head Mod's Marketplace is now open.]
-??? What is this?
-The name is seriously fucking lame.
-Huh? They're selling bottled water here?
Naturally, the gallery users' attention was drawn to it, and when some of them clicked on the marketplace, they found bottled water inside.
Not just any water, but incredibly clear bottled water.
It wasn't muddy water or water contaminated with viruses.
The transparent material it was contained in looked suspicious, since they'd never seen anything like it before, but those who were desperately short on water bought it as if possessed.
-!!!!! How can water be this transparent?
-This smooth, non-rigid container is legendary.
-Thank you so much, thank you so much
-No, let me have some too!!
It ended up causing an enormous sensation across the ruined otherworldly continent.