Chapter 117
“I want to die...”
Darian had lost everything.
His family, his money, and his home.
He suffered physical pain at the hands of monsters, and mental anguish at the hands of people.
His life was like a filthy sewer.
From then on, everything in his field of vision appeared black.
“My... My stomach hurts so much.”
Even in this situation, he was hungry.
His consciousness grew dim, as though his mind were being forcibly torn away from his body.
Everything before his eyes looked black and damp.
It was when he was sprawled in the plaza like garbage, unable to satisfy even humanity’s most basic needs—food, clothing, and shelter.
“Here, please take this.”
-Thud
A can of tuna had been placed before his eyes.
Strangely, the tuna can wasn’t black.
It appeared bright and vibrant, like a jewel.
“Ah...”
Was it a dream?
Then a coat was draped over his back.
The coat was the same.
The coat looked cozy and warm at a glance.
“How...”
Ever since losing everything, the world had appeared black.
Then how had the tuna can and coat retained their colors so perfectly?
Darian slowly raised his head, and soon learned the answer to that question.
“Head Mod?”
Someone radiating brilliant light from their entire body.
The man looking down at him with the sunlight at his back was bright, almost like a god.
There was no denying it.
As though realizing a truth, every cell in his body screamed that the being before him was Head Mod.
“What do you mean, Head Mod?”
But Head Mod denied it.
As if to say that the time had not yet come.
“Ah.”
Darian soon understood, and nodded faintly.
“No. I must have been talking nonsense for a moment because I was so hungry.”
Darian slowly got to his feet.
The world was still black.
But centered around Head Mod, all the colors were shining brilliantly, as if it were heaven.
“My name is Darian Zallot.”
“Um, I’m Malphite.”
“Malphite...”
In Darian’s world, Head Mod was God,
and God’s name was Malphite.
“I will never forget.”
He waited for the day they would meet again.
Darian was no longer broken.
He gazed at Head Mod with eyes sparkling with life and swore.
Hoping that one day he would be chosen for use.
*
The Pope’s corpse fell beneath the podium.
Darian watched the scene as if gazing upon something disgusting and blasphemous, then raised the holy sword high.
“Glory to Head Mod!”
The holy sword still emitted no light.
But everyone was too shocked to notice.
- What the fuck is this?
- No, wait, did the Pope really die?
- Shouldn’t we restrain him first?
The gallery was thrown into chaos.
The cathedral soldiers beneath the podium were the first to come to their senses.
They immediately rushed toward Darian, who had killed the Pope, but...
ㄴ Based on what?
ㄴ ?
ㄴ The Pope called him a hero, remember?
ㄴ Oh.
They had no grounds.
The soldiers couldn’t bring themselves to arrest Darian.
A hero was an agent who carried out God’s will more closely than anyone else.
Everything a hero did was exempt from punishment and granted legitimacy.
Since the cathedral itself had certified him, arresting him would be a contradiction in itself.
“Th-This...!”
One of the bishops, frozen beside the Pope’s corpse, trembled with betrayal.
Darian was not a hero at all; he was a fake hero, a puppet they had created.
But he couldn’t bring himself to order them to arrest him.
The moment he told them to arrest him, the cathedral’s lie would be exposed.
Just then, the bishop’s eyes met Darian’s expressionless gaze.
“...!”
At that moment, Darian was wearing a mad smile.
Only then did the bishop realize that everyone had been deceived.
Darian had planned and waited for this moment from the very beginning.
To force them into an insane either-or with no way out.
“All heretics deserve to die.”
And to kill the Pope, who believed in a god other than Head Mod and insulted Head Mod.
But Head Mod is me.
“This is fucked.”
My own fanatical believer, whom I didn’t even know I had, had killed the Pope.
He had killed the Pope in front of everyone, then openly chanted my name and praised me.
I felt a headache coming on.
- Wasn’t this ordered by Head Mod?
- Seems like Head Mod was trying to clean up the cathedral.
- He’s openly praising Head Mod, that’s fucking crazy.
Naturally, the gallery began spinning conspiracy theories about me.
That I had killed the Pope through some high-level psychological operation.
ㄴ Yeah, so?
ㄴ Then what about the Pope certifying him as a hero?
ㄴ For real, if he’s actually a hero, doesn’t that make the Pope a heretic?
The problem was that the cathedral had recognized him as a hero.
In the midst of the confusion, a bishop who could no longer stand it shouted.
“Arrest him!”
“Huh? But...”
You called him a hero.
The soldier standing before Darian wore a complicated expression, as if he were about to cry.
“Take him away.”
But Darian himself lowered the holy sword and approached the soldier.
Amid the confusion, Darian allowed himself to be arrested.
*
[Title: Why Darian Isn’t a Hero...jpg]
I think everyone saw the whole hero controversy this time.
But no matter how much I think about it, Darian isn’t a hero, yeah.
(Image of the holy sword emitting light)
Of course, the holy sword did emit light.
But if you look closely, the light is somehow different.
(Image of the holy sword Head Mod certified)
When Head Mod certified the holy sword before, it gave off an unmistakable radiance at a glance,
whereas when Darian held it, it only gave the impression of, “Oh, it’s light.”
(Image of a light magic demonstration)
And this is a spell screenshot posted by a light-mage gallerybro, and the light is exactly the same as this.
So, to sum it up:
1. The Pope created a fake hero to seize power.
2. But the fake hero was a fanatical believer in Head Mod.
3. So the Pope died, and this is the current situation, yeah.
[Upvotes 9999+] [Downvotes 12]
- The three-line summary is clean.
- So that’s what it was.
- Come to think of it, it was a little out of nowhere.
- I thought the Pope, of all people, would be incorruptible. What a disappointment...
ㄴ The water downstream is only clear if the water upstream is clear, gallerybro.
- Then what happens to that “hero” guy?
ㄴ What do you mean, what happens? He’s executed for murdering the Pope.
ㄴ Fuck, but it still felt good to see him get his.
ㄴ (I’ll remember this! Farmer emote)
“So it ends up like this after all.”
Darian wasn’t a hero.
In the end, the cathedral had done what the cathedral does.
Rarely, the gallery had actually reached a conclusion on a controversy.
The cathedral’s continuous trolling had already made public opinion overwhelmingly hostile.
[Title: So What Happened?]
Give us a summary.
- You fucking idiot.
- Controversy-illiterate.
- The cathedral is screwed now, right?
ㄴ Yeah. He wasn’t a real hero, but he did an amazing job and took the cathedral down with him.
- Author) Okay, got it.
ㄴ Author) Can’t we find some way to save that guy?
ㄴ ㄴ No, that’s impossible.
ㄴ Do you think that’s possible?
The problem was that Darian could no longer escape punishment either.
Since the cathedral had fabricated a fake hero, everyone involved was to be executed.
Thanks to that, the remaining remnants would all be cleared out, but regardless, the Pope was still the Pope.
Ultimately, that meant Darian, who had posed as a hero, would have to die too.
To prevent that, someone at least more powerful than the Emperor would have to bring forth valid evidence...
“Did you say he’s seven years old?”
The Emperor was an elementary school student.
There was no valid evidence, either.
There was no way to prevent Darian’s death.
- What are the cathedral knights doing?
ㄴ For real, didn’t they do the job in their place?
ㄴ They normalized it for them, though.
ㄴ He’s a cathedral knight himself, but there’s no justification...
Above all, there was a reason public dissatisfaction with Darian’s impending death grew so fierce.
[Title: Wow, These Fuckers Are Insane lol]
(Image of cathedral knights searching the cathedral)
(Images of various corruption hidden inside the cleric’s office)
The cathedral knights launched a mass search and seizure over the fake hero incident this time.
But holy shit, it’s not just one or two things, is it?
Various incitements to murder, bribery, sexual assault of nuns, extortion of offerings, and so on.
Fuck, this is unbelievable lol.
If the higher-ups hadn’t died, would this have been buried forever?
I paid offerings to a cathedral like this? Fucking hell lol.
I’m fucking pissed.
[Upvotes 9999+] [Downvotes 5]
- There are still assholes downvoting this?
- Wow; just how many things are there?
- For real, this is creepy as fuck.
- Even the higher-ups died because they picked a fight with Head Mod lol.
ㄴ Cardinal = witch incident / Pope = fake hero incident / Archbishop = violent suppression incident
ㄴ Lol, legendary.
ㄴ You really suck at picking fights, lol.
There were many secret spaces inside the cathedral that only upper-ranking members could enter.
When they searched those spaces in the wake of this incident, all sorts of crimes came to light.
Having enjoyed countless believers as the state religion all this time, the cathedral now faced an equally fierce backlash.
What was more, public opinion even began to form around elevating Darian as a hero and saving him.
[Title: These Bastards Are Holding an Execution?]
(Image of Darian climbing onto the execution platform)
They know they can’t kill him if they drag it out, so they’re just holding the execution on the very same day.
- Wow, all I can do is admire this lol.
- Is there a crazy religion that holds a hero appointment ceremony and an execution on the same day?
- (Startled farmer frog emote)
The problem was that the Pope’s faction, having failed to create a fake hero, had begun the execution on its own authority.
But Darian in the image showed not the slightest hesitation or fear.
Rather, he was climbing onto the guillotine himself with a peaceful expression.
“Hmm, it would be a shame to let him die.”
Killing someone was clearly a crime.
But what if the person who died wasn’t exactly a person?
It was just as I was racking my brains for another way amid the boiling public sentiment.
[1 empty slot remains.]
[Searching...]
[1 target nearby can be designated.]
[Would you like to designate the target?]
“Right, I had this.”
It was the enigmatic system notification I’d received as the gallery’s level 10 achievement reward.
It was a baffling system that had said nothing except to designate a target.
But only now did I realize what it was.
-Swish
As I realized this, a previously invisible line of text appeared over the notification.
[Level 10 Special Feature – Gallery Owner Selection]
Only gallerybros who meet the qualifications may be directly granted a title by Head Mod.
Please designate a gallery owner.
Empty slot – 1
Eligible targets
1. Darian
Select a gallery owner.
In other words, “gallery owner,” a term coined to mean someone mentioned so often that they were practically like the gallery owner.
In galleries dedicated to specific people from my past life—for example, celebrity galleries—the celebrity could be called the gallery owner.
They weren’t the actual creator of the gallery, but they were the subject at the center of the controversy.
- Save Darian!!!
- If those crazy cathedral bastards go through with it, I’m rioting too.
- Hero.jpg
Darian happened to be rising to prominence, with countless mentions throughout the gallery.
“But what good would designating him do?”
The question was whether designating him would actually save Darian.
Darian’s head was already on the guillotine.
[Would you like to designate ‘Darian’ as the gallery owner?]
“Well, I guess I’ll find out if I try.”
I designated Darian in the empty slot.
It happened at that moment.
[!Important Notice for All Gallery Users!]
[Head Mod is appointing a new gallery owner.]
[A generational change with the current gallery owner is taking place...]
[There is currently no gallery owner.]
[The current gallery owner, ‘Darian,’ has been appointed!]
“Huh?”
It was the moment various systems appeared along with a noisy notification sound throughout the gallery.
-Flash!
It was the moment the world seemed to flash brightly for an instant.
[Top Post: What the Fuck Is This?]
(Image of a pillar of light shooting high into the sky)
I’m an Adrianite, so what is this?
What’s that shooting up from the cathedral???
- Fuck, I saw it too.
- They say Head Mod chose him?
- I’m getting a shitload of notifications in the gallery too?
- What the hell is this gallery owner selection thing?
“Oh...”
A pillar of light shot toward the sky from the direction of the cathedral where Darian was.