Chapter 125
- No, that magical beast can cast curses.
- Isn't that cheating?
- Seriously, if a few of those things got together, wouldn't a small kingdom melt away in no time?
It used its head to set a trap.
The gallery was thrown into an uproar by this new type of magical beast.
It was a magical beast unlike anything anyone had ever seen.
- So I made this thing called tuna mayo. What do you think?
ㄴ (Tuna mayo rice bowl GIF)
ㄴ Fuck, are you a genius?
ㄴ Wow, what an adorable child.
ㄴ (Frenzied elf emote)
Well, the gallery only stirred for a while.
Of course, one gallerybro had died.
But that alone wasn't enough to shake the gallery. They had already lived so deeply immersed in war that it was almost horrifying.
After a brief memorial, the gallery didn't seem particularly worried.
[Title: Aren't you scared?]
Author: Head Mod*
A guy who was near the top of the bounty rankings just died, you know?
He doesn't even have eyes, and his senses are protected too, so even flashbangs didn't work.
And that thing is incredibly fast for its size, you know?
[Upvotes 4211] [Downvotes 12]
- “So what?”
- I told you, nobody's interested.
- Kka-kka-kka? Hmm, this is a snack ad.
ㄴ ?
ㄴ Since we're talking about it, recommend some snacks.
ㄴ Let's roll the Honey Butter Chip gacha.
“No, what?”
In terms of difficulty alone, it might be trickier than any of the mutant magical beasts we'd encountered so far.
And yet, surprisingly, everyone was calm.
Of course, keeping one's composure was a good thing, but why was everyone so peaceful?
The answer lay somewhere unexpected.
- You know, there's this thing.
- Seriously, there's Head Mod, so there's no point making a fuss.
- If you're unsure, think about it the other way around.
ㄴ Friendly arachne vs. enemy Head Mod.
ㄴ Fuck, I'm speedrunning death.
ㄴ Oh, now I get it.
ㄴ Head Mod*) No.
There were plenty of weapons I'd shown so far that could kill an arachne.
But this time, things were different.
The cave where the arachne was located was in the middle of a forest.
“Hmm, fire is out of the question for now.”
I thought of chemical weapons, but rejected the idea almost immediately.
“Do I look like I want to wreck an entire forest?”
The drawbacks outweighed the benefits.
I wondered about mines or machine guns, but the inside of the cave was extremely dark.
If it hid deep inside the winding passages, neither option seemed particularly useful.
“Then should I just bury the whole cave?”
After a brief consideration, I posted on the gallery.
[Title: Raise your hand if you're good at throwing balls]
Author: Head Mod*
Support wanted.
- ?
- What the hell, all of a sudden...
- He's doing this again. Go eat your meal.
But the response was surprisingly lukewarm.
“Did I post it too briefly?”
I edited the post, adding a few more conditions.
[Title: Raise your hand if you're good at throwing balls (Revised)]
Author: Head Mod*
(GIF of a pile of high-explosive and fragmentation grenades)
This is to support the arachne bounty hunters.
I can roughly pinpoint the cave's location through its IP, so I'll tell you.
Just pull the pins and throw them in. And if you catch the arachne with these, I won't charge you a separate fee, yeah.
[Upvotes 7239] [Downvotes 1]
- Ah, haha. You should've said so earlier.
- I used to be nicknamed the Demon of Ball Games, you know.
- I simply love balls.
- When I caught the ball, the sun hid itself in fear that it would be caught too, and night fell, yeah.
ㄴ You're talking absolute shit, lol.
[‘10 high-explosive grenades’ and ‘10 fragmentation grenades’ have been delivered!]
As soon as I edited the post, system notifications began ringing incessantly.
I delivered the grenades to the volunteers near the cave.
Soon, grenades rolled into the cave, and a chain of explosions erupted.
The hunters entered afterward to check on things.
“Huh?”
...only to come back out before long.
[Title: LOL, did we get it?]
(GIF of an injured hunter with torn arm muscles)
Ah, lol. I was the one who nearly got killed.
- Aagh, fuck.
- No way, it took that and didn't die?
ㄴ Author) The cave was deeper than expected. I think they were all hiding way down there.
ㄴ Author) (GIF of passages shaped like an anthill)
ㄴ I really almost fucking died.
“No way. It still didn't die after that?”
The grenades hadn't been particularly effective either.
Despite its appearance, the cave extended deep underground.
I considered closing off the entrance and burying it as it was, but that didn't seem like a very good idea.
YongYongWillDie: The arachne knows how to use magic.
YongYongWillDie: Even if you block the entrance, I believe it would simply make a passage to somewhere else.
Head Mod*: Hmm...
That naturally meant chemical weapons were out of the question too.
If I used them, I might wither the entire forest.
“I need to know what it's doing inside. Then I can at least prepare properly.”
I'd seen magical beasts charge in before, but this was the first time one had dug in and used a come-get-me strategy.
It was while the hunters were unable to enter easily and lingered around the area.
- 1.7.000.3) But do we really need to catch it?
- 1.7.000.3) Magical beasts are everywhere. I don't get why you're so fixated on this one.
“Hmm?”
That was when I spotted a gallerybro with a strange IP address.
The chat was ambiguous enough to seem like bait, or not, and the IP address was one I'd never seen before.
“Did an address like that even exist?”
The 1 at the front represented humans.
The 7 after it represented a forest region located in Ellad.
The next number should have represented a residence or affiliation, but something was strange.
000—and there was no number after that, yet for some reason it had an additional 3.
“Got you, bastard.”
I entered that gallerybro's gallerylog.
Through his earlier posts, I realized that he was the gallerybro who had been killed by the arachne before.
Now that I thought about it, the 3 was a number representing a curse too.
- 1.7.000.3) Upvote if you think Head Mod's lost all his touch, lol.
Every post in his recent history was related to the arachne.
I replied to that gallerybro—or rather, the gallerybro being controlled by the curse.
ㄴ Head Mod*) Apprehension complete, lol.
ㄴ 1.7.000.3) What do you mean, arrested? ㅋㅋ If you have time for this, worry about something else, lol.
ㄴ Head Mod*) You're the arachne, aren't you?
The gallerybro's activity stopped for a moment after my message.
He used ㅋㅋ far too often, and even tried to change the subject.
ㄴ What are you doing, Head Mod?
ㄴ Huh, this bastard's way of talking is kind of weird.
ㄴ (Elf emote stroking his chin)
- 1.7.000.3) You're saying something weird again, lol.
ㄴ 1.7.000.3) ㅋㅋ It's obvious, isn't it? Why are you interested in the arachne's nest? ㅋㅋ
ㄴ 1.7.000.3) Seems like a waste of time. You've completely lost your touch, lol. Seriously, lol.
- Why does this guy keep switching back and forth between ways of speaking...?
ㄴ Yeah, something feels off.
ㄴ Something... something's weird.
ㄴ I can't put it into words, but I'm getting a genuine uncanny-valley feeling.
Once I called him out, the other gallerybros naturally took more interest too.
As the gallerybro's speech began fluctuating more and more like he was breaking down, I delivered the finishing blow.
- Head Mod*) Say, “Arachne, you fucking bastard.”
ㄴ 1.7.000.3) ...
ㄴ 1.7.000.3) Fssssss.
And the gallerybro vanished with a strange noise.
“Where do you think you're going?”
But I had no intention of letting him go.
MadBountyHunter: Head Mod, we found a suspicious man near the cave.
MadBountyHunter: What should we do with him?
There were more than enough gallerybros nearby to use as manpower.
[‘Pepper spray’ has been delivered!]
Head Mod*: Proceed with normalization.
It was time to use the gallerybro whom the arachne had tried to employ as a spy against it instead.
*
This curse was quite deep.
It took about five sprays—rather than the usual two—before he came to his senses.
“Wait, wait! I told you, I'm back to normal!”
“Doesn't seem like it.”
“Aaaagh, you arachne bastard!”
“Oh, you've returned to normal, my friend.”
The gallerybro everyone had thought was dead had been mentally brainwashed by the arachne.
The arachne's method of cursing was simple.
Injure the target's head.
Then, while treating the wound, place a curse on it and turn the victim into a puppet.
“The solution is just as simple.”
Shock them until they regain consciousness.
Usually, this process could cause injuries, but pepper spray came with no risk of creating wounds.
Thanks to that, the gallerybro returned unharmed, retaining all his memories from when he had been brainwashed.
[Title: Head Mod, here's the layout of the arachne's cave]
Author: MadBountyHunter
(Complex cave interior shaped like an anthill)
I don't think we can collapse it.
And it looks like there's a separate rift in the deepest section too.
- It's practically a maze.
- How are we supposed to get in there?
- I feel like I'm going to throw up just looking at it, seriously.
This proved useful for mapping the inside of the arachne's lair in reverse.
“Wow, it's even bigger than I thought.”
The cave was bigger than expected—no, it was enormous.
It was shaped more like a dungeon than a cave, like a massive anthill.
It was divided into levels, and there were dead ends as well.
No wonder grenades hadn't even made a dent.
- Can't we just turn on light magic?
ㄴ You might as well draw a target on your head before you go.
ㄴ LOL, why not just shout, “I'm over here!”?
Besides, you couldn't light a fire in a cave like this.
Nor could we rely on magic.
- So we can't use magic?
ㄴ Right, magebros have detection magic.
ㄴ Well, there is, but...
ㄴ You can't do anything else while casting it, lol.
ㄴ What?
It was even a spell that required maintaining the casting.
To be honest, I hadn't expected much from it.
But we couldn't simply leave it alone because of the rift.
“Oh, this is getting tricky.”
What a dirty way to play.
But saying that would only amount to praising the opponent's strategy.
The simple way to solve this was to play even dirtier.
[Shop/Aerial Weapons]
[GBU-28] - 140,000p
An aerial bomb developed in the United States in 1991.
Was the enemy using a “go ahead and do your worst” strategy?
Then let's see how well they hold up.
“Should I just buy it?”
Also known as a bunker buster.
If it could bore through rock and concrete, it could bury a mere tunnel along with everything inside.
But I stopped just before pressing the purchase button.
“The scale is a little too large for that...”
Of course, firing it would bury all the magical beasts.
And bury the entire surrounding area for good measure.
It would bury the forest too.
Since this is Ellad, should we bury the elves along with it?
“This is the first time I've hesitated because something was too powerful.”
Its power was simply too great to use.
“Is there anything reasonably powerful that's effective in the dark?”
It was just as I was searching for something else, reluctantly leaving it behind.
“...This is it!”
Right then, I found something that fit perfectly.
*
Inside a gloomy cave.
In a place where all light was blocked, a man was lost and wandering.
“Aah...”
He desperately searched for the exit, feeling his way along the walls.
But the man had no idea.
That with every step he took, he was descending farther into the lower levels.
-Ahaha
“!”
At that moment, an affected female laugh brushed past the man's ear.
He knew this place.
It was the lair of the arachne that the gallery was currently so interested in.
“A-an arachne.”
The man trembled in terror.
But the more terrified he was, the better prey he became.
The arachne circling around the man caught a glimpse of his fear and slowly began to approach.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
“Aaaagh!”
At the sound of countless spider legs tapping against the floor, the man froze solid.
-Ahaha!
The arachne stretched its mouth wide horizontally and lunged at the man.
-Huh?
Suddenly, the man nimbly twisted his body and dodged the attack.
The confused arachne was slowly turning its head toward where the man had been when—
-Click
An ominous sound came first.
The arachne knew that sound.
Whenever that thing spewed fire from there, mutant magical beasts stronger than it had been swept away like fallen leaves.
“My dear children.”
The voice that had been terrified just moments ago had completely changed.
“Do you like the impact of Head Mod's great magic?”
A gallery doctor holding a shotgun spoke with a dark smile.
“Merry Christmas.”
-Bang!
Along with the deafening gunshot, the belated year-end greeting shook the inside of the cave.