Chapter 15
The outskirts of Elad, the elves' forest.
People were busily searching through the moss near trees that towered like buildings.
“Ah, I caught one!”
Then an armored man shouted in triumph and snatched something up. It was a green slime.
“Wow.”
“Already? I'm jealous.”
Slimes were monsters, but there weren't many of them.
The people who had watched the man enviously as he took a verification shot searched even harder through the moss.
Slimes possessed acid capable of melting people, but they weren't a major threat.
“I'm more afraid of starving than dying.”
After the Great War, food supplies had plummeted.
Everyone had experienced hunger, and those who had reached rock bottom were all completely sincere.
“I bought ten cans of tuna!!!”
“Wow, that's insane!”
“Hey, name your price for those tuna cans!”
Of course, things were different if they bought items from the marketplace opened by Head Mod.
It wasn't easy to buy things from a marketplace where people from the entire continent converged.
Instead, they carried large quantities of MSG in their arms while searching for monsters to serve as ingredients.
“Lord Mersen, it's here.”
“Hmm...”
And the strange sight of people entering the elves' forest and searching for slimes...
Eventually reached the ears of Mersen, the most influential member of the elven council of elders.
“How unpleasant. They've invaded the forest for monster cuisine.”
Mersen's sea-blue eyes swept over the surroundings.
The scenery on the outskirts of Elad, which should have been quiet and dangerous because of the monsters, was... strange.
“So they're hunting the monsters for us.”
“Yes. Apparently, they're clearing the outskirts, focusing especially on slimes.”
“That's the problem.”
The elves let it happen.
Why? Because elves, who lived solely on the dew and fruit provided by the trees, were terrible at cooking.
In other words, a culture had developed in which they allowed humans to farm in exchange for taking a share of the resulting cuisine.
Human knights in heavy armor pushing through the moss, and young elves crouching in front of them with their ears perked up.
“Phew.”
Mersen thought, once again, that the younger generation was the problem.
Mersen immediately opened the gallery.
Title: All You Humans, Get Out of Elad Already!
Author: CuteElfElderLady><
El—ha!☆ I'm an elven elder.
I don't like this.
If you're asking what I mean, I mean all of it!
Why on earth is this happening in Elad?
The young elves in particular are a problem too - “ -
Instead of pointing out this invasion and staying wary, they're hovering around trying to taste monster cuisine.
This is an insult to the World Tree!
[Would you like to submit this post?]
And she was just about to click the confirmation button.
Then Eliana, the captain of the elven knights who had accompanied her as her escort, brought back some food she had received from somewhere.
“...Eliana? What's that?”
“They were handing it out, so I got a little. Here, they call it noodles made from slimes.”
“...”
Mersen narrowed her eyes at Eliana.
Wasn't this exactly what happened when they appointed a young elf as captain of the knights? She came back accepting food.
‘I'll have to call her in and retrain her later.’
While she was at it, she also planned to ask for Eliana's gallery username.
It had bothered her that Eliana never answered whenever Mersen casually asked about it...
“You have to eat it right after it's hunted. Otherwise, it gets soggy and loses half its flavor.”
“...I see. In that case.”
This wasn't because she was hungry.
It was simply an elder's responsibility to experience and understand the current situation firsthand.
Slurp.
Mersen tried a bite of the slime noodles.
“Gasp!”
And then she realized there was another side to cuisine.
Smooth, chewy noodles.
A sauce with just the right amount of spice, along with MSG that added depth and perfection.
Even appropriate vegetable toppings for elves.
“This is noodles?”
“People are calling it slime jjolmyeon, apparently, but I'm not sure yet.”
“Hmm...”
Mersen's eyes narrowed.
For some reason, the sweet and addictive spiciness made Mersen lightly bite her tongue as it peeked out, and she took another large mouthful.
“Hieeek.”
The perfect combination of spicy, sweet, salty, and spicy again began beating mercilessly against Mersen's mind.
This was violence.
The violence of cuisine.
“What do you think? Pretty good, right?”
Mersen belatedly came to her senses at Eliana's question.
“Ahem! I-it is good, but... I'm still worried.”
She withdrew her thought that it was barbaric.
Nevertheless, Mersen still couldn't completely welcome this atmosphere.
There had never been a single time when continuing such indiscriminate hunting had ended well.
“Aaaah!”
“!”
And that concern became reality.
*
They say that anything in excess goes too far.
Global warming was a representative example.
Reckless environmental destruction slowly piled up until it came back to haunt you.
But it seemed things were even worse in the Otherworld.
Featured) The Otherworld Is Totally Screwed in Real Time...jpg
(A meme of a four-horned monster deer)
(A meme of the screen shaking as the author runs away)
I went to Elad to taste slimes.
But wasn't everyone already there farming slimes?
So we all gathered together and were busy farming slimes when, fuck, a mutant monster appeared.
ㄴ LOL, it's cute. Why are you scared?
ㄴ (A meme showing the deer's feet behind the author's full body)
ㄴ Fuck, that's huge.
ㄴ Oh shit lol
ㄴ Shikanoko Nokonoko ㄷㄷ
“Wow, that's insane.”
Unlike its innocent-looking eyes, the deer was larger than a two-story house.
It was the kind of size that would make you gasp even when you were only looking at a picture.
This was something entirely different from anything seen in the occasional Featured posts about hunting monsters.
If something like that charged into the storeroom, it was obvious that the defenses and everything else would be destroyed in a few seconds.
ㄴ Head Mod☆) What the hell is that?
So I instinctively asked a question.
I had to know first before I could even decide what to do for defense.
ㄴ LOL, Head Mod, is this your first time seeing something like that?
ㄴ As for what that is...
ㄴ I've informed you!
ㄴ Check your email.
But if they answered questions, it wouldn't be a gallery.
The answers that circled around with nothing but nonsense should have made me angry, but I was calm.
“Who am I? The gallery administrator, Head Mod.”
ㄴ Head Mod☆) All right, 1.7.185, step forward.
ㄴ 1.7.185) ?
ㄴ Head Mod☆) Explain.
ㄴ 1.7.185) ??
ㄴ Fuck lol
ㄴ Ah lol, explain it unless you want to die.
ㄴ Head Mod☆) 3
ㄴ Head Mod☆) 2
ㄴ Head Mod☆) 1
ㄴ 1.7.185) A mutant monster refers to the leaders of the monsters that appeared after the Great War. There were many varieties and large numbers of them during the Great War, but they aren't something you can easily see anymore. However, if one appears again, you should suspect that it's a sign of an approaching wave.
ㄴ Fuck lol, those extreme evasive maneuvers are insane.
ㄴ Wow, he survived that lol
ㄴ 1.7.185) Head Mod, you fucking bastard, what did I do wrong?
ㄴ LOL, he waits until he can breathe, then starts cursing lol
ㄴ The number-one guy is seriously smart.
ㄴ The number-one guy really is a World Tree Wiki master.
“Wait, a wave?”
I narrowed my eyes at the ominous term.
But this time, I didn't even need to ask for an explanation. I searched for “wave,” including titles and content, in the Featured posts, and countless results appeared.
3 years ago) Ah fuck, a wave hit Kelton.
3 years ago) A wave is coming to the Kelton Kingdom. Looking for races willing to help.
3 years ago) The Kelton Kingdom is screwed...
3 years ago) Of all places, why did the wave have to hit there?
Kelton Kingdom. It was a name I'd heard somewhere before.
But I didn't need to think about it for long.
“No, this is where I am.”
The inscription plainly carved into the storeroom supplies was referring to the Kelton Kingdom.
The place I had transmigrated into was the Kelton Kingdom.
And it had fallen long ago.
But I had only thought it was because of the Great War. I hadn't known it was because of a wave.
[Admin Chatroom]
Head Mod☆: Hey, Elf Mod.
FullHPElf: Why are you calling me?
Head Mod☆: Is this wave thing really dangerous?
FullHPElf: It might be, or it might not.
Head Mod☆: ??
FullHPElf: Compared to the Great War, when every kind of monster gathered together, the leaders during a wave are only one or two mutant monsters at most.
Head Mod☆: Give me a short summary.
FullHPElf: Great War >>> wave >>> current state.
Head Mod☆: Got it.
VampireTillDeath: Deer meat looks delicious. I'm drooling.
I understood immediately.
If a wave was a company or battalion, then the Great War was literally all of those units gathered together.
“Then isn't that thing dangerous?”
Among the occasional Featured posts, I could see the mutant monster deer rampaging wildly.
And it wasn't something to laugh off, either, because the comments were disappearing in real time.
- How the hell do you kill that?
- I'm running like hell, but it looks like it'll catch me soon. What do I do?
- I'm hurriedly forming a party, so show some interest.
- [Deleted post]
- Someone please give me some potions. It's fucking urgent.
- [Deleted post]
“The Otherworld Destruction Gallery doesn't have an account-deletion function.”
That meant the only possible explanation was that their member records had been deleted when their lives were cut short.
My carefree mood turned urgent.
Without gallery users, there was no gallery.
“And beyond that, this isn't someone else's problem.”
If everyone really died, the next people in danger would naturally be those of us hiding away.
If that happened, I wouldn't survive for even a few seconds.
“I think the shop sold all sorts of things...”
Until now, I had focused on managing the marketplace around food for survival.
But things were different now.
For the first time, I began rummaging through the weapons, armor, and materials categories instead of the food category.
[Fragmentation Grenade] - 30 points
[Thermobaric Round] - 40 points
[Flashbang] - 130 points
[Barbed Wire] - 45 points
.
.
“What should I buy? No, should I just buy everything?”
The points I had had already surpassed one hundred thousand.
Just as I was wondering what would be effective against that monster deer, a new Featured post appeared.
Featured) Compiled Footage from the Scene 3.
(A video of the monster deer rampaging wildly)
(A video of a gallery user standing there blankly without evading)
(A video of someone being struck and attacked in real time)
ㄴ Ah;
ㄴ Ah fuck, put a gore warning on this before uploading it.
ㄴ Instead of uploading it, go help them!
ㄴ Wow, what do you do about that user? It looks like their heart was pierced in one blow.
“Ah.”
While I was deliberating, a woman, apparently frozen with fear, was directly pierced by the deer.
My head instantly went cold.
Just as I was about to turn off the video.
ㄴ Uh, what?
ㄴ Huh?
ㄴ Uh-oh, why is that person getting back up?
ㄴ Is she human?
ㄴ Humans die if their hearts are pierced.
The woman who had clearly been impaled and killed was looking down at the deer with crazed eyes, drool streaming from her mouth.