Chapter 17
A chat message appeared like a lifeline in the midst of crisis.
Head Mod☆: You alive? You okay?
Never had that flippant chat message been so welcome.
Eliana quickly typed into the chat while lying flat to avoid the Bone Dragon's mana breath.
FullHPElf: I'm about to die right now.
FullHPElf: Can you help me somehow? Anything will do.
Head Mod☆: Yeah, I was contacting you about that.
To Head Mod, FullHPElf was an enthusiastic new employee.
A slave—no, worker—who fulfilled his duties while gazing at tactical nukes, even after being forcibly granted the title of unpaid sub-mod.
Since Head Mod knew FullHPElf was an elf, he naturally assumed she was caught in Elad's wave.
[Head Mod☆ is offering 10 ‘High-Explosive Grenades’.]
Head Mod☆: There's no way to give them except through a trade. Put up anything for now. I'll accept the trade immediately.
FullHPElf: I understand, but hold on. The situation is kind of aah...
Head Mod☆: ?
“Kraaaah!”
“Aaaagh!”
The Bone Dragon's tail whipped around.
What kind of strength could come from a body made of nothing but bones? The swinging tail cut straight through a tree.
Eliana's eyes darted around.
“Register something, anything, for trade!”
But all around her, everything was merely burning away, reduced to ash by blue flames.
“Kraaaah!”
Then fire spewed once more from the Bone Dragon's wide-open mouth.
“!”
She managed to evade it by the narrowest margin, but her long hair caught fire.
Her singed hair came raining down onto Eliana's hand.
At the same time, a thought flashed through her mind.
“N-no, I can't do that!”
The method that came to her mind was tempting, but she immediately shook her head.
She considered sending even a piece of clothing, but she had nothing sharp enough to cut the fabric with,
and she had no jewelry to send, either.
In the end, she tightly gathered her cut hair, braided it, and made a bracelet.
[FullHPElf is offering ‘Elf's Braided Token’.]
FullHPElf: Here it is!!!
Head Mod☆: Okay, trade complete.
[The trade has been completed.]
“It worked!”
FullHPElf wanted to throw both hands into the air and cheer.
She knew Head Mod's wares better than anyone.
As a sub-mod, she knew all too well how extraordinary his abilities were and how absurdly powerful his items were.
‘Head Mod was the one who solved the continent's food crisis all by himself.’
Whatever came, it would surely exceed her expectations.
But what appeared with a flash were ten bumpy, hard cylinders.
“W-what?”
At most, they were only about the size of her hand.
Just the right size to hold.
Another chat message flew to FullHPElf, who had been utterly bewildered for quite some time.
Head Mod☆: Hold it
Head Mod☆: Pull the pin with your other hand
Head Mod☆: Throw it, okay?
FullHPElf: Are you kidding me right now?!
So he wanted her to throw rocks?
FullHPElf felt a surge of emotion.
“But I thought we were pretty close!”
She had been drawn to the oddness of his thoughts and speech, as if he came from another world, and believed they had become friends.
She had even developed a certain fondness for him.
But had she been mistaken about everything?
Her vision spun and tears began to well up, but Eliana firmly pressed her lips together.
“Damn it! I don't know!”
If she didn't trust him here, she had no other option.
Just then, claws came flying into the blind spot of Eliana, who had been hiding her body.
“Aaaagh!”
Eliana's shoulder was brutally slashed.
Her pupils widened as a terrible pain hit her.
The one consolation was that the wound wasn't deep.
Pop!
With an elf's characteristic comprehension, Eliana immediately pulled the pin and glared at the Bone Dragon.
“Just don't die after getting hit by this.”
“Kraaaah?!”
And with all her might, even adding the finishing move ‘absolutely,’ she threw the high-explosive grenade.
The grenade left her hand, traced a beautiful arc, and flew straight toward the Bone Dragon's skull!
Clonk.
“Uh... huh?”
With a clear sound, the grenade bounced off the skull and rolled along the ground to the dragon's feet.
“Kraaaah.”
The Bone Dragon also looked down at the ball, seeming puzzled.
Eliana's hope quickly turned to despair.
Had Head Mod been making fun of her?
Had she merely been Unit No. 1, a meaningless unpaid sub-mod slave?
If she was going to die like this, should she at least have eaten some chicken?
[Typing a chat message...]
Content: Head Mod, you bastard!!!
All kinds of thoughts flashed through her mind.
It was just as she was tapping out her dying last words to leave in the chatroom.
KABOOM!!!
“Aaaagh?!”
Overwhelming violence from the future exploded in the silence.
*
A massive explosion shook the heavens and earth.
It had no warning signs and no mana.
It simply went boom all at once, suddenly turning nothing into something.
“Ugh, u-uh... how did this...”
Eliana, who had been knocked backward despite being outside the blast radius, belatedly raised her head.
What met her eyes were the Bone Dragon's bones, which looked as though they would make an excellent broth.
And an elven army that had been on its way to provide support, looking as though its members' souls had left them after witnessing this.
“H-heh heh...”
Eliana let out a hollow laugh.
So Head Mod's recent shitpost about attacks that required no mana and no casting hadn't been delusional rambling?
“Head Mod, are you a high-ranking mage?”
No, even a high-ranking mage couldn't come close to this.
The insane feat of perfectly manifesting magic and storing it intact inside an object was something only an archmage could accomplish.
No, even archmages had failed to develop it.
An elf among the army, her hair disheveled and her hands trembling from the shock of the explosion, muttered with the system open.
“Wow, a legendary Featured post.”
At the very least, that battle video was clearly a legendary Featured post that would be talked about for at least a year.
*
Title: A Typical Head Mod Ability...jpg
(A GIF of Eliana fiddling with the grenade)
(A GIF of the grenade rolling pathetically across the ground)
(A GIF of the camera shaking at the sudden explosion)
(A GIF of the Bone Dragon's corpse lying shattered after the smoke cleared)
Ah... is this Head Mod's caliber?
We believe... Head Mod...
Upvotes999 Downvotes15
[Comments]
- What the—. No, wow...
- I thought my heart was going to drop out of my chest watching that.
- I'm a 5th-circle mage myself, but I couldn't hear any trace of mana or casting. How the hell did you do that?
- My heart is pounding. What on earth have the spells I've used all this time been?
- The pinnacle of magic.
- Yeah, lol. This is just an edited video with mana-induced hallucinations, right?
ㄴ Conspiracy theorists, get the hell out of this gallery.
ㄴ These bastards don't even believe the Great War happened, lol.
- Are we finally breaking through the limits of the circles?
- What the hell is Head Mod, anyway? Starting with his race, there's nothing at all known about him.
- He just gave away ten of those? Head Mod really is the GOAT.
ㄴ Head Mod is an elf.
ㄴ Damn elves!!!
Title: Fuck, What Am I Supposed to Do?
I've always made fun of Head Mod for being a stupid idiot, but seeing that makes me break out in a cold sweat.
Did he track our locations and make us go poof like that?
Head Mod, I'm really sorry. Please let me live just this once...
ㄴ Even when he feels his life is threatened, this bastard can't give up speaking informally...
ㄴ He's just a fucking lunatic...
Featured Post) Is Head Mod an Archmage?
(A meme of a face thrust terrifyingly close to the camera)
Head Mod, have you been deceiving us?
Upvotes331 Downvotes18
[Comments]
- For real, there's no explaining that unless he's an archmage.
ㄴ It wouldn't make sense even if he were an archmage.
ㄴ For real, if it were possible, someone would've developed it ages ago.
ㄴ Instant magic with no casting and no mana? This is a revolution.
- One thing's certain: the “outside” is going to be normalized now.
- The normalization of the magical beasts...
- He solved the food shortage. He solved the wave. Fuck! He just solved everything!
“I knew this would happen.”
The gallery never has a dull day.
It got thrown into an uproar once by the wave, and now modern civilization has turned it upside down all over again.
There were plenty of spells capable of producing an explosion that large, but apparently using one without casting or leaving any trace of mana was simply impossible.
As a result, the gallery was in an uproar with people demanding explanations, reveals, and saying things like “We believe.”
So I tried replying to calm the mood on purpose, but...
ㄴ Head Mod☆) I don't know a thing about magic. They're just weapons I used to see all the time where I came from.
ㄴ Fuck, where are you from?
ㄴ At least tell a believable lie so we can pretend to fall for it;
ㄴ Head Mod, please accept me as your apprentice. If you'll only take me in, I'll do anything you tell me like a dog.
ㄴ LOL, how pathetic.
ㄴ For real, lol. I said it first, and now you're cutting in line.
ㄴ ?
It didn't work. Not even a little.
In the end, I gave up on suppressing the uproar.
Besides, this was how a gallery was supposed to be, and after dealing with the occasional tactical nuke that got posted under cover of the chaos, I looked at the bracelet on my wrist.
“I did receive it and have been wearing it, but...”
I wasn't sure what effect it had.
The material seemed to be nothing more than hair fashioned into something simple, but its name was ‘Elf's Braided Token,’ after all.
Could it have some kind of effect?
So I'd just kept wearing it.
[Admin Chatroom]
Head Mod☆: FullHPElf, so what is this thing?
Head Mod☆: (A GIF of the bracelet being worn on my wrist)
FullHPElf: !!! Th-that! Ah, it's nothing.
Head Mod☆: It's suspicious.
Head Mod☆: Is it some cursed item that becomes bound on equip?
FullHPElf: Well...
FullHPElf: It is bound, but it's not cursed. Anyway, don't ever! get curious about it.
FullHPElf: And take it off right now!
FullHPElf: No, that's not it. Just don't take it off.
Head Mod☆: ???
FullHPElf really did seem to have nearly died during the wave, because she looked completely out of sorts.
And besides, she'd said “absolutely.”
That was basically telling me to look it up.
Title: Guys, I got this—what is it?
(A GIF of a bracelet made from elf hair)
A sub-mod gave it to me, but I don't know what it is.
It's bound, but she says not to take it off. What does that mean?
Does it have some special effect?
[Post submitted.]
When you're curious, the gallery is the best place to ask.
Not long after I uploaded it, the view count began climbing rapidly.
“The power of Head Mod.”
I thought I'd get an answer in no time, but after only a few seconds, a new message appeared.
[The post has been deleted.]
[Reason: Obscenity]
“W-what.”
[Deleted by admin: FullHPElf]
FullHPElf had even deleted it while monitoring.
But the reason was obscenity?
Out of curiosity, I tried posting it a couple more times, but it kept getting deleted almost as soon as it was posted.
“She's seriously reacting this strongly?”
The more she reacted this way, the more I wanted to poke at it, but...
I planned to ask about the bracelet's hidden ability if I got the chance later.
Because a post by a type of poster I'd never seen before had appeared among the gallery's latest posts.
- Head Mod, I am the representative of the rabbit beastfolk. Please read this just once. Squeak.
“What is this now?”
It was bait from the beastfolk who had been hiding in the gallery and merely lurking—specifically, the representative of the rabbit beastfolk.