Chapter 2
Marketplace Gallery (1)
Title: The Head Mod Is a God!
(Photo of a bottled-water container)
Bottled water is great and all, but this thing is seriously useful.
It’s light enough to carry easily, so it improves efficiency in combat and hunting without getting in the way when you run.
We can explore a little farther with greater safety, so our village’s range of activity has expanded.
ㄴ Was this made by dwarves?
ㄴ I’m a dwarf, and even we have never seen a material like that before.
ㄴ The bottle is insanely light. It’s so light that whenever I wonder whether I actually packed it, I find it tied to my waist. ㄷㄷ
ㄴ No, seriously, that thing really is something else.
“Huh, people are reacting more to the bottle than to the water.”
After selling a few bottles of water, I used my newly collected points to put about a hundred more up for sale.
But the praise for the bottles was more enthusiastic than I had expected.
The most common comment was that they made combat more convenient.
Could it be that, true to the name Otherworld Destruction Gallery, there was hardly any intact civilization left here?
Maybe that was why a water bottle useful for combat and exploration was receiving so much attention.
‘Is this world really that bad?’
All I had seen was a ruined royal capital.
I was still holed up inside a storage room, so I had no idea how the outside world was doing.
Naturally, I wrote a new post.
Title: LOL, These Races Can’t Even Kill a Magical Beast This Easily? What a Bunch of Pathetic Losers
Guys, I haven’t been here long, so I don’t know what’s happening outside.
Looking at the atmosphere, things seem pretty bleak. Is this continent really on the verge of destruction?
ㄴ Fuck, I came in because of that title, and it turned out to be the head mod?
ㄴ As expected, orange is the color of aggro.
ㄴ It’s not on the verge of destruction. It was destroyed a long time ago.
ㄴ The fact that the humans, the continent’s dominant race, ruined everything by fighting among themselves was a big part of it.
ㄴ ? LOL, listen to these elf bastards after hiding in the forest while we humans were busy fighting magical beasts.
ㄴ LOL, if you don’t like it, come out and fight. You’re just a brat, too.
The comments were getting pretty intense.
Just as I was wondering whether I could get any proper information, a summary post appeared in the featured section.
Title: A Summary of the Worldbuilding for the New Head Mod
3-line summary
1. Rifts suddenly appeared
2. A crapton of magical beasts poured out
3. The allied forces got wrecked, so the continent was destroyed, yep
ㄴ What are you summarizing in three lines when there isn’t even a body to the post?
ㄴ It does condense a lot of history, but it’s basically right, yeah...
ㄴ Fact) It’s a fact.
ㄴ Head Mod☆) Did that many magical beasts appear? Enough to overwhelm all the races across the continent?
ㄴ Not exactly... Ah, fuck, it’s hard to explain.
ㄴ I’ll sum it up neatly.
Human = Betrayed each other
Elves = Ran to hide in the forest because they were scared
Dwarves = Attacked the elves
Dark elves = Attacked the elves
Beastfolk = Attacked the humans
Other races = Too few in number to know much about them
ㄴ This is accurate.
“So they lost because they fought among themselves in the end.”
More than that, the elves seemed to stand out.
There was a lot of elf hatred in the gallery—in Earth terms, was this like the British?
-When a problem gets complicated, just blame the pointy-eared bastards and you’ll be right.
-Is it you again, knife-ears?
“Heh heh, I guess life is pretty similar here, too.”
I stopped laughing and looked up.
Even if I turned my gaze just slightly from the bright system window, I could see the mold-filled interior of the storage room.
Judging by the deep darkness that had settled in, it seemed to have been midnight outside for quite some time.
“This isn’t the time to be sitting around.”
That didn’t mean I was going to go outside right away.
Being trapped here was probably the safest option.
But my defenses were inadequate.
The shelf blocking the door would obviously be smashed to pieces by any magical beast from the rankings I had seen in the gallery.
“I should start by pushing the heavy things against the door.”
The shelf alone wasn’t enough.
But I had neither the strength nor the mental energy to do that.
After thinking it over, I opened the shop window and searched through it.
[Energy Drink ‘Red Boom’] - 2 points
“Oh, I knew they’d have it!”
Fortunately, most of the products that had existed on Earth were available.
Among them was Red Boom, a famous energy drink that had made a name for itself alongside Monst.
I bought a can and gulped it down, then, just as I was about to block the entrance, I suddenly stared at the gallery.
-Ah, I don’t even have any strength left in my body now, for real.
-I think I’m really about to die.
-I can’t even kill a single goblin anymore...
“...Should I try putting it up for sale?”
It seemed like it might help in its own way.
*
[Head Mod’s Marketplace]
[New item in stock!]
[‘Red Boom’] - 100 remaining / 2 mana dumplings
-?? What is this?
-Red Boom? A red explosion?
-The name is pretty damn cool.
-Was there ever a product like this on the continent?
The gallery’s attention quickly focused on the news of a new item in stock.
Those who had already experienced the effects of the bottled water bought the cans without hesitation, and reactions soon began to appear.
Title: Whoa, What the Hell Is This? What Is This?!
I’ve been running from a zombie for half a day.
And then wouldn’t you know it, the head mod started selling some strange object.
I thought I was going to die of thirst, so I drank some—and my feet wouldn’t stop moving.
T-the zombie bastard fell far behind and is just standing there dazed.
W-what is this, r-really?
ㄴ LOL, look at you stuttering from the side effects.
ㄴ So is this some kind of elixir?
ㄴ For real, I drank this too and sliced up those tough zombie bastards in one go.
Title: This Is Truly Amazing
I feel like I’ve returned to the prime of my life.
The moment I took a sip, I snapped fully awake!
I couldn’t even climb a tree because I had no strength, but now I can run straight across the forest.
After killing all the magical beasts that had been sizing us up for an invasion, I feel so refreshed. ^^
ㄴ You knife-ears—if you hadn’t been screwing everything up all this time, those magical beasts would have been dead ages ago, right?
ㄴ Shouldn’t elves be banned from buying things from the marketplace?
ㄴ (OP) Fuck you, fuck you ㅇㅗㅇ. If you’re so pissed, come to Ellad, I say.
“Whoa... No, is it really that effective?”
I had only wanted to give these otherworlders, who were reasonably worn out, a little more strength.
But to people who had never experienced even a fraction of Earth’s civilization, caffeine was a nuclear bomb.
Some who accidentally downed a whole can even managed to beat magical beasts to death, displaying astonishing feats.
The elves in particular benefited tremendously.
Title: Isn’t It Weird How Only the Elves Seem to Get Such a Big Boost from Red Boom?
Looking at the elf posts, it seems like their stats increase several times more than those of other races...
Could the head mod be an elf too?
ㄴ No. Anything but that!
ㄴ My lifesaving head mod being an elf, my enemy being the head mod, my benefactor being my enemy, being an elf...
ㄴ ^^ You pathetic lesser races only just realized the head mod is an elf, I see.
“Seriously, why does it work better on elves?”
Featured post) Isn’t it just because elves are hardcore vegetarians?
They were skinny as twigs and only ate grass.
But after losing the war, they couldn’t even eat vegetables and starved, so maybe it works better when they finally drink it?
ㄴ Huh? Could that be it?
ㄴ That actually sounds plausible. There’s no proof or record that the head mod is an elf, either, yeah.
ㄴ Didn’t the head mod say this was their first time here?
ㄴ ㅗ oㅗo ㅗ You inadequate other-race losers, just admit you’re jealous if you’re jealous, I say.
ㄴ Then why does it work well for dwarves?
ㄴ That’s...
“Wait, dwarves too?”
I dug through a few more featured posts.
Unexpectedly, the dwarves benefited from it quite well, too.
When I looked into why, I found this.
-The fizz makes it a decent substitute for booze!
-And it tastes fairly similar!
-I especially like how it puts you in a good mood!!
“That’s more unexpected than I thought. Does it not have to be alcohol?”
I had always thought dwarves were extremely particular about alcohol, throwing it away if the flavor was even slightly off.
But when I searched for the keyword ‘dwarf,’ I learned that wasn’t entirely true.
-I miss the taste of the liquor my mother used to make.
-When I drink this Red Boom stuff, it won’t let me forget the taste of the alcohol I tried so hard to forget.
-Things were better before the Great War.
After losing the Great War against the magical beasts, they had merely been forced into sobriety.
I had occasionally seen posts going on about booze and assumed they were just trolls, but they were actually plaintive laments filled with resentment.
“...Wait, alcohol?”
Something flashed in my mind.
I reflexively turned my head toward the shop window.
*
“Huff, huff! You disgusting magical beasts!”
Slash!
Another magical beast flew through the air with its head separated from its body.
The ominously gleaming black sword had already cut down hundreds of magical beasts, but that didn’t mean victory was assured.
“Grrrr...”
“Eeeek!”
“Damn it.”
The magical beasts were countless, and he was alone.
Rox, a knight of the fallen Kingdom of Kelton, was gradually reaching his limit.
No matter how much aura a knight had awakened, he couldn’t face thousands of magical beasts.
Even if they were merely a horde of low-level magical beasts.
“There are still so damn many of them.”
Taking refuge in an abandoned shack between the valleys, he muttered as he watched the hundreds of magical beasts surrounding it outside.
It was a miserable end for someone who had once been a knight of a glorious kingdom—one he never could have imagined.
“Your Highness, I’m sorry. It seems this disloyal wretch will only be coming to see you now.”
Before his death, the king had asked Rox to rebuild the kingdom.
But after failing to protect the king, rebuilding the kingdom was a meaningless delusion.
He slowly closed his eyes.
He had a feeling this was the end.
[Head Mod’s Marketplace]
[A new item has arrived!]
That was, until a noisy notification appeared.
“...?”
[Energy Drink ‘Red Boom’](new!)
“Energy... drink?”
Why would something you drank contain energy—the very thing that meant strength?
But he didn’t care.
If he could drag even one more of the magical beasts that had destroyed his kingdom down with him as he died, that would be enough.
[Mana dumplings –10]
[The product has been safely delivered!]
“So this is an energy drink...”
It was a thin iron container made by an artisan, bearing an illustration of two enraged bulls locked in combat.
“Isn’t this practically a symbol of the kingdom?”
He chuckled, struggled to open the can, and downed all five cans in one go.
“!!!”
Soon, a mountain of magical-beast corpses began piling up between the valleys amid a roaring battle cry.