Chapter 55
“He’s not a Gallery user.”
Erzsebet sat on the throne, resting her chin on her hand.
(4.444.404) A lurker with a strange IP.
There were a few Gallery users who operated anonymously without setting a nickname.
But since their numbers provided rough information about them, they were hardly anonymous in the true sense.
She could ban them whenever she wanted, after all.
“An intruder.”
But this Gallery user was different.
No, it wasn’t a Gallery user.
Erzsebet immediately realized that it was a troll who had invaded the Gallery from outside.
She slowly followed the lurker.
Meanwhile, (4.444.404) wandered around, looking through the Gallery’s categories and systems.
[Title: The Marketplace Appears If You Wait Just One Hour!]
Because from now on, every time the wait exceeds one hour,
I’m going to smack your head so hard that I’ll scramble and utterly wreck your brains!
If you don’t remember that you waited,
doesn’t that mean you didn’t wait?
The marketplace appears if you wait just one hour!
Just thinking about it is so much fun~!!!
- (4.444.404) How do I enter the marketplace?
ㄴ Author) ??
ㄴ (4.444.404) It says my IP is inaccessible when I try to enter.
ㄴ Author) Didn’t you run into some kind of bug? Normally, any Gallery user should be able to access it.
It even brazenly asked a Gallery user for information.
At least it couldn’t access the Head Mod’s system within the Gallery.
Erzsebet could no longer stand by and watch.
Not only had it interrupted her little celebration with the refrigerator, it was trying to invade the Gallery, too?
Dead-Set Vampire) What are you?
Using her Sub Mod authority, Erzsebet created a private post and invited (4.444.404).
In an instant, the lurker was trapped inside the post, but it showed no sign of panic.
ㄴ (4.444.404) I thought you were on the verge of destruction, but you’re doing fairly well for yourself.
ㄴ (4.444.404) Is that all thanks to that administrator called the Head Mod?
Instead, it coolly retorted, even making a remark that seemed to indicate it knew about the Head Mod’s existence.
ㄴ Dead-Set Vampire) I’m going to ban you.
ㄴ (4.444.404) Do as you please. I’ll come find you myself soon enough.
ㄴ (4.444.404) (Worship me! demon emote)
Threatening it with a ban was useless, too.
It even used a nonexistent demon emote, displaying an air of leisure.
Erzsebet could no longer stand by and watch.
[Blocking this IP]
[Ban duration: Permanent]
[Reason for ban: Creepy snoop]
ㄴ Dead-Set Vampire) Troll, die.
Erzsebet immediately used the Sub Mod’s power.
At the same time, (4.444.404) vanished with a poof and was permanently expelled from the Gallery.
But its unruffled reaction, showing no fear or sense of being outmatched,
and the power it had used to forcibly invade the Gallery were clearly no small matter.
“The Head Mod is in danger...”
Erzsebet gnawed at her fingernails before rising from her seat.
She was both the master of the Ruined Castle and a Sub Mod.
That meant she clearly had a duty to do everything in her power to protect the Head Mod.
Erzsebet had vanished without a trace in the blink of an eye.
*
Several weeks passed after the refrigerator craze.
Having spent more time browsing the Gallery in bed than walking, I had a thorough understanding of its atmosphere by then.
- Refrigerator ← God
- Damn refrigerator! What the hell is this coldness?!
[Title: The Refrigerator Appears If You Wait Just One Day!!!!!]
(Porcelain emote clutching its head)
Why!! Is!! It!! Because!! Eeeeeee!?!@!
My heaaaad¡!!¡
Every single day!?! Kiyaaaahoo!!!!
- (Matteuk... emote)
- Has he lost his mind?
- What the hell is wrong with this bastard?
ㄴ Didn’t he fail to buy a refrigerator?
ㄴ LOL, there are still idiots who couldn’t buy a refrigerator? Fuck.
ㄴ Head Mod, if you don’t release more refrigerators, we’re seriously doomed!!!
Of course, the refrigerator craze hadn’t died down.
There was the Gallery user who kept smacking his own head to lose his memories and preserve his anticipation that the refrigerator would come out tomorrow.
And there was the Gallery user who had hit himself so many times that he’d lost his mind.
And the tiny handful of Gallery users who had bought refrigerators kept adding fuel to the refrigerator craze.
ㄴ Head Mod*) lol
ㄴ ? ㅋ? ㅋㅋ???????
ㄴ Fuck, are you picking a fight with me right now?
ㄴ Pure evil
ㄴ (cat emote with its face turned bright red)
ㄴ Die die die die die
Of course, I had no intention of releasing any more.
Even this amount had driven mana stone consumption high enough to supply heatstones.
“Mana stones must... be conserved.”
I slowly got up from the bed.
Looking at the time, it was about time to go for a walk.
I had lived so sedentarily that my leg muscles were on the verge of losing their ability to do their job.
A true survival walk.
“Uuugh.”
I got out of bed and placed my feet on the floor with great care.
Was this what an astronaut felt like after returning to Earth from the moon?
After taking deep breaths and finishing my preparations to go out for the first time in ages, I heard the system notification sound.
[Administrator Chat]
Dead-Set Vampire: Head Mod
Head Mod*: yes
Dead-Set Vampire: Take care of yourself.
Head Mod*: ?
Dead-Set Vampire: Unless you don’t want to get hurt.
Head Mod*: ??? I’m sorry. I don’t know what this is, but please forgive me just this once.
“Ah, it was just a common threat message.”
A Sub Mod is threatening the Head Mod?
But even this had become familiar by now.
For several weeks, Dead-Set Vampire had been steadily sending me threatening messages every day.
It seemed like she had more to say, but I couldn’t tell whether it was because the curse had not weakened enough or because she genuinely meant it.
I closed the Gallery and opened the bunker door, which had remained firmly shut.
Along with it, sunlight I had almost forgotten about warmly bathed my entire body.
“Ah, should I just go back inside?”
The thought crossed my mind for a moment, but more than a month had flown by as I kept putting it off.
My skin had grown so pale from not seeing sunlight that it wouldn’t have been strange for a vampire to mistake me for a friend.
I dragged my tired legs along and began the minimal routine I had planned.
“I’ll walk around the plaza while getting as much sunlight as possible, then come straight back.”
As I walked, I leisurely looked around to see whether there were any city sights I hadn’t been able to see in the Gallery.
Fortunately, the city was much brighter and cleaner than it had been the last time I went out.
Of course, it was difficult to call the atmosphere completely peaceful because magic beasts occasionally invaded.
But compared to when it had been a ruin, it was paradise.
“This should be enough...!”
Ten minutes after starting my walk,
I immediately turned around and headed back to the bunker.
No, I was just about to make it inside without incident when—
“Uuugh...”
I heard a groan from somewhere.
It sounded like the last noise someone made right before dying, so I couldn’t simply ignore it because it was a nuisance.
When I absentmindedly looked toward the sound, I saw a little girl dressed in rags.
“You must have passed out from exhaustion.”
“I’m hungry... I’m tired...”
“Then you must have worked really hard.”
“Sob, I don’t want to die...”
The girl’s voice reached my ears as she crouched beside a pile of trash, trembling.
I stopped on my way home and walked toward where the girl was.
*
I’ll tell you the story of how I picked up a little girl on the street.
“This actually happened...?”
“Huh, gasp.”
I had only gone on a ten-minute survival walk, yet I had come back with a little girl.
Unlike me, who was clutching my head in confusion, the girl hurriedly shoveled food into her mouth.
She seemed to have gone hungry for a long time, so I had prepared mostly easily digestible food.
It was astonishing how all that food disappeared into such a tiny body.
“Sob, it’s delicious...”
Tears gathered in her round eyes, and she couldn’t bring herself to lift her head from the food.
A few minutes passed like that.
The girl enjoyed a brief moment of leisure with a blissful expression before abruptly looking at me.
“Human, what do you want from me?”
“What?”
Had she adopted some particularly intense persona in the Gallery?
The speech of an unbelievably hardcore troll with a fixed nickname came from the little girl.
But this was another world.
Nothing would be strange, no matter what popped out.
A little girl using the speech style of a likeable fixed-nickname user wasn’t particularly special.
“If I want something, do you even have anything to give me?”
“Uuugh...”
It was obvious at a glance that the girl had nothing.
And even if she did, I wasn’t so lacking in conscience that I would steal it from her.
More importantly, the girl hadn’t looked well from the moment I first saw her.
Her pale skin, unfocused pupils, and trembling body—even after I had put her in fresh clothes.
“C-cold...”
I stared at the girl for a moment before beckoning to her.
“Come with me.”
“W-where?”
She had followed without hesitation when I said I would give her food, but now that her hunger had faded, she seemed to have regained her senses.
Her eyes peeked over her hands gripping the table and darted around nonstop.
Still, perhaps deciding she had no other choice, she cautiously followed me to my room.
“It’s a temperature-controlled waterbed, so I’ll lend it to you until you recover.”
“...Which one?”
“The whole room.”
I had other rooms anyway.
Getting another bed wouldn’t be difficult.
And with points overflowing, there was no need to be stingy about lending her a room.
At that, tears began to well up in the girl’s eyes.
“But why? I... I came here with bad intentions...”
Tears finally spilled from the girl’s ruby-colored eyes.
What, was she trying to say she had intended to steal something?
“Then did you act on those bad intentions?”
“Huh? No, I couldn’t. I tried to force my way over, but then I ran out of strength...”
“Then you didn’t.”
“Yeah, wait!”
I picked up the girl and laid her on the bed.
Then I wrapped her up tightly in the blanket like a kimbap roll, and her bewildered eyes were a sight to behold.
“I can be lenient with a prospective troll.”
“W-what?”
“Stay here until you recover. I have a lot to ask you, but we’ll do that later.”
In the meantime, I opened the Gallery and logged in.
There was no way I could go several hours without browsing the Gallery.
“Well, nothing unusual should have happened.”
Just like it had for nearly a month, the refrigerator craze was probably going around again.
I laid the girl down and was just about to check the Gallery when—
- Kraaagh!!! Kraaagh!
- Head Mod! Head Mod!
- W-what is this? I suddenly vomited blood from my mouth!
- Hahaha, fuck, I’m Torch Man.
- My whole body suddenly got hot like a fireball;
“Oh.”
Something was seriously wrong with the Gallery.
Most of the posts were from people suffering, as though an epidemic had suddenly spread.
Just as something flashed through my mind, I heard coughing beside me.
“Kheek! Cough!”
“Oh, fuck.”
The strength seemed to drain from the girl’s eyes, and blood mixed into her coughs and stained the blanket.
Only then did I realize what the chill in my mind meant.
“The Black Death.”
The worst disease in history, which wiped out twenty million people at the time.
It seemed that the disease that followed the Middle Ages around like a tag had arrived after all.