Chapter 50
It had been obvious from the very beginning that I was being watched.
Promotion reward.
The Demon King's regular pay.
Reward money.
Reward leave.
Those system messages practically screamed that they had all been provided by the Demon King.
…Could that pitch-black hand before me be the owner of that system?
I activated the hologram.
Then I took a picture.
Click-
For a moment, I wondered if it might not show up in the camera, like a ghost in a spirit photograph, but it was captured perfectly.
It happened then.
The hand vanished without a trace.
As if it had been waiting only for me to take the picture.
And the hole in the ceiling had been completely repaired.
“……”
Only Treasure Keeper's mangled corpse remained on the floor.
I adjusted my grip on the scythe and approached the corpse.
I set the circle in my lower abdomen spinning.
“Blood Drain.”
.
“Blood Command.”
…
No Blood Origin emerged.
It was just like the intruders I had killed with the scythe last time.
The corpse hadn't disappeared, either; it was stuck to the floor.
“Could it be that it won't resurrect…?”
The black hand seemed to have erased Treasure Keeper all the way down to its soul.
“To go that far just to…”
I put Treasure Keeper's corpse, which refused to disappear, into my inventory.
I had to keep it safe.
“Someday… I'll resurrect you.”
The fact that resurrection was possible in this world was self-evident.
It had even been mentioned in the gallery, and I had my scythe, whose effect nullified resurrection.
Above all, hadn't they said that the Demon King was resurrecting the monsters of the Demon King's Tower?
If so, then someday I should be able to resurrect someone, too.
I decided to believe that.
I had been shown a kindness I didn't deserve.
I shoved all my scattered emotions and tangled thoughts into a corner of my mind.
I turned my head.
A huge golden chest with its lid open.
It was what Treasure Keeper had left behind.
At last, I could obtain its contents. For now, I decided to focus on that.
It was the size of a house, so I had to enter the chest to inspect the inside.
Thud-!
I jumped up and went inside.
The moment I stepped inside.
“An orb?”
I saw things that looked like that.
There were nine large spheres.
Each gave off a different, radiant light.
But if they were nothing more than jewels, I would be sorely disappointed.
After all, I already had an infinite amount of money.
I approached one first and reached toward an orb that glowed as though it were burning red-hot.
Ding-
The instant my fingertips touched it, a system message appeared before my eyes.
[Artifact: Wrath of the Sun God]
Thank goodness.
It seemed to be an equipment item.
Unlike the items from the Golden Chariot, its description appeared in a system message.
I read it.
[Causes an explosion of sunlight around you immediately before you are struck.]
“This is…!”
It was the explosion technique that man had used earlier.
If so, then the hooded man from 400 years ago must have obtained this [Wrath of the Sun God] from the golden chest.
Had he passed it down to his descendant? If that was true, it should still have been with the corpse.
My eyes sparkling, I touched the remaining orbs one after another.
[Smile of the God of Life]
Fully recovers from all injuries every 5 seconds.
[Freedom of the God of Wind]
You are unaffected by inertia while moving.
[Patience of the God of Earth]
A resistance barrier against all attributes is always active.
[Sorrow of the God of the Sea]
Halves the Agility stat of enemies within range.
[Tremor of the God of Thunder]
Strikes enemies with thunder when attacking and paralyzes them for a certain period.
…
..
.
“Do they grant permanent passive effects when equipped…?”
If so, every one of them was a cheat item.
At the very least, they weren't even in the same league as the items from the Golden Chariot.
They even looked better than the unique item Twin-Tail Black Ribbon.
“This one first.”
I picked up [Wrath of the Sun God] and put it in my inventory.
Fwoosh.
The orb was sucked into my inventory.
“Good. Next is the God of Earth's…”
It was just then, as I reached toward another orb.
Bang-!!!!
With a thunderous crash, the golden chest's lid slammed shut.
“Huh?”
The surroundings grew dark.
Startled, I let go of the orb in my hand.
Then.
Creakkk-
The lid that had closed slowly opened again.
“……”
I understood.
“Can I only take one out…?”
It seemed the chest closed if I picked up two or more.
It looked like a choice reward.
“Which one should I choose?”
The time had come to consult the gallery.
I turned on the hologram camera, photographed all nine artifacts, and wrote down each description I could see.
I didn't include everything that had happened up to then.
There was no doubt that the various reactions would come flooding in and make everything chaotic.
I decided to talk about the intruders and what had happened in the Reaper Realm later.
For now, I had to choose an orb.
Still, I attached the photo of the pitch-black hand, in case there was something I needed to deal with immediately.
I pressed the write button.
______
Title: Cleared Floor 100. Got 9 artifacts.
Author: Anonymous (100F)
{Photo of the pitch-black hand descending through the ceiling}
{Photos of the description windows for the 9 artifacts}
First, the picture above.
As for how this happened…
……
……
……
……
……
……
So, I need to choose an artifact for now. Please recommend which one I should pick.
And if anyone knows exactly what that hand is, please let me know.
______
I clicked refresh.
As expected, the picture of the hand was drawing more aggro than my question.
That was fine. I was curious what the gallery members thought of it, too.
[Comments]
Anonymous (312F): ? Holy shit……
Anonymous (359F): ???????????
Fenrir: ? We don't know either.
Anonymous (634F): Fuck, what is that hand?
Anonymous (532F): No, why does the newbie bring something we've never seen every time they post? LMAOOOOOOOOOO
Anonymous (724F): What the hell is this before we can even congratulate them on Floor 100;;;
ㄴ Anonymous (320F): Seriously, I was writing a congratulations post for entering three-digit floors, and then this happened ㄷ
ㄴ Anonymous (219F): What the hell did you do this time, you crazy bastard;;
ㄴ Yachinkokki: At it again lol
ㄴ Anonymous (100F) (Author): Read the post; I didn't do it. Technically, the mob summoned it…
ㄴ Anonymous (219F): ?
After a little more time passed, comments appeared from people who seemed to have read the entire post.
Anonymous (643F): Looks like Treasure Keeper gets like that when it abandons its duty…
ㄴ Anonymous (364F): It sacrificed itself just to tell the newbie that? I seriously don't understand this. What the hell is going on?
ㄴ Anonymous (249F): Then did the Demon King execute it personally?
ㄴ Anonymous (351F): The Demon King's hand??????
ㄴ Anonymous (324F): What????
ㄴ Anonymous (721F): Is Floor 100 a special reward room, so the Demon King personally intervenes?
ㄴ Anonymous (436F): That's messed up.
ㄴ Anonymous (341F): Hmm…
ㄴ Anonymous (643F): They say the Demon King exists everywhere?
ㄴ Anonymous (248F): That sounds like bullshit…
ㄴ Anonymous (349F): ㄱㅡ
ㄴ Anonymous (249F): Didn't someone say a long time ago that the Demon King was the gallery's head moderator?
ㄴ Anonymous (543F): That might actually be right…
ㄴ Anonymous (320F): No, does that have anything to do with this?
Anonymous (643F): What do you mean the ceiling collapsed after the hand came down??
ㄴ Anonymous (664F): Causality reversal, holy crap.
One Who Knows the Leisure of a Cup of Tea: What… on earth could that be?
Anonymous (632F): Did the Tower get a hole punched in it? No, take a closer picture of the ceiling.
ㄴ Anonymous (100F) (Author): It's completely restored now…
ㄴ Anonymous (632F): ?
‘So this isn't a known fact.’
It seemed every one of these was a phenomenon no one had ever seen before.
ㄴ Anonymous (324F): If you hadn't taken a picture, there was no way they'd have believed you;
ㄴAnonymous (498F): Seriously, that couldn't have been easy.
The atmosphere in the gallery was rather strange.
‘Interesting.’
The surprised reactions continued, but it wasn't as if things were turning into a huge uproar.
ㄴ Anonymous (197F): These bastards realize how serious this is, so look at them being even less hysterical lol
ㄴ Anonymous (346F): Not a single moose bastard going Kiyahhhhh like an idiot lol
ㄴ Anonymous (763F): The Demon King lore was an angle no one could have imagined…
ㄴ Anonymous (379F): Everyone's completely stunned lol
ㄴ Anonymous (242F): Anyone here know what that hand is?
ㄴ Anonymous (646F): Seems like we should summon the verified vanguard users.
ㄴ Anonymous (754F): They probably don't know either. They'd just be surprised like us.
ㄴ Anonymous (543F): Except Taeheo, none of them even know the newbie exists right now.
ㄴ Anonymous (643F): Taeheo might even let out a girlish scream when he sees that.
ㄴ Anonymous (197F): Fuck lololololol
ㄴ Anonymous (798F): I'm most curious about Blood Demon Saber Lord's reaction. He's the closest one to the Demon King.
ㄴ Anonymous (219F): You think he'll come? He's been gone from the gallery for a damn long time. It'll be faster for scp-10^68 to start another insane spam campaign.
ㄴ Anonymous (780F): I hope that guy never comes back…
ㄴ Anonymous (249F): When is that sub-moderator bastard's period of self-reflection ending?
ㄴ Anonymous (374F): “Self-reflection,” my ass. Wasn't it practically confirmed that he died?
Several prominent gallery users who were presumably close to the Demon King were being mentioned.
ㄴ Anonymous (187F): Wait, is it confirmed that this is the Demon King's hand?? Is it official?
ㄴ Anonymous (643F): We don't know that… The newbie just suspects it.
ㄴ Anonymous (279F): No, fuck, the newbie is a newbie, so why are we trusting newbie hearsay? They were only asking a question too lolololololololololololol
ㄴ Anonymous (210F): Well… gallery hearsay means absolutely nothing…
As expected, this was the Rested Gallery through and through.
ㄴ Anonymous (643F): None of you are helping the newbie at all lol
ㄴ Anonymous (176F): Is this your first day?
ㄴ Anonymous (374F): It kind of is. The newbie only got here a day or two ago lol.
ㄴ Anonymous (643F): This is insane too, it's almost been a week now, and we've got the Hero lore and the Demon King lore lolololol
ㄴ Anonymous (214F): He's the gallery owner, right? Yeah.
After that, various other discussions continued.
Anonymous (643F): Aren't all of those artifacts Legendary? The reward is insane.
Anonymous (436F): There were so many gold coins, and now look at the place—completely empty ㄷㄷ
Anonymous (563F): 8.1 billion is fucking insane lololololol
Anonymous (246F): Money really is infinite now.
ㄴ Anonymous (648F): Seriously, it makes no sense for this topic to have been pushed aside;;;
ㄴ Anonymous (418F): Seems ridiculously overpowered.
ㄴ Anonymous (134F): Agreed. But which one should the newbie pick?
ㄴ Anonymous (247F): Guess we have to wait for the SSS-Grade Item Buff Guy.
The conversation turned to Treasure Keeper again.
ㄴ Anonymous (267F): What does it mean that the monster deliberately abandoned its duty just to tell the newbie the Demon King was scary? I don't understand this.
ㄴ Anonymous (378F): It wanted to stop the newbie from opposing the Demon King, even at the cost of throwing away its own soul.
ㄴ Anonymous (597F): Truly legendary. What kind of brainwashing did the Demon King use?
ㄴ Anonymous (203F): Maybe it didn't know either.
ㄴ Anonymous (746F): No, honestly, I'm more scared of the newbie than that hand.
ㄴ Anonymous (732F): This can't be explained unless it's some kind of mind-control skill. What the hell? How did the Demon King do it?
ㄴ Anonymous (100F) (Author): I don't really know either… Everything I wrote in the post is all there is, seriously.
ㄴ Anonymous (510F): What do you mean you don't know? LOL
I was being sincere.
I could make some guesses, but I couldn't process the purity of someone becoming attached to me after only a few hours of conversation and throwing away its own soul. It was beyond my common sense.
Then someone explained it.
ㄴ Anonymous (277F): It got its first real friend in 500 years, and when that friend said they were going to charge the Demon King, it was worried the friend would die. So it was willing to risk its own death and show the friend the Demon King's power itself to stop them.
ㄴ Anonymous (100F) (Author): Hmm… why am I a real friend?
ㄴ Anonymous (432F): Gasp…
ㄴ Anonymous (212F): Look at that character, holy crap ㄷㄷ
ㄴ Anonymous (100F) (Author): No, it's just that I'm uncomfortable… I only deceived it.
ㄴ Anonymous (439F): It said this was the first time someone of its kind had come…
Could that be it?
ㄴ Anonymous (513F): But the newbie doesn't seem to be thinking about it at all lol
ㄴ Anonymous (341F): Seriously, saying they'd kill the Demon King was just something the newbie blurted out to justify opening the chest.
ㄴ Anonymous (643F): Then it died for nothing. That's so damn pitiful…
ㄴ Anonymous (348F): Seriously, the Demon King is unimaginably far away anyway.
ㄴ Anonymous (148F): It gave the newbie information before it left, so at least there's that.
ㄴ Anonymous (468F): Demons are insane.
ㄴ Anonymous (341F): They are demons, though…
The people in the gallery thought I wasn't thinking much of it, but that wasn't true.
Anonymous (100F) (Author): I'm actually kind of serious…
ㄴ Anonymous (351F): About what?
Anonymous (100F) (Author): I felt a real gap because there wasn't a single sign of the attack beforehand. If I put a lot of points into Sense later, will I really be able to see them?
The comment section paused for a moment after I asked that.
Someone asked me this.
ㄴAnonymous (367F): Isn't the newbie freaking cute, already trying to kill the Demon King? LMAOOOOOOOOOO
ㄴ Anonymous (643F): Wait, were you serious about killing the Demon King?
ㄴ Anonymous (100F) (Author): Of course. Isn't that obvious? To escape this place, I have to climb all the way up and kill the Demon King.
ㄴ Anonymous (643F): ㄷㄷ…
ㄴ Anonymous (436F): I'm rooting for you…
ㄴ Anonymous (673F): Their mindset is so earnest it's disorienting.
ㄴ Anonymous (438F): I wonder when they'll break.
ㄴ Anonymous (397F): No, from our perspective, you're at Floor 0 now, dude!
I knew that.
The gallery members' minimum floor was 101, so from their perspective, I was only just getting started.
ㄴㅇㅇ(100F)(OP) : So tell me quickly which artifact I should choose so I can get stronger.
ㄴ Fenrir : Why are you trying to get stronger so fast again? Take it slow.
ㄴ Anonymous (248F): We have no say when it comes to items. LOL
ㄴ Anonymous (537F): They go apeshit if we pretend to know anything about items. Yeah.
That was when it happened.
The username I had been waiting for appeared.
SSS-Grade Item Buff Guy: Here.
ㄴ SSS-Grade Item Buff Guy: The chest rewards are seriously insane. I was writing up a post.
ㄴ SSS-Grade Item Buff Guy: And I believe that one day, the newbie will become a vanguard explorer above Floor 900.
ㄴ Anonymous (643F): He doesn't say he believes you'll kill the Demon King lololololol
ㄴ SSS-Grade Item Buff Guy: Please check the post! I've organized everything!