Chapter 67

The Damned (4)

It was certainly a good thing that Chames United had pulled off a comeback victory, but as I’d said before, I was only a casual fan.

Rather than the team winning the match, the fact that Cheonggu Princess had escaped being one of the deceased hit me harder.

Every now and then, people came to my comment on a “pilgrimage to the holy site,” but I didn’t pay much attention to them.

It’s kind of bizarre that my comment became a holy site, though.

Back on Earth, posts that predicted the future were often called “holy sites” too.

It was fascinating that this world not only had the same term for them, but even had the same culture of people visiting and leaving comments.

Was it because religion existed here?

Anyway, while the Gallery was being flooded with posts about Chae-U, I took care of chores around the house.

Evening was approaching, so I prepared dinner, checked on the smoking meat, and so on.

Lastly, I checked whether any fish had gotten caught in the fish trap.

Splash! Splash!

There was one fish caught in the trap.

It had caught one in only five hours.

And it was a fish with a striking golden hue. This one tasted even better than the red fish.

With just one fish trap, I don’t have to worry about food anymore.

It was so delicious that I never even got tired of it. Actually, saying I was “tired of it” would itself be the complaint of someone with a full stomach.

Hadn’t I been chewing on those horribly bitter fasting pills just a week ago?

Fish might be coming in steadily now, but one little mishap and I’d be right back to living on fasting pills.

Come to think of it, it’s already been almost ten days.

Today was day eight, and tomorrow would be day nine.

Thanks to the Gallery, I’d adapted at an astonishing rate, but I still couldn’t let my guard down.

Just like when the saber-toothed tiger attacked, there was no telling what might appear, where, or when.

Hell, just today some random chicken was looking down at me.

If we’d actually fought, I wondered if that beak might have taken my head clean off.

Eventually, I returned to the shelter and put the fish in the steel container.

Afterward, I went back up to the river and reset the fish trap.

Once I’d finished the whole process, I checked to see what everyone was doing.

“Kkyuuu…”

“……”

Wonmo was awake, while Namu-Ppareumbo was staring blankly into space like an idiot.

It was starting to get dark, so this seemed like a good time to browse the Gallery.

[Mr. Grylls. If you see this post, please leave a comment.]

I searched my name after wondering if someone had mentioned me and found that Allfather had made a post.

It seemed to be about the heart, so I immediately left a comment.

└ Wild Grylls: Hello, Allfather. What’s going on?

└ Allfather: I have good news and bad news. Which would you like to hear first?

└ Wild Grylls: Hmm… the bad news first?

└ Allfather: The heart burst.

└ Wild Grylls: Sir?

└ Poor goblin.

└ Of all people, it had to fall into the hands of a weirdo.

That was certainly an alarming thing to hear.

The heart had been perfectly intact when I sent it, yet now it had burst.

Had it exploded or something?

My thoughts had taken a slight detour, but the fact remained that the heart had burst.

How did I feel about it?

Frankly, I didn’t feel much of anything.

I hadn’t given it to him expecting compensation, and it had been something I didn’t know what to do with anyway.

└ Wild Grylls: You didn’t get hurt, did you? If the heart exploded, that sounds seriously dangerous ;;

└ Allfather: It didn’t burst in that sense. It literally just burst.

└ Wild Grylls: Huh?

└ Allfather: It didn’t explode like a bomb. It simply burst. Like a balloon, you might say.

└ What the hell did you do to make it burst?

└ Did you pump air into it like an actual balloon or something?

└ Why the hell would you even perform an experiment like that? What are you, some kind of freak? lol

└ How about I stick a hose up your ass and pump air into you? Wanna see what happens?

└ Allfather: Don’t. Your colon will rupture and you’ll die.

└ LMAOOOOOO

└ How the hell do you know that? Don’t tell me…?

└ Allfather: I shoved one into a goblin’s ass and experimented on it.

└ Wild Grylls: You really weren’t hurt, right?

└ Allfather: Correct. However, since I carelessly destroyed something you went to the trouble of giving me, I intend to compensate you.

└ Wild Grylls: It’s fine. It was useless to me anyway.

└ Allfather: It does not sit well with me. Still, I can at least tell you several important things I discovered.

└ Wild Grylls: I don’t know whether they’ll be useful to me, but let’s hear the research results first. Should you post them as a private comment?

└ Allfather: This place is full of bastards who won’t believe me anyway, so it hardly matters.

└└└ I’ll believe you. Spill it.

└ You serious?

└ Hell no lol.

└ Figures lolol.

└ Wild Grylls: Ignore those idiots and keep going.

└ Allfather: To give you the conclusion first, the saber-toothed tiger heart you gave me had exactly the same structure as a Dragon Heart.

└ Turns out he just kept it in his refrigerator at home lolol.

└ Talk about something that actually makes sense lololol.

I’d heard a little about what a Dragon Heart was.

Something like a biological nuclear bomb, if I remembered correctly.

It contained an enormous amount of mana, which apparently made the damn thing extremely difficult to process.

Allfather had said he’d consumed one before, though I had no idea whether that was actually true.

└ You’re a fraud, aren’t you? How the hell does that make any sense? Can you prove it?

└ Allfather: You are free to believe me or not. I can’t be bothered explaining anymore.

└ You can’t explain because you’re lying lolol.

└ Weren’t there barely any people who’d even researched Dragon Hearts in the first place?

└ There are plenty of papers on them. Long-lived races like demons and elves manage to kill dragons fairly often.

└ No humans?

└ I heard Kadir killed one by himself and used it as research material. No idea what happened after that.

└ Wild Grylls: Who the hell is Kadir now?

└ There’s this guy called the Wizard King. Just think of him as one insanely strong old man.

└ Didn’t he also subjugate the Immortal King after killing the dragon?

└ Pretty sure he defeated the Immortal King and even sealed him away. But apparently nobody knows where he sealed him.

Anyway, he was one insanely powerful guy.

That much I understood.

Could someone like that use the Gallery…?

Sure, why not?

Even the Heavenly Demon was using the Gallery because she had nothing better to do.

The Gallery was something anyone could enjoy, regardless of status.

└ Wild Grylls: So that means it was a tiger with a Dragon Heart? Is that even possible?

└ Allfather: That is something I am curious about as well. Just what kind of changes the Forest of Four Seasons has caused in living creatures.

└ Wild Grylls: That sounds pretty ominous.

└ Allfather: You may undergo similar changes yourself, Mr. Grylls.

“Hmm…”

I let out a thoughtful hum. It wasn’t exactly an encouraging hypothesis.

Evolution wasn’t something that happened overnight.

But then again, the ways of the world were unpredictable.

If I noticed any changes in myself, it would probably be best to tell Allfather.

└ Wild Grylls: I’ll keep that in mind. Is there anything else?

└ Allfather: There is, but I doubt it will be of any use to you. Also, there is an item I would like to give you.

└ Wild Grylls: What kind of item?

└ Allfather: From this point on, let us speak through a trade.

Not long afterward, I received a trade request from Allfather. I readily accepted it.

I couldn’t help feeling a little tense, since it seemed like something important was about to come up.

[Allfather: The item I am giving you is a subspace bag. Consider it compensation for the item you gave me.]

[Wild Grylls: A subspace bag? What’s that?]

[Allfather: Think of it as a bag that ignores spatial limitations. It looks like a small bag from the outside, but you can store a vast number of items inside.]

So it was basically like an inventory in a game.

I was impressed.

Something like that would make my life overwhelmingly more convenient.

But nothing in this world was ever that easy, and Allfather went on to explain the restrictions placed on the subspace bag.

[Allfather: However, you cannot put living creatures inside it, and since it cannot ignore the law of conservation of mass, you will have to bear the weight yourself.]

[Wild Grylls: What about when I want to take something out?]

[Allfather: Simply think of the item you want, and you should be able to retrieve it easily.]

[Wild Grylls: Got it. That alone is more than enough for me. But isn’t something like this incredibly expensive?]

[Allfather: It is worth less than the heart you gave me. I am giving it to you because I feel guilty, so please accept it.]

[Wild Grylls: All right. I’ll put it to good use.]

[Allfather: Thank you for accepting the trade. If you discover any interesting plants or animals, I hope you will give me an opportunity to study them. Ah, and I would prefer it if you refrained from telling others that I gave you this item.]

[Wild Grylls: Sounds like you have your reasons. All right.]

Apparently, he had given me the item because he didn’t want to sever his relationship with me.

I needed Allfather’s help too, since without him, I had no way of identifying the plants and animals I encountered.

This is basically like a game inventory?

The item Allfather had given me was closer to a pouch than a bag.

I cautiously peered inside, but there was no bottom in sight. All I could see was pitch-black darkness.

I considered putting something inside to test it, then picked up one of the countless rocks lying outside.

The rock was far too large to ever fit inside such a small pouch.

It would make a good test.

Shwoop!

“Oh?”

The rock slipped into the pouch with remarkable ease.

And the pouch immediately became heavier.

Allfather had said it couldn’t ignore the law of conservation of mass, and sure enough, I could feel the full weight of the rock.

It was literally an item that pushed convenience to the extreme, not something that transcended all limitations.

Still, this is amazing.

With this, I could carry my crossbow around too.

That was the biggest advantage.

Allfather had given me an excellent gift.

It was incredibly useful to me.

Still, I should probably carry the sword and shield normally, right?

The Heavenly Demon’s sword in particular was so sharp that I could end up cutting my hand on it.

As for the shield, I might need to use it at a moment’s notice, so I planned to keep it strapped to my back.

Since I could store not only the crossbow but all sorts of other items in the pouch, its usefulness was undeniable.

Where did he even get something like this? Is this magic too?

I wanted to ask Allfather, but he had specifically requested that I avoid talking about it.

I didn’t know why, but he probably had his personal reasons.

There was no need to pry.

After experimenting with the subspace pouch in various ways, I smiled in satisfaction.

I won’t have to worry about running out of hands anymore.

This was an enormous gain.

The tiger’s heart had been practically useless to me anyway.

After playing around with the subspace pouch for a while, I carefully set it down.

It would be a huge loss if the thing got torn.

Time to eat dinner.

Dinner was the fish I had just caught.

A golden fish with a deliciously satisfying texture.

I’d gotten fairly proficient at cleaning fish by now, so I handled it without any trouble.

How long are these going to keep showing up?

I stored the inner core I found while cleaning out the fish’s organs in an empty bottle.

At this rate, I might end up filling the whole thing before long.

If I kept eating fish, it wasn’t impossible.

“Here, Wonmo. Have a bite.”

“Kkyu!”

After finishing a hearty dinner, all that remained was training my internal energy cultivation method.

Perhaps because I had also taken the medicine Allfather gave me, a strange sensation lingered throughout my body.

The cultivation method is important, but controlling my aura matters too.

My aura still only shimmered like a heat haze, unable to take on any definite shape.

According to SwordMaster, reaching the level of an Aura Blade was where talent started to matter.

Well, it hasn’t even been a month since I started using mana, right?

Tomorrow would only be day nine.

And I’d started practicing the internal energy cultivation method around day six or seven.

Each day felt so incredibly long that it was easy to forget, but not that much time had actually passed.

If I got impatient for no reason, I might only set myself back.

It would be better to make progress little by little.

Crackle! Crackle! Pop!

“……”

I stared blankly at the vigorously burning campfire.

Since I wasn’t speaking, the cave was utterly quiet.

Namu-Ppareumbo wasn’t the type to make any noise in the first place, while Wonmo was simply sitting beside me.

Stroke, stroke.

“Kkyuuu…”

When I stroked his head, Wonmo purred and leaned against me.

At some point, Namu-Ppareumbo had latched onto my back.

Strangely enough, he didn’t feel heavy at all.

I opened the Gallery like that.

There wasn’t much else to do, so I might as well browse it.

Maybe that would help soothe the strange melancholy hanging over me.

└ Did Kkolho lose again this time?

└ Suspiciously: We could’ve won, but we lost to a walk-off homer. I seriously want to beat the shit out of all of them with a bat lol.

└ LMAOOOOOO this is why we watch sports.

Title: Know Why We Keep Losing?

Suspiciously

(Photo of a man smacking his forehead)

Because we played a game!

└ A sage! A sage has appeared!

The Gallery that Chae-U had previously taken over was now filled with a whole new batch of deceased.

I chuckled as I looked through the posts, but then something occurred to me.

Does time flow the same way everywhere in this world?

The Gallery was filled with people who seemed to have no distinction between day and night.

Because of that, my sense of time had gotten confused.

Even if this was another world, the time of day should differ from region to region.

If it was daytime somewhere, it should be nighttime somewhere else.

Should I ask…? Nah. What good would knowing do me anyway?

The Forest of Four Seasons was more important to me.

I browsed through various posts in the Gallery for a while before quietly closing it.

Rather than pointlessly wandering around the Gallery, it would be better to circulate my cultivation method one more time.

I should work toward keeping the cultivation method circulating even during my everyday activities.

And with that, another eventful day came to an end.