I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 311

The Gallery maintenance had originally been expected to take about one to two days.

However, even after three days had passed, the Gallery still displayed only the message stating that maintenance was underway.

When the maintenance failed to end even after three days, people all over the world gradually began to feel uneasy.

The Gallery had served as a grand shield of anonymity where people could commit all sorts of trashy acts.

Unable to freely vent those desires, their frustration mounted in more ways than one.

Because of this, some people spent the entire day staring blankly into the air, while others couldn’t concentrate on their work at all.

While Gallery maintenance wasn’t unusual, it had rarely dragged on this long in recent times.

[Extended maintenance in progress.]

’Just what on earth is causing this extended maintenance...’

Selena, who had met with Kadir at the Magic Tower, was equally anxious.

In particular, she was even more worried about Grylls’s safety. It was because of the Elixir.

Normally, the only person who supplied him with Elixirs was Selena.

However, the Gallery had been under maintenance for a long time, and recently, monster attacks targeted at Grylls had become frequent.

’When was the last time the Gallery underwent maintenance for this long?’

Aside from conducting joint research with Kadir, she had been steadily investigating the Forest of the Four Seasons.

She had also investigated the Gallery while she was at it, though she didn’t think the two were necessarily related.

She was simply curious about how one might interfere with the Gallery.

"Interfering with the Gallery... Do you wish to become an administrator? I wouldn’t particularly recommend it, though."

"I have no interest in the messes made by others. I am thinking of authority higher than that."

"It seems the prolonged Gallery maintenance is driving you to harbor such thoughts."

"..."

Selena said nothing to Kadir’s remark. Because he hit the nail on the head.

Even the Orange Badge couldn’t use the Gallery during maintenance.

According to what she had heard before, logging in itself was possible, but posting was not allowed.

It was limited to taking measures so that new features could be tested in advance when added.

"I too once harbored such thoughts in the past. But all of them ended in failure."

"So you did make an attempt."

"Yes. I received a Blue Badge from the previous Orange Badge. Though there were no meaningful results."

"If it was the previous Orange Badge..."

"He was a man who suffered the punishment of having both eyes gouged out after stalking an Academy lady."

It was an extremely famous story, whether in the Gallery or in reality.

At the same time, it was an incident that made people realize just how terrifying the authority of the Orange Badge was.

One might wonder how such an absurd incident could happen, but among the powers of the Orange Badge was real-time location tracking.

That single feature alone offered endless means for abuse, and there were other abilities besides.

’However, even that Orange Badge found it difficult to access the core entity of the Gallery itself.’

Literally, they could only perform ’management’ or test various new features, but held no authority beyond that.

Surely, a being that governed the Gallery itself had to exist somewhere.

And that being was highly likely to be in the Forest of the Four Seasons.

’Although it is merely a conjecture...’

At the very least, the probability that it was woven into human civilization was extremely low.

The reason she could make such an assumption was simple.

’Many nations were established and repeatedly collapsed. Even so, the Gallery remained steadily maintained.’

That meant, at the very least, the Gallery was not a technology put forward by humanity.

At minimum, dragons or gods of the Mythological Age must have handled it.

Though countless nations experienced rise and fall over a long period, the Gallery silently maintained its place.

Just like the Forest of the Four Seasons, which had stubbornly held the exact same position for ages.

Through these assumptions, one could hypothesize that the Gallery and the Forest of the Four Seasons might be connected.

’However, to grasp it more clearly, Grylls-nim has no choice but to explore the Forest of the Four Seasons.’

Once the Gallery maintenance ended, she had something to ask Grylls.

Whether any changes had occurred in the Forest of the Four Seasons during the maintenance.

She would also ask the Orange Badge. Whether anything strange had happened during the extended maintenance.

Until now, there had been no one living in the Forest of the Four Seasons to compare with, but that was no longer the case.

’If they are connected... I should leave understanding the Gallery to Grylls-nim.’

She intended to focus solely on his escape. Entering the Forest of the Four Seasons herself would mean certain death.

With that, Selena continued her research alongside Kadir.

With two of the world’s greatest minds gathered in one place, their progress was remarkably fast.

"May I take a short break?"

"Of course. Let me know whenever you wish."

"You have impressive stamina despite being much older than me. Do you exercise regularly?"

"If I were to exercise at my age, all my bones would shatter. Hohoho."

Selena let out a quiet chuckle at Kadir’s joke. It didn’t quite resonate with her.

No matter how deeply she had immersed herself in exercise, barely two months had passed.

There was no way her stamina would increase dramatically. Furthermore, until recently, she had been confined to a bed.

Since even her exercise was closer to rehabilitation, it was inevitable that she lacked stamina.

’I’m satisfied just being able to run around.’

Whenever she had such thoughts, she felt infinite gratitude toward Grylls.

Selena excused herself from Kadir and walked out of the laboratory.

For now, she planned to visit Ash and ask what she was up to.

"Count Menethil."Read this novel at novelping . com for the best experience.

"Ah. You’ve arrived?"

Upon entering the room, Ash was inspecting a sword.

It was an artifact-grade weapon obtained after lightly defeating the Orc Champion.

"It seems you like the weapon quite a bit."

"Of course. I think I’ll be using it regularly from now on."

"May I take a look at it as well?"

At the request, Ash willingly handed over the sword.

Selena examined the sword, which bore a dull greyish hue, and promptly handed it back.

Being a mage and a scholar by nature, it was difficult for her to grasp what made it so good.

"As expected, I can’t really tell. If only I knew what materials were used to forge it."

"Since it falls under the category of an artifact, it might be a different alloy."

There was a concept known as lost technology, where brilliant techniques of the past disappeared due to certain reasons.

This applied to minerals and metallurgy as well. There was a very famous tale in the Central Plains.

A certain artifact-grade weapon was forged from steel, yet even after hundreds of years passed, it never rusted at all.

Upon investigating the reason, people realized to their shock that a different mineral had been ’coated’ onto the surface of the blade.

Even for dwarves, coating the surface of a blade was considered an extremely difficult task, yet a person from hundreds of years ago had accomplished it.

"An artifact discovered near the Forest of the Four Seasons... Perhaps it’s a sword that coincidentally made its way out of the Forest of the Four Seasons."

"Ayy. No way."

Ash chuckled at Selena’s half-joking remark and said,

"If that were the case, Grylls-ssi would be weeping tears of blood! He’d scream about how even a sword could escape, so why couldn’t he?"

"Fufu. That might indeed be true."

They spoke as if it were a joke, but it was reality. The problem was that Grylls himself had no idea.

In this world, no living creature—let alone an inanimate object—had ever escaped the Forest of the Four Seasons.

Even if such a thing existed, it would have caused massive waves throughout the world.

Of course, that was only if it were ever ’revealed’; until now, no method to confirm it had ever existed.

After all, the mere fact that one could access the Gallery from within the Forest of the Four Seasons was already causing a sensation.

’I hope the Gallery maintenance ends quickly. I need to brag to the Heavenly Demon.’

Regardless of all that, Ash was simply waiting for the moment she could show off to the Heavenly Demon.

The memory of how the Heavenly Demon had bragged about receiving a good sword from Grylls in the past was still vivid in her mind.

Oh, how jealous she had been back then. But now, she had obtained a sword comparable to that one.

’Still, the shape and abilities seem quite similar... I should ask him about it later.’

She wondered if that sword allowed even an ordinary person to use an Aura Blade.

If it did, she would harbor a slight suspicion.

"If you’re up for it, would you like to have some snacks?"

"I’d love to."

For now, it was time to enjoy a long-awaited moment of leisure.

I had no idea why the maintenance was dragging on for so long, but it was troublesome all the same.

’Don’t tell me the four supreme blades of maintenance exist in the Gallery too?’

Among those, the worst blade was ’extended maintenance’.

While other maintenance types ended early or right on schedule, extended maintenance held the potential to become ’permanent’.

There were stories of certain games that kept extending maintenance endlessly until they finally shut down their servers altogether.

If the Gallery ended up in that state... I didn’t even want to imagine it. It would mark the start of a true hard mode.

’Even without Princess Chaenggu’s supplies, it’s already a self-imposed hard mode.’

I truly hoped the Gallery would return to normal before winter passed.

Holding onto that wish, I silently chopped firewood, and then—

[Extended maintenance in progress.]

"God damn it."

I realized one of the worst-case scenarios had come true.

I had been checking constantly to see when the Gallery would open, only for that message to pop up at some point.

Extended maintenance, the worst of the supreme blades. Once this happened, there was no telling when the Gallery would open again.

’I don’t even know if there’s ever been extended maintenance before.’

Ludwig had built a wall between himself and the Gallery right up until he entered the Forest of the Four Seasons.

Therefore, it was impossible to know whether extended maintenance had occurred in the past.

As I pondered who I could vent this to, my eyes landed on Cain.

Come to think of it, the Gallery existed back when this guy was alive too.

"Cain-ssi. Did you use the Gallery when you were alive?"

[I did. As I recall, Orange Badge? Anyway, I acted as an administrator too.]

Was it because he was the first Paladin, or was it just a coincidence?

It was a strange feeling to think that the current Hero was the Orange Badge, and this man had been one as well.

However, when a user died, all the posts left behind by that user vanished.

So it would be impossible to find any posts he had uploaded.

"Did they have extended maintenance back then too?"

[There was quite a lot of maintenance itself. The time we could use it in a day was painfully insufficient.]

"So there was extended maintenance as well?"

[Indeed, there was.]

I obtained somewhat helpful information, but nothing was resolved.

Above all, there was something that concerned me even more. It was this very forest.

’A natural disaster occurred while the Gallery was undergoing maintenance. Could these be connected as well?’New chapters come out on novelping . com first.

The timing was too suspicious to call it a coincidence.

If the Gallery really was linked to the Forest of the Four Seasons, there had to be a related structure.

That structure was highly likely to be the World Tree. Not the sapling at my house, but the main one.

’Which means I’ll eventually have to go all the way there...’

With the Gallery under maintenance, heading there right now was ambiguous. There was the winter season to consider as well.

Above all, food was the biggest concern. Due to the sudden calamity, ninety percent of our food had been wiped out.

It was great that a new river had formed right in front of us, but there were many mouths to feed.

’What a shame. If only I had secured enough food...’

Once winter passed, countless beasts and monsters would attack, and we’d be able to procure a decent amount through that.

However, the fact that I was fated to suffer remained unchanged. My heart felt heavy already.

’This is really why I can’t bring myself to like gods.’

Just when things felt a little comfortable, they’d throw a fit saying, "Nope, not allowed," and pull all kinds of outrageous antics, so how could I like them?

One might say natural disasters were unavoidable scientific phenomena, but I chose to think of it my way.

Otherwise, I felt like my sanity wouldn’t hold up.

As I said before, since I couldn’t hate humans, it was better to hate God.

"Master."

"Speak."

"Are there no sweet potatoes?"

"You sweet potato addict."

Or I could just hate this damned albino gorilla instead.

Ever since the food storage had been completely blown away, Lackey’s nagging for sweet potatoes had gradually grown worse.

It seemed he had become genuinely addicted to the sweet taste, and at this rate, he’d definitely get diabetes.

’Do animals get diabetes too?’

If he could be an albino, he could probably get diabetes too.

I brushed aside useless thoughts and sorted our remaining food.

The time remaining until the end of winter was roughly three to four days.

Sorting out food to survive until then was the absolute basics, and I had to keep other things in mind as well.

’To think the day would come when I have to ration even the Fasting Pills...’

I might get glares from Bbareumbo, but I had no choice.

I let out a sigh and stepped out of the house. I intended to pick some World Tree fruit.

If we eked out a living on World Tree fruit, we should be able to hold out.

My heart was heavy, but what needed to be done had to be done.

"Hmm?"

It happened when I stood before the World Tree and looked up at the sky. Something felt wrong.

’What’s this? Has the sun set already?’

The day was strangely dark. As if the sun had already gone down.

It wasn’t strange for the sun to set early in winter, but this was far too fast.

Just in case, I checked my watch, but it was only three o’clock.

’Now even the weather is pulling a—’

Just as I was about to think that—

Clatter— Clatter— Clatter—

The sky darkened even more rapidly, and the sound of horse hooves echoed.

Clank— Clank—

The metallic rattling of armor was an added bonus.

Up until a moment ago, not a single sound had been audible, so I couldn’t help but be thoroughly bewildered.

Furthermore, I even felt as though my very survival instincts were freezing solid.

Normally, whenever faced with a situation like this, my body would move instinctively, but right now I couldn’t budge an inch.

And then...

WHWOOOOSH!!!

As if swinging a massive flail, the sound of a roaring gale pierced my ears.

I hurriedly turned my head, and only one thing caught my sight.

’A-A coffin?!’

A coffin tightly bound in iron chains was flying straight toward me.

Using a coffin like some kind of flail was deeply unsettling.

CLANG!

It was right when I was so stunned that I couldn’t take any action.

Someone approached in front of me at a speed invisible to the eye and swung an arm.

The sound of iron clashing against iron. A fierce noise so intense it made my ears ring.

"B-Bbareumbo?"

"..."

It was Bbareumbo, who had been clinging to my back. When I failed to react in time, he had stepped up himself.

However, for a fellow who wouldn’t step in for ordinary matters to take action personally...

’...This is dangerous.’

Clank— Clank—

The moment that thought crossed my mind, the chained coffin slowly swiveled back.

Even when I raised my head, all that was visible was pitch-black darkness. And...

FLASH!

A blue flame floating in the empty air.