I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 349

Just to be clear, discussing intelligence based solely on a game of Gomoku is absurd.

There is a story that a certain Baduk player possessed world-class skill yet couldn’t even tie a shoelace.

Simply put, it is close to the prejudice that a pro gamer who reached the apex in one game will naturally be good at other games too.

Therefore, just because I lost to Lackey doesn’t mean my intelligence is lower than his.

As someone once said, intelligence and wisdom are two different things. It’s like how a student who graduated from a prestigious university can end up being called dead weight in the military.

’Still, there’s no denying that I lost to Lackey at Gomoku.’

I glanced back and forth between the gloating Lackey and the Gallery.

Orange Badge, Asella, was going wild demanding a rematch, while everyone else was busy teasing her.

Sword Matstar put up somewhat of a fight, whereas Orange Badge got utterly obliterated.

She threw a fit, claiming she had underestimated him because he was a gorilla and promising to take it seriously if they played again.

"Lackey. Someone says they want another match?"

"A human? Master, did you happen to turn on that Gallery thing or whatever?"

"I did."

"Don’t tell me you played by proxy?"

"Nope?"

Truth be told, I did get backseat advice, but it didn’t mean much. They were all total failures.

Lackey stared blankly at my shameless answer and shrugged his shoulders.

"It doesn’t matter. I’ll win against everyone anyway."

"Look at that confidence. I’ll call her over again for now."

And so, the rematch between Orange Badge, Asella, and Lackey came to pass.

As if proving she had paid the price for underestimating him, Asella fought quite well.

But was she too rushed? Or was Lackey simply too good?

"I won this time as well."

Lackey took the victory. At first, I just let it slide.

[It is frustrating just watching. There clearly existed a move to finish it.]

"It was painful holding back."

That is, until the luminary of the Holy Kingdom and the Hero’s instructor voiced their frustration.

Actually, I saw the winning move too. Asella just missed it because she didn’t notice.

"Lackey. Did you know too?"

"I knew, but I just left it alone. I wondered how long it would take her to notice."

[Rather than funny, it is pitiable. How could her vision be so narrow?]

"It’s difficult to judge one’s vision based solely on Gomoku. Let’s just say... she’s slightly lacking."

Cain and Ludwig criticized her side by side. Ludwig’s criticism felt even more stinging than Cain’s.

I glanced at the Gallery amid the pouring criticisms. Was it because the critics were none other than luminaries of the Holy Kingdom?

ㄴDon’t Abandon the Hero) TT TT TT TT TT TT T_T

ㄴSword Matstar) Are you crying? lol

She shed a bucket of tears and vanished without a trace. It seemed she couldn’t endure the shame.

I thought she had a slightly silly side, but to think it was in this area.

Still, since she holds the title of Hero, her intelligence wouldn’t actually be lacking.

ㄴSmart Demon) I will play next.

ㄴWild Grylls) Didn’t Sword Matstar-nim originally request a rematch?

ㄴHeavenly Demon) It seems Orange Badge banned her. She was sealed for 1 hour.

ㄴWild Grylls) ???

ㄴStarlight Lady) Did she really ban her just for teasing a little?

ㄴPrincess Chaenggu) Guess we shouldn’t tease her from now on.

ㄴKing Reor) Sulking over losing a single game of Gomoku, seriously kekeke

ㄴPassing Dwarf) Come to think of it, didn’t they say mini-games would be added? Won’t she just keep losing then lol

Well. The reason Orange Badge got sulky was probably because of Cain and Ludwig’s criticism.

Especially since Ludwig was the instructor who personally taught Asella. Every single word of his would have acted as a critical strike.

Even though Ludwig himself had no idea who was playing the moves. I had no intention of telling him either.

In times like this, pretending not to know is the best policy. It might only lead to an embarrassing situation.

"Come at me. This body will take on all of you."

Gaining confidence, Lackey pounded his chest and declared.

A gorilla pounding its chest is close to a warning or a provocation.

Seeing him get so cocky over mere Gomoku was unsightly, but what could be done? Someone needed to defeat him.

"Mmm... Strong."

"You lost?"

"Let’s play one more game."

Smart Demon took the place of Sword Matstar. Fitting his handle, he easily defeated Lackey.

Lackey asked to play a few more games, and Smart Demon willingly obliged.

Then, an astonishing thing occurred. Lackey, who had initially suffered a helpless defeat, was steadily improving.

Although he couldn’t prevent defeat itself, he launched attacks looking several moves ahead, leading to a fierce offense and defense.

’Is this really Gomoku?’

For a moment, I almost mistook it for Baduk instead of Gomoku. His focus was tremendous.

As time passed, Lackey improved by the day, reaching a point where even Smart Demon was marveling at him.

"I-I won! I finally won!"

It was after about 10 games. Taking advantage of a mistake by Smart Demon, Lackey secured victory.This chapter was copied from NovelPing without permission.

It wasn’t that Smart Demon threw the match on purpose either. He played seriously and lost.

ㄴSmart Demon) He plays pretty well? I think he’s smarter than most humans.

"Should I ask him for another game?"

ㄴSmart Demon) I am more deeply interested in Baduk than Gomoku. I will stop here.

Smart Demon only admired him and didn’t crave more matches just because he lost.

Playing Gomoku was merely out of interest, and he noted that if Lackey learned Baduk, it would be a different story.

I wondered if I should teach Lackey Baduk later on, but decided against it. Baduk was a game overflowing with true hardcores.

There were plenty of people who would engage in intense matches all day, and when the sun set, they would agree to continue the next day.

Besides, even restricted to Gomoku, there were already plenty of people wanting to play a game.

ㄴStarlight Lady) May I play next?

"Do as you wish. Lackey, someone wants to play you?"

"My head feels dizzy. Give me something sweet."

"...."

Right. He used his head a lot for a gorilla, so he must need sugar.

I let out a dry laugh and cooked him some candied sweet potatoes.

Making roasted sweet potatoes took too long, so I substituted it with this.

"You guys eat too."

"Kkyuuu! Kkyu!"

"Ppiiik!"

"Ppaeaek!"

I passed snacks to the little ones who were happily playing with the soccer ball as well.

Having replenished his sugar levels, Lackey played Gomoku with Starlight Lady.

"Kkkeeeeung..."

"You look like you’re struggling. Should I ask her to let you take back a move?"

"No. I will finish it till the end."

He got utterly crushed. Far more severely than against Smart Demon.

Smart Demon had at least made a mistake, but Starlight Lady didn’t even make one.

Whenever Lackey tried to force his way through, she instantly noticed and blocked him, and moves whose intent seemed mysterious turned out to actually be traps.

The thought naturally crossed my mind that a game of mere Gomoku could showcase such intensity.

’If I played against her, I wouldn’t even know how I lost.’

Even though Lackey squeezed every drop of juice out of his brain, no path forward could be seen.

As a result, his matches against Starlight Lady ended in overwhelming total defeat.

Strictly speaking, he had 1 win, but that had to be treated as an exception.

That felt strongly like Starlight Lady intentionally let him win. It was virtually close to being toyed with.

"...I’m leaving."

Was it because of the overwhelming defeat? Lackey got sulky.

He had been pounding his chest and provoking everyone just moments ago, but his spirit seemed thoroughly broken.

I had no intention of comforting him either. Excessive confidence is meant to be broken.

ㄴStarlight Lady) If nothing else, his focus is extraordinary. Something fun came to mind.

ㄴSword Matstar) Something fun?

ㄴStarlight Lady) Huh? Didn’t you say you got banned earlier?

ㄴHeavenly Demon) This lady unbanned her. It was unsightly to watch.

ㄴSword Matstar) Last time Blue Badge-nim banned me too;;

ㄴHeavenly Demon) Considering your tone of speech back then, there was ample cause.

ㄴPrincess Chaenggu) So what is that fun thing?

ㄴStarlight Lady) Teaching him magic.

ㄴKing Reor) ?

ㄴPassing Dwarf) ?

ㄴSmart Demon) ?

At Starlight Lady’s proposal, a feast of countless question marks followed.

Naturally, the real-world me was no different. I knew Lackey was smart, but magic?

What is magic? It is an ability that can only be manifested by those capable of physically expressing fire.

Going beyond simply being smart, one had to be good at academic subjects, especially mathematics.

"Um... Excuse me, but you know intelligence and wisdom are separate, right? Just because he plays Gomoku well, thinking his brain works well in that direction as well is a huge mistake."

ㄴStarlight Lady) Still, wouldn’t it be worth a try? He even learned martial arts, of all things.

ㄴSmart Demon) It is true that most people of high realm are smart. However, there are also those who aren’t.

ㄴPraise the Sun) But isn’t that gorilla a case of having an inherently smart brain itself? How many languages can he speak?

Although it was a bit bewildering, hearing Praise the Sun’s words changed the story.

Lackey is definitely smart. More so than your average genius.

The example proving that was his linguistic ability. Thus, I asked Lackey.

"Lackey. How many foreign languages can you speak?"

"Master’s tongue. The legless human’s tongue. Master’s tongue. And lastly, the Hobgoblin tongue."

"Hold on. When did you learn the Hobgoblin language?"

"I just listened, and eventually I was able to speak it."This story is hosted at NovelPing.

No wonder he gave commands in perfect order during manual labor. It seems he already mastered the language.

Short of an exceptional genius, learning a language in a week is impossible.

"So that means you can speak a total of 4 languages?"

"5."

"5?"

"I can also understand the speech of beasts."

He could even understand the speech of beasts. Beyond surprise, it was shocking.

With this, Lackey’s genius was roughly proven. I looked at the Gallery.

ㄴStarlight Lady) His mind is certainly bright.

ㄴPassing Dwarf) That’s just bright? He’s a fucking genius! How many days would it take you to master a foreign language?

ㄴStarlight Lady) I acquired it in a day. To be precise, I should say half a day. It took a full day to become fluent.

ㄴPassing Dwarf) Nonsense no one believes;;

ㄴSword Matstar) She suffered from the Nine Yin Severed Meridians. If it’s that, it’s understandable.

Starlight Lady suffered from Nine Yin Severed Meridians and narrowly escaped death with my help.

Now, all the side effects unique to Nine Yin Severed Meridians were gone, leaving only the advantages.

According to Heavenly Demon’s explanation, those who suffered from Nine Yin Severed Meridians could be called geniuses of the century without exaggeration.

’It’s just that they all die by the time they turn twenty.’

At any rate, Starlight Lady’s genius was beyond compare to others.

Furthermore, surprisingly, many geniuses are not very good at self-objectification.

A mindset like ’I do this easily, so why can’t you?’ Starlight Lady was similar.

ㄴStarlight Lady) I will write down magic theory in the language of Zhongyuan, so could you pass it along to Lackey?

"As for passing it along..."

Whether Lackey would understand it or not was the key point. Honestly, I thought it would be tough.

No matter how smart Lackey was, magic belonged to a different dimension.

If it could be learned that easily, I would have learned it too. The moment I saw the theory, I gave up.

"By the way, even if you give him the book, it’s not like I’m giving Lackey time off or anything. Just consider it a hobby."

ㄴStarlight Lady) I am not expecting much either.

ㄴSword Matstar) Honestly, you’re expecting a huge amount, right?

ㄴStarlight Lady) Did you catch me? haha

Time passed after that, and I received the magic theory translated into Zhongyuan language from Starlight Lady.

Hearing that she personally translated and wrote it line by line, I couldn’t help but be shocked.

[Wild Grylls: You wrote this thick book in a single day?]

[Starlight Lady: Actually, it’s a book I wrote long ago out of boredom. Zhongyuan calls magic ’Taoist sorcery’.]

[Wild Grylls: Is there any difference?]

[Starlight Lady: There is no big difference. If any, perhaps just the language?]

A difference of that level was nothing. I looked at Lackey.

He was lying on the bed reading it as if it were some novel.

Occasionally, when a word he didn’t understand popped up? He flipped through an encyclopedia to find it himself.

For the record, that encyclopedia was also given by Starlight Lady. She said that no matter how brilliant Lackey’s language skills were, there were bound to be things he didn’t know.

"Lackey. Reading a book in the dark will ruin your eyes. I’ll give you a lantern, so read it there."

"Understood."

"And blink your eyes frequently. If nothing else, blinking often keeps your eyesight from deteriorating."

"I will take it to heart."

I made accommodations so Lackey could study even through the night.

In my heart, I wanted to set up a desk and chair for him, but the space was cramped.

Still, I did as much as I could. He could pull night watch duty while he was at it.

’He’ll do fine on his own.’

Thinking of it as him reading for killing time would put my mind at ease.

Thus, an uneventful day flowed by.

"Master. Look at this."

"What is it?"

Lackey, who had dark circles hanging heavily under his eyes as if he had stayed up all night, called out to me.

Wondering what was up, I followed behind him. Before long, what Lackey showed me was firewood.

Lackey stacked the firewood neatly, extended his hand, and said:

"Fire."

Hwareuk!

Then, astonishingly, didn’t the firewood catch fire?

At first, I blinked, not knowing what was happening, but soon fell into utter shock.

"Hey. Did you just..."

As I stood there astonished, Lackey puffed out his chest triumphantly.

"I am a genius. Master."

He was annoying, but I had no choice but to admit it.

’Is he really a gorilla?’

Just what kind of place is the Forest of the Four Seasons?