I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 391

I had no idea what religion these undead worshipped, but one thing was abundantly clear.

Like any proper cult, it had produced fanatics in massive quantities. A thought crossed my mind, so I asked,

"By any chance, if someone’s faith becomes too deep, can they turn into an undead?"

[What dangerous nonsense. That would be heresy. Besides, the process of becoming an undead is entirely different in the first place.]

Just what on earth had turned them into undead? I couldn’t wrap my head around it.

Regardless, the fact remained that we had to purge this undead horde.

Fortunately, we had plenty of Holy Water, so we should be fine.

[For eternal life...!]

[Praise the MANA!!!]

[Oh... Give me...]

With eyes glowing ominously, the undead swarmed toward us in a massive crowd.

I sliced through the skeletons one by one. My English was terrible, so I had no idea what they were babbling about.

I could tell for sure that they were brainwashed by a cult, though. It felt like watching an apocalyptic end-of-the-world scenario played out in real time.

Dalgeurak- dalgeurak-

To make matters worse, they possessed absurd regenerative capabilities.

Even when I sliced them down with my sword or Cain smashed them into splinters with his coffin, they kept coming endlessly.

Was the Wild Hunt back in the Holy Kingdom something like this? At this rate, there was no end in sight.

’There must be a main core or body controlling them. When I shattered one skeleton, another one picked up the sentence right where it left off.’

I thought to myself, cleaving a skeleton blocking my path right down the middle.

It wasn’t just me; the others—especially Ludwig and Cain—must have had similar thoughts.

Since they were far more experienced with the undead than I was, I needed their counsel.

"Looking at them, it seems like there’s a main body or source controlling them. Do you know where it is?"

"We must find it."

Ludwig replied gruffly, splashing Holy Water all around.

Unlike me, he had plenty of experience using Holy Water, conserving and applying it with surgical precision.

As for Cain, he was busy pulverizing them with his coffin, so he relied far less on Holy Water.

Chiiiiiik!

The moment Holy Water splashed onto them, the skeletons melted away like snow under boiling heat, emitting a foul, pungent stench.

Yet whenever one skeleton was destroyed, another sprang forth from the piles of bones scattered around.

The way they snapped together like combining mechas made the place feel like a literal undead assembly line.

’I need to clear out those bone piles first.’

There were far too many of them to keep wasting Holy Water. Overwhelming firepower was the answer.

I asked Ludwig to cover my back, then drew my bow and slotted an arrow.

I aimed straight at one of the massive bone heaps and let fly.

Kwagwang!!!

A deafening explosion erupted, shattering the bones into splintered rain. At that exact moment, a change occurred.

One of the skeletons rushing toward us suddenly went completely limp, as if its power supply had been cut off.

The instant I saw that, I realized: those bone piles were acting as power batteries!

"Ludwig-ssi!"

At my call, Ludwig shifted his focus to pure defense. He seemed to have realized that the bone piles were the weakness as well.

I rained explosive arrows into every remaining bone pile. Every time an arrow detonated, shards of bone shot skyward.

It was practically raining debris, but I couldn’t stop now. There were still plenty of piles left.

[No! Stop...!]

Kwajik!

One of the skeletons yelled out something, but Cain promptly obliterated it with his coffin.

It sounded roughly like "Stop doing that," but like hell I would listen.

’Still, I should leave at least one alive.’

I had no intention of sparing it permanently, but I had things to ask. Just as I left the final bone heap standing on its own—

The relentless horde of undead visibly thinned out to almost nothing.

Only a single undead was left standing. I promptly severed its neck.

Chiiiiiik!

I purified everything below the neck with Holy Water.

And so, with only a solitary skull remaining, I interrogated the undead.

"Alright. You’re the last one left. Mind if I ask you a few questions?"

[#$$ #$% @#$%!]

"What is it saying?"

[It says that as long as mana exists, they shall rise again.]

"Hey Lackey. Don’t you need to take a leak? I want to use this guy as a chamber pot."

"I actually need to take a dump."

[@## $%$% @@#$!]

Was it because we were speaking in Korean, or was there some other reason?

The skull clattered its teeth wildly in resistance. Not that it was intimidating in the slightest.

Since the battery bone heaps had all been destroyed save for one,

we held total control. Still, I didn’t drop my guard, taking care not to be careless.

"Lackey. And Ludwig-ssi. You two sprinkle Holy Water all around the perimeter first."

"Understood."

"Mm."

Just to be safe, they meticulously doused the surrounding area in Holy Water.

This way, there was no chance of this thing pulling any surprise backstabs.

’Still, they were unexpectedly weak. Is it because they’re undead?’

Maybe other beasts and monsters ignored them precisely because they were undead.Find the original chapter at NovelPing.

Besides, dealing with them required raw ’firepower’ capable of blowing away entire bone piles at once.

The same went for Holy Water. If we hadn’t met all the exact conditions, clearing them out would have been quite tricky.

"Anyway, state your name first. Who are you?"

[#$#$ $%% @@$%$!]

"What’s he saying now?"

[He is urging you to become the next Cult Leader. He says that since you harbor such powerful mana, you possess more than enough talent.]

"I said state your name first."

I could vaguely grasp spoken English listening-wise, but conversational English was way beyond me.

Besides, with an excellent translator by my side, I saw no need to learn it anyway.

[#$ #$$% @#$%!]

[He claims that if you become the Cult Leader, you can enjoy eternal life. A classic line frequently regurgitated by the undead.]

"Eternal life my ass, I told you to tell me your name first!"

He had been spouting gibberish for a while now. His mind was clearly unstable and senile.

It clearly demonstrated the pathetic end result of ’immortality.’ I glanced around.

Lackey and Ludwig were thoroughly spraying Holy Water as I had requested.

"Fine, Cult Leader-nim. Who are you, and what is the cult you belong to?"

[#$% $%%% ##$$%?]

[Ohhh! Manatology! Praise Manatology!]

I got the gist of what they worshipped. Manatology... I couldn’t help but chuckle.

The issue was that this area was presumed to be the United States. And that dangerous cults were rampant in America as well.

I even remembered news reports about famous Hollywood actors being deeply obsessed with cults.

’Was it Scientology? I can’t quite remember.’

America: a country that guaranteed immense freedom compared to other nations.

The problem was that with an excess of freedom, plenty of people engaged in all sorts of bizarre antics.

Although that freedom was supposed to come with strict accountability, that only applied when the nation functioned properly.

With the government half-collapsed, a cult like this running rampant?

It must have been virtually impossible to stop them.

If even normal, functioning societies struggled to curb cults, stopping them during the apocalypse was a laughable pipe dream.

[## ##$$%! ##%% @#$%%!]

[Look at us! Look at us enjoying eternal life! If this is not a miracle, then what is!]

"Quit talking bullcrap and tell me your name first! Have you got dementia or something?!"

If the result of eternal life was dementia, I’d rather die a hundred times over.

Since he kept spouting useless nonsense, he wasn’t being helpful in the slightest.

In the end, I decided to purify him.

[Wait! Wait!]

Chiiiiiik!

I planted an explosive arrow into the last bone pile to detonate it, then doused the skull with Holy Water.

Having disposed of the noisy bastard, my mind felt much lighter. Why didn’t I just keep him around, you ask?

Since ancient times, keeping someone brainwashed by a cult around you was a terrible idea.

People obsessed with religion were uncomfortable enough to deal with, let alone fanatical cultists.

"Everyone, did you see that? Becoming undead comes with dementia as a default feature."

↳ Heavenly Demon) What a foolish creature. The only thing that is eternal is the heavens.

↳ Sword Matstar) A talking undead is insanely rare, though...

↳ Necromancy is Love) If only you had sent him to We instead of purifying him. We were feeling quite lonely and could have gained a comrade.

↳ Passing Dwarf) Did you get dementia too?

↳ Don’t Abandon the Hero) Undead must be purified without exception!

I skimmed through the Gallery comments and started walking again.

Normally, I would have taken a break, but resting here felt thoroughly unsettling.

"I have a question."

Just as I was about to move, Ludwig called out to me.

Since it was extremely rare for him to ask questions, I gave him a puzzled look.

"What is it?"

"In terms of era, are they not the same as Lady Aris?"

He was essentially asking if they belonged to the same ancient humanity as Aris.

Ludwig’s Korean skills were gradually improving too.

"Yes, technically speaking. Why do you ask?"

"Their conduct is not so different from the people here."

"...."

It was a biting critique, but I couldn’t help but thoroughly agree.

Of course, one had to consider that the time those people operated was during the end of the world.

The whole world was practically thrown into a chaotic Warring States Period. That’s probably why bizarre cults like that sprang up.

"Well... there are all sorts of people in the world. Not everyone is the same."

In fact, the more people like that existed, the higher saints like Jesus or Confucius were esteemed.

They were saints who practiced goodness in a world where wild forces and supernatural horrors ran rampant.

Even when human rights were treated as worse than trash on the roadside, they upheld them.

[Which is precisely why Lady Aris is all the more magnificent. She upheld righteousness amidst trash like that.]

"I agree."

"...."Get faster updates on novel​ping.com.

With this, my evaluation of Aris and the other gods soared even higher.

Though those words came from devout believers, it was difficult to deny.

After all, Aris and the other gods had actually cleaned up this godforsaken, ruined world.

To reiterate, the Forest of the Four Seasons was Earth. The entire Earth had been forcefully shoved into a mystical forest.

Unless one possessed scientific technology bordering on godhood, such a feat would be impossible.

Furthermore, by stepping back rather than directly ruling over this world, they truly earned their status as deities.

[By the way, there is something I am curious about. A question I have harbored since we were at the ancient ruins.]

"What is it?"

[What kind of nation was this ’United States’? Seeing how you know their language, it seems to have been no ordinary country.]

"The Orange Badge of Earth."

The moment I heard the question, I answered without a single moment of hesitation.

It was an explanation tailored for Gallery users, but there was no easier analogy than that.

Overwhelming national power and unmatched global influence. Military might that could ’lightly’ wipe out a small country from existence.

And finally, terrifying wealth fitting its legendary title, the ’Thousand-Trillion Nation.’ It lacked absolutely nothing.

If there was anything lacking, it might have been population size, but given its ridiculously overpowered land area, that hardly mattered.

’Besides, China and India had absurd population numbers in the first place.’

However, the brighter the light, the darker the shadow. One of the biggest flaws of the United States was public safety and crime.

There were even rumors that in certain areas, at least one person got murdered every single day. Superman wasn’t invented for nothing.

Having a hero like Superman around would be great, but in reality, it’s far more likely to end up with Homel*nder.

[The Orange Badge of Earth... I see it held supreme authority. Can you explain it in simpler terms?]

"An empire that could fight a war against the entire world and still go neck and neck."

[Such an absurd empire actually existed?]

"Yes."

Granted, that was assuming ’nukes’ weren’t used. But signs that a nuclear war had already erupted were evident all over the place.

During the end of the world, everyone collapsed regardless, so it didn’t really matter anymore.

"One of the United States’ nicknames was the Thousand-Trillion Nation. It came from the fact that they poured nearly 1,000 trillion won into their defense budget alone."

[It is difficult to fathom how vast a sum that is. Can you convert it?]

"1 Gold is roughly 10,000 won. Ten million won ten times makes 100 million. And 100 billion ten times makes 1 trillion."

[Which is precisely why it collapsed first.]

Cain clicked his tongue in criticism. Hearing his statement, I couldn’t help but feel bewildered.

It was true that the U.S. defense budget was astronomical, but they poured that much in because they actually had the economic capacity to do so.

In other words, it meant they wouldn’t collapse over military spending. Yet Cain’s words implied something completely different.

"Collapsed first? What do you mean by that?"

[It was part of the information I gathered at the ancient ruins earlier. At the time, I saw no need to bring it up, so I stayed silent.]

"What was the content?"

The words Cain then uttered were:

[There were clear indications that the nation called the United States was the very first to fall.]

"America collapsed first? Not Russia, China, or even North Korea?"

[Unrestrained freedom turned into poison, spreading across the entire land.]

"Heh..."

It was enough to give me quite a shock. At the same time, realization dawned upon me.

Why Earth had rapidly plunged down the path of destruction following the arrival of mana.

If even the United States failed to control its citizens and fell into such ruin, what of other nations?

Nations that casually trampled over human rights probably slammed missiles straight into their own territory.

’So that’s why cults like that ran rampant.’

It wasn’t entirely incomprehensible. Mass shootings had been a frequent issue in America.

When they couldn’t even properly regulate firearms—which were merely ’tools’—what happened when mana suddenly appeared?

How could anyone stop people from empowering themselves? They must have thrown riots demanding their guaranteed freedom.

If mana had been discovered during the Middle Ages or Early Modern Era, it might have been different, but discovering it in modern times caused disastrous side effects.

’In that sense, this fantasy world might actually progress somewhat peacefully.’

At the very least, it wouldn’t walk down the same suicidal path as Earth.

Well, that was merely a conjecture. Nobody could know the future.

With a lingering sense of melancholy, I moved forward. As more truths came to light, complex emotions washed over me.

"Still, one thing is for certain."

[What is it?]

"Aris and Aragon definitely weren’t American."

If they were American, they would have used that atrocious Imperial system of yards and pounds.

That raised a new question: what country did Aris and the other gods originally hail from?

Pondering this new puzzle, I strolled through the forest. Having wiped out an entire cult, no more undead should appear for a while.

Yes. Indeed, no undead appeared.

"Master. There’s a huge tunnel here."

[It looks like a dungeon.]

"Eerie."

"It’s a train tunnel."

Instead, we simply confronted a tunnel radiating an atmosphere no less gloomy than a dungeon.

"Turn on the lantern, Master."

"Could you please stop treating me like a lantern?"

Even so, I obediently activated Eye Lantern.