I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 435

"Heo-eok... heok..."

I wiped away my sweat as I gasped for rough breaths. Sweat poured off me like rain.

It meant I had just engaged in that much intense activity, and my surroundings bore testimony to the ordeal.

The scattered wreckage of Mechanical Knights lay strewn all around. Not a single one was in decent shape.

The knight whose chest had a gaping hole blown through it was actually one of the luckier ones. The others had limbs torn off completely or were smashed beyond recognition.

Traces of a violent battle. And I had personally conducted every bit of this surgical destruction.

The rest of my party had helped out, but to be perfectly honest, they weren’t of much help.

Partly because the kids panicked and raised a fuss, but also because the Mechanical Knights relentlessly targeted only me.

"Master."

"What is it, punk?"

"Mm... Never mind."

Lackey scanned the wreckage of the knights and held his tongue. I could pretty much deduce what he was about to say.

I let out another long sigh and surveyed the wreckage once more.

’Where on earth are these bastards coming from?’

After the first one I fought, a whopping three more units had approached. In other words, even more of them could be on their way.

I salvaged only the parts from the wreckage that seemed valuable and hurriedly took my leave.

"Does anyone happen to know the way back?"

"..."

"..."

I tried to backtrack the way we came, but everyone wore clueless expressions.

And understandably so—after all, we only ended up at the Evolution Laboratory in the first place because we were running from an attack by explosive rabbits.

Since more Mechanical Knights could attack us at any moment, returning to the Shelter for safety was ultimately our only choice.

’Besides, the Mechanical Knights seemed to treat the laboratory as ground zero.’

Until power was supplied to the Evolution Laboratory, there had been no reaction whatsoever.

However, right after the power clicked on and we stepped outside, a Mechanical Knight arrived instantly.

Presumably, there was a very high chance it was a trap set by Aris. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have closed in so immediately.

’What worries me is the possibility of others pursuing us...’

Would they track us all the way to the Shelter? That was my biggest concern.

Because of that, today’s exploration had to end here. Waiting until things were safe was the best course of action.

If the Mechanical Knights followed us back to the Shelter... that would be extremely troublesome.

"Great work, everyone. I’ll get lunch ready, so please clean up a bit."

"Ggyuuu."

Just as I was about to prepare lunch, Wonmo waddled over to me and rubbed his face against mine.

Was he begging for a snack, or just showing affection?

"You want a snack?"

"Ggyuu!"

"No can do. We’re eating real food soon."

"Ggyuuu..."

Wonmo launched a charm attack with eyes full of cuteness, as if begging for just one piece.

Pathetically flailing his front paws was the cherry on top. Honestly, how could anyone resist this?

Besides, he had clung to the Butcher Ogre recently, so spoiling him with plenty of love was perfectly fine.

"Alright, alright. Let’s see..."

I pondered what would make a good snack. But Wonmo had already made up his mind long ago.

The moment I granted permission, Wonmo trotted off in a specific direction—toward the World Tree.

Looks like he wanted to eat honey. Come to think of it, it had been a while since I last harvested honey.

"Alright. Wait just a moment."

"Chureureup!"

Was he already so thrilled at the thought of eating sweet honey? Wonmo was practically drooling.

How could even that look cute? It wasn’t for nothing that people on the forum demanded "One Wonmo per household."

Of course, they’d have to handle the food bills themselves. I walked over toward the World Tree.

Wiiiing— Wiiiing—

As soon as I approached the World Tree, a sound akin to buzzing drones echoed out. It was the fluttering wings of the Bee Kings.

I checked to see if the Bee Kings were doing well. There didn’t seem to be any problems.

"Hey guys. Mind if I take a bit of honey?"

When I asked gently, the Bee Kings nodded as if it were no big deal.

It was truly fascinating how perfectly these guys understood my words.

After collecting the honey, I handed the entire bowl over to Wonmo.

"Here you go."

"Ggyuuu~"

Wonmo scarfed down the honey deftly, looking just like some cute cartoon animal character.

One might think I gave him too much honey, but it was fine. That was effectively his lunch anyway.

I patted Wonmo on the head and then set out to prepare lunch. I planned to roughly use whatever meat was left in the food storage.Get faster updates on NovelPing.

"Mmm! What a delicious smell."

"You’re here."

Right on cue, the Three-Legged Crow swooped down from the sky. He dropped by every single time I grilled meat.

I was used to him dropping in like this, especially since he occasionally brought back rare creatures for me.

However, today I had something to ask him. As far as I knew, he lived up in the sky.

Even though he occasionally descended to eat delicious food, he likely knew most of what went on in the heavens.

"I have a few things to ask you, is that okay?"

"Speak."

The creature nodded while munching on the meat I grilled for him.

I pulled out the core of a Mechanical Knight from my Subspace Backpack.

When I took out the core, the Three-Legged Crow raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"This is..."

"Do you know what it is?"

"I do not know the details, but it feels similar to my own heart."

"What’s your heart like?"

"I draw energy from the sun."

Drawing energy from the sun, huh? It seemed to be roughly the same concept as solar power.

Indeed, unlike typical Guardian’s Cores, it radiated an orange glow.

However, what was even more important was where these Mechanical Knights came from.

"To tell you the truth, guys with these embedded in their bodies attacked us. And they came down from the sky."

"Ah. I did see that. So they were enemies, it seems."

"Do you know where they came from?"

"No. It pains my pride, but I cannot tell you. I can, however, say that they came from a place far higher than I can reach."

For a creature as prideful as him to say that... was massive information.

No matter how close to the sun the Three-Legged Crow flew, he could not break out of the Forest of the Four Seasons.

Cain, on the other hand, could pass beyond the atmosphere into the stratosphere. That was why he could venture outside the Forest of the Four Seasons.

’Even so, it probably didn’t come from a space station. Given the precedent with the missile.’

However, one thing was certain.

There was a high probability that a factory mass-producing Mechanical Knights existed somewhere within the Forest of the Four Seasons.

And that factory was likely built by Aris—and was currently operational.

Of course, a high-performance AI might be managing it. After all, Alex was a prime example of such things.

’Even if it’s an AI, it doesn’t matter. If I dig into that AI, I’ll be able to find traces.’

In other words, I might be able to uncover traces of Aris and the other gods.

Isn’t escaping the higher priority, you ask? True.

However, the gods possessed the ability to freely come and go from the Forest of the Four Seasons.

It might actually be faster to find them and ask them to get me out of here.

’It’s good that I have another option available now.’

The odds were much better than blindly bashing my head against a wall or relying on gacha mechanics from the outside world.

Of course, that meant embarking on an arduous journey. I was fully prepared for that.

After finishing lunch, I sent the Three-Legged Crow on his way. He promised to bring back good food sometime soon as an added bonus.

’I should send one of the cores to Allfather.’

Sending a core to him would be better than just holding onto them aimlessly.

Right now, I had no immediate use for them, and I had a whole four of them, not just one.

[Wild Grylls: Hello, Allfather-nim. Are you available to chat right now? I have something to give you.]

[Allfather: Ohhh! Of course! What is the matter?]

The moment I said I had something to give, Allfather rushed over instantly. He must have been browsing the Gallery.

[Wild Grylls: Did you happen to catch my broadcast earlier? The one where a Mechanical Knight suddenly fell from the sky and I fought it.]

[Allfather: Of course! I was in sheer awe when I saw you snatch the knight’s hammer and smash it to pieces.]

[Wild Grylls: That’s a compliment, right?]

[Allfather: What else could it be if not a compliment?]

Since I usually received backhanded compliments, my first instinct was to doubt him.

Feeling a bit bashful for no reason, I scratched my head before laying out the details.

[Wild Grylls: Anyway, I got a core from that knight, you see? I don’t think holding onto it myself will be of much help, so I wanted to give one to you.]

[Allfather: Ohhh...! Thank you so very much! I can feel my heart throbbing with excitement already.]

[Wild Grylls: Did you get throbbed with excitement when you looked at the book I gave you too?]

[Allfather: Is that not only natural?]

To think that I gave him a book on quantum mechanics theory, only for it to be treated like an erotic novel.

It was slightly ridiculous, but I was glad he was satisfied at least.

[Wild Grylls: Did you understand the content of the book?]

[Allfather: I could not understand a thing. It felt like I was on the verge of understanding, yet it remained ambiguous... a feeling like that.]Read the latest chapters at no⁠velping.com.

[Wild Grylls: They say quantum mechanics is originally like that.]

[Allfather: To think that the gods understood such a theory... A sense of awe washes over me.]

Who knows. Did the gods really understand quantum mechanics either?

Well, since they understood it, wouldn’t that be how they compressed space and went as far as shoving an entire planet inside?

While I was lost in random thoughts, Allfather brought up an intriguing topic.

[Allfather: By the way, have you checked the Gallery? There is currently much talk going back and forth about you, Grylls-nim.]

[Wild Grylls: Isn’t that how it usually is anyway?]

[Allfather: Today is far more entertaining than usual.]

Entertaining? Whenever the word "entertaining" came out of this guy’s mouth, it usually meant bad news.

I quickly said goodbye to him and immediately checked the Recommended Posts on the Gallery.

The moment I opened the Recommended Posts, what immediately caught my eye was none other than the "Hero."

’What on earth did Asella do?’

For the Hero to suddenly be pinned on the Recommended Posts, it had to be an extraordinary matter.

Even the title couldn’t easily be ignored. I immediately opened the post.

Title) Breaking News. Shocking Statement from the Hero

(Picture of Asella giving a speech)

Treat Grylls as the Herald of God.

When he escapes in the future, the Holy Kingdom will spare no effort to repay his grace!

└ But isn’t it totally reasonable for the Holy Kingdom to do that?

└ Honestly, if they failed to accord him proper treatment, they’d probably be the ones getting mad lol

└ Even if Grylls does a lot of weird shit, from the Holy Kingdom’s perspective, there’s no savior quite like him lmao

└ Bringing Cain into the picture -> That alone is more than enough lol

└ Is the one following Grylls around really Cain?

└ Yeah, Grylls confirmed it. Besides, judging by the way he talks, it’s definitely Cain.

└ I heard a rumor that he’s used for scrubbing foot calluses though lol

└ Heavenly Demon) How laughable. By nature, the sun ought to be embraced by the heavens.

└ And who are you supposed to be?

└ Someone who almost died before and survived thanks to Grylls.

└ Ah. Fair enough then.

└ Isn’t there one more person like that?

└ Yeah, Starlight Lady.

└ I heard she was suffering from Nine Yin Severed Meridians and survived thanks to Grylls.

└ He’s lowkey saved a lot of people, hasn’t he?

└ But he’s killed just as many.

└ Who?

└ Me, a graduate student.

└ Weren’t you already a zombie anyway?

What on earth is this? The moment I read the post, I was so dumbfounded that I was at a loss for words.

Supposedly, just showing the face of Aris was enough reason to treat me as a Herald.

I was bewildered for a moment, but thinking it over carefully, it wasn’t all that bad.

After all, it meant a place to stay would be prepared for me whenever I escaped.

Though attached to the somewhat burdensome title of "Herald of God," it was closer to Asella’s thoughtful consideration.

’Though it feels closer to being dragged around by a nose ring...’

It was something I could gloss over as no big deal.

Even though it felt like a sophisticated form of character assassination, it wasn’t particularly burdensome.

’...Should I mess with them a bit?’

I decided to carefully jump on this bandwagon.

From my standpoint, it was pure pleasure without responsibility. Besides, so much had already been exposed anyway.

Title) I’m a Herald? Then I’ll tell you guys one fact.

Wild Grylls

Was it the Central Plains? You guys have Buddhism and Taoism there too, right?

Those religions existed back when I was living normally too lol

Buddhism was actually insanely massive.

└ For real?

└ Really?

└ Can you prove it?

└ Wild Grylls) I’ll go to the library soon and find a book for you guys. Yeah, we can even find out who founded it.

└ This bastard’s dropping meteorites again lmao

└ Be honest. You’re enjoying this now, aren’t you?

Ah. This is fun.