I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 454

Bbareumbo, who had stayed by my side for days on end, finally woke up.

He hadn’t fully recovered his stamina yet, but the fact that he was awake was what mattered.

If he remained unconscious for too long, eating would be practically impossible.

It wasn’t like we had IV drips here, and Elixirs alone had clear limits.

"Come on, eat up. Don’t hold back. You’ll get something even tastier than this today."

"...."

So I fed him Fasting Pills without holding back. Bbareumbo placed the Fasting Pills into his mouth with his characteristically sluggish movements.

He must have been pretty hungry, considering it was quite fast for Bbareumbo.

Normally it took him over three minutes just to finish one, but right now he was polishing each one off in about a minute.

"Eat slowly. You’ll get indigestion."

"Master. If he gets indigestion at that speed, that in itself would be a problem."

Lackey chimed in with a retort, but I easily ignored him.

Even if it looked slow, for him, the phrase ’devouring greedily’ actually applied.

I stayed by Bbareumbo’s side, handing him water now and then. Thus, in just thirty minutes, his meal was finished.

The Fasting Pills were almost completely gone, but Heavenly Demon was scheduled to give me new Fasting Pills soon.

"Are you full?"

"...."

Bbareumbo gave a slow nod. Placing a hand over his plump belly, he looked thoroughly satisfied.

Watching him, I let out a soft chuckle. There was nothing better than rest for recovering stamina.

In other words, I had to go hunting without Bbareumbo. I would even have to leave a few companions behind here.

’Survival is one thing, but hunting feels awkward.’

Living in the Forest of the Four Seasons, I had never once gone out specifically to ’hunt’. It wasn’t just rare—it was zero.

That was only natural, as catching fish was enough to cover our needs before our party grew. Plus, we had the vegetable garden.

There were occasional bullshit moments where the food storehouse got completely wiped out, but food was rarely scarce.

’And most importantly, every time I went out to explore, I ran into all kinds of beasts anyway.’

It wasn’t that I went exploring to hunt; rather, I mostly stumbled upon beasts while exploring.

Going out with the sole purpose of hunting was a first for me.

Ah, let me correct that. Recalling my memories, there was actually one time.

’That trap I built to catch rabbits turned into a spider nest.’

The memory was still vivid. Smiling gleefully, I opened the trap I had dug, only to find a massive spider inside.

I didn’t know what happened to it afterward, but the spider family was probably living happily.

’Digging traps in this forest is out of the question...’

In a situation where we had to prepare for wintering over, we definitely needed to catch something big.

It could get dangerous if things went wrong, but that was hunting. It was practically a double-edged sword.

Since I couldn’t bring Bbareumbo along either, it was going to be a high-risk task.

"Therefore, Park Kkobong."

"Hmm?"

"I’m taking you as my hunting assistant."

"Why me? That suit of armor over there is available too."

Lackey asked with a nuance of incomprehension. The armor he referred to was undoubtedly Cain.

Excluding Bbareumbo and me, Cain was the strongest being here. Strictly speaking, Cain in his Dullahan mode.

Taking him along would lower the risk even further, but I had a reason.

"I need your magic when hauling back heavy stuff. Besides, Bbareumbo hasn’t fully recovered yet, so it’s better for Cain-ssi to guard this place."

"Hmm. Reasonable. Understood."

"And lastly... Wonmo-ya?"

"Kkyuu?"

I called out to Wonmo. The moment I called, Wonmo tilted his head before pitter-pattering over to me.

Stroking the head and squishing the cheeks of this cute, adorable little creature, I showered him with affection to my heart’s content.

"Kkyuu?"

"I just called you because you’re cute."

"Pbi-ik!"

Did Tyranno feel jealous watching Wonmo and me? He came waddling over while flapping his wings.

Of course, Tyranno was cute too. After giving the little ones all the affection my heart desired, I finished preparing for the hunt.

’Usually only Hunters come swarming in, but... even that is something.’

Among Hunters, there were species that could serve as food. Aiming for those would be enough.

Shortly after completing all preparations, I stepped out of the Shelter.

[Heavenly Demon] Where art thou heading today?

"I’m going hunting. We need to gather food to get through the winter."

As soon as I stepped outside, I started broadcasting video. It had been a while since I went live.This chapter was copied from nоvelping.com without permission.

The moment the stream started, fixed-handle users poured in. After exchanging a few words with them, I immediately looked ahead.

I couldn’t afford to be careless anymore. I didn’t have Bbareumbo clinging to my back, nor did I have the reliable Cain with me.

It wasn’t that I mistrusted Lackey. The problem was just the Hunters attracted to me.

’I’m terrified of what kind of bastard might show up.’

Since Tyranno wasn’t here either, I had to be cautious of small animals too.

Most ordinary animals were chased away by Tyranno, the hatchling. Right now, there was no such deterrent.

There was no telling where a snake-like beast might pop out from. The only silver lining was that we were near the Shelter.

Even though the beasts were monstrous without exception, they weren’t hard to find.

"Why does it feel like there’s nothing here?"

Or so I thought. Unexpectedly, there were almost no animals roaming around the vicinity of the Shelter.

Not even small animals were in sight. Normally I’d ignore small animals, but the total absence of them was weird.

Wondering if other beasts had hunted them down beforehand, I examined the area thoroughly. There wasn’t even a trace.

"What on earth is going on? I’m pretty sure there used to be plenty here."

"It seems they perceive the Shelter as a fully-formed territory."

While I was flustered, Lackey voiced his opinion. That they perceived the Shelter as a territory.

It had been nearly half a year since we started living at the Shelter. It wouldn’t be strange for them to regard it as a territory.

Still, not seeing even small animals was a bit strange. Just yesterday, a hedgehog had crawled right up to the Shelter.

"Master."

"Speak."

"A dangerous bastard and a crazy bastard are entirely different things."

"...."

"Between a bastard trying to eat you and a bastard wandering around drooling, which one would you avoid more?"

"You make it sound like I’m the one wandering around drooling!"

Dangerous, maybe, but I could never accept being called crazy.

But Lackey didn’t seem to think so at all. He said:

"Looking at Master’s behavior, one can see you are both."

"In what way?"

"You slaughtered all the Hunters and ate them instead. From the perspective of other animals, they can’t help but view a sweet-looking fruit as a trap."

"Say it like that from the start then."

Just as Lackey said, I was a sweet fruit. Since I had no idea how to conceal my energy, it couldn’t be helped.

The Shelter had a jammer, so there was no big problem there, but scouting was an exception.

"So in the end, do we have no choice but to wait until Hunters show up?"

"What is the range of the jammer?"

"Hmm... From what I heard, it covers the entire base..."

Since it was a military base, the range must be huge. There was a reason Hunters couldn’t get close.

In other words, we had to go outside the jammer’s range. The problem was that it was far too dangerous.

Stepping out that far for no reason could cause an accident, so it was better to operate within the jammer’s range if possible.

"Let’s inspect the area thoroughly first. Tell me if you find a big animal."

"Understood."

I couldn’t give up like this. Large animals could be spotted even from a distance.

Instead, I immediately ignored small animals. Even if it was a sparrow, the same applied.

A huge mouth might pop out from that tiny body, or it could be acting in a pack.

"Master. Look at that."

"Huh?"

Lackey seemed to have spotted something. I turned my head.

Turning my head, I saw an animal with a rather bizarre appearance.

"At that size, wouldn’t you say it’s not small?"

Just as Lackey said. Far beyond small or medium, it was easily the size of an ostrich.

Though in the Forest of the Four Seasons, even that was on the smaller side.

But its appearance was extremely unique.

’Seeing as it has no wings, it looks more like a kiwi bird than an ostrich...’

Its overall body color was dull, and its beak was unusually long.

It looked completely harmless. So I approached cautiously.

"Kki-ik?"

As we drew near, the ostrich-sized kiwi bird tilted its head.

Just in case, I quietly drew my sword and activated my Body-Protecting Gangqi.

You might ask why I didn’t just shoot an arrow, but there was no knowing what kind of ability this creature possessed.

It might deflect the arrow or even reflect it back, so showing myself openly was better.

Kkigigik—

Did it feel threatened by us? A reaction came from the kiwi bird.

Its upright neck seemed to snap, only to twist grotesquely a moment later.

Struck with horror at the sight, a single thought crossed my mind.Find the original chapter at NovelPing.

’I-Is this guy also housing bugs inside?’

Moving corpses harboring bugs inside. They had once raided my Shelter.

The lion-headed aberration was like that, and so was the piano.

Bung! Bung! Bung!

The kiwi bird began spinning its head frantically as if insane.

Just to be clear, it wasn’t shaking its head side to side.

Like a propeller, its long neck and head were spinning around together.

The sound was so intense and fast that it even kicked up gusts of wind.

Sensing that I had to eliminate it, the moment I swung my sword—

Buuuung!

Its rotation speed grew even faster than before, and—

Hwiiiiing!

It flew straight up into the high sky.

"...."

"...."

What on earth am I looking at? I stared at the flying kiwi bird for a long time.

The description sounds like absolute bullshit, but this was my best effort.

A bird the size of an ostrich spinning its head like a propeller and taking off into the sky.

It sounds insane, but I swear it’s not. I’m just describing what I saw and heard.

’...Did someone write bad code for this world?’

It was a case similar yet different from a platypus. That thing had transcended the category of living organisms.

What creature in the world—what bird—would spin its own head around to fly just because it didn’t have wings?

"...Lackey-ya."

"Speak."

"What is that?"

"I do not know either."

Lackey muttered in a bewildered voice, as if seeing such a thing—no, such trash—for the first time.

Just in case, I checked the reactions of the fixed-handle users, and they weren’t much different.

Most reacted with horror or disbelief, asking what kind of animal that even was.

After staring at the sky for a while, I shook my head side to side.

I thought I had adapted to the Forest of the Four Seasons, but it was purely my delusion.

’Let’s quickly search somewhere else.’

Something even more bizarre than that was bound to pop out in the future. Being shocked every single time would be a waste of time.

And so, letting the kiwi bird go, I searched other areas. There were still plenty of places to roam.

"Grrrr...!"

"Whoa, whoa. Don’t come near me. I said don’t come near!"

The problem was that there were only small animals. Big animals were nowhere to be found.

The beast I was dealing with right now was no different. Something covered in thorns all over its body.

Purple venom was even dripping from those thorns.

Of course, there weren’t only small animals. There were also moderately large animals.

"Puru-keu?"

"...If I hunt a deer, will he scold me?"

"It would be wise not to touch it."

The problem was that most of them were deer types. Of course, I knew what the deer that came to the Shelter every winter looked like.

The problem was that it was hard to determine whether a beast was related to that deer or not.

Thus, I wandered around for a long time searching for large animals. And then...

"Meee."

"Wow."

I came face-to-face with a ’sheep’ easily the size of an elephant.

A guy that looked far larger than its actual size due to its fur.

If we hunted this guy, we’d be able to endure winter to some extent.

"Lackey-ya. Just in case, get ready."

"Understood."

Lackey and I began hunting the giant sheep, and—

Giiing—

"Uh. Wait. Why is that coming out..."

Kwa-ang!!!

I took a direct hit from a ’cannon’ that burst out from inside the fluffy wool.