I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 477

"Are you saying Orange Badge is among the people I met?"

Ash realized the intent of Selena’s question and asked in a surprised voice.

Since she hadn’t won the Commander of the Royal Guard position through arm wrestling, she caught what the question meant at once.

As if not intending to deny it, Selena nodded her head and spoke.

"It’s merely a prediction. But the possibility is quite high."

"Can you tell me from which point you made that judgment?"

Selena brought out her hypothesis and shared it with Ash.

Orange Badge, Don’t Abandon the Hero, currently harbored personal feelings toward Grylls.

In that situation, seeing Ash and Grylls chat harmoniously must have twisted her stomach in jealousy.

Added to this, it was highly probable she also knew fixed-nick Sword Matstar’s true identity.

No matter if she was Orange Badge, unless meeting directly, she couldn’t know the face hidden behind anonymity.

Therefore, pinning Sword Matstar’s gender down as ’woman’ was what lent weight to the hypothesis.

"You didn’t annoy him to the level of spamming, eonni, and even if you did, it would’ve ended in a suspension."

"Hrmm... That makes plenty of sense. But can I ask just one thing?"

"Yes. What question?"

"Your words mean Orange Badge likes him enough to feel jealous of me... Isn’t that a bit weird?"

What Ash meant was simple: Is she really obsessing over a person beyond the Gallery screen?

Occasionally, there were people who sorrowfully shouted, "There’s a real person here!"

Call it over-immersion if you will, but one had to consider the Gallery’s unique nature.

The Gallery was not simply a place to write posts, but a channel for communication.

Due to the Dark Elf expulsion incident in the distant past, offline meetups were grounds for suspension, but excluding that, communication among fixed-nicks wasn’t blocked.

Thus, they could consult on concerns and share various stories; if they got close, hours would fly by unnoticed.

"You know about the former Admin Stalking Incident. The case where someone was blindly stalked just because they were treated kindly on the Gallery."

"Bringing that up really leaves me with nothing to say."

"I was also absorbed in the Gallery when suffering from Blocked Meridian Syndrome."

If Ash had never left her bed, Selena had been unable to escape hers.

Because of this, she slowly seeped into the Gallery, and now it had become a part of her life.

"Besides, thanks to it, I gained a new life, so I don’t entirely fail to understand. It’s just that standards differ per person."

"What’s the probability that he approached Orange Badge seeing her authority?"

"Converging to 0. The Admin is surprisingly inflexible and doesn’t even accept bribes."

Above all, even receiving bribes wouldn’t easily build a relationship like that.

It must have been close to a life-changing turning point. Selena spoke.

"Anyway, is there anyone you met after entering seclusion?"

"Hardly anyone. I didn’t even attend the Retired Emperor’s birthday."

"...That’s only possible because it’s you, eonni."

The Emperor’s birthday—that is, the birthday feast—was the biggest event in social circles.

Unless someone had mobility issues like Selena, it was an event most nobles attended.

If one didn’t attend, it would offend the Emperor, leading to political pressure.

But who was Ash? Possessor of martial power that even the Emperor couldn’t easily mess with.

Even if she acted completely brazen, it was difficult for the Emperor to pressure her, so ignoring it was better.

"Other than that, it’s mostly family... but the chance it’s my younger sibling or their family is low."

"The reasoning?"

"My sibling is about to give birth to their fifth child soon, and my brother-in-law is a pretty busy person."

Reasoning that real life was too busy to focus on the Gallery. Quite a sufficient cause.

Selena nodded. She was slightly surprised by the fifth child, but if marital love was strong, such things happened.

"Then that means met recently..."

"I get it. You’re Orange Badge, aren’t you?"

"I wish I were. I would have leaked your bare face right away."

In the atmosphere turning serious, Ash brought up a joke that sounded genuine.

Selena lightly traded retorts, then recalled Ash’s inner circle.

’The people eonni met recently... were mostly high-ranking officials.’

Starting from Crown Prince Arnold to Hero Asella.

Every single one was a big shot; such people sitting in the Orange Badge seat?

If things went wrong, the balance could collapse.

’Considering the fixed-nick and conduct, probability leans toward the Hero’s side, but...’

It was uncertain. And the gap between reality and the Gallery was too large.

Asella possessed integrity and dignity fitting the reputation of ’Hero’.

’Though she has sharp moments occasionally, on the Gallery she’s...’Follow the newest chapters on novelping dot com.

Just a total pushover. A soft touch so pitiable that even Gallery users felt sorry for her.

But a person matching this exactly stood right before her eyes.

Ash’s external image was also close to an elegant, noble female master.

But reality? She felt familiar like a neighborhood eonni.

Since she rose from commoner to earn a noble title, it was understandable.

’...The only suspicious person is indeed the Hero, huh?’

Had she received a grace recently? Grylls found Cain’s stone statue and saved the Holy Kingdom from crisis.

Furthermore, Grylls even spread footage of the Papal See interrogating—no, torturing—an innocent citizen.

If Orange Badge had discreetly passed that along... the puzzle pieces fit together perfectly.

’Before Cain descended, the Papal See ordered the Paladin Order to fire. The one who stopped it was the Hero. Meaning she was in the Holy Kingdom while the citizen was being tortured.’

Under the assumption that the Hero was Orange Badge, it felt like the puzzle was falling right into place.

Furthermore, the Holy Kingdom had since received direct and indirect grace from Grylls.

Selena immersed herself in deep thought, then opened her mouth.

"There are a few suspicious people... Confirmation will be necessary."

"What confirmation?"

"Recently, there’s a rumor that ’miracles’ are occurring in the Holy Kingdom. Rumors that mentally struggling patients are being neatly healed."

Every time, people praised saying the Hero performed miracles.

From the Hero’s position, she would’ve brushed it off saying Goddess Aris bestowed the miracle.

"I need to dig deeper into that rumor."

Selena resolved to focus on scrutinizing the Hero, Asella.

It seemed she would have a lot to do in the Holy Kingdom.

The giant robot driven by Lackey and Ludwig after the frilled lizard subjugation.

Calling it a construction robot was one thing, but looking at it from afar, it looked strong enough to win even against an Ogre.

Durability that operated fine even after decades or centuries had passed, and heavy equipment’s unique, powerful force.

Moreover, due to its ergonomic structure, operating it wasn’t surprisingly hard.

"Here. Master. This is what’s called a button."

"..."

Lackey explained the controls to me in a truly ’kind’ voice.

It felt like a skull flew straight at my chest and went bang!, but I held it in.

It was a truly sad statement, but Lackey possessed superior skill compared to me.

Since he was a guy with naturally fast learning capability, he had picked up the controls in no time.

Kiiiiing—

The robot had strong power, but being heavy equipment, its speed was quite slow.

It was probably because it was meant purely for mining, not an anti-monster weapon.

It was virtually no different from a toy. Taking this to the Shelter was madness.

So what did we do?

Kiiiiing!

"Hey, hey. Handle it carefully. That skin is precious."

"What’s piled high like a mountain is skin. Trust me."

"That sounds contradictory, but I’ll trust you."

We skinned the frilled lizard. It turned out there weren’t just drills and welding gear.

Surprisingly, it was equipped with functions to swap into other tools. Right now, I swapped the drill for a saw blade.

Slicing through that hard Adamantium skin with the saw blade made the task extremely easy.

’Seeing it, there’s even a laser.’

It was probably a laser for cutting stone. I didn’t use this function.

Even bringing out the saw blade creaked; the laser would be even worse.

One wrong move and lasers could fire in all directions. That’d be a catastrophe.

"Alright. We’re pretty much done with this, let’s head back soon."

Whenever work was finished, there were no threats. It seemed the smell of marble masked the stench of blood.

Still, just in case, returning to the Shelter quickly was best. Having gained everything needed, there was no problem.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Adamantium daggers mixed with impurities, Adamantium skin, etc. We obtained many things, but the most eye-catching was the heart.

A heart beating on its own, just like during the saber-toothed tiger incident. Normally, I intended to send it to Allfather.

[Allfather: My apologies. I am currently out on a business trip, so I lack the capacity.]

[Wild Grylls: Then I’ll keep it stored.]Read the latest chapters at novelping(.)com.

[Allfather: You do not necessarily have to give it to me, but...]

[Wild Grylls: Should I post it on the auction house?]

[Allfather: That sounds interesting as well, but it seems dangerous, so please do give it to me.]

Putting it up on the auction house was fine. The issue was that this heart might explode.

Before, as soon as mana was infused, it trembled and caused a big explosion.

Fortunately, the explosion wasn’t that strong, so I wasn’t hurt, just knocked unconscious briefly.

’Come to think of it, a bomb went off right in front of my face and I was fine?’

Harboring such thoughts, I put the heart inside the box.

Every time the heart beat, the box rattled, which wasn’t great to look at.

Thus, I secured the box tightly so it wouldn’t shake. What remained was the Adamantium side.

’Using it as is wouldn’t matter, but...’

The Adamantium daggers spat out by the frilled lizard. Quite a lot of impurities were mixed in these daggers.

To filter out impurities and extract pure Adamantium, a furnace would be needed.

Not a makeshift furnace, but a real furnace capable of filtering out impurities.

’More importantly, I need to determine whether this is an alloy or not first.’

It was a metal piece detached from the excavator’s drill.

I gifted these to Passing Dwarf and Allfather respectively. Why two people? Simple.

Though Mithril and Orichalcum were rare, they weren’t completely impossible to obtain.

On the other hand, Adamantium was far rarer, making it hard even for experts to identify.

[Wild Grylls: While you’re at it, please make me a leather armor set with this. I’ll send over the uniforms my party wears too, so you can roughly match the measurements with those.]

[Passing Dwarf: You think I’m gonna accept that?]

[Wild Grylls: Seeing how cranky you are, did you run out of hangover-cure Empty Sky Stone Milk?]

[Passing Dwarf: Yup, right on. You know me well.]

[Wild Grylls: I’ll give you Empty Sky Stone Milk, so please take good care of it.]

[Passing Dwarf: K. But this is gonna take really long, so just live your life half-forgetting about it.]

He didn’t mean he’d scam me and run, but that it would genuinely take a long time. I sent a reply saying I understood.

It was leather mixed with none other than Adamantium. Just analyzing it would consume a considerable amount of time.

Also, I had a separate question to ask Passing Dwarf. Namely, the furnace.

[Wild Grylls: I want to extract Adamantium, can you give me a furnace blueprint? Something easy to make in the wild.]

[Passing Dwarf: Don’t know if you can melt Adamantium with that.]

[Wild Grylls: Since it’s the Forest of the Four Seasons, wouldn’t it be possible?]

[Passing Dwarf: That’s not wrong. You gonna build it out of bricks?]

[Wild Grylls: Bricks are what I have in endless supply.]

[Passing Dwarf: Normal bricks won’t do. There are specific bricks that withstand heat well.]

[Wild Grylls: I don’t really know what those are.]

[Passing Dwarf: I can supply them for one bottle of Empty Sky Stone Milk.]

[Wild Grylls: K]

Having received even the special bricks from Passing Dwarf, what remained was building the furnace.

I stacked the bricks step by step according to the blueprint Passing Dwarf provided. At the bottom, I prepared a channel for molten metal to flow out and a channel for impurities.

The same went for the air intake passage to maintain high temperatures. Unexpectedly, there were many aspects to consider.

Still, thanks to Passing Dwarf kindly explaining it, the production process was just tedious; the difficulty wasn’t very hard.

’Now I just need to put in the Adamantium and charcoal, right?’

I harbored thoughts of what to craft with the Adamantium, but...

"...Why is it totally fine?"

The Adamantium dagger didn’t melt at all, maintaining its original form.

A moment of regret arose over why I built the furnace, but I couldn’t give up just yet.

In a situation like this, an expert’s help would be needed.

[Passing Dwarf: It’s because of charcoal, can’t be helped. You’re gonna need coal or Mana Stones instead of charcoal soon.]

[Wild Grylls: Mana Stones? Isn’t that the fuel commonly produced in Setan?]

[Passing Dwarf: Yup]

Just as I wondered if Praise the Sun’s help was needed...

’...Instead of Mana Stones, couldn’t I just put in an Inner Core?’

Suddenly, a foolish yet fairly decent idea came to mind.

[Passing Dwarf: It’s guys like you who follow a recipe to cook and then whine that a monstrosity came out.]

[Wild Grylls: Shut up.]

You never know the result without trying.