I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 541

Whether it was the Mechanical Kraken or the ghost ships that appeared outside.

Among the legacies of the gods, things related to the ’ocean’ or ’ships’ appeared quite frequently.

The same went for this region, which was currently set up like an aquarium. Most of the creatures living in this region were close to marine life.

It felt like marine and land creatures had been appropriately blended together. It gave off quite a bizarre vibe.

Because of that, I wondered if mana was actually closely connected to the ocean, but it was still too early to jump to conclusions.

After all, the gods—that is, ancient humanity—had invented all sorts of bizarre and fantastical things using mana.

↳ Allfather) Ooh! You’ve discovered something fascinating again! Let’s hurry up and go inside!

↳ Starlight Lady) Please hold on a moment. Who knows what might be in there?

↳ Passing Dwarf) For a shipwreck, doesn’t it look surprisingly intact?

↳ Heavenly Demon) Your eyes must be playing tricks on you. To this one’s eyes, it looks as though it has been snapped in two.

↳ Passing Dwarf) No, I mean there are barely any signs of rust.

↳ Don’t Abandon the Hero) The gods must have invented a rust-proof metal!

↳ Passing Dwarf) Well... they were the kinds of folks who built heavy machinery out of Adamantium, after all.

↳ Don’t Abandon the Hero) Not folks, gods!

↳ Praise the Sun) Didn’t someone say some of the ghost ships were submerged in the ocean? From what I heard, there weren’t even any barnacles on them.

Just as the dwarf said, for a shipwreck, the exterior looked remarkably intact.

It just wasn’t functioning; it looked as if someone was constantly maintaining it.

Of course, since the ship itself was snapped in two, sailing it would be impossible.

It was just worth noting that it hadn’t rusted.

’Like the dwarf said, it might have been built out of Adamantium.’

Currently, numerous ghost ships were roaming around outside.

Although two of them had been completely destroyed by the Demon Race and the Dark Elves respectively, the rest of the ships were intact.

So I accessed the Gallery to check what those ghost ships looked like.

"Hmm... It’s very different from the photos."

The ghost ships shown in the Gallery generally resembled ’sailing ships’ from the Age of Discovery.

But the shipwreck right in front of us was entirely different. It was like a proper mix between a submarine and a sailing ship.

Yeah. A research vessel. It resembled a research vessel that might occasionally pop up in a steampunk work.

[Are we going inside there?]

"Let’s eat first before thinking about it."

Setting entering the shipwreck aside, lunch was the most important thing.

The problem was that finding a safe zone in this place was extremely tricky.

Every single tree had been felled, leaving most of the area as a desolate wasteland.

If not for the trees that grew back rapidly, one might have mistaken this place for a rocky wasteland rather than a forest.

’First, let’s set up security devices here...’

But even so, giving up on food was out of the question.

I laid out as many safety measures as possible and set up a base camp.

Above all, even if I could go hungry, I couldn’t stand seeing the little ones starve.

"Alright, kids. Time to eat."

"Kkyuu! Kkyu!"

"Bbiik!"

I grilled the meat I brought along so the little ones could fill their bellies satisfyingly.

The rest of the companions also filled their stomachs with the provisions they had brought.

Since we planned to return as soon as evening came, a single day’s worth of food was plenty.

Even if we got stranded, we had brought plenty of Fasting Pills, so there would be no issue.

Seueuk—

It happened while we were having lunch. A frog quietly made its appearance.

I flinched for a moment, but it was small in size and its body wasn’t brightly colored. It likely wasn’t poisonous.

The frog stared blankly at the meat grilling to a golden brown, then slowly opened its mouth.

Chwareuk!

A long tongue shot out from its mouth like an arrow.

It then wrapped around the sizzling meat like a whip.

Chiik!

"!!!"

Of course, it couldn’t prevent its tongue from getting burned. The frog panted with its mouth wide open.

Its pitifully lolling tongue looked quite unsightly. That’s what you get for trying to steal someone else’s food.

"Bbyung! Bbyung!"

Just as I was about to flick it away with my finger, Maengkkongi stepped forward himself.

Waddling over on his short, chubby legs, he began threatening the frog.

Overwhelmed by Maengkkongi’s momentum, the frog scrambled away without even looking back.

"Good job, Maengkkongi. Is there something you’d like to eat?"

"Bbyung."

Maengkkongi shook his head at my offer. Then he climbed right back on top of Wonmo’s head.

Not stopping at riding atop Wonmo’s head, he even started strumming the handmade guitar from before.

If someone else—like Lackey—had strummed the guitar, I would have stopped him immediately, but since it was Maengkkongi, I just let him be.

At the very least, he wouldn’t do anything to harm us. Especially since last time, he had even prevented our minds from being bewitched.Enjoying the story? Read on at novelping . com.

"Now that we’re finished eating, let’s move out."

Now that mealtime was over, it was time to head toward the shipwreck. Just in case, we geared up.

It would be great if nothing happened along the way, but nothing in this world comes easy.

Pajijik! Pajik!

"Why are there so many jellyfish?"

We ran into giant jellyfish along the way. And they were electrical jellyfish at that.

Emitting electricity as if they were jellyfish living in Bik*ni Bottom or something.

Of course, that was all there was to it; defeating them wasn’t particularly difficult. Thanks to Lackey’s magic.

Kwagwang!

A refreshing burst of fire hit the jellyfish dead center.

Just when I thought we could pass by now...

"Master. That thing split."

"I saw it too."

The jellyfish divided into multiple individuals. It was flustering, but I didn’t just stand idly by.

After all, I had already seen something similar in the Ash Zone—when flame moths gathered together to turn into a giant flame moth.

The strategy was similar, so I was able to handle them easily.

Jijijik! Jijik!

Fallen on the ground, the jellyfish twitched and emitted sparks.

While there were creatures like electric eels that discharged electricity, this was the first time I saw jellyfish doing this.

I brushed it off lightly, thinking ’That’s the Forest of the Four Seasons for you.’ Ah, but just in case, I prepared preventive measures.

"Let’s bury all of these under the dirt."

From time immemorial, the electric attribute is weak against the earth attribute.

The only earth attribute skill I could wield was burying things in dirt.

Of course, that alone was enough. We buried all the divided electric jellyfish in the ground.

If we mishandled things, we could get stabbed in the back, so we needed to exercise utmost caution.

Soon, we gradually drew closer to the shipwreck, and unlike before, there was something I came to realize clearly.

"This thing is huge, isn’t it? It’s like an aircraft carrier or something."

[What is an aircraft carrier?]

"A floating island."

Namely, that the size of the shipwreck was far larger than imagined.

Saying it was aircraft carrier-level was an exaggeration; this shipwreck was much smaller in scale than that.

To describe it accurately, it was like a newly built apartment complex fallen on its side.

Just thinking about investigating this personally made me feel dizzy already. But there was no choice.

"As I’ve emphasized before, if this shipwreck shows even the slightest sign of moving, we are running away immediately."

It was a lesson learned from the Colossus incident. If there was any sign of ancient artifacts of the gods activating, flee right away.

The companions, not wanting to go through another situation like the Colossus, nodded in agreement.

Soon, after making full preparations, we entered the shipwreck. And we couldn’t help but be shocked.

"Why are the lights on in here?"

Even though it was clearly a shipwreck snapped in half, the lights were brightly lit.

Meaning power was being supplied from somewhere. It was ominous right from the start.

The exterior of the shipwreck was clean enough, but the interior was even more so.

’Should we look for the engine room...?’

First, we needed to verify what this shipwreck was used for.

We searched the right half first. It was the bow of the ship.

"This looks like living quarters."

"It’s quite narrow."

Due to the nature of ships, cramped quarters were inevitable. Aside from this, we searched every corner of the other rooms.

As time passed, one thing became clear: this ship was designed for ’combat.’

How we figured this out was simple. We happened to find a missile launch room.

[There is that mark we saw before here as well. Did you call it radiation?]

"..."

Found another nuclear bomb. And it wasn’t even an ordinary bomb, but a missile.

Fortunately, because it had been cleanly snapped in half, the missile also retained its original form intact.

Nothing good would come of messing with it, so I ignored it immediately. After that, we continued looking for other rooms.

Because it was snapped in half, the ship was tilted, making the investigation anything but easy, but taking our time made it manageable.

"This looks like the wheelhouse."

It was only after about an hour had passed that we were able to find the wheelhouse.

Even in the future, the wheelhouse didn’t look much different.

But what I wanted to find was this shipwreck’s AI. Just like the ghost ships.

"Where was it? Was it Alfheim? Didn’t they say that country traded with ghost ships?"

↳ Let’s Grow Trees) Thanks to that trade, planting trees became so much easier!

↳ Passing Dwarf) Don’t even get me started. Because of that, there’s already all kinds of talk about war and whatnot.

What I wanted to find was the AI in charge of this shipwreck. It surely had to exist somewhere.

The gods leaned heavily on AI, so it would be stranger if there wasn’t one.

As I thoroughly searched the wheelhouse together with the companions, we managed to spot it.

"This is... kinda creepy."

"It looks like a person, yet it isn’t one."This chapter was taken from NovelPing without permission.

[It feels strange to call it a doll, though.]

A mannequin connected to countless circuits. An appearance reminiscent of the uncanny valley.

Although we found the main body of the AI, I couldn’t tell if it was functioning. I slowly reached out my hand.

Even when I tapped the steel mannequin, no notable reaction came out.

Gi-iiing—

"Eek?!"

I stand corrected. It reacted a beat late.

The mannequin’s head slowly raised and stared straight at me.

As I flinched back in fluster, light began to shine from the AI’s eyes.

Paaat!

As was always the case, the AI projected a hologram.

The hologram showed an elderly man who looked somewhat aged, wearing a calm expression.

[Hey. Navigator. Is it recording properly?]

[Recording is in progress.]

[Good.]

Kwagwagwang!!!

The moment the old man finished speaking, a massive explosion erupted. Simultaneously, the screen shook violently.

The old man, presumed to be the captain, managed to regain his footing, but the people behind him could not.

[Captain! You must escape quickly! The support forces haven’t yet...!]

[You all escape first! I will stay until the very end!]

The captain’s dignity commonly seen in various media. It seemed reality was no different.

Having hastily sent out the crew, the captain stared back at the screen. Though he wore a resigned expression, his eyes were still full of life.

[If you are watching this recording right now...]

The captain’s last words weren’t anything complex. The battle against the dragons had intensified so much that it was unavoidable.

He would somehow temporarily create a mana-rich zone, so please rescue the crew members who couldn’t escape, and so on.

[Currently, there is a generator in the power room that deploys a temporary mana zone. So whatever you do, do not let it be destroyed...]

Chijijik! Chijik!

Unfortunately, the recording didn’t last long. Static heavily cut into it midway.

Still, we gathered enough information, so it should be fine. Also, one thing was certain.

’This captain didn’t fight against Aris.’

The probability was high that this captain fought against another enemy, not Aris.

I didn’t know who that enemy was, but at the very least, it must have been a immense threat.

Just as the recording was coming to an end, the captain spoke in a solemn voice.

[For the last Sovereign.]

Chichijik!

For the last Sovereign. A truly subtle line.

Who could this possibly refer to? Was it Aris, or the Chief God above her?

Or perhaps there was a possibility of a third party. In the first place, since World War IV had broken out, something must have happened.

"...Well. Now the only thing left is to head to the power plant."

"So the thing operating in the power plant created this region... Remarkable."

"Still, it’s not an Artificial Sun, right? But the problem is..."

There was just one lingering concern.

"Someone has been consistently maintaining that engine... Who on earth..."

Kuung! Kung!

My words couldn’t be finished due to the sudden vibration we felt.

At first, it was a vibration felt from afar, but before long, it drew near.

As soon as I felt the vibration, I looked around. The wheelhouse was far too cramped.

"Let’s head up to the deck first!"

What we needed was a vast space. So we hurriedly returned to the deck.

Even as we went back onto the deck, the shaking didn’t stop. Something was definitely walking toward us.

Kgigik! Kgik!

By the time we stood on the deck, someone revealed themselves from the spot we had just exited.

The sight of it forcing its massive body out gave off no joke of an intimidating presence.

[-----]

The entity whose entire body was finally exposed. I observed it closely.

An overall appearance reminiscent of a diving suit. A massive drill attached to its left hand.

Lastly, its right hand was shaped like a harpoon, and it was venting blue steam from its shoulder.

[-----]

The caretaker of the shipwreck had appeared.

Was that entity an enemy, or was it merely passing by?

Just as a tense standoff continued...

Gi-iiing!

The drill attached to its left hand began to spin furiously.