I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 614

Humanity achieved boundless advancement upon entering the digital age.

Storing vast records on a USB drive the size of a finger, training AI to produce various outputs, and so on.

Digital civilization, developing alongside electrical civilization, gifted humans a broad vision, the pinnacle of which was the internet.

It wasn’t called the sea of information for nothing; virtually everyone among the younger generation used it.

Thus, while digital tech appeared omnipotent on the surface, it possessed a highly vulnerable drawback compared to analog.

"It seems the finishing work was so meticulous that it remains completely intact even after several centuries."

"Master. Can paintings like this be preserved for a long time?"

"Yeah. Under the right conditions, thousands of years are a breeze."

Namely, durability and stability. Things digital could never beat, no matter what.

After all, didn’t murals carved in Goguryeo, founded BCE, survive into the 2000s CE?

Furthermore, there was a hilarious detail regarding the Pyramids: how ancient people reacted when they saw the Pyramids.

’Even the Romans, who were ancient people by my timeline’s standards, looked at the Pyramids and marvelled, "Wow! Ancient people built THAT?"’

Once upon a time, I also wondered how the Pyramids were constructed.

Of course, after joining the military, I personally experienced firsthand that humans definitely stacked those Pyramids up by hand.

At any rate, in terms of preservation, digital can never beat analog.

Next was stability, which could also be easily illustrated by analogy.

Top-secret information is almost always written down on paper, after all.

Take nuclear missile launch codes as an extreme example.

’The moment it gets hacked the world goes to hell, so paper documentation is way safer.’

In that sense, the mural we discovered could be seen as properly utilizing the strengths of analog.

Although it couldn’t record second-by-second data like digital, for now, this was more than enough.

"Though it looks like Lady Aris was an insanely disobedient brat when she was little."

[Ahem. Ahem.]

Cain cleared his throat at my caustic remark. Even though I used the phrasing ’insanely disobedient brat’, he didn’t refute it.

Normally he would have yelled, "That is blasphemy!", but he couldn’t help it.

Because the images carved into the mural—that is, Aris’s past—were tumultuous in every sense of the word.

Ever since she was young, she engaged in plenty of vicious, defiant acts, and that didn’t change even after being taken in by the Chief God.

Sticky-fingered, she stole food from eateries, pickpocketed when she needed money, and so on.

The crowning glory among them was her table manners. Since ancient times, hasn’t there been a saying not to fool around at mealtime?

Yet Aris blithely ignored even that and threw food right at the Chief God.

Naturally, the Chief God grew thoroughly furious and dealt Aris a heavy noogie to the head.

Multiple lumps on her head, plus physical punishment requiring her to kneel with arms held high in the air. It was vividly detailed.

Even so, Aris merely huffed and puffed in indignant outrage, showing zero signs of reflection or remorse.

Everyone could tell how much trouble the Chief God had gone through trying to raise Aris.

[Sword Matstar] It feels weird to say this, but just looking at the drawing, she really looks like she was insanely disobedient.

[Heavenly Demon] I agree as well. In particular, failing to observe meal etiquette warrants a beating; she has no right to complain.

[Smart Demon] Honestly, she should have been hit more. The Chief God was too nice and held back lol

[Don’t Abandon the Hero] B-but she’s a deity everyone respects now!

[Princess Chaenggu] The Chief God must have been so frustrated~

[Allfather] I wonder how Lord Aragon was as a child.

Among children or teenagers, there are faces that look like they’d ’never listen to a word you say’.

Breaking it down, there are many traits, but the most representative is a mischievous ’rascal-like’ grin. A so-called healthy-toothed smirk.

And rascals are hyperactive, constantly causing trouble right and left. All of these were rendered in the mural.

Happily playing with a ball only to shatter someone’s window, or swinging a wooden sword to beat up Aragon, and the like.

There was even a drawing of the Chief God delivering another noogie to scold Aris sternly.

"Seriously, when does she stop getting scolded?"

[Khem! Ahem! Childhood is naturally a time when one acts immature.]

Feeling guilty himself, Cain offered a weak defense. I didn’t particularly refute his words either.

Compared to her miserable past, she looked extremely happy. A child maturing early only meant their environment had been grueling.

’Well... even Admiral Yi Sun-sin was said to be a troublemaker in his youth.’

Not a lie, it’s true. They said he’d raid neighboring orchards whenever he had the chance.

Anyway, childhood passed, entering her youth.

Troublemaker though she was, did the fruits of her education bear fruit? Aris grew into a beauty whose smile suited her well.

That wasn’t all. Together with Aragon, who was educated alongside her, she struck down enemies blocking their path.

I wasn’t clear on what their exact objective was, but one thing was certain: a righteous goal definitely existed.

As proof, as time passed, the number of people fighting alongside Aris steadily grew.

"Those people are..."

[That is Alund. And this person is Sera.]Get faster updates on nоvelping.com.

Among them were faces we had seen before. Being paintings, they weren’t crystal-clear like photographs, but based on their distinct traits, it was unmistakable.

Fighting like this was understandable. If 90% of humanity had perished due to mana, the world would have been plunged into chaos.

Fighting for righteousness alongside like-minded companions. And establishing a civilization to recall the warmth of the past.

’Up to this point, it makes sense. But why did they migrate all the way here?’

That question was resolved before long. A problem had arisen with Earth itself.

Not just a simple problem, but a ’natural disaster’ that swept across the entire world.

[Wait. This painting... did the oceans submerge the entire world?]

"...It certainly looks that way."

The ocean swallowed the entire world. The root cause was an ’earthquake’.

A massive tsunami triggered by an earthquake completely inundated the world.

If asked whether this was possible, I could confidently answer "Yes."

After all, every continent originally emerged as land pushed up after intense seismic activity.

Conversely, it meant that land could sink due to earthquakes or be submerged by tsunamis.

"Master. Isn’t this a volcano?"

"Right. The name was... Yellowstone Supervolcano?"

Volcanoes also contributed to the end of the Earth. Not just an ordinary volcano, but the largest supervolcano in the world.

A volcano about which many said that if it erupted, the whole world would end.

The beautiful collaboration of earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes seemed to have turned Earth’s environment into a complete dumpster fire.

Compounded with the remnants of human civilization creating radioactive zones, it was one disaster after another.

[Allfather] It is finally revealed. Why the Forest of the Four Seasons possesses a much higher mana concentration compared to other regions.

[Starlight Lady] To think it was the result of being submerged by the ocean once. What a reason...

[Suspiciously...] It’s even more incredible that any animals survived such a calamity.

The Forest of the Four Seasons where my feet rested. This forest had sunk into the ocean once and then resurfaced.

According to facts revealed last time, mana was fundamentally closest to water.

Since the ocean, the birthplace of life, engulfed the entire world, the concentration of mana was bound to be high.

Afterwards, the gods desperately crossed over into this world to seek survival. It was practically Noah’s Ark all over again.

’After crossing over, they fought the dragons... nothing special after that.’

The content recorded afterwards was knowledge common to all: the war against the dragons.

At first, the Chief God appeared to request a dialogue with the dragons, but the mural depicted the dragons launching a preemptive strike first.

The gods hadn’t invaded recklessly. They attempted direct communication, but the dragons brushed it off.

Vanir labeled the gods as invaders, but she was young at the time, so it was understandable she didn’t know.

At any rate, winning that war, and just as the Chief God had done, Aris raising two disciples was also depicted.

Lastly...

"They’re having an argument."

It showed Aris holding a sword while arguing with the other gods.

Among her opponents in the argument were familiar faces, and even her twin sibling Aragon was included.

I checked the preceding sections again to see what had happened in between. There was nothing else.

It was definitely a quarrel that broke out immediately following their victory in the war against the dragons.

"...The one in the center seems to be the Chief God."

[It appears he entered eternal sleep.]

I could roughly guess the reason. Namely, the eternal sleep of the Chief God.

As if the Chief God had become a massive wall, both sides were fighting over him.

Seeing Alund on Aragon’s side, was it a division between those trying to resurrect the Chief God and those opposing it?

In fact, the reason Aris killed Alund was also because he was caught trying to resurrect the ’master’.

At the time I didn’t know who that master was, but now I could realize it was the Chief God.

"That’s unexpected."

[What is?]

"I thought Aris would be on the side trying to resurrect the Chief God."

Usually, when a disobedient troublemaker matures, their filial devotion toward their parents grows deep.

Furthermore, the twin sibling gods regarded the Chief God as their parent and benefactor. Their filial piety had to be profound.

Even I wandered in shock when my parents passed away; how much more so for the twin siblings?

Moreover, given the technology of that era, resurrecting the dead might have been possible, so feeling tempted was inevitable.

[Allfather] This makes me even more curious. Why did they try to resurrect the Chief God?

[Starlight Lady] I knew Lord Aragon to be a gentle and calm person...

[Don’t Abandon the Hero] There must be a reason...!

Aragon was the polar opposite of Aris in personality.New chapters come out on NovelPing first.

While Aris was somewhat emotional and filled with passion, Aragon was rational and calm.

In a way, they were opposites, but under the mediation of the Chief God, they had maintained harmony.

But when the Chief God entered eternal sleep, cracks seemed to form. He held monumental weight in many senses.

"It seems this is the end."

The mural concluded with the argument.

No, to be precise, it showed the rear view of Aris standing alone holding her sword, and that was the end.

What happened next was easily predictable. War among the gods.

It left me feeling complicated and bittersweet, yet saddened at the same time.

"It seems whoever painted this mural was hoping for a happy ending."

[How do you know that?]

"There’s a lot of blank space left."

I spoke while pointing at the empty wall.

Even if this place was a historical record disguised as a Theme Park, it hadn’t forgotten its original duty.

Look at the Mechanical Dragon the children fought earlier. It was a place designed to foster dreams and hope.

So the founder surely wanted the story shown in this mural to end in a happy ending.

’Bittersweet.’

In reality, Aris went around slaughtering the gods by the end of the war. Far from a happy ending.

I rechecked the arguing gods. The proportion of gods sided with Aragon was far greater.

While there were a few gods on Aris’s side, their numbers were woefully lacking.

Judging solely by this, one could say Aragon’s side presented a more reasonable argument.

’Resurrecting the Chief God was more reasonable, huh...’

That meant their reliance on the Chief God was that immense. I grew increasingly curious about what kind of person the Chief God was.

At the same time, I was curious about the hidden underlying truth. Why did Aragon want to resurrect the Chief God?

Was it a child’s unwillingness to let go of a parent, or was it because of what the Chief God symbolized?

I carefully examined the faces of the arguing gods. There was something I wanted to confirm.

[What are you looking for?]

"I wanted to see if anyone looks similar to my face."

Was there anyone among them resembling my face?

I scanned as thoroughly as possible and checked other spots, but regrettably, there was no one.

There was someone somewhat similar—an East Asian—but even in the drawing, it was definitely not me.

’Tsk... tricky. It would’ve been great if it were a photograph.’

In the end, leaving my regrets behind, I walked on. It seemed we had to head into Aragon’s sector.

Since waking up in the Forest of the Four Seasons and having a definite link to the gods were indisputable facts.

Soon, stepping out of Aris’s sector—that is, the knights’ sector—we naturally arrived at the mages’ sector.

Unlike the knights’ sector, the mages’ sector consisted mostly of indoor areas. The first section was the History of Magic.

"What the? It really was coding?"

[What is coding?]

"The origin of magic. If it developed further, it could even create other worlds."

Surprisingly, the origin of magic was coding.

When Starlight Lady roughly explained it before, I wondered ’no way’, but it actually was true.

Perhaps the difference was that anyone could do it as long as they had mana, even without a computer.

Of course, intelligence had to back it up, but that was a universal requirement anywhere.

However, a presence appeared that rendered all of these ordinary.

[Hello. Welcome to magic class.]

"...."

[Today, we will learning to...]

"Master. That’s definitely English, but I have no idea what he’s saying."

"Me neither."

A Robot Mage explaining the basics of magic in a distinct Indian English accent.

Listening to the mage speak, I couldn’t hide my utter absurdity.

I knew Indians were famously strong in STEM fields since ancient times, but to implement even this!

Being a total layman when it came to magic, I had no clue what he was saying, but others were different.

[Allfather] Ohhh! To think such principles were hidden! With that, magic can be manifested much more easily!

[Starlight Lady] Even what we knew was basic, but there’s a foundation even deeper than that... And his explanation is so good! Who on earth is he?

Who else could it be?

[It’s good comfortable...]

A friendly Indian teacher, of course.