I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 698

Actually, it was something I had roughly expected.

The story that over 90% of the entire human population had vanished due to mana, and in that state, another war broke out, bringing them to the brink of extinction.

I was able to survive that great catastrophe. I didn’t know if it was because my body was sturdy or for some other reason.

But my friends and acquaintances wouldn’t have been so lucky. Especially since one of my friends had a rather weak constitution.

Hadn’t the Heavenly Demon mentioned before? If one suffers from Qi Deviation and has no one by their side to help, they are bound to die in most cases.

They say a blessing in disguise is that if you overcome Qi Deviation, you can reach the next realm, but the probability of that is abysmally low.

Even the Heavenly Demon herself would have lost her life in vain if I hadn’t given her the Crescent Moon Spirit Herb.

[It looks like they are gathered as families.]

"...."

I didn’t reply to Cain’s calm remark. I merely stared at the urns with a melancholic heart.

As a certain philosopher once said, a friend is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.

With those bodies gone, it felt as if the pain of a tearing soul was being directly felt.

Chronologically, it must have been hundreds or even thousands of years since my friends died.

But from my perspective, they were friends whose faces I had seen less than a year ago.

It felt as if they had all departed at once in a sudden traffic accident, making it hard to believe, and impossible to accept.

Of course, rationally, I knew there was no way they could have survived once the great catastrophe struck.

I realized once again that accepting something with your head and accepting it with your heart are worlds apart.

"Sigh..."

Not knowing how to ease my suffocating chest, I let out a deep sigh.

To think that not only my friends but even their families had turned into a handful of ashes. Should I feel relieved that they were at least together?

In my memory, they were the happiest families of anyone, and his daughter was especially adorable.

To think such a young child was swept away and died in the great catastrophe felt like a hole was being bored into my chest.

Moreover, there was even a family photo in front of the urns lined up side by side, which only added to the heavy feeling.

If even one person, or at the very least, their children had survived, it might have been different, but my hopes were torn to shreds.

"...Cain-ssi."

[Speak.]

"Have you ever lost a friend, Cain-ssi?"

[There was a friend who died beside me from an arrow, and another who got caught in the crossfire while trying to protect me.]

Cain spoke calmly in response to my question.

The era he active in was called the age of heroes, but in other words, those who weren’t heroes fell without even being recorded.

Even in Greek and Roman mythology, countless heroes appear, but the other soldiers do not.

Falling helplessly and fading away is the fate of soldiers. Those who fought alongside heroes could also be called heroes, but unfortunately, those who remain cannot remember everyone.

[But I was not particularly sad. Rather, I used my anger over their sacrifice as nourishment to strike down the enemies.]

"...."

[But when I sent away a friend who collapsed from illness and withered away, my heart somehow ached even more. At that time, the war had ended, and I thought we would spend a peaceful remainder of our lives.]

Cain was a soldier. A soldier born in an era of fierce battles who fought his entire life.

Since it was a time when the average life expectancy was at rock bottom, the death of a friend, though painful, must have been familiar.

He was the exact opposite of me. By my standards, the era I lived in was an era of peace.

A few major wars broke out in between, but due to desperate resistance, the Korean Peninsula remained relatively intact.

But because an unexpected great catastrophe struck, everything vanished like straw.

"...It’s futile."

[It is futile. Especially since I thought I would be the one to die first.]

While serving in the special forces, war broke out, and after discharge, I was scouted by the National Intelligence Service to work as an agent.

It was practically no different from tightrope walking with my life, yet the ones who went first were my friends.

I stared at my friends’ urns for a while before raising my head. When I looked up, my parents’ urn was there.

It was old and covered in thick dust due to lack of maintenance, but it still maintained its original shape.

It was in stark contrast to the other niches, which were completely empty or broken.

It was presumed that someone had come here to enshrine them. And the probability of that person being me was very high.

’I only told the Twin Gods my name, did I ever tell them my past?’

Furthermore, all my various records had been expunged by the state. A natural occurrence given the nature of my job.

Therefore, even if they wanted to find it, they wouldn’t have been able to unless I personally told them.

So I thought it was a relief. If I had told them, there was no telling what might have happened.

I prayed for their souls with a bitter heart and looked around.

Usually, columbariums have incense prepared to honor the deceased.

But since the columbarium was mostly empty, it was difficult to find any incense.Enjoying the story? Read on at novelping dot com.

"First... First, I’ll wipe down the urns. You guys look around and let me know if anything catches your eye."

"Understood."

"Yes!"

While the others searched, I took a towel from my backpack and wiped the dust off the urns.

Although it was inevitable that they had faded due to the passage of time, wiping the dust and cleaning the floor made it look much cleaner than before.

Next, all that was left was to light incense in front of these urns. This was a gesture of respect for the deceased.

However, since most of the columbarium was empty, I couldn’t find any proper incense.

Therefore, I had no choice but to ask a fixed-handle user who might have incense.

[Wild Grylls: Heavenly Demon-nim. Do you happen to have any incense? The kind used for ancestral rites.]

[Heavenly Demon: If it can be obtained, I can get it immediately. But why do you need incense?]

[Wild Grylls: I have a reason to burn some incense.]

[Heavenly Demon: ...Gwigong. Did one of your companions meet an unfortunate end?]

A reason to burn incense had arisen. Someone had died, and I had to mourn them.

From the Heavenly Demon’s perspective, it was only natural to think that way.

I pondered how to explain it, then decided to just tell her the straight truth.

If anyone, the Heavenly Demon was extremely tight-lipped, whether in reality or on the Gallery, so she wouldn’t leak it.

[Wild Grylls: While exploring, I accidentally returned to my hometown. Not my house in the Theme Park, but my hometown as a region.]

[Heavenly Demon: Hometown? Did you not say your hometown was far away?]

[Wild Grylls: Yes. It was a complete coincidence. And when I entered the columbarium where my parents are enshrined, they were still there. My friends too.]

[Heavenly Demon: I see. Understood. This lady will find some quickly and hand it over to you. The incense used during ancestral rites in the Cult should suffice, correct?]

[Wild Grylls: Any incense is fine.]

[Heavenly Demon: Since we are destined to look up at the same sky, this much is only natural.]

[Wild Grylls: Pardon?]

What does that mean? I wanted to ask, but the Heavenly Demon’s connection cut off.

Soon, I received the incense used for ancestral rites in the Heavenly Demon Cult. On the surface, it looked like a normal incense stick.

To top it off, she even gave me a censer to burn the incense. It was made of wood, but perhaps because it had been specially treated, it possessed a glossy sheen.

After thanking the Heavenly Demon, I slowly began the preparations. First was my parents.

Chiiik-

Using the Ignition Stone I received from the Heavenly Demon during my early survival days in the Forest of the Four Seasons, I lit the incense.

Soon, I placed the incense in the censer and prayed for the souls of my parents, whom I hadn’t seen in a long time.

Although I had a photo of my parents in the house I brought with me, seeing them like this again made my heart ache with bitterness.

’But these guys are still giving me trouble even after they’re dead.’

Next were my friends. Accepting what had to be accepted, I mourned my friends and their families.

They would have lived happily if not for the great catastrophe. That damn mana was the problem.

By the time the incense sticks I had lit with the utmost respect had burned down, my companions returned.

"Master. We found nothing. Everything is empty."

"There are many signs that they were emptied on purpose."

They said they found nothing. It didn’t really matter, so I just nodded.

And then, just as the incense for my last friend was lit.

Paat!

"Ugh?!"

"Ah! My eyes!"

A cluster of light began to spread from the enshrined urns, gradually engulfing us.

Flustered, I hurriedly drew my weapon. It could have been a trap.

But that was only for a moment; a familiar sensation washed over me. It felt exactly like the time I placed my hand on the World Tree.

Not the one at my house, but the World Tree in the center of the Forest of the Four Seasons. The moment I placed my hand on that World Tree, this exact phenomenon occurred.

Before long, the pure white light engulfed everything, leaving only a blank white space behind.

But that too was brief, as colors gradually began to overlay the white background.

While the background was white overall, the interior was slightly different.

"Cough! Cough! Keo-heuk!"

A patient lying on a hospital bed. And a man keeping watch by his side.

I stared at them and slowly walked closer. Thanks to that, I realized exactly who they were.

"...Hyun-woo?"

Park Hyun-woo. My friend.The source of this chapter is novel​ping.com.

A friend I had kept in constant contact with since middle school, through high school, and even into adulthood.

There were other friends besides Park Hyun-woo, but that guy, Hyun-woo, was the center of our group.

He even kept sending messages or chatting online constantly even after all our friends got married.

Perhaps because of that, whenever we met up, we were busy playing around without any reservations, just like in our school days rather than as adults.

Although I suffered from nightmares after the war, when I met my friends, I was just an immature teenager.

"Drink some water. Water."

The one nursing Hyun-woo was none other than me. I spoke in a suppressed voice, biting my lip tightly.

Perhaps because Hyun-woo didn’t even have the strength to lift a cup, he could barely swallow only after I poured the water for him.

"Pueok! Cough!"

But even that was meaningless. Because he coughed up pitch-black, dead blood.

Thanks to that, I realized belatedly how severe Hyun-woo’s current condition was.

The veins all over his body bulged out, with blue light occasionally shimmering through them.

He looked like he would die if immediate action wasn’t taken. I had heard of this phenomenon before.

"Master. It’s Qi Deviation. And a severe stage at that."

"...."

Beside me, Lackey spoke calmly. The phenomenon of Qi Deviation.

Also the fundamental cause that drove 90% of humanity to extinction. The trial that humanity, encountering mana for the first time, had to endure.

But unlike Hyun-woo, I was perfectly fine. In fact, I looked healthier than anyone.

"Sigh... Sigh... You needlessly sturdy bastard... How is it that only you seem perfectly fine?"

"...."

Hyun-woo also found me absurd and cracked a joke that wasn’t really a joke.

I wondered why I didn’t call a doctor, but that was the normal state of affairs.

Either the entire human race was in chaos from suffering Qi Deviation, or the chaos had already swept through.

Even when COVID spread, the entire world ground to a halt, so how much worse would Qi Deviation be?

Furthermore, COVID could at least be prevented by wearing a mask, but not mana.

Mana is something that accumulates in the body just by breathing, so everyone in the world must have been affected.

Whether they were doctors, soldiers, office workers, or finally, the politicians who governed world affairs.

Since everyone was affected equally, it wasn’t surprising that the world had fallen apart.

"...You can hold on just a bit longer, right? They said they’re making something with my blood."

"I... I have ears too, you bastard... If I drink your blood... my body will explode..."

"...."

"Just what... what kind of experiments did you... undergo... in the United States... There were rumors that you were captured and went missing..."

"While working as an agent, I got caught trying to smuggle mana-related research out of the United States and was subjected to human experimentation. Happy now?"

"Crazy bastard... Still, I’m glad you didn’t die..."

Hyun-woo chuckled and shook his head. But I knew.

That Hyun-woo’s life would end soon. He must have known this better than anyone.

"...Hey."

"Speak."

"When I go... you can at least... hold a funeral, right...?"

"The other guys went ahead and are waiting. Their families too."

"Right... I’m glad... cough! that at least you’re left behind..."

"...."

"At least you’re left behind." How deeply must those words have wounded me?

Perhaps realizing he had made a slip of the tongue, Hyun-woo squeezed out his remaining strength to speak.

"You should have... just gone like us... Seriously, why did you have to be so needlessly sturdy..."

"...."

"That way we could play together... and stuff..."

Hyun-woo’s eyes slowly closed. His body, unable to withstand the Qi Deviation, gradually collapsed.

I—to be precise, the me in the flashback—could only watch this helplessly.

"...."

Finally, a silence without even the sound of breathing quietly settled in.

"...Farewell."

The me in the flashback calmly bid farewell.