I fell into a strange world.
There seemed to be no clearer way to explain the situation I found myself in right now.
There were no particular signs.
I just followed my usual routine of doing community activities after my part-time job at the convenience store and went to sleep.
But when I opened my eyes, a landscape far from the corner of my studio apartment unfolded before me.
Gray walls.
And the candlesticks hanging on them.
It didn't seem like a dream. I slapped my cheek and felt the pain perfectly. Pinching my thigh, the pain was definitely there.
The situation was so dreamlike that I was rather convinced it was reality.
'...I should have trolled the gallery a bit more kindly.'
Though I didn't even troll aggressively yesterday.
No, before gallery trolling, I should have lived my life diligently so I wouldn't have fallen into a shithole of a world like this.
I advanced very carefully.
Thud.
Something caught my foot.
My gaze turned to my feet. What caught my foot was a skull.
Rolllll...
It was an unmistakably human skull.
My mind filled with confusion.
What kind of world did I get thrown into, seriously.
The existence of a skull meant this was a space with elements that could kill people.
Faded bricks. A smell mixed with dirt and mold.
Well, it's not like a dungeon or something, right?
I moved my steps slowly. Because all I could do right now was follow the flames of the candlesticks.
Soon, I stopped. My footsteps, that is.
【 1 】
Black numbers caught my gaze.
1.
...Does this mean this is the 1st floor?
Is this place a structure made up of floors?
For now, I had no choice but to keep walking.
Crunch!
The sound of something being chewed up reached my ears.
The problem was that the source of the sound was right in front of my nose.
I crouched, using a slightly protruding gray wall as cover.
'Fuck.'
Crunch!
Something was consuming something.
A giant ant.
A giant ant, whose body height alone looked to be easily 100cm, was chewing on something.
'...It's a person.'
It looked like a person. A dead one, at that.
Without a single movement, its flesh was being chewed up by the ant.
The ant's moving large jaws. And every time, what flowed down was dark red blood.
Crunch!
I held my breath.
I couldn't tell if it was because I was behind the guy or because it was focused on its meal, but one thing was certain: it didn't know of my existence yet.
'There's a weapon.'
Right, right behind the ant.
Probably the spear used by the person being chewed up by the ant right now.
The only thing that could kill that ant right now was that spear.
If that giant spider bastard finishes its meal and comes this way, I'd die without even having a chance to grab the spear.
The opportunity is now.
Moving my body right now to grab that spear was the best option.
I lowered my body as much as possible and moved forward slowly.
I advanced while holding my breath completely.
Crunch! Crack!
Listening to the gruesome sounds, I reached out both hands.
Toward the single spear behind the giant ant that was still eating.
Snatch.
'...Got it.'
The feel of the spear was quite heavy, but not to the point where I couldn't lift it. Thank goodness I used to lift the empty barbell often at the gym.
Just as I was about to thrust the spear right away, I felt a gaze. A very chilling predator's gaze.
The giant ant's black pupils were staring a hole right through me.
I moved my body hastily. I stepped forward with my right foot and thrust both arms forward.
Squelch!
The spear directly hit the ant's skull.
I swung the spear shaft toward the legs of the ant as it stumbled backward.
Crack!
My heart beat rapidly.
The momentum was on my side. I desperately continued to thrust both arms.
Toward the giant ant's skull. Dozens of times.
Soon, bluish-green blood formed a puddle on the floor.
It seemed I had succeeded in definitely killing the guy.
The giant ant with its crushed skull didn't move.
In the meantime, my whole body was drenched in sweat.
My black shirt was stained with the ant's sticky blood.
"Keugh..."
Maybe because I exerted all my strength, both my arms started to hurt as if they had been torn off.
[Experience has increased.]
[Current Experience: 30%]
[When experience reaches 100%, your level will rise.]
[The higher the level, the slower the experience value increase.]
Level?
At this point, my mind became roughly dizzy. Where the hell did I get thrown into?
My gaze was still on the distorted ant.
And then toward the dead person behind it.
"What?"
The clothes were too different from the modern clothes I had been wearing until just a moment ago.
It felt like clothes from the Western Middle Ages.
Something floated above the corpse's head.
[NPC - Fleeing Citizen]
Not a name, but a title like 'Fleeing Citizen'.
"An NPC, you say..."
Every situation I encountered was utterly unrealistic.
I carefully rummaged through the dead citizen's clothes.
There was a pocket tucked under the clothes.
Inside the pocket was an object with a very familiar feel.
I took it out.
"Cell phone?"
What, a cell phone suddenly popping out here.
Only completely unrealistic situations had unfolded until now. But suddenly, a modern artifact popped out.
The shape was exactly like a smartphone.
I pressed something like a power button.
Ding-
The screen turned on.
Suddenly, a blue light flickered from the screen, and an interface like a hologram unfolded before my eyes.
And the visible text.
【 Transcendent Gallery 】
I raised my hand and scrolled down.
Quite a lot of posts were up.
Just like the community gallery I used to do before coming here.
For now, I pressed any eye-catching post.
Title: Any noticeable rookies lately?
Author: Anonymous
-Real life's been a bit busy lately so I couldn't visit Climb-Gal. Feels like it's been a while since I came to Trans-Gal too haha
ㄴ Don't see any particularly noticeable newbies.
ㄴ For real, kids these days have no grit. They all just look for the easy way out.
ㄴ So what did you clear? Normal? You're not saying that as an Easy mode terminator, are you?
ㄴ SwordOfLight) Do you know the sword?
ㄴ SwordDancer, aren't you sick of this?
Trans-Gal seemed to be an abbreviation for 'Transcendent Gallery'.
Then what's Climb-Gal?
For now, I pressed the back button. And clicked on the latest post uploaded just a moment ago.
Title: Seriously, why aren't we allowed to write posts in Climb-Gal damn it, fucking system
Author: GrandMage
-It's so frustrating I'm going crazy. Why can't you win against something you can definitely beat just because you're scared? It's only the 35th floor! Whether your arms burn off or your legs get torn, just push in and kill them! You recover anyway when you clear the floor, but they're dawdling like they're going to die.
ㄴ You're giving too much unsolicited advice when it's not even your business, are you really a GrandMage?
ㄴ Arrest the Easy mode terminator trash. Everyone know you're not all trash like this guy. This guy is a Hard mode terminator. Can't you tell by his fixed nick?
Fixed nick.
A fixed nickname meant a person who continuously used a single unique nickname within the gallery.
ㄴ Fuck, 60% are from Easy mode, and aren't you from Normal mode at best? You're the same trash commoner. Why are you projecting onto that GrandMage?
ㄴ Easy<<<<< ㄴ Hahahaha their ego is too big. That's the level difference between Normal and the King-God Hard mode. But Easy and Normal are only about two walls apart at best. ㄴ ShrineMaiden) Hawawa, everyone must not fight. ㄴ Wrong. ㄴ SwordOfLight) Do you know the sword? It's dizzying. The only thing I could clearly feel was that both the people writing posts and the people leaving comments in this place called Transcendent Gallery seemed to have finished conquering something, rather than currently conquing it. Then what about me? I still didn't have a clue where this was, but it seemed certain that this was the 1st floor. Therefore, it meant I was just at the starting point. Unlike the people chatting in the gallery. For now, I should write a post and see the reaction. I pressed 'Write' and started composing. The keyboard was also projected in the air like a holographic keyboard, so writing was easy. Clack- I should just set the author as 'Anonymous'. It seemed people who didn't use fixed nicknames used this here too. Just like a real gallery. I finished writing and pressed upload. Title: Did you all clear it? I think I'm on the 1st floor now, what is this place Author: Anonymous -Seeing '1' written on the wall, I think I'm just starting. Have you all finished? What exactly is this place? I just caught a giant ant. Comments appeared as soon as I uploaded it. ㄴ What kind of aggro is this retard pulling. This is Trans-Gal, how can a climber shitpost here. So unfunny ㄴ If you have nothing to do, wash your feet and sleep~~ ㄴ ShrineMaiden) Hawawa, it is not fun. ㄴ Go to Climb-Gal. ㄴ Lmao going to Climb-Gal with this bullshit, is this guy crazy? How can he go to the Climber Gallery. If they regress him, would he climb again? ㄴ Fuck off, absolutely never climbing again. I still get severe PTSD. They don't believe me. I was about to write another post begging them to believe me. But another comment was already posted. ㄴ Juddak) I'm not sure what's going on... but it seems like what that guy is saying is true? I checked the location coordinates and it's 666.666.66.532. 666 is the coordinates for Climb-Gal users. T1NrUTkreFYvQUZ1VEE0bGdJSWROeEN6cW9UWTRMSDQ0a3FnRDNLOUIreGZza1N3c3kxbUlxT2RqdDFUTXp6WA Juddak? Is it the same role as the gallery Juddak I know? It was a gallery manager with the authority to delete gallery posts or block users. Anyway, as soon as Juddak's comment was posted, no comments were left for a moment, as if time had stopped. And then. After that brief silence, comments started pouring in like crazy. ㄴ What?? Real?? How can a climber be on Trans-Gal lololol What's going on? ㄴ And a mere 1st floor at that??? Fucking lol ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ ㄴ Forget 1st floor, a climber coming to Trans-Gal itself doesn't make sense for real ㄴ ShrineMaiden) Hawawa, I apologize for my earlier slip of the tongue. ㄴ SwordOfLight) Do you know the sword? To the point where there seemed to be no end even if I scrolled down. ㄴ GrandMage) What, such a crazy thing happening suddenly?? Can you use magic by any chance? ㄴ Pioneer) ?? ㄴ GutterSwordSaint) Try to explain a bit more in detail. ㄴ AbsoluteMonarch) Place of origin? ㄴ TianMo) So you're on the 1st floor right now? What's the difficulty? ㄴ LockedRoomTheorist) An anomaly has occurr -This world is made of a giant locked room ㄴ IceQueen) Freeze! Frozen! ㄴ ItsAnElf) Are you perhaps a different race? ㄴ Dddd Look at all the humans who rarely show up popping out lolololololololol ㄴ For real, dragging out all the lurkers. It is surprising fr fr ㄴ All the monsters are popping out It was certain that all the attention of the Transcendent Gallery was focused on me.