*
[It is terribly regrettable, but you will die immediately.]
“Oh.”
I received an answer that was both fiery and cold.
“No, dying just because I say I won’t do it… isn’t that a little too extreme?”
It really was too extreme.
It wasn’t like some pointless WWE-style overblown argument over dipping or pouring sauce on tangsuyuk. We were talking about death.
[I think so as well. However, many resources were used to summon you here, and it cannot be undone.
Please understand that this is an unavoidable choice in order to recover those resources.]
It seemed I had given it the wrong name.
Calling an AI this cold “Lord Conch Shell” was clearly a grave mistake.
[To begin with, you were scheduled to die in your original world. You were fated to be struck by a steel carriage that failed to see you walking down the road in black clothes late at night.]
“…?”
Huh?
I went outside?
Did I suddenly crave something so badly I couldn’t stand it and went to a convenience store or something?
That was more surprising than the fact that I’d been supposed to die.
[If you refuse, immediate recovery measures will proceed, and 20 percent of the resources used can be recovered.]
“So, even if I refuse, I can’t go back. The moment I refuse, you’re planning to grind me up nicely and recycle me. Is that it?”
[We do not plan to grind you finely, but if resource recovery measures are implemented, you will die immediately.]
Too cold.
It was a coldness that felt like it would freeze me solid.
Maybe I should have named it WhipGPT instead of Sora.
In any case, terms and conditions or whatever, this was a situation where I had to accept for now.
I couldn’t go back. I’d been fated to die in the first place. If I refused, I’d be ground up and recycled.
[Will you act as the head admin of Ark Gallery?]
After going around in circles, the first message I’d seen appeared again in the end.
An offer I couldn’t refuse.
If I refused, I died.
The fact that they’d casually brought over someone from another world just to make him a gallery administrator was… well, something.
To be blunt, it was pretty damn lame.
But it wasn’t as if there was any particular reason to go this far as a joke, was there?
Even if, by some chance, it was a joke, with this much effort put into it, I might as well play along.
The message sparkling on the screen before my eyes.
[Will you act as the head admin of Ark Gallery?]
[ YES / NO ]
“Fine. What the hell, I’ll give it a shot.”
I pressed the YES display with all my might, and—
[Thank you for accepting. Jin Rein. You will now act as the head admin of Ark Gallery.]
It was the moment I, a room-bound hikikomori game-addicted jobless bum, got a job.
“Khup… hngh…”
[Rein, are you prone to tears? I have confirmed three instances of crying today.]
“No… I’m not a crybaby…”
I just felt a little too wronged, that was all.
*
For now, I’d accepted.
I’d pressed the YES button with enthusiasm, and I’d decided to submit to the fate given to me.
But accepting it didn’t mean the problems in front of me disappeared.
“Sora, I’m trapped right now.”
[Yes. I am aware.]
“I’m out of food, too. I just ate the little bit I had left like a madman.”
[Yes. I am aware that you had a meal called tear-soaked bread.]
“No, that’s…”
I had no idea where to even begin explaining.
First of all, I was trapped.
Outside, four-eyed wolves were prowling around.
Wolves were animals that lived in packs.
They had four eyes, but if they were still wolves, then the moment I went outside, it was obvious I’d become a tasty human-meat meal.
I was out of food, too.
Rice for three days… no, wait, I hadn’t eaten properly for a week, so could I hold out by starving for two days or so?
But there was no water, either.
Without water, I’d die.
You might want to say, “Isn’t there water in the bathroom?” but there was no such thing here.
It was the kind of ancient toilet I’d only ever seen in history books.
From the third day onward, the smell had kept spreading, and it was killing me.
“So… to do my work as the head admin or whatever, I need something to eat, but there’s nothing here. That’s what I’m saying.”
A stinking toilet?
I could endure that.
Humans were creatures who could get used to things and even sleep snoring in a bathroom stall.
Warm bedding to block the cold night air?
I could fall asleep without it.
Though my back might hurt and I might wake up with a crick in my neck.
But without water and food, I died.
Whether I was hit by a steel carriage… a car, or starved to death, the only difference was the method. My fate was still much closer to death.
[There is no need to worry. It can be resolved through gallery management.]
“No, what does that even…”
I’m telling you, I can’t go outside.
It was definitely an incredibly capable AI, but its credibility was rapidly trending downward.
Why had it brought me here and only come looking for me a week later in the first place?
And why had it only given me a mouse’s worth of food?
[First, please access the gallery. This will be faster than explaining.]
For now, ignoring its rapidly falling credibility, I accessed the gallery.
[You have accessed Ark Gallery.]
[Accessible accounts: 2]
[Account list: Head Admin (Administrator), Jin Rein (Normal, nickname unset)]
Apparently, I could access a normal account and the head admin account separately.
[First, please access the head admin account.]
“…Yes, ma’am.”
For now, I logged in as instructed.
Believing that the capable Lady Sora surely had a plan, I selected the head admin account, and—
[★ Ta-da-da-daaa ★]
“…?”
A fanfare suddenly rang out.
In the room where nothing had been audible except the howling of wolves and my stomach’s foghorn, a cheerful sound rang out.
Startled by the fairly loud noise, I hurriedly looked toward the door.
If the wolves heard it and came into the house, I was dead…!
[Please do not worry. That sound is set to be audible only to the user.]
“Ah, seriously. You scared me…”
Four-eyed wolves the size of houses?
Even if I fought a shepherd dog, I was confident I’d die without even being able to resist.
But this thing could make sounds, too.
It could float screens in midair and even produce sound. What incredible technology.
[Welcome to your first login, Head Admin! As a first-login reward, 1000P has been granted.]
[I’m so hungry… I feel like I’m gonna starve to deathㅠ]
[Ark Gallery? Nope! Starvation Gallery? Yass!!! Fuuuck…]
[Where’d the human bastard who was always dropping text-gore go? It feels empty without him.]
[I want to split open those dogshit nobles’ bellies.]
[Any jobs? I’m confident I can do anything like a dog!]
Above the dizzying titles, I saw a message saying points had been granted.
“Points? Are they like mileage?”
It reminded me of the points I’d piled up back when I was active on an old game information site.
They’d been completely useless except for decorating your nickname prettily.
For now, I needed to know what they were used for.
“Lady Sora, Lady Sora, what exactly are these points?”
I asked the Magic Conch Shell.
[Points are currency that can be used within the gallery. The function is currently turned off. It can be activated through the authority of the head admin account.]
“Oh?”
It was money.
On top of that, the head admin was apparently the manager of the currency.
A world where points obtained through the gallery were used as currency.
And I, the head admin, managed whether that currency could be used or not.
I imagined a future where these points were used as the world’s key currency.
“Oh…”
This crap, as key currency…?
Could a world like that really be called a proper world?
It was definitely a world where something had gone very wrong.
“So you’re saying these points can be used like money?”
[Yes. That is correct.]
“But aren’t there other currencies too? I mean… not virtual currency like this, but currencies made as physical objects.”
Virtual currency had a hard time inspiring trust.
Currency had to be issued by a trustworthy group to gain credibility, and the higher its credibility was, the more people would use that currency, and the more users there were, the greater the volume of that currency became, and the greater the volume became, the wider the range of places where you could conduct transactions using that currency…
Boring and pedantic.
Anyway, physical currency inspired more definite trust than virtual currency. Surely some country’s currency was already acting as the key currency, right?
It seemed difficult for points to claim a place as currency.
[There are some, but according to information obtained through posts within the gallery, most current transactions are conducted through barter.]
It was no longer difficult for them to claim a place.
“No, why on earth? Is development much slower than where I came from, or did the world end once or something?”
Even if development was slow, the currency of the biggest and strongest country would be the most widely used.
“Slow development” alone was nowhere near enough to explain it.
[It has not ended. However, it suffered damage close to extinction, and it is still moving closer to extinction even now.]
It was a world close to ruin.
“I’ve ended up in a more intense world than I expected.”
I should have realized when four-eyed wolves were prowling outside the house.
I was seriously lacking in awareness.
“Then is there something like a shop within the gallery?”
Decorating nicknames prettily was meaningless.
If there was no proper currency, I’d have to manage this well enough for it to seize that place.
My salary was in gallery points, so if their value dropped, that would be a big problem.
[There is. You can purchase items with the head admin’s points. In addition, if the head admin stocks and registers items they have purchased, there is also a function that allows gallery users to purchase them.]
I even got a clean answer to the thing I’d been most curious about.
As expected of Lady Sora. Always clean and perfect.
“Nice. Then shall we get started?”
The moment I took the first step into my duties as gallery administrator—
[Understood. If you have any questions, please call me at any time.]
At my words that I was starting work, the screen used for conversing with me slid smoothly backward.
And so, my first action as head admin was—
“I’ll buy one abalone porridge and one barley tea, eat them, and then get to work.”
A trip to the shop.