Chapter 41
Scammer (2)
It was enough to make a ghost wail in disbelief.
I stared at the empty box.
No matter how many times I searched through it, the golden mushroom was nowhere to be found.
Wonmo hadn’t secretly eaten it either.
Unless it had somehow grown arms and legs, it had practically vanished on its own.
I couldn’t make sense of it at all.
‘Did some thieving bastard like the Tree Sloth steal it?’
I stared at the Tree Sloth.
It had one of the fasting pills I had given it hooked on its claw and was nibbling away at it.
I wasn’t saying that thing had eaten the golden mushroom.
If something had eaten it, it was probably some other animal.
The Tree Sloth had tried stealing fish before.
It had failed, though.
Considering that, there were probably beasts out there that specifically targeted plants and animals rich in nutrients.
‘Even so, wouldn’t the golden mushroom be way too risky?’
Even wild animals generally avoided mushrooms.
And the golden mushroom practically screamed:
I’m poisonous! Eat me and you’ll die!
Bright colors usually meant deadly poison.
Animals knew that much too.
Even if something had eaten it, there should have been some traces left behind.
The mystery refused to clear up.
‘Strange.’
Then again, maybe this was for the best.
I had already been wondering what I was supposed to do with it.
Still, since there were people who wanted the golden mushroom, I made a post on the Gallery.
Title: Mushroom Disappeared
Wild Grylls
(Photo of an empty box)
I put the mushroom I picked up yesterday in this box, but when I woke up today, it was gone ;;
I thought maybe Wonmo ate it, but apparently not.
This is seriously weird.
└ Heavenly Demon: To think a mushroom escaped. Truly astonishing. Did it perhaps grow feet?
└ Wild Grylls: I’m not sure either. I looked around, but I can’t even find footprints.
└ Heavenly Demon: Surely a mushroom cannot perform Void-Stepping.
└ Wild Grylls: What’s Void-Stepping now?
└ Heavenly Demon: It is a technique that allows one to walk or run through empty air. The pinnacle of lightness techniques.
└ Wild Grylls: Can you do that too, Heavenly Demon?
└ Heavenly Demon: This Lady has surpassed mere Void-Stepping and reached the realm of Treading the Empty Sky. I can fly freely through the heavens.
└ Wild Grylls: Oh ;;
└ SwordMaster: Aren’t you exaggerating a little too much? If you’re really at that level, wouldn’t that be Grand Master territory?
└ Heavenly Demon: What does that mean? Explain it in terms this Lady can understand.
└ Wouldn’t that be equivalent to the Profound Realm in the Central Plains?
└ Probably around there. Has anyone in the Central Plains even reached the Profound Realm?
└ You’d probably have to dig through historical records to find one.
└ Even someone in the Transformation Realm could destroy an entire city, so the Profound Realm is just lol.
└ Heavenly Demon: I understand. This Lady has reached that so-called Profound Realm.
└ SwordMaster: Yes, yes~ I’m sure you have.
└ Allfather: Perhaps the mushroom really did have legs.
└ Wild Grylls: Seriously?
└ Allfather: Considering muscular mushrooms exist, arms and legs would practically be standard equipment for a golden mushroom.
└ Wild Grylls: But it was completely still when I caught it?
└ Allfather: It would be a mistake to judge the laws of nature by your common sense, Mr. Grylls. Think of the Tree Sloth.
└ Wild Grylls: Ah.
After hearing the wisdom of the sage Allfather, I realized something.
Maybe it really did have legs.
This world was fantasy.
And the Forest of Four Seasons was a place where even the common sense of people from this world didn’t apply.
And I was stuck suffering there.
Putting it that way made me a little sad.
Anyway, no matter what happened, I couldn’t afford to judge things by common sense.
I didn’t even need to look far.
There was a sloth around here that could snatch arrows out of the air.
└ Wild Grylls: Guess I should just consider it lost.
└ Allfather: A shame. I wanted to study it.
It was unfortunate, but there was nothing I could do.
It had happened because of carelessness that wasn’t exactly carelessness.
I should probably just be thankful that nobody had raided me in the middle of the night.
I closed the Gallery and approached the hose to wash my face.
Trickle, trickle—
The stream of water coming through the hose was weak.
The moment I saw it, I realized what had happened.
Another fish had been caught.
Apparently, one got stuck at least once every day.
This was great.
‘Once I get a fish trap from the dwarf too, I won’t have to worry about food anymore.’
It looked like I could stop worrying about food for the time being.
I was planning to set more traps soon too, so things would only become more plentiful.
If I learned even a half-decent method of hunting, starving to death probably wouldn’t be an issue.
I’d die from poison, disease, or getting eaten by a beast instead.
Or maybe I’d step into some bizarre place and die a pointless death.
There were plenty of ways to die.
‘...Right. Better than starving, I guess?’
I suddenly felt depressed, but quickly shook it off.
The important thing was the fish.
I gathered the necessary gear and headed toward the river.
I didn’t forget to feed Wonmo before leaving.
Splash! Splash!
When I eventually reached the river, just as I expected, a fish was trapped in the narrow passage.
It was huge, large enough to completely block the hose’s intake.
Until now, the fish I had caught had all been red.
This one was golden.
‘...Does this one have poison too?’
The only poisonous fish I knew of was the pufferfish.
And as far as I knew, even those lived in the ocean.
‘It doesn’t have spines either.’
More importantly, there were no spines.
Its body was completely smooth.
It was golden, but it wasn’t covered in flashy multicolored patterns.
After thinking about it for a moment, I decided to take it back as it was.
If I stayed here too long and the golden frog showed up, things would get troublesome.
“Heave-ho.”
This one was big enough that I had to wrap both arms around it too.
Were all the fish living in the Forest of Four Seasons this huge?
From my perspective, that was nothing but a blessing.
It meant I could eat my fill.
‘I should bring a big container with me from now on.’
I made plans while wrestling with the thrashing golden fish.
For convenience, I really needed at least a container or a net.
It wasn’t because I lacked strength.
The fish was simply so large that I needed both hands to carry it.
‘Or I could bring the Tree Sloth.’
The Tree Sloth was surprisingly useful.
It was practically perfect as a bodyguard.
I returned to the cave and started preparing my meal.
I was getting used to cleaning fish by now, so it didn’t take long.
‘Another one?’
Out of curiosity, I searched through the organs.
Sure enough, there was another inner core.
This time, instead of red, the inner core was closer to golden in color.
Did every fish living in the Forest of Four Seasons carry an inner core?
This wasn’t just once or twice anymore.
It was already the third time.
I was seriously starting to suspect something.
‘Doesn’t this mean I can become stronger just by eating fish? Then why is the survival rate here supposedly so atrocious?’
While the fish grilled to a golden brown, I stared at the inner core.
The Heavenly Demon had said they were more like inferior versions of elixirs, but an inner core was still an inner core.
The fact that eating one could make me stronger in a short amount of time hadn’t changed.
‘Maybe it’s because you still can’t escape, regardless of how strong you become?’
That seemed highly likely.
What good was getting stronger if you couldn’t get out?
‘And I’m an unusual case too.’
More importantly, I was an unusual case.
I could still use the Gallery perfectly fine despite being trapped in the Forest of Four Seasons.
Unlike everyone else, I could at least ask for advice.
Other people had nothing like that.
They were basically smashing their heads against a wall with no information whatsoever.
Even I would have been torn to pieces by the Mad Dog if I hadn’t had the Gallery.
‘I should flip the fish.’
At this rate, it was going to burn.
I flipped the fish cooking on the broad stone slab.
I could decide what to do with the inner core later.
There was no rush.
If nothing else worked, I could always put it up on the auction house.
The Heavenly Demon had advised me not to eat one until I reached at least the Peak Realm.
‘I don’t even know exactly how strong the Peak Realm is.’
More importantly, my fundamentals were still lacking.
Right now, strengthening my foundation was more important.
Eating the inner core probably wouldn’t hurt me permanently, but I could end up bedridden and feverish for several days.
For someone whose survival was the top priority, a high fever was extremely dangerous.
I had felt how serious it was the last time I suffered from one.
‘Come to think of it, the auction should be ending soon.’
The thought occurred to me while I tore into the deliciously grilled fish.
I had listed it around lunchtime yesterday, so the auction should finish in a few hours.
[Inner Core: 750 silver taels]
The price had risen considerably.
Judging by how much the frequency of new bids had slowed, there was a good chance it would stay around that amount.
‘Trust really is important, huh?’
The auction house had a review system.
There was no numerical rating, but by reading reviews, you could more or less judge how trustworthy someone was.
Without something like that, the auction house would have become a paradise for scammers.
And considering the brutal transaction fees, scamming people wasn’t exactly a smart idea anyway.
‘For me, trust is everything.’
Once trust was lost, it was difficult to recover.
For someone like me who obtained most things through the Gallery, losing credibility would be devastating.
And this wasn’t some tiny amount of money either.
It was an enormous sum.
I couldn’t afford to treat it like a joke.
‘Even if what I gave the Heavenly Demon really was an inner core, if the one on the auction house isn’t...’
There was a high probability that it really was an inner core.
Still, I couldn’t completely rule out the possibility that someone was lying.
You might say I distrusted people too much, but at the very least, I didn’t trust anonymous users.
When I first fell into the Forest of Four Seasons, there had even been bastards telling me to die and become fertilizer.
That said everything.
A person’s true malice emerged when they could hide behind anonymity.
‘Let’s see how the auction turns out first.’
For now, what mattered was eating this delicious fish.
I gave Wonmo a few chunks of meat and finished off the rest.
It tasted far better than the red fish.
I wasn’t exaggerating when I said it tasted almost like pork.
“Now that was filling.”
After finishing off such a huge catch, I entered the cave and began circulating my cultivation technique.
It was the method I practiced based on the fundamentals the Heavenly Demon had taught me and SwordMaster’s advice.
Was it because I had just eaten the golden fish?
I could feel an energy like raging waves coursing through my body.
‘Rather than waves... what should I call it? A storm?’
The cultivation technique the Heavenly Demon had taught me was called the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
So maybe it was more appropriate to describe the sensation as a storm rather than waves.
Eventually, I brought that storm-like energy completely under control and raised my hand.
A faint blue energy shimmered above it like heat haze.
‘It amazes me every time I see it.’
I had definitely been an ordinary person.
A completely average man with nothing particularly remarkable about him.
And yet I had somehow fallen into this bizarre forest, and now I could even manipulate mana.
I constantly reminded myself that this place was reality, but sometimes I still wondered.
Was I actually dreaming?
The haze rising from my hand was fantasy itself.
That only made the feeling stronger.
‘Considering what it felt like when the Mad Dog bit me, this is definitely real.’
I extinguished the haze and stepped outside the cave.
I planned to spend the morning making traps and exploring.
As for where I would explore—
The muscular mushrooms I had burned yesterday with fire magic (physical), and the cave they had come from.
Continuing with the same glossary and style, including Wild Grylls, Heavenly Demon, SwordMaster, Allfather, Forest of Four Seasons, Tree Sloth, Wonmo, inner core, Gallery, and the established martial-arts terminology.
If the golden mushroom really had grown two legs and run away, there was a chance it had gone back to the cave.
Title: Want to Make a Trap, Any Advice?
Wild Grylls
I found a place where rabbits show up yesterday. Anyone know how to make a decent trap?
They’re not ordinary rabbits, though. Their back kicks are insanely strong, so take that into consideration.
└ Why not just buy a bear trap and set it up?
└ If you use a bear trap, a rabbit will just get split in half ;;
└ Just dig a decent-sized pit and stick spears in it.
└ That’s dangerous. Better to aim for capturing them alive rather than using something lethal.
As expected of the Gallery.
They generously shared all kinds of useful tips.
└ Why don’t you use yourself as bait? You might catch a big one that way lol.
└ Sounds fun lol.
└ If you fail, you die. If you succeed, you feast. Isn’t that perfect?!
As expected of the Gallery.
Idiots and morons appeared occasionally—
No, frequently.
I ignored all the nonsense and started designing a trap.
The best option seemed to be a pitfall.
Dig a hole and cover it with a board.
Once enough weight was placed on top of it, the board would give way and whatever stepped on it would fall into the pit.
‘Considering how powerful those rabbits’ back kicks are, they’d jump right out of a shallow pit.’
Digging the pit deep enough was important, but the board covering it mattered just as much.
I didn’t want the board to simply collapse and fall into the pit.
I wanted a trap that worked through weight.
‘Step on the board, the board opens, you fall into the pit, and then the board closes again.’
This seemed like the best method.
I decided on that design.
Of course, choosing a design and actually building it were two different things.
I squeezed my brain as hard as I could while planning the mechanism.
‘The board has to open and close depending on the weight. I need to account for the rabbit’s weight too.’
Securing the board in place was essential.
I bought some large iron nails from the auction house.
I planned to use them to anchor one side of the board.
‘And I’ll need a counterweight to pull the board back up.’
I set up two sturdy branches and placed another branch horizontally between them.
The easiest way to picture it was like a rotisserie barbecue.
The kind where you put meat on a spit and rotate it while roasting.
This wasn’t a barbecue, though.
It was a trap.
So instead of meat, I fitted a metal cylinder onto it.
Finally, I tied a rock to a cord to serve as the counterweight.
Clunk!
I pressed down firmly on the board with one finger.
It lowered.
The instant I removed my finger, the counterweight pulled the board back up.
Perfect.
The trap was complete.
Now all I had to do was move this design over there.
‘Though I’ll need to make it bigger.’
For that, aside from the nails and hammer, I would have to make several trips back and forth.
I told the Tree Sloth to guard the house properly and finished preparing.
A weapon to protect myself.
A shovel for digging.
An elixir in case something went wrong.
And various other necessities.
Once everything was ready, I headed toward the area where the rabbits appeared.
‘After moving the trap, I should check whether the mushroom is there first.’
Unfortunately, the golden mushroom wasn’t inside the cave.
The muscular mushrooms that had been burned completely black were still there too.
Apparently, despite their appetizing smell, they still looked too suspicious to eat.
Now that I had checked for the mushroom, only the trap remained.
Digging the pit wasn’t particularly difficult either.
A while later, after finishing the entire trap setup, an indescribable sense of accomplishment washed over me.
Soon, I would finally be able to eat meat instead of fish.
‘As for butchering it... well, I’ll have to do that myself.’
To prevent the animals from becoming suspicious, I scattered some dirt over the board and even placed grass on top.
Now all that remained was patience.
I gathered all my equipment and returned to the cave.
‘It’s already eleven.’
Time had flown while I was busy doing this and that.
I wondered what I should do until the inner core auction ended, then rummaged through my pocket.
The golden inner core came out.
I briefly considered putting this one on the auction house too.
‘Let’s see how the first auction turns out before listing this one. Before that...’
Grrrrrgle—
My stomach hurt like hell.
It happened every time I ate fish.
Previously, my stomach had started hurting almost immediately after eating, but this time it had taken a while.
I really needed to build a toilet soon.
Digging a hole every single time was becoming exhausting.
After thoroughly emptying my bowels, I logged into the Gallery.
I wanted to check the current bid on the inner core.
[Inner Core: 750 silver taels]
The bid hadn’t changed.
It had been frozen at that amount for six hours.
I had a feeling the auction would probably end like this.
So I modified the remaining auction time.
[Would you like to change the auction end time to 30 minutes from now?]
[Once the deadline has been modified, it cannot be changed again.]
I accepted without hesitation.
Thirty minutes was still plenty of time.
And what was I going to do during those thirty minutes?
Practice my cultivation technique.
Not recklessly, either.
I planned to firmly establish my fundamentals, just as the Heavenly Demon had taught me.
If I somehow patched all the holes in my foundation, it would probably become easier to obtain something like an Aura Blade or Sword Gang or whatever it was called.
‘This is hard. Really hard.’
Fundamentals weren’t something you simply memorized.
You had to understand them.
That was the hardest part for me, since I wasn’t originally from this world.
Even though I had grown stronger until now through what could almost be called shortcuts, the basics were still a problem.
‘Just thirty minutes of practice.’
It took more than an hour.
Once I became immersed in it, I completely lost track of time.
And unless I logged into the Gallery, my sense of time became especially vague.
So I opened the Gallery to see how much the inner core had sold for.
[Why Grylls Is a Scammer]
[Grylls, Explain Yourself!]
[Grylls, Explain Yourself!]
[This bastard is just a scammer lol]
[Isn’t the whole “I’m in the Forest of Four Seasons” thing a lie too?]
[Honestly, I think he should be banned.]
[Upvote if Grylls is dead lol]
“What the hell?”
What had happened for the Gallery to become this much of a dumpster fire?
And most of the posts were about me.
I couldn’t understand it at all.
The easiest thing to do was check the trending posts.
Something must have been posted there to cause all this.
[Wild Grylls Is a Scammer. Don’t Trust This Bastard.]
It was the trending post with the highest number of upvotes.
Naturally, it was about me.
There was no way I could just ignore a title like that.
I opened it immediately.
Title: Wild Grylls Is a Scammer. Don’t Trust This Bastard.
(Photo of an inner core resting on someone’s palm)
This is supposed to be an inner core? LMAOOOO what kind of bullshit is this?
It’s just a normal marble.
I’m actually legendary for paying 750 silver taels for this shit.
You can’t trust this Grylls bastard.
Take responsibility, you son of a bitch.
Give me my money back.
└ Didn’t Heavenly Demon say it was real?
└ And you believed that? LMAO.
└ It was kind of weird that an inner core came out every time he caught a fish though~
└ I’m never buying anything from Grylls again lol.
└ You never bought anything from him in the first place.
└ Exactly lol.
└ Is this bastard some kind of scammer?
└ Are we sure this guy is actually the buyer?
└ Yeah. The number beside his name matches the winning bidder.
└ Holy shit lol. How much did he lose? LMAO.
└ At that price, he probably blew his entire fortune lol.
└ Damn. Poor bastard lol.
└ Shouldn’t Grylls refund him?
└ What about the transaction fee?
└ Why should that matter? If you scammed someone, you should return all the money, dumbass.
└ Doesn’t the Moderator ban people for scamming?
└ Yeah. Permanent ban at minimum.
Just what exactly are you trying to do?
‘Is he going to ban me?’
***
I had suspected it.
And sure enough, things unfolded exactly as I feared.
Apparently, I had trusted people too much.
Fortunately, this was at least one of the possibilities I had already anticipated.
I was just about to leave a comment when—
[Heavenly Demon: You need not worry, sir. This Lady shall resolve the matter.]
[Wild Grylls: What?]
[Heavenly Demon: That ungrateful wretch requires divine punishment. Wait there.]
A private message from the Heavenly Demon arrived.
The strategist and brains of the Demonic Cult.
The Demon Brain was currently extremely confused.
Being summoned by the Heavenly Demon, Yu Sowol, wasn’t particularly confusing.
When Heaven called, one naturally answered.
But even the Demon Brain, famed throughout the world for his intellect, couldn’t help being flustered by the order Heaven itself had just given him.
“H-Heavenly One. May I... ask you to repeat what you just said?”
“How strange for you to ask twice. Very well. In this Lady’s boundless generosity, I shall command you once more.”
Yu Sowol, seated upon her jade throne, spoke in a deliberately irritated tone.
“Log into the Gallery.”
“...”
“You ate the inner core this Lady gave you and advanced in your realm. All you need do is make a post proving it.”
In other words, she wanted him to log into the Gallery and upload what people commonly called a verification post.
On the surface, it sounded extremely simple.
But who was the Demon Brain?
Wasn’t he a hardcore Gallery addict who spent most of his time there insulting his superior—the Heavenly Demon?
‘I’m fucked.’
The Demon Brain.
The Clever Demonic Cultist.
Wi Seorak.
‘I’m seriously fucked.’
He had found himself in a life-or-death crisis.