Chapter 44

Scammer (5)

“What a ridiculous bastard.”

The inner core scam incident had flared up as quickly as gasoline catching fire, then died down just as fast.

With help from Heavenly Demon and SwordMaster, followed by the Moderator delivering the finishing blow, everything ended without too much trouble.

Things might have gotten a bit complicated without their help, but fortunately, most of the registered users had been on my side.

‘So even in another world, the Gallery is still the Gallery.’

For the record, posting that “explanation” was entirely my own decision.

Instead of calmly explaining myself, I declared war while throwing in plenty of profanity.

No matter how carefully I explained things, the people who wanted to tear into me would do it anyway, so I chose that approach instead.

In the end, I gained favor with the Gallery users and won the battle of public opinion, so there was nothing bad about it.

Though calling it a battle of public opinion felt like an exaggeration, since the fire burned out so quickly.

It was just another ordinary day on the Gallery.

‘Heavenly Demon seemed a little flustered, but it ended well.’

Looking at the Gallery now, most people were making a fuss about hunting down the scammer.

The Moderator had even revealed his address, so that bastard’s real life was probably about to become miserable.

Of all things, I never expected the Moderator to actually expose his address.

My guess was that Heavenly Demon had persuaded the Moderator.

From my perspective, this whole issue had practically put my life on the line, while the other side had risked nothing.

She probably thought that was unfair.

‘I should send her a thank-you message first.’

No matter what, thanking her was necessary.

I sent her a private message.

[Wild Grylls: Is the address the Moderator gave far from you?]

[Heavenly Demon: Quite far. But this Lady can arrive there quickly.]

That made sense.

I wasn’t being sarcastic either.

I genuinely believed her.

At the very least, she was probably around SwordMaster’s level, if not stronger.

After thanking Heavenly Demon for various things, I asked her something I had been wondering about.

[Wild Grylls: Thanks to you, everything ended pretty smoothly. Seriously, thank you.]

[Heavenly Demon: It was nothing. If this Lady had her way, I would personally go there and rip out his tongue.]

[Wild Grylls: Whoa ;; that’s brutal. Heavenly Demon, you’re from the Central Plains, right?]

[Heavenly Demon: That is correct.]

[Wild Grylls: Heavenly Demon, even if you’re a Sub-Moderator, once you use a one-on-one trade, you still can’t trade again for twenty-four hours, right?]

[Heavenly Demon: Correct. Do you perhaps wish to trade frequently with this Lady?]

The way she said wish made it sound like I was desperately hoping for it.

Not that it bothered me.

That was just how she talked, so I let it slide.

[Wild Grylls: Yeah. From now on, I think it’ll be better to get important items verified before selling them. Someone could just take the item and shut their mouth like that bastard did.]

[Heavenly Demon: I understand. Permission granted. This Lady shall persuade the Moderator regarding the trade cooldown.]

[Wild Grylls: Thank you. Seriously, thank you. I feel like I’m always receiving help from you.]

[Heavenly Demon: Could it possibly outweigh what you did by saving this Lady’s life? If you ever need help, tell me at any time.]

[Wild Grylls: I appreciate the thought, but I’ll pass. I need to develop the strength to stand on my own too.]

As I had mentioned many times before, relying too heavily on others was never good.

The only thing I intended to use Heavenly Demon’s help for was verifying important items.

For most other things, Allfather usually identified them whenever I made a post.

So this was more like insurance.

[Wild Grylls: Then I’ll get going. I’ll message you again sometime.]

[Heavenly Demon: This Lady shall always await your messages. Ah, and the fasting pills can be prepared within a week.]

[Wild Grylls: Thank you.]

[Heavenly Demon: Good. If you ever require strength, contact me without hesitation. This Lady shall help you at any time.]

Was it just my imagination, or could I sense both satisfaction and disappointment in her words?

She seemed like a lonely person, so maybe I should talk to her more often.

Before that, though, I needed to deal with lunch.

Just in case, I turned on the hose.

Unfortunately, water poured out freely without any obstruction.

Which meant no fish was stuck inside.

‘Guess I’ll have to settle for a fasting pill.’

It was disappointing, but there was nothing I could do.

Fishing directly in the river was out of the question.

Unless I wiped out every golden frog in the area, fishing there would be suicidal.

I chewed on the bitter fasting pill while thinking about what I should do after lunch.

‘The trap... I’ll check it tomorrow. It’s way too soon.’

It was better not to expect too much from the trap.

That left only one thing.

Making a post on the Gallery.

After what had happened today, I wanted to let everyone know how I planned to handle things from now on.

Title: This Is Grylls

Wild Grylls

Hello, everyone.

I’m Wild Grylls, the guy who fell into the Forest of Four Seasons.

Because of some parasite today, I’m planning to have important items verified before listing them from now on.

Especially expensive items. I probably won’t put those on the auction house anymore.

Whenever possible, I’ll prioritize selling them to registered users, and only use the auction house when I don’t have another choice.

The Gallery is honestly terrifying.

For one person, this is literally a matter of life and death, while someone else can ruin that person with a single click.

I rambled on a bit.

Anyway, I’m going to do everything I can to escape this forest.

And if I want to do that, I’ll need the Gallery.

So please cheer me on.

Ah!

And SwordMaster, thank you so much for helping me.

Just keep the inner core.

Three-line summary:

I’ll prioritize trading with registered users from now on.The Gallery is scary, but I’ll keep using it so I can escape.Thank you, SwordMaster.

└ Forget everything else, the three-line summary is the best part lol.

└ Exactly. Just read the bottom lol.

└ Hang in there, Grylls. Just think of it as stepping in shit.

└ Weren’t you one of the guys trashing Grylls earlier?

└ Starlight Princess: I’m glad everything worked out. I was really disappointed because it seemed like there were nothing but awful people here. Mr. Grylls even helps complete strangers.

└ We’ve decided to call people like that suckers.

└ Isn’t that just being kind rather than being a sucker?

└ And didn’t he trade with Starlight Princess before anyway? He’s a good guy as long as you’re actually trading with him.

└ SwordMaster: Wait ;; you’re dumping this on me immediately? I don’t need this.

└ Wild Grylls: You’re going to send it back? Why not just sell it?

└ SwordMaster: I already have plenty of money. Besides, eating an inner core wouldn’t do much for me anyway ;;

└ Wild Grylls: Dun care. Just take ittt.

└ SwordMaster: ;_;

└ What even is this LMAO.

└ It’s not pickpocketing, it’s reverse-pickpocketing lol.

└ He really just said “dun care” LMAO.

As expected, SwordMaster looked seriously flustered.

I had no idea why she didn’t want to become healthier.

Starlight Princess had been desperate to improve her health.

The world really was unfair.

‘Come to think of it, she used a military expression too. Is she a soldier?’

That would explain why she knew so much about swordsmanship and kept posting sword-training tips.

It made sense.

Since I was already thinking about swordsmanship, this seemed like a good opportunity to thoroughly reread her posts.

I trained diligently while studying SwordMaster’s beginner swordsmanship guide.

‘I’m sticking with the sword-and-shield warrior build.’

The owlbear incident and the muscular mushroom incident had both taught me the same thing.

Carrying a shield along with a sword was far safer than relying on a sword alone.

People on the Gallery mocked me by saying I’d die in one hit anyway.

But the whole point of a shield was to block that one hit.

The fist-shaped dent clearly visible on the golden shield was proof enough.

If I had taken that attack directly with my body, my internal organs would have ruptured.

‘I can’t really do anything about the proficiency issue, though.’

My swordsmanship itself was destined to hit a wall sooner or later.

The difference between wielding a weapon with one hand and two hands was as vast as heaven and earth.

In my case, I had no choice but to sacrifice technique in exchange for stability.

That was the only way to raise my survival rate significantly.

It wasn’t really a choice.

It was a necessity.

‘Isn’t there anyone who’s good with a shield?’

SwordMaster focused almost entirely on swordsmanship, so there was barely any theory related to shields.

At most, it was something like, Block, then hit back.

There wasn’t much that could be done about that.

Well, I was still a complete beginner anyway, so there was no need to rush.

‘Let’s see. Time the block properly, then slash immediately?’

I studied SwordMaster’s posts and trained until just before dinner.

Of course, I didn’t expect my skills to improve dramatically after only a few days.

Besides, it had only been a few days since I first picked up a sword and shield.

Getting used to them came first.

“Hoo…”

I slowly steadied my breathing.

Beads of sweat formed and rolled down my cheeks.

Even though I was practicing while reading the posts, I still felt uneasy.

It wasn’t that I doubted SwordMaster.

Her posts were said to have raised the average combat strength of the entire continent.

I simply had no idea whether I was doing things correctly.

With nobody beside me to watch and correct me, I couldn’t help feeling a little anxious.

‘I heard martial arts are difficult without a teacher.’

Martial arts were techniques humanity had developed for combat.

They were the result of studying how to beat the hell out of an opponent as efficiently as possible.

There was an obvious difference between a punch thrown by an ordinary person and one thrown by a trained fighter.

Some random street brawler beating a professional martial artist?

That was complete bullshit.

That was how enormous the difference was between having martial training and having none.

And progressing properly without a teacher was almost impossible.

So naturally, I couldn’t help wondering whether I was simply swinging my weapons around however I pleased.

‘For now, all I can do is study SwordMaster’s posts carefully and complete the goals she laid out.’

SwordMaster’s posts didn’t just contain advice.

They also provided specific goals.

The idea was that once you accomplished one goal, you were ready to move on to the next stage.

Drawing a perfectly straight line with the sword.

Slashing several times without taking a breath.

Thrusting through the inside of a long, hollow cylinder.

There were also some strange goals mixed in that somehow still seemed useful.

‘So I should accomplish each goal two or three times over?’

Without a teacher, this was probably the best I could do.

I would simply have to make up for it through effort.

I continued practicing sword-and-shield techniques until evening.

I even visualized scenarios so I could subdue opponents more efficiently.

“Huaa!”

I had no idea how long I kept at it.

By the time I stopped, my entire body was drenched in sweat.

This should be enough for today.

I set down the sword and shield and entered the cave.

I planned to rest for a while in the cool interior before eating dinner.

‘Come to think of it, I wonder what happened to that scammer. Someone said they lived in the next town over.’

Curious, I immediately logged into the Gallery.

There was nothing quite like the Gallery when it came to relaxing.

As always, the Gallery was a gathering place for idiots.

I figured I should check the trending posts.

The moment I entered, one post with an unusually high number of upvotes caught my eye.

It was related to me.

Naturally, I opened it.

└ Damn, I’m jealous. You guys didn’t kill each other or anything?

└ Nah. The authorities might’ve shown up, so we just settled it with rock-paper-scissors.

└ Rock-paper-scissors LMAOOOO.

└ Don’t underestimate rock-paper-scissors. Visual reaction speed is seriously important in that game lol.

└ You didn’t ask the merchant what he thought?

└ Why the hell would we care about a scammer’s opinion?

└ Guess we should buy everything Grylls lists on the auction house from now on.

└ Fuck. He used to list stuff without going through registered users first. This suddenly sucks.

└ What’s the scammer doing now? He must be furious.

└ What’s he gonna do about it? He ran away immediately LMAO.

└ Serves him right lol.

Title: Yep, This Really Is an Inner Core LMAO

That scammer bastard lived in the town right next to mine, so I stormed over there and ate the inner core.

Some other guys showed up too, but somehow I ended up being the one who ate it and verified it.

I was only at the Second-Rate Realm before, but I immediately broke through to the Peak Realm.

Grylls wasn’t the scammer.

That merchant bastard was.

Stop slandering Grylls from now on.

Looks like things had somehow been resolved.

I probably wouldn’t be mistaken for a scammer again after this.

Even so, I wasn’t going to start listing expensive things on the auction house again right away.

Like I said earlier, I planned to give registered users priority from now on.

I browsed around the Gallery for a while.

By then, my sweat had dried, so I got up.

The sun was starting to set.

It was about time to check the trap.

‘It’d be nice if something got caught.’

Not even a full day had passed.

Maybe I was being greedy.

But greed was exactly what could make my dinner more plentiful.

After preparing some basic gear, I headed toward the place where I had set the trap.

I didn’t forget to ask the Tree Sloth to guard the house before leaving.

“Oh?”

The moment I reached the trap, I immediately noticed something different.

All the grass I had placed on top of the board was gone.

On top of that, I could faintly sense something moving beneath it.

‘Caught something!’

Looks like I’d finally get to eat something greasy again.

Filled with anticipation, I slowly lifted the board.

“Ta-da~ ta-da-da~ boom-cha-cha~ boom-cha…”

Clunk—

“Boom-cha…”

Inside the trap was a rabbit.

Or rather—

No.

There wasn’t.

Instead, there was something else.

It was large enough to fill the entire pit, with striking pitch-black fur.

And it wasn’t even an ordinary animal.

This thing had eight legs.

Worse still, smaller versions of it were clinging all around its body.

They looked like babies.

Clunk—

I carefully lowered the board again.

Apparently, instead of digging a trap, I had dug myself a spider nest.

‘...Should I roast that thing and eat it anyway?’

I immediately gave up on the idea.

If it bit me, I might die.