Got a Gallery in the Wild

Whether beast or human, territory was something extremely sensitive.

In the case of people, viewed broadly, it was the country itself—that is, national territory.

And on a smaller scale, the home.

Moreover, among the basic necessities, none were unimportant, but the “home” was responsible for providing security in daily life.

If you don’t have a house, you’ll never truly be safe from natural disasters or all kinds of accidents.

That’s why both humans and beasts needed territory in order to live safely.

Even people become wary of or confront strangers who invade their homes, so it was obvious that beasts would react even more harshly.

It wasn’t for nothing that I had come out exploring to identify the gorillas’ territory.

‘But both the Owlbear and the Mad Dogs seemed to have territorial disputes, right?’

I had set out confidently, but my worries kept piling up.

First of all, what would happen to the Owlbear’s and the Mad Dogs’ territories now that they were gone?

It was something I had thought about several times, but so far I hadn’t noticed anything strange.

I had seen kangaroos inside the cave where the Owlbear lived, but they fled as soon as they saw me.

However, now I could clearly feel that other animals could move in to occupy vacant territories.

The saber-toothed tiger was a monster I had barely managed to defeat thanks to the sloth’s help.

If I had been alone, I would have died several times over.

‘And if something is capable of entering the territory of a monster like that…’

Maybe they had already challenged it while the tiger was still alive.

Or perhaps they had already become the new rulers of this entire area.

‘Though I’ve been constantly marking territory myself.’

Of course, I didn’t mean that seriously.

I was simply urinating wherever I happened to be.

Still, I wanted to believe that it worked as at least a small territorial marker.

‘The Owlbear’s cave was here.’

Following my memories from yesterday, I arrived at the Owlbear’s cave.

My original plan was to use this place as a reference point while exploring the surrounding area.

“Kyuu! Kkyu!”

That would have been the case if Wonmo hadn’t suddenly run into the cave.

I hurriedly called out to him, but he was already inside.

I shook my head and walked in after him.

“Kkyaaaak! Kkyaaak!”

But it wasn’t long before Wonmo came racing back out.

Judging by the utterly terrified expression on his face, it was obvious he had seen something.

I barely managed to calm him down before slowly peeking inside.

“Whoa.”

Now I understood why Wonmo was so frightened.

What was inside was anything but normal.

The kangaroos I had seen yesterday.

Now there were several of them hopping all over the cave.

And that was exactly the problem.

It wasn’t just one.

There were many.

It seemed they had claimed this place as their territory.

Exactly what I had feared had happened.

The group of kangaroos had occupied the Owlbear’s former territory.

‘But do kangaroos really live in environments like this?’

Maybe it was just my prejudice, but on Earth kangaroos usually lived in Australia.

I suppose as long as there was food like grass or trees, they could survive.

Even so, it felt rather out of place.

Regardless of what I thought, I decided to quietly retreat.

Fighting now would only waste energy, and there were still many places left to investigate.

‘If I want to escape, I’ll have to pass through other animals’ territories…’

That worried me too.

I would inevitably have to invade someone else’s territory.

And if I was unlucky, I might end up fighting several dominant beasts in succession.

That was precisely why I needed more information.

‘Wait a minute. Now that I think about it…’

I turned to look at the entrance of the Owlbear’s den.

I was thinking about Rice Craone, the owner of the books I had found here.

‘How was he able to live inside the Owlbear’s den? Did he live here before the Owlbear arrived?’

AllFather would probably explain it to me later.

I took one last look at the Owlbear’s former cave, now transformed into a kangaroo den, and continued walking.

I still couldn’t determine where the gorillas’ territory began.

Using the river as a reference seemed convenient, but even that was ambiguous.

‘The entire river could be part of their territory.’

It was better to think of this simply as exploration and territorial reconnaissance.

If I found droppings, I would stop there.

After all, I had an excellent tracking dog.

No, an excellent tracking bear.

So finding them would be easy.

“Sniff sniff. Sniff.”

“Hey, Wonmo. Not that, not that.”

Of course, that didn’t mean he had to look for mushrooms.

I quickly stopped him in case he tried to eat them.

After that, I continued exploring while carefully marking my route so I wouldn’t get lost.

And as I moved forward, I realized the terrain was gradually changing.

‘This doesn’t look like a forest anymore. It looks like a jungle.’

The leaves began turning a much deeper shade of green.

And moss started covering everything.

Moreover, many areas of the forest had previously been rocky, but at some point they became filled entirely with gigantic roots.

Even the air of the forest had changed noticeably.

Especially the humidity.

Until recently, the environment had been fairly dry, but now it had become damp.

‘I didn’t feel like the space itself changed or anything like that.’

Unlike the other side of the river, there wasn’t that strange feeling of having entered a completely different place.

It simply felt as though, at some point, I had wandered into a jungle.

I considered turning back, but decided to explore a little farther.

“Good grief. Damn.”

Not long after making that decision, I discovered a new species.

A creature slowly crawling along in front of me.

It looked like a giant snail.

But the problem was its size.

The shell alone was much larger than I was.

Not to mention the body.

‘Is this what it would feel like to see MapleStory snails in real life?’

Watching a snail the size of a person crawling along was absolutely creepy.

But at the same time, it seemed strange.

If it was that big, shouldn’t it be eaten quickly?

‘There must be a reason.’

I’d better not touch it just to find out.

The smartest thing to do was let it continue on its way.

I passed by the snail, which moved even slower than a sloth.

And it didn’t take long before I understood why it was able to survive.

Ssssss—

“…….”

The ground where the snail had passed.

All the grass in that area had melted.

And not only that.

Even the soil itself seemed to have dissolved, as smoke was slowly rising from it.

It looked like some kind of poison like that of a golden poison frog, or perhaps an acidic substance.

Considering what the snail was like, its entire body was probably both poisonous and acidic.

If I ate it, my body would probably end up melting into liquid.

‘……I should call it an Acid Snail.’

I hope it doesn’t spit liquid from its mouth like those frogs.

Just to be safe, I moved well away from the snail.

I continued exploring different parts of the jungle, but I didn’t find anything special, so I eventually decided to head back.

‘Could it be that the gorillas don’t live here?’

Either they were much deeper inside, or I had simply gone in the wrong direction.

Wonmo didn’t find anything either, so the entire exploration felt pointless.

‘There’s still…… plenty of time left.’

I checked the gallery’s time, and it was only two thirty.

I had planned to explore until five at the latest, so I could still search a little longer.

Even so, as a precaution, I decided not to venture deeper into the jungle.

If I ended up running into the gorillas, it would be a disaster.

“Hmm?”

Just as I was deciding to head back, I found something strange.

It was a tree whose center was dented inward.

In the Forest of Four Seasons, where constant battles took place, damaged trees weren’t unusual.

But the marks engraved on this tree stood out too much.

‘Could this be…… a palm print?’

There was a clear palm imprint pressed into it.

I didn’t know what kind of ape could have left it.

And I wasn’t an expert, either.

But there were two things I could tell.

It was much larger than my hand.

And its proportions were different from a human hand.

The palm was much larger than the fingers, and the overall size was more than twice that of my own hand.

‘……This could be a territorial marker.’

Looking at that enormous mark, large enough for my entire hand to fit inside it, I came to that conclusion.

If it really was a print left by a gorilla, then it was probably best to leave immediately.

If I kept wandering around here and got attacked, it would be a problem.

‘Are there any more marks besides this one?’

But I wanted to identify the territory more clearly.

I couldn’t just get scared by a single handprint and run away without accomplishing anything.

And just as I was about to turn my head—

“Huh?”

My finger brushed against another indentation in the tree.

There was a different mark beside the huge palm.

The trunk was so thick that I had almost overlooked it.

But what truly surprised me was something else.

‘This…… actually looks like a human hand.’

There was a much smaller palm print next to the other one.

Although it was still larger than my hand, it was within a normal range.

I thought it might belong to a young gorilla, but it didn’t seem to be that either.

‘The fingers are too long.’

The fingers were especially long.

Compared to the other mark, the difference was obvious.

Could it belong to Rice, who was supposedly attacked by the gorillas?

That didn’t seem to be the case.

I didn’t know why, but that handprint felt strangely familiar.

As though it had been made to show off some sort of bond between the two.

I carefully examined the two prints before taking a photo.

I planned to upload it to the gallery later.

‘It looks like a pretty old mark…… though I’m not sure.’

I didn’t know whether it had been left by a survivor or by some strange mutant.

With that question lingering in my mind, I left the jungle.

I couldn’t stay there any longer.

‘I need to get back to the shelter. I have to think about this.’

I actually wanted to continue exploring, but I changed my plans.

I had found what looked like the mark of another survivor.

And not Rice’s.

Someone completely different.

‘Why did they leave a handprint? And why next to a gorilla’s?’

As I repeatedly pondered that unanswered question, I returned to the shelter.

And the moment I arrived, I felt all the tension leave my body at once.

“Hmm?”

But something felt strange.

There was a sense of discomfort that I couldn’t identify.

What exactly was it?

It was hard to explain.

Everything looked familiar, yet at the same time strange.

As though some objects were slightly out of place.

‘Why are the clothes on the ground? Did I secure them poorly?’

That was the first thing I noticed.

The clothes I had hung up were lying on the floor.

The position of the metal barrel also seemed different.

And so did the charcoal container.

There were signs everywhere that someone had been here.

My instincts immediately went on alert.

‘But there’s nobody inside.’

I discreetly looked into the cave.

It was empty.

For a moment, I thought there might still be an intruder inside.

I rubbed the back of my neck and, lowering my guard slightly, entered the cave.

And the moment I crossed the entrance, the feeling of unease became much stronger.

No.

This wasn’t just unease anymore.

Something entire was missing.

“Huh?”

I was a fairly organized person.

That’s why I immediately noticed what was gone.

“What the hell? Where are the fasting pills?”

The fasting pills had disappeared.

And not just a few pills.

The entire sack.

Normally, I left it in one place because the sloth was the one who ate them the most.

But if it had disappeared……

There was only one explanation.

Someone had entered my shelter and taken it.

For a moment, I wondered if thieves also existed in the forest, but it wasn’t that strange.

Last time, during that brutal storm, a raccoon had already tried to steal the fasting pills.

Of course, that raccoon ended up receiving a brutal lesson from the sloth and eventually wound up in Wonmo’s stomach.

“……”

Perhaps the disappearance of the fasting pills had affected him quite a bit.

The sloth climbed down from my back at top speed.

Not combat speed.

The fastest speed he could normally achieve.

Then he stood there staring fixedly at the empty spot where the sack had been.

I could clearly feel his sense of loss and fury.

Who the hell had stolen the pills?

And they hadn’t even touched the other items.

‘Could there be footprints?’

Criminals always leave traces.

Leaving behind the sloth, who was still silently furious, I went outside.

And after carefully examining the ground, I found footprints I had never seen before.

‘I have to upload this to the gallery.’

I didn’t know who the culprit was, but—

‘It’s the first time I’ve ever seen the sloth this angry.’

It seems the thief has nothing left to do but wait for death.

***

Meanwhile, somewhere in the jungle.

“Uhoho! Uho!”

“Uuuuu! Uhuhu!”

The gorillas were celebrating an unexpected feast.