Got a Gallery in the Wild

A new day had dawned.

The weather was clear and sunny.

No swarms of insects, no rain, no scenery that defied all logic.

After everything that had happened recently, the simple fact that it was a normal day felt strangely comforting.

‘And what good does that do?’

The sky was clear, but my mood wasn’t.

After all, this was still the Four Seasons Forest.

It didn’t mean anything.

I looked up at the blue sky and let out a sigh.

Who knew when it would stab me in the back again?

For now, it didn’t matter much since I was only going to train inside the shelter.

Even so, I couldn’t help but worry.

‘Isn’t there some way to predict the weather?’

I wasn’t even asking to be able to predict snow or pollen storms.

I only wanted one thing.

To at least know when it was going to rain.

Someone might say there are plenty of ways to predict rain.

And yes, there are.

The problem was whether they would work in the Four Seasons Forest too.

‘At least there aren’t any dark clouds today.’

That was the clearest sign.

There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky right now, but who knew when they would start appearing?

‘For now, I’ll stick to the plan.’

Training in the morning.

Exploration in the afternoon.

I began my usual routine.

Controlling the cold through the cultivation technique.

Sword training.

And exercises to strengthen my body.

Title) The succession ceremony is tomorrow

Will they be handing out lots of food?

ㄴIt’s basically a festival. Commoners just have to eat, drink, and have fun. Haha.

ㄴThere’ll definitely be tons of alcohol. That’s the only reason I’m going. Haha.

ㄴBut don’t get too drunk. Since it’s a succession ceremony, they might increase your sentence.

ㄴWasn’t there some idiot who threatened to carry out a terrorist attack during a festival a while back?

ㄴYeah. The Head Moderator posted his address immediately. Turned out he was an Academy student. Lol.

Title) I’m so jealous of the Messiah Empire.

It’s not very common for a succession ceremony to go smoothly. This generation has been pretty lucky.

ㄴWhat’s the point if he ends up ruining everything anyway? Haha.

ㄴTo be honest, the Crown Prince still hasn’t proven anything.

ㄴI upvoted the Crown Prince who’s going to beg Ash like a dog when the country gets into trouble. Hahaha.

ㄴI’m the Crown Prince, and I upvoted it too.

ㄴSuperStrongRobert) Stop talking nonsense. ;;

The Gallery was in complete chaos with all kinds of topics.

The Celestial Whale.

The Flying Magic Tower.

The succession ceremony.

The protests in Eldorado.

And many more.

With people from all over the world gathered in one place, it was absolute mayhem.

Well, it wasn’t even possible to sort topics by region.

The Head Moderator was only a moderator, not the site’s administrator.

‘Come to think of it, there has to be someone who manages the entire Gallery, right?’

Sometimes I forgot because I’d grown so used to it.

Who exactly was the administrator who controlled the entire Gallery?

To this day, no one knew the Gallery’s true origin.

Who had created it.

Or when it had first appeared.

That was why there weren’t even any researchers specializing in the subject.

‘At the very least, it must have appeared after writing was invented. They said it was practically impossible for an illiterate person to use the Gallery.’

While thinking about those pointless things, I started preparing lunch.

Today’s menu was wild boar.

The meat I’d previously stored in an ice box.

“Here. You eat too.”

“Oooh! T-Thank you!”

“Would you look at that? You even know how to say thank you now.”

I gave some wild boar meat to Lackey, whose punishment(?) had finally ended, and he thanked me.

His ability to speak was improving by leaps and bounds.

He’d been able to speak from the very beginning.

And apparently, he had exceptional natural talent.

Even though I’d never formally taught him, he was able to understand both my words and their meaning.

“And what about you two? Can’t you talk?”

“……”

“Kyuu?”

Sloth simply looked at me in silence.

Wonmo tilted his head curiously.

That gorilla was the strange one.

Those two weren’t unusual at all.

Or so I thought.

After finishing lunch, I started getting ready to head out and explore.

‘I’d better leave the ambergris here.’

Until then, I’d been keeping the Celestial Whale’s ambergris inside my dimensional storage backpack.

Honestly, I wanted to keep storing it there.

But an unexpected problem came up.

“Uooooo!!”

“Huh? Huh?! What’s wrong?! Where are you going?!”

Lackey nearly flew up into the sky.

If it was tied down with a rope like a balloon, there wasn’t a problem.

But if the backpack was worn on your back or around your waist.

It simply started floating upward.

I had no idea what principle was behind it.

But if the backpack kept rising and the rope happened to snap.

It would be a disaster.

So I decided to store the ambergris in another backpack.

‘I’ll make sure to apply plenty of insect repellent. And I’ll even cover the chimney so the smell can’t escape.’

All that remained was to cover the cave entrance with a cloth.

And that was it.

If the entire cave still ended up floating after that.

Well.

That really would be a complete disaster.

“Let’s go.”

“Kyuu!”

“……”

And so we set out to explore with my reliable animal companions.

Lackey also checked several times to make sure his glasses were on properly before running after us.

Normally, Wonmo would take the lead.

But today was different.

We were going to inspect an area we’d already visited.

Our destination was the old Owlbear cave.

The place where, apparently, a huge number of kangaroos gathered.

For Wonmo, it was his former home.

‘What exactly are those kangaroos doing that makes them show up so rarely?’

Unlike the gorillas, who divided up their tasks and stayed active, I hadn’t seen a single kangaroo since our first encounter.

Was it because they simply stayed inside their territory?

Or was there another reason?

Perhaps the proximity of the gorillas’ territory forced them to stay on guard.

After the incident with the gorilla chief, none of them had come anywhere near my shelter again.

So that theory made a lot of sense.

‘It’s good that everything’s peaceful, but…’

There’s a saying.

If you want peace, prepare for war.

You never knew when, where, who, or how someone might invade my territory.

That’s why it was necessary to patrol and check the situation.

At least the gorillas’ territory was relatively safe since their leader was fairly peaceful.

But I couldn’t say the same about the kangaroos.

Besides, I remembered how one of them had put Wonmo in a headlock the moment it saw him.

It hadn’t shown the slightest bit of consideration, even though he was just a cub.

‘I think we’re almost there.’

Even though it had been a while since I’d come here, I knew the way perfectly.

Every region had a landmark.

And in the case of the kangaroos’ cave, it was the border.

The border between the forest and the jungle.

So it wasn’t difficult to find.

As I walked along the path, the moment I saw the entrance to that familiar cave, I immediately hid myself.

“Shh.”

“Kyuu?”

“……”

Wonmo tilted his head curiously when I stretched out my hand behind me.

Fortunately, he seemed to understand what I meant and carefully stepped back.

Lackey also caught on to the situation and hid behind me.

‘There are only two kangaroos guarding the entrance?’

Two kangaroos stood guard in front of the cave.

It might sound strange to talk about guards when referring to mere animals, but most of the beasts in this place were surprisingly intelligent.

The gorillas even talked and behaved like people, so there was no reason to think the kangaroos were any different.

‘But those muscles…’

The kangaroos standing guard had an intimidating presence just by looking at them.

What stood out the most was the musculature of their upper bodies.

Their massive muscles were visible even from a distance.

Sure, they couldn’t compare to Lackey, but considering the difference between species, they were still impressive.

What on earth were they protecting that made them stay outside instead of going into the cave?

‘Come to think of it, wasn’t the roof of that cave open?’

Maybe I could take a look from above.

Just as I was thinking that.

Tap— Tap— Tap—

A kangaroo came hopping toward the entrance.

It calmly stopped in front of the two guards.

The sentries began inspecting it as if searching for suspicious items.

The most striking part was that they even thoroughly checked the pouch on its belly.

“Puuung.”

“Puuung.”

Once they finished the inspection, they let it enter without any problems.

I was completely dumbfounded.

It looked like a security checkpoint at the entrance to a nightclub.

What on earth was going on inside that they even searched members of their own species?

‘It’d be best to climb onto the roof of the cave…’

While I was thinking about the best way to climb up.

Tap. Tap.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder.

I turned my head.

Lackey pointed at himself.

He seemed to be telling me to let him handle this.

“…You want me to leave it to you?”

He nodded.

When I asked with obvious skepticism, Lackey responded by nodding confidently.

Maybe because he’d made such a mess of things with the Flame Horse last time, it was hard for me to trust him.

‘If he pulls the same stunt again…’

I’d kick him out of the shelter.

I decided to give him one last chance and let him take the lead.

Lackey moved forward carefully, and just before stepping into the open, he deliberately made his presence known.

“Puuung?!”

“Puuung.”

The moment he appeared, the kangaroo sentries assumed defensive stances.

It looked like if the situation escalated, one of them would run inside.

Lackey stared at them until the very end before slowly raising both hands.

It was a silent way of saying.

I come in peace.

“…”

“…”

That gesture eased the kangaroos’ tension a little.

Was that really enough?

“Puuung.”

“Oo. O.”

“Puuung. Puuung.”

“Oo.”

Could animals understand each other even if they were different species?

The kangaroos and Lackey began conversing.

I couldn’t understand a single thing they were saying.

However, it seemed to have worked.

A little later, Lackey looked toward where I was hiding.

Come. Come.

He beckoned me with his hand to come out.

I stepped forward slowly, still somewhat uncertain.

All the kangaroos’ eyes were fixed on me.

“That. Give.”

“What?”

“Tasty food. Give. Prove.”

Lackey spoke to me.

By “tasty food,” he obviously meant the fasting pills.

I always carried a few with me in case of an emergency.

I had no idea what I was supposed to prove with them, but I decided to play along.

From behind me, I could feel Sloth’s terrifying stare.

I pretended not to notice it.

“Puuung…”

The kangaroo took the fasting pill and began glancing back and forth between it and me with obvious suspicion.

Then it broke the pill in half and handed one piece to its companion.

The other kangaroo also examined it carefully.

It sniffed it.

It inspected it from every angle.

“Nom.”

“Mmm…”

Finally, both of them put it into their mouths.

Would they like it?

Most herbivores who had tried it so far had reacted very positively.

“Puo?! Puuooo?!”

“Puuuuuu!”

And the kangaroos were no exception.

Their eyes flew wide open, and they reacted with overwhelming excitement.

“Puu! Pu!”

“Pu!”

Had the bribe(?) worked that well?

The kangaroos immediately began signaling for me to come inside.

They didn’t even make me leave my weapons or equipment behind.

With very mixed feelings, I entered the kangaroos’ cave.

And then.

“Uoooooo!!”

“Puuoooo!! Puuooooo!!”

I found myself in an atmosphere of euphoria worthy of any civilization.

Two kangaroos were fighting in the center.

Around them, a crowd of kangaroos surrounded the combatants.

Every time they exchanged punches, the crowd’s cheers(?) grew even louder.

As I watched the scene without understanding anything at all.

‘…Wait a second. Are those bears?’

The spectators weren’t just kangaroos.

There was a family of bears.

Some deer whose appearance seemed strangely familiar.

And small raccoon-like animals.

There still weren’t any gorillas, but it was impossible to understand what was going on.

UOOOOOOOO!!

Then it happened.

The crowd’s roar grew even louder.

I turned my gaze toward the center.

And witnessed a completely absurd scene.

One kangaroo lifted the opponent lying on the ground into the air and tucked his head between his legs.

The lifted kangaroo looked utterly bewildered.

A moment later, he seemed to understand the situation and looked down.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Instinctively realizing the danger, he repeatedly punched his opponent in the head.

Under normal circumstances, that would have been enough to free himself.

But a properly executed technique wasn’t so easy to break.

And then.

BOOOOOOM!!

The kangaroo on the bottom violently slammed the other into the ground.

It was a Powerbomb worthy of a WWE match.

Only, unlike a padded wrestling ring, the ground here was solid rock.

The impact was brutal.

The kangaroo was knocked unconscious instantly, his tongue hanging out.

The winner had been decided.

“PUOOOOOOOO!!”

The victorious kangaroo raised both arms and roared proudly.

As if responding to his roar, all the spectators also raised their arms and roared in unison.

Afterward, the winner confidently walked toward one side, making his way through the crowd.

On the other side of the audience was a group of kangaroos much smaller than the others.

They appeared to be females.

The winner took the female standing at the front with him.

“PUOOOOOO!!”

He returned to the center and proudly declared.

“This female is mine!”

The other kangaroos answered with a thunderous roar, making it clear they accepted the outcome.

After witnessing that entire sequence, I could only think one thing.

‘…Do kangaroos really behave like this?’

It felt as though I’d just witnessed something that existed right on the boundary between civilization and the wild.