WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Got a Gallery in the Wild ◈

Chapter 136: Disaster (1)

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[Post title] I'm fucked.

[Post] (Photo of the cave entrance completely blocked by snow)

[Post] I think I'm fucked.

[Post] That was the conclusion I reached after careful consideration.

[Post] I'm fucked.

└ [Heavenly Demon]: Is that all snow?

└ [Wild Grylls]: Yeah. Maybe because of the cold, it's frozen solid, so I'm mining through it with a pickaxe.

└ [Heavenly Demon]: Can't you dig through it easily with Sword Aura?

└ [Wild Grylls]: I can, but I have no idea how much has piled up. It just keeps coming down from above.

└ [SwordTasteMaster]: Isn't that dangerous? What if you run out of oxygen?;;

└ [Wild Grylls]: I'm holding out thanks to the chimney I made yesterday. Fast Sloth kept adding firewood, so I think all the snow melted.

└ [SwordTasteMaster]: Fast Sloth really seems to have saved your life several times now.

└ Why does that sentence sound so literary?

└ Three sentences perfectly conveying just how fucked he is lol

└ It's full of swearing, but it doesn't even feel like swearing lol

└ But can snow really pile up that high? Is it because it's the Forest of Four Seasons?

└ Nah, that's not it. Places that get lots of snow are often like that. Apparently it can pile up as high as your front door.

└ Just look at the northern Messiah Empire. People there supposedly shovel snow every day lol

└ I'm from the north, and shoveling snow is more annoying than hunting monsters. It's literally garbage falling from the sky.

└ [Allfather]: Even so, that is an abnormal amount of snow. It should be difficult for that much to accumulate overnight.

└ [Wild Grylls]: I keep digging, but snow keeps pouring down from above.

└ [Allfather]: Just some advice, but perhaps you should spend less time on the Gallery and dig out more snow. This seems dangerous.

└ [Wild Grylls]: I've been digging the whole time.

I was working hard, though it was less like shoveling snow and more like mining it with a pickaxe.

I had no idea how much snow had piled up above me, but whenever I dug, more snow came cascading down and filled the opening back in.

If Fast Sloth hadn't kept adding firewood overnight, the chimney would have been blocked too.

If even the chimney, my only source of oxygen, had been blocked... I didn't even want to imagine it.

Fast Sloth was a huge help not only in combat but in daily life too.

'But can other animals survive when it snows like this?'

Not just animals. I wondered whether plants could survive too.

Nothing could grow properly with this much snow piled up.

And yet, all kinds of trees stood tall enough to form a forest.

Either they had the vitality to withstand this snow, or there was another reason.

'If winter in this forest is this bad, how fucked-up are the other environments?'

This forest had a relatively normal climate, and it was already a complete mess.

Snowy mountains and deserts could only be worse, not better.

The tropical rainforest where the gorillas lived probably wasn't any different.

It made no sense for only the place where I lived to be like this.

'I'll never finish if I just keep digging like an idiot.'

I briefly considered climbing out through the chimney, but quickly gave up on that idea.

It wasn't wide enough. If I got stuck in there, it would be a complete disaster.

I was better off digging through the snow blocking the entrance and seeing it through.

'I need to clear the entrance before it snows again.'

If it snowed again, I might be trapped in this cave forever.

Even with the chimney, I couldn't relax. No, forget the chimney. I was worried about the cave itself.

Once snow piled up, it became incredibly heavy.

Could this cave really bear all that weight?

Especially after I'd altered it a little to install the chimney?

I couldn't just sit around doing nothing.

'At least I have plenty of firewood.'

I took down the tarp that had blocked the entrance and lit another campfire.

The snow was frozen solid, so I decided to melt it with fire.

Of course, I didn't just wait around. Once enough snow had melted, I dug through it again.

Crack! Thwack!

As time passed, the snow melted and became easier to dig.

I stayed alert, since falling snow could put out the campfire.

After who knew how long, the snow no longer showed any sign of piling up again when I dug.

At last, I could see the end.

"Phew!"

After all that labor with a pickaxe and shovel, I could finally see the results.

I'd barely managed to clear all the snow that had filled the cave entrance.

Only the entrance was clear, though. The surroundings were not.

Even at the cave entrance, the snow had been far taller than me. Everywhere else, it was piled even higher.

'People in Russia and Canada live in places like this?'

How do they live? I genuinely wanted to know.

As I stared at the little patch of cleared space by the cave entrance, I suddenly remembered the military.

I remembered shoveling snow whenever it fell and spreading calcium chloride to keep the ground from freezing.

'Would this world even have calcium chloride?'

This world had alchemy instead of chemistry. Chemistry was originally the next step after alchemy.

Still, considering how effective Elixirs were, its level of development was probably no worse than chemistry.

Wouldn't making calcium chloride be easy, then?

'If that doesn't work, I can just spread salt.'

I'd heard that if there was no calcium chloride, you could spread salt instead.

I'd heard salt was better, something about environmental damage or whatever.

'I'll ask after I finish. For now, I'll spread salt.'

I could buy salt at the Auction House. It was expensive, but it was essential for survival and always in demand, so it never went out of stock.

I spread salt over the ground I'd exposed with my shovel, then dug out the next section.

Thankfully, it didn't snow again, so I was able to set up additional campfires here and there.

Still, I had to figure out how to maintain this path and expand my range of activity.

'At this point, I might need to make an emergency exit too, not just a chimney.'

Soon, I would probably need to borrow the wisdom of people who lived in cold regions.

I had no idea how long this winter would last, but it didn't seem like it would end quickly.

It was nearly noon by the time I finished clearing the area around my shelter.

'It's not like a snowy mountain where there are no plants at all. There has to be something...'

I thought as I cleared snow from the oven and blast furnace.

Like I'd said earlier, animals and plants couldn't possibly survive if this much snow stayed piled up.

The place should have been barren like a snowy mountain. It definitely wouldn't stay this way forever.

Maybe it would return to normal as soon as tomorrow.

I hadn't been here long, and so many wild things had happened that I kept coming up with one guess after another.

Just as it had suddenly become winter, it could suddenly become summer.

Imagining all this snow melting gave me a little comfort.

But imagination was imagination, and reality was reality.

'I don't know if it'll snow again, so I should bring everything I can into the cave.'

The iron barrel full of frozen fish. The bellows. All sorts of tools.

I couldn't move the makeshift oven and blast furnace, so I had no choice but to leave them outside.

They were unlikely to collapse even if it snowed, and even if they did, I could just make them again. That was how I comforted myself.

With that, I was almost done preparing for winter and possible isolation. Just as I was about to take a break and check the Gallery...

Rumble...

An unsettling sound reached my ears, and the ground faintly trembled.

The moment I felt that noise and vibration, I went straight into the cave.

Then, without panicking, I grabbed my sword and shield.

My goal wasn't to hide. It was to prepare.

That was something I'd learned from living here.

It was better to prepare like this than wait around for whatever came next.

Swish.

Just before I went back outside, Fast Sloth held out its hand.

Was it asking to come with me?

But Fast Sloth had to watch over Wonmo, who was hibernating.

I forced myself to ignore it and stepped outside the cave.

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

The sound and vibrations had grown stronger. What the hell was coming?

Judging by the force of it, it was definitely moving fast.

I couldn't help getting even more tense. I had no idea what might appear.

Just in case, I circulated mana and even manifested aura.

After focusing on the sound and vibration for a while, I realized where they were coming from.

'Behind the cave...?'

The side opposite the cave entrance. The moment that thought occurred to me, I whipped my head around.

It was strange that it was coming from behind the cave rather than the forest, but this was the Forest of Four Seasons.

Nothing would be strange here.

Even if it wasn't a living creature.

Roooooar!

Even if it was a disaster.

"Uh. Fuck?"

As an avalanche surged toward me from behind the cave like a tidal wave, time seemed to slow down.

In that brief moment, I looked down and saw Fast Sloth staring at me from inside the cave.

It looked like it was thinking I was an idiot for going out alone instead of listening.

When it had held out its hand, it hadn't been asking to come with me. It had been trying to stop me.

Roooooar!

"Argh! Ugh! Aaah!"

No matter how strong a creature was, it was helpless before nature. I was no exception.

I desperately drove my sword into the ground, but it was useless.

The Heavenly Demon’s Sword was too good.

As the avalanche pushed me along, it simply cut through the ground. Its power backfired on me at the worst possible moment.

'T-the direction I was being swept in was toward the river?'

Even in the chaos of getting dragged away by the avalanche, I remembered where I was headed.

This avalanche was moving toward the river. On the other side of the river was a place where the landscape constantly changed.

It was dangerous. If I messed up, I might never return to my shelter.

'Not the sword, the shield...!'

I flailed around with my shield instead of the Heavenly Demon’s Sword, hoping it would catch on a branch or anything.

My body was nearly buried in the snow, so it was closer to desperate thrashing, but I had to try something.

If you wanted to survive, you had to do whatever you could.

Clunk!

The result of that struggle came quickly.

I felt my clothes snag on some tree.

I had been prepared to abandon the Heavenly Demon’s Sword if I had to, but I came to a stop at just the right moment.

"Mmphhh!"

That didn't mean I could avoid taking the avalanche head-on.

I held on and held on, waiting for the avalanche to end.

"Pwah!"

After what felt like forever, the avalanche finally ended.

Normally, an avalanche should leave snow piled up, but for some reason, it had all been swept away.

Thanks to that, I wasn't buried under a snowdrift and could breathe normally.

"Cough! Cough!"

I looked around as I coughed.

The avalanche had apparently swept away every bit of snow, leaving bare dirt behind.

First, I had to figure out where I was. It would be the worst-case scenario if I had crossed the river.

'I'm not across the river.'

I seemed to have caught on a tree near the river. I could see the frozen river in front of me, so I was sure.

Across it was terrain completely different from this place. A pure white snowy mountain.

The snowy mountain had a tremendous amount of snow too. The avalanche that had just passed through had clearly gone there.

I couldn't tell whether the snow had moved on its own or whether the forest had driven it away.

'Was this even a place where an avalanche could happen in the first place?'

Was there a mountain nearby? I was confused.

Or maybe the forest was literally alive and had cleansed itself.

If it couldn't cleanse itself in this fucked-up weather, no plants would remain.

It would have turned into a snowy mountain like the one across the river. That theory seemed likely.

'If the forest is this much of a mess, what the hell are the other regions like?'

I was growing more afraid.

I hurriedly got myself together and returned to the cave.

"...Ah."

Then I came face-to-face with the devastated yard of my shelter.

The barricade, the makeshift blast furnace, and the oven had all been swept away by the avalanche.

I could remake the blast furnace and oven, but the barricade was the problem.

'Is this why there isn't any civilization?'

Everything got swept away so often that civilization couldn't exist.

* * *

While Grylls was filming a disaster movie by himself...

Whoooooosh!!!

A disaster-worthy situation was unfolding in the grassland region of the Forest of Four Seasons too.

It was a region with distinct rainy and dry seasons, so naturally it rained heavily during the rainy season.

But what happened when too much rain fell? Wouldn't the grassland just absorb it all?

"Glurk! Glurk!"

"Graah! Graah!"

Not a chance. A flood had struck the grassland, harming countless animals.

The animals suffering most were those without shelter, especially young ones.

They were too young and weak, so they were simply swept away.

"Hm."

Ludwig was watching the scene unfold in real time.

He was still wearing his heavy armor to maintain his defenses.

"So that's why this animal's legs are so long."

"..."

He was currently riding on the back of a giraffe to escape the disaster.

Giraffes were known for their foul tempers, but this one hadn't bothered Ludwig.

The lump on the giraffe's head told Ludwig why it had made that decision.

'It would've been a disaster without this animal.'

Sitting on the giraffe's back, Ludwig looked up at its face.

Even in the flooded grassland, the giraffe stood calmly.

It had only come beneath a large tree to avoid the rain, yet it remained steadfast on its own.

Thud! Boom! Boom!

Then a huge sound reached Ludwig's ears. The ground shook with it.

When he turned toward the source, he saw something difficult to believe.

Boom! Thud! Boom!

A turtle. Not a sea turtle, but a tortoise.

Not a normal shell, but a tortoise carrying a massive mountain on its back.

Because it carried a mountain, its body was terrifyingly huge as well.

When enough rain fell to cause a flood, animals climbed onto the tortoise's back.

If Grylls had seen it, he would have called it a living Noah's Ark.

"..."

Ludwig silently watched the tortoise walk away, then turned his head.

'Can people really live in a place like this?'

Ludwig was becoming increasingly curious about Grylls.

The funny thing was that Grylls's entire yard had just been swept away too.

'I should find a shelter on high ground. I have an excellent horse, so it should be manageable.'

It was not a horse. It was a giraffe.

Footnotes:

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