WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Irevi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Unleashed a Gossip Gallery in Another World ◈
Chapter 16: Repaying a Favor
──────
“All right, I get it, so put that thing away first!”
The emperor’s first words after the black silhouette delivered the ultimatum came between bouts of nausea.
“Can’t you hear me?!”
Whether they accepted the man’s demands or not, they could do nothing while that horrific photograph was being held right in front of them.
“Four minutes remaining.”
Yet the man holding up the parchment replied without mercy.
“Y-you there. How’s the backtrace coming along...?”
“Uurgh...”
“No, nooo...”
The backtrace the emperor had been desperately awaiting had already failed long ago.
“Ghk.”
As the emperor groaned and forced down another wave of nausea, a crucial report arrived from outside virtual reality.
“Your Majesty! We have a problem!”
“...?”
“Please check the galleries at once!”
With trembling eyes, the emperor opened a gallery and nearly lost consciousness.
----------
[Title: TEST]
Author: ■■■
Test12345
----------
That ominous post had appeared not only in the Grinning Empire Village Gallery, but in nearly every gallery in the world.
“T-the same post is appearing in every gallery in real time!”
“W-who is the author?”
“We can’t identify them!”
For some reason, the post author’s fixed username had been blacked out.
Just like the man holding up that terrible photograph before them.
“D-delete the post and ban them!”
“Impossible!”
“...What did you say?”
“F-for some reason... we can neither delete it nor ban the account!”
The truly frightening part was that they could not delete the post, which had clearly been written by that man, or even ban its author.
[You do not have permission!]
Even when the emperor himself tried to ban the account, that error message was all that appeared before his eyes.
“Three minutes remaining.”
Then the man’s icy voice rang out once again.
“You think we’ll yield to such a pathetic threat...”
“...”
“Yield... Urgh.”
The emperor tried to speak bravely through cold sweat, but another wave of nausea stopped him before he could finish.
‘The moment that thing gets released... the galleries are finished.’
The horrific asymmetric weapon the man held up provided each viewer with a Cursed Image tailored to disgust them.
The existing mods could neither delete the photograph nor ban the account that posted it, and it even had a Forced-Perception Curse placed on it.
Wouldn’t it be enough, then, to simply avoid opening a suspicious-looking post?
The emperor briefly had that thought, but the man in front of him shattered it for all to see.
----------
[Title: TEST2]
Author: Emperor
Test678910
----------
A test post impersonating the emperor’s username had just been uploaded to the Grinning Empire Village Gallery.
What if that horrific photograph was uploaded under an impersonated username with a clickbait title?
Then the galleries truly would be finished.
‘...Should we give up on the galleries?’
The emperor even considered it, but that had been impossible from the start.
Ever since the goddess’s privilege had taken root, the world had long since become a society where galleries ruled everything.
If the ruling class gave up on the galleries in such a society, every user would flock to the Gossip Gallery.
From that moment on, control of the galleries would fall into the hands of the man before them.
The ruling class’s power, built on changing and monopolizing galleries as they pleased through countless functions and systems, would be shaken in a single day.
“Not yet, Emperor.”
Just as the emperor realized there was no other way and raised the gavel as chair, the Dragon Lord spoke.
“This one... has not yielded yet.”
The Dragon Lord had lowered their head and ground their teeth for some time.
-Crackle...
Then their eyes flashed blue as immense power poured out in every direction.
“...!”
The man silently holding up the parchment suddenly flinched.
“You certainly had the nerve to show us that horrible thing.”
“...”
“Yet even cursed Medusa turns to stone upon seeing her own face.”
The Dragon Lord smiled darkly and whispered in a cold voice.
“Do you think you will be any different?”
Silence filled the meeting room for a moment.
“W-what did you do?”
“Hmm, curious?”
The emperor, who had been forcing down nausea in the silence, urgently questioned the Dragon Lord after seeing that the man’s reaction was unusual.
“We have shown him what we are seeing.”
“I-is that true?”
“Yes. Everything we see is being poured directly into that man’s mind.”
A bright smile appeared on the emperor’s lips.
“As expected of the Dragon King, unmatched across the continent... Urp.”
“Do not let down your guard. We are still afflicted by the curse as well.”
“...I-I understand.”
From then on, the continental representatives endured what they saw and held hope in their hearts.
“Be destroyed by the disaster you brought upon yourself, arrogant mortal.”
They too felt as though they might go mad at any moment, but the man before them would be seeing exactly what everyone gathered here was seeing.
Naturally, the first to collapse would be that man, not them.
“...Hmm.”
Their last hope was shattered the next moment.
“Is that all?”
The man holding up the parchment had said something no one with a human heart should have been able to say.
* * *
‘Ugh, that’s disgusting.’
The Dragon Lord’s Vision-Sharing Spell had caught even me by surprise.
Still, it wasn’t something I couldn’t bear to look at.
“Y-you lunatic!!!!”
“Is he an emotionless psychopath?!”
“T-that man is surely an apostle of an Outer God!”
It wasn’t because I was an emotionless psychopath who felt nothing after seeing such Cursed Images, as the representatives before me were shouting.
‘Any mod worth their salt needs immunity to Cursed Images.’
I had spent a very long time as a gallery mod, both as the former Hero and Master Administrator, and as a modern person before I transmigrated.
Naturally, I had developed immunity to all kinds of Cursed Images.
Don’t ask how that happened. I never wanted to be immune to this stuff either.
‘They’d lose it if they saw an early-morning gallery.’
In any case, this had proven well enough that those so-called gallery mods had no right to wear the badge.
Even if this was an age of peace, they were making such a fuss over Cursed Images at this level?
Watching that pathetic display made me feel even more strongly that I needed to make galleries great again.
“One minute remaining.”
It was about time to wrap things up.
“E-Emperor! What will you do?!”
“Are you really going to accept that bastard’s demands?!”
“Once you’ve done it once, what’s so hard about doing it a second time?!”
A few higher races still had not given up and desperately tried to persuade the emperor.
“Ugh...”
The emperor’s mental endurance had finally reached its limit.
“As the Gallery Representative, I hereby resolve...”
With roughly thirty seconds remaining, Emperor Rudric raised the gavel, drool running down his chin.
“We recognize the Gossip Gallery... and shall establish a mutual nonaggression treaty as our future policy...”
As Rudric made a declaration that would go down in history, I quietly smiled and spoke in a low voice.
“You still have more to declare.”
The emperor’s beard trembled as he was about to bring down the gavel.
“Furthermore, the method for creating Original Mithril shall be made publicly available free of charge...”
“Ten seconds remaining.”
“The succession of Ugrin, chieftain of the dwarves, shall be deemed legitimate and recognized...!”
The moment those words ended, the emperor struck the table with the gavel exactly three times.
“This concludes the 1,096th International Moderator Conference!”
“You have worked hard, Your Majesty.”
“Meeting adjourned! Adjourned! Everyone, get out!!!”
The instant the emperor declared the conference over, Rudric was the first to flee virtual reality.
“Don’t think this is over...”
“...”
“I will find you without fail... and chew up even your soul... Bleurgh...”
The Dragon Lord, who had held out until the very end, finally vomited onto the floor and disappeared from virtual reality.
‘The more someone has experienced, the more horrific their vision must be. They lasted a long time.’
I silently applauded their mental strength, then turned away.
“You will pay for the crime of insulting the Order...”
“The elves will remember this humiliation.”
“The spirits spread throughout the world will begin searching for you today.”
I ignored the representatives’ curses, threats, and retching behind me.
“...”
Once every gallery representative had disappeared, silence descended.
“Ah... ah...”
In that silence, I set Ugrin, who had remained in my arms until then, down in the seat where I had been sitting.
“Don’t tell anyone what happened today.”
“Huh?”
“It won’t do me any good if people learn I stepped in personally.”
Only then did Ugrin’s eyes dart around as she tried to understand what had happened. I gave her the necessary warning.
“Y-you mean I can’t even tell them that you saved me too?”
“...”
“O-okay, so don’t look at me like that, ’kay...”
The coming announcements in each gallery would inevitably lead to mods being praised. That was unavoidable.
The real problem was people finding out that I had met and spoken with a Gossip Gallery user directly.
The Gossip Gallery’s sole identity was perfect anonymity.
I had appeared completely concealed in black, with my identity thoroughly hidden, but fucking fraternizing was still fucking fraternizing.
“I’ll be going now.”
After passing along the bare minimum, I focused on severing the Magic Circle’s connection.
“W-wait a sec, please!”
An urgent voice called out from in front of me at that exact moment.
“Who are you... really?”
“...?”
“C-can’t you tell just me, please?”
Ugrin, the dwarf chieftain, looked at me with tears brimming in her eyes as she asked.
“I said no fucking buddying up, didn’t I?”
I coldly warned her, dumbfounded by the question, but Ugrin refused to back down.
“B-but still! Dwarves don’t forget their benefactors, y’know!”
“...”
“Once we’re indebted, we gotta repay it, y’know!”
It seemed that the dwarves’ ancient tradition of always repaying a favor remained unchanged even in this age.
‘Still, rules are rules.’
If I, the Master Administrator, did not follow the rules, who would?
“I am...”
“Ah, where are you going?!”
So I flashed her a bright smile and turned my back on her.
“Just an ordinary eraser.”
Right before disconnecting, I left her one final remark as she desperately reached out toward me.
“What idiot repays a favor to an unpaid slave?”
* * *
“Hah!”
How much time had passed?
Ugrin disconnected from the Magic Circle and returned to the chieftain’s room in the volcanic region.
She sat there blankly for a long time, replaying everything that had happened in her mind.
“Hic...”
Then Ugrin’s eyes suddenly reddened, and a single tear rolled down her pale cheek.
“Waaaaah...”
For a long while, the chieftain’s room was filled with the sobs of the small girl, now that her tension had finally eased.
“...”
When her crying finally subsided, Ugrin sniffled cutely, lowered her head, and blushed.
‘His hand was warm...’
As she recalled being held by that unidentified man, she squirmed around for a long time.
‘Since I received a favor, I have to repay it...’
Ugrin began pacing frantically through the room with an anxious expression.
“Hmm...”
About an hour passed.
“Hehe.”
Only then did Ugrin stop walking. Sheepishly scratching her head, she locked the chieftain’s room with a custom-made lock.
“Guess I have no choice...”
That evening, a post was quietly uploaded to the Grinning Empire Village Gossip Gallery.
[🔒Mod Application: Other Races Gossip Gallery!]
It was a secret post applying to become a mod for the Other Races Gossip Gallery, which everyone had only been watching from the sidelines until then.
ㄴGossip Gallery Eraser: ?
ㄴNoble Lady Gallery Eraser: Oh my, just look at her?
ㄴMage Gallery Eraser: What are you doing?
ㄴSwordsman Gallery Eraser: TAKE THAT POST DOWN UNLESS YOU WANT YOUR MOD BADGE TURNED YELLOW!!!!!
What photograph had been attached to that secret post was known only to the mods who checked its contents.
Footnotes:
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