WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Irevi

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Unleashed a Gossip Gallery in Another World ◈

Chapter 18: Dead Internet Prison

──────

[There is a new comment notification!]

About ten minutes after opening the Black Dragon Azrakan Gossip Gallery.

As usual, I had been idly lounging in bed when I finally checked the notification that made the bell ring. With a quiet smile, I sat up.

Anonymous: My dear fellow,,, have you lost your mind,,,???

Anonymous: Could you stop this at once,,,ヽ(｀Д´)ﾉ

Sure enough, Azrakan was protesting through the notification bell in her distinctive manner of speaking.

Gossip Gallery Eraser: Who told you to troll, then?

The moment I drove that heavy fact home, Azrakan's tone immediately became much sharper.

Anonymous: You fucking bastard, are you done talking?

Anyway, I knew this would happen.

That unusual way of speaking she had used until now was simply a way to preserve her anonymity while still showing everyone that she was a dragon.

Anonymous: You said you'd protect anonymity, didn't you? Why aren't you protecting mine?

Anonymous: You kept going on about anonymity, so what the hell is this?

Seeing her discard even that carefully crafted speech style and reveal her true colors made me want to keep laughing.

Anonymous: You're destroying my world.

Anonymous: Shut down the Azrakan Gossip Gallery right now.

Anonymous: If you don't, I'll invade the Empire immediately and wipe out every last human.

But Azrakan's threats were not particularly frightening.

Gossip Gallery Eraser: Go ahead then lol

Noble Lady Gallery Eraser: Why's this lizard bastard acting up? LOL

Mage Gallery Eraser: Our beloved Dragon Azrakan, let's have a fan meeting~!

Swordsman Gallery Eraser: Ooh, I wanna be a dragon slayer hehe

Even without me stepping in, my own personal slaves were already thoroughly getting under her skin.

Other Races Gallery Eraser: Um, sorry, but even the Dragon Lord ran away crying....

Other Races Gallery Eraser: Are you really sure about this...?

And the finishing blow came from an utterly innocent reply by Ugrin, the dwarves' chieftain.

Anonymous: Fine, do whatever the fuck you want lol

Anonymous: Everyone will forget after I wait it out for a thousand years anyway hehe

It seemed Azrakan had given up on threatening us and decided to wait it out instead.

But unfortunately for her, there was nowhere to run once she had fallen into my trap.

Gossip Gallery Eraser: The goddess's privilege will remain on the continent forever, though?

Gossip Gallery Eraser: Your Polymorph photo spread isn't an exception.

The moment I reminded her of that fact, the comments flooding in from Azrakan abruptly stopped.

“Ah, this is fun.”

Imagining her throwing a fit in her ice cave because she could not calm down, I closed the notification bell with a satisfied expression.

“It’s been a while since I relieved stress this thoroughly....”

Of course, I had not actually abandoned the core principle of protecting anonymity and started doing whatever I wanted.

No matter how much of an idiot someone was, protecting their anonymity was the Gossip Gallery's one and only rule.

Even Azrakan, the worst troll of all, was no exception.

That was why I had only informed ordinary users that an anonymous dragon had been operating sockpuppet accounts.

[Black Dragon Azrakan Gossip Gallery]

[✪Azrakan <<< She puts on such an aloof act, but she's a crazy bitch who uses Polymorph to make sockpuppets lol]

Then you might wonder what this Azrakan Gossip Gallery and its public callout post right before our eyes were supposed to be.

Mage Gallery Eraser: Did that bastard seriously fall for it? LOL

ㄴNoble Lady Gallery Eraser: You’ve been cracking up for a while now. Do you know each other or something?

ㄴMage Gallery Eraser: Why do you care? lol

Have you ever heard of the Dead Internet Theory?

It was a conspiracy theory claiming that all the content people encountered online was fabricated fake information generated by artificial intelligence.

[Black Dragon Azrakan Gossip Gallery] <mini>

[Subscribers: 6]

What Azrakan was experiencing in real time was precisely a trap inspired by that Dead Internet Theory.

‘Mini Galleries were a system I never liked much, but they definitely come in handy at times like this.’

A Mini Gallery opened solely to catch her.

Every user there was a mod, including me. It had been made private so that ordinary users other than Azrakan could not join it or even see it.

In other words, only the mods and Azrakan herself could view the posts written there.

‘Dragons really are surprisingly easy to fool.’

Of course, anyone well-versed in galleries would soon notice that something was off.

But dragons lived for far too long, so they were slow to adapt to the latest modern technology.

[✪Wow, I never thought Azrakan would be like this. What a huge disappointment.]

ㄴ(Black Dragon Azrakan): No! This is all a false accusation!!!

[✪She's going straight to rock bottom now lol. Serves that lizard bastard right LOL]

ㄴ(Black Dragon Azrakan): It wasn't me, you fucking bastard!!!

[✪Think anyone will still offer tribute to that bitch now?]

ㄴ(Black Dragon Azrakan): It really wasn't me....

Look at her. She could not even distinguish a Mini Gallery from a Minor Gallery, and she had completely fallen for the posts written anonymously by the mods.

Even though I had blocked her from checking the Empire Village Gossip Gallery just in case, she did not care about that at all. She was too absorbed in that ghost gallery.

If this world had kiosks, Azrakan would definitely struggle with one for an hour before smashing it to pieces.

Still, I did not feel sorry for her.

Pity was a luxury for a malicious creature who had trolled others for eons yet had never once been made the target of mockery herself.

‘Should I deliver the finishing blow soon?’

It was time to begin the final operation for teaching her a lesson.

‘I’ll make her a slave responsible for the filthiest work among the Erasers.’

There were systems we would absolutely need, considering the massive influx that would soon pour into the Other Races Gossip Gallery.

It was time to turn this malicious black dragon with time to spare into the lowest-ranking slave responsible for managing those systems.

[Waiting to create the Ban Appeal Gallery....]

[Waiting to create the Dead Internet Prison....]

* * *

Meanwhile, inside a vast cave in the ice mountains.

“...”

Azrakan sat there with tangled hair, spending the day like a wreck. She could not even bring herself to enter the gallery she usually enjoyed.

[✪Azrakan Polymorph Sockpuppet Photo Tier List Poll]

[✪Upvote if you think the gallery owner will be born the moment the Other Races Gossip Gallery opens LOLLLLLLL]

[✪(Shocking) The evil dragon even the Dragon Lord can't touch was actually a malicious trolling mesugaki lizard!?!?]

After finally gathering the courage to enter the Gossip Gallery, Azrakan found that its featured posts were still all about this incident.

“Eek.”

As though she had witnessed something she was never meant to see, she hurriedly closed the gallery and trembled all over.

“Ah, ahh....”

Azrakan's life points were already at zero.

Many people struggled with being publicly dragged in communities where real names were not used. But being relentlessly mocked with their real-world identity completely exposed?

For someone who had always lived above everyone else since birth, it was unbearable.

“Ugh, blegh....”

The galleries were also practically Azrakan's only source of entertainment and connection with others, since she always stayed in her cave.

When that precious sanctuary instantly turned into a playground for digging up old dirt and mockery, Azrakan's mental strength began reaching its limit, to the point that she was even nauseated.

‘This is a dream....’

Some might say she was making too much of being dragged in an online community, but there were people inside the galleries.

And the frightening part was that those people would now gossip about her wherever they went.

“Ha, haha....”

After sitting blankly all day without eating or drinking because of the shock, she suddenly began to laugh as though she had reached enlightenment.

“Over being dragged in a gallery, of all things.”

Though there was no one around to hear her, she forced out a casual smile and began mumbling.

“There’s no way I’d so much as bat an eye....”

After a thousand years, not only humans but even most long-lived races who knew of this incident would have returned to dust.

So she merely needed to sleep for a while.

She would be a little bored while asleep, of course, but that was hardly difficult for a dragon by birth.

Gossip Gallery Eraser: The goddess's privilege will remain on the continent forever, though?

Gossip Gallery Eraser: Your Polymorph photo spread isn't an exception.

“...Ah.”

But after belatedly seeing Gossip Gallery Eraser's comments, she sank back down, feeling as though her heart had frozen solid.

“...”

Photographs of humiliating poses and clothes she had personally taken after Polymorphing into inferior races.

Realizing that those photographs would remain preserved forever as long as the goddess's privilege existed, she could not even delude herself into feeling better anymore.

“Hic....”

Clear tears began gathering in her eyes.

“What did I do so wrong....”

Astonishingly, Azrakan was shedding tears for the first time in her life.

“I was only a little bored, so I played a small prank....”

To her, someone who possessed the power to destroy an entire continent in a single day, this incident was nothing more than a prank.

The problem was that the pranks she had played until now had gone far beyond the line for the people subjected to them.

“Sniff....”

Still, perhaps this incident had made her reflect. After sniffling for some time, Azrakan made an astonishing decision.

‘To think I would lower my head to an inferior race....’

She would personally apologize to Other Races Gallery Eraser, the person who had nearly been caught up in her prank.

Anonymous: My dear fellow,,, are you there?

ㄴOther Races Gallery Eraser: What is ittt?

ㄴAnonymous: I shall grant you the honor,,, of receiving my apology hehe

Yet even then, Azrakan made it obvious that she still had not come to her senses.

ㄴOther Races Gallery Eraser: You're just a troll.

ㄴOther Races Gallery Eraser: You still don't know your place.

“...”

And the result was being struck by the reply Ugrin, who was known for being kind, had written with a dead-serious expression.

-Tap, tap....

Azrakan looked stunned for a moment, but she eventually threw away all her pride. With lifeless eyes, she carefully wrote a sincere apology post.

----------

[🔒Title: I Was Wrong]

Author: Anonymous (Black Dragon Azrakan)

Please save me.

Every day is so painful.

My heart hurts too much whenever I open a gallery.

I'll do anything, so please forgive me.

I sincerely beg you....

----------

And the Erasers all had the same response after seeing that heartfelt apology post.

Noble Lady Gallery Eraser: You know what you need to do, so why do you keep making pancakes?

ㄴOther Races Gallery Eraser: What is a pancake?

ㄴNoble Lady Gallery Eraser: Good question. It’s an old meme, so I don’t know either lol

Mage Gallery Eraser: What an idiot LOLLLLLLL

Swordsman Gallery Eraser: Check the dogeza template and go.

‘What does that mean?’

Azrakan tilted her head in confusion for a moment. Only after finding Gossip Gallery Eraser's demands in her guestbook did she finally understand everything.

Gossip Gallery Eraser: You will serve as the overall mod of the Ban Appeal Gallery.

Gossip Gallery Eraser: And on the condition that you simultaneously become the Dead Internet Prison Administrator, I'll shut down the Gossip Gallery.

“Ugh....”

Azrakan roughly wiped the tear tracks from her face with her arm, then trembled with rage.

‘Turn me into a slave...?!’

How dare the admin offer someone at the top of the species-chain pyramid a lowest-ranking position dealing with complaints from banned users?

Under normal circumstances, Azrakan would have snorted and refused, then filled the Gossip Gallery with insults toward the administrators.

“Fuck....”

But the condition at stake was too great to refuse.

-Shudder....

Suppressing the anger and humiliation swelling within her, Azrakan obediently checked the verification template the mods had sent her.

“...”

Then she stared blankly again, lost in thought.

‘You want me to Polymorph into a human, the most inferior race of all, and take such humiliating photographs...?’

Cold sweat began running down her forehead once more.

‘No matter what, not that....’

Whether they knew of Azrakan's anguish or not, the Erasers soon added a new condition for the slave who would become the lowest rank among them.

Noble Lady Gallery Eraser: I saw a maid outfit in the background of those verification photos earlier. Hehe

ㄴMage Gallery Eraser: Now that's a sharp eye LOL

ㄴSwordsman Gallery Eraser: Damn LOL

ㄴOther Races Gallery Eraser: Sister, why do you only notice things like that?

And how much time passed?

-Tremble....

Azrakan weakly walked over, rummaged through the treasure pile, and pulled out the maid outfit buried within it. With an utterly cold expression, she began putting it on.

“Ghk....”

As the frills of the maid outfit tickled her skin, she shuddered at the unfamiliar feeling and struggled with it for a long time.

‘This was an outfit I planned to have a village maiden wear after she was offered to me as tribute....’

Then, seeing her thoroughly indecent reflection in the ice, she cried out with tears in her eyes.

“Noooooo....”

And about ten minutes later.

[🔒Anonymous: (No Title)]

A secret post whose contents everyone could roughly guess was uploaded to the Empire Village Gossip Gallery.

* * *

“...”

About an hour later.

“Sigh....”

After uploading the humiliating photograph, Azrakan had remained dejectedly sitting in the cave with her knees pulled to her chest. Then she suddenly let out a sigh.

[This gallery does not exist.]

The gallery that had driven her into hell all day had finally been shut down.

“What a relief....”

Overwhelmed with emotion, tears gathered in her eyes. She wagged her tail wildly and smiled brightly.

‘But what is the Dead Internet Prison?’

Then, tilting her head at the question that had belatedly occurred to her, she entered the Empire Village Gossip Gallery.

‘No, first I should check public opinion....’

Having finally escaped her panic, she wanted to gather a little courage and check what people thought of her again.

[Anonymous: I heard a Person Gallery was created, so why can't I see anything?]

[Anonymous: So who the hell was that dragon???]

[Anonymous: Honestly, it's horrifying that it would make sense no matter which dragon did it LOL]

[Anonymous: Don't keep it secret among yourselves, tell us too!!!]

[Anonymous: The mods have gone quiet, so I bet they opened a secret gallery for themselves. Upvote if you agree LOL]

“Ah....”

Only after reading every post in the Empire Village Gossip Gallery did she realize the truth too late.

Troll Eraser: What happened here?

ㄴGossip Gallery Eraser: From now on, whenever a malicious troll appears, we'll send them to prison. Just do exactly what happened to you today lol

After rushing to the notification bell, Azrakan found the final blow from the supreme administrator who had been playing her all along.

“...”

And soon afterward, the savage scream of an evil black dragon rang throughout the entire ice mountain range.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaak!!!!!!”

The final pieces needed for the Gossip Gallery to spread worldwide had finally come together.

Footnotes:

The original says jeon, savory Korean pancakes. “Why do you keep making pancakes?” is an old Korean internet joke telling Azrakan to stop stalling and kneel in apology.

Dogeza is a deep kneeling bow used to show extreme apology or submission.

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