I Became a Gallery Newbie Beloved by Transcendents

Too many comments were posted. Rather than continuing the conversation in this post, it seemed better to write another post with the content I was curious about.

Title: What’s Climbing Gallery? Climber Gallery? From the posts, it seems this is Transcendent Gallery… looks like I’m not supposed to be here normally.
Author: ㅇㅇ
-Suddenly lost consciousness and when I opened my eyes, I was just here.
I’m using a device that was in the pouch of an NPC.

As soon as I posted, comments started appearing immediately.

ㄴ GalleryMaster) Climbing Gallery is indeed Climber Gallery. You found a gallery terminal in an NPC’s pouch? This is honestly the first time I’ve heard of such a thing.

It was the GalleryMaster.

ㄴ GalleryMaster) I’ll explain more about Climbing Gallery later. First, this place. Transcendent Gallery is a gallery that can only be accessed by beings who have reached the top of the tower and returned to their respective return points. Your entry can be considered an extremely abnormal situation.

ㄴ GalleryMaster) The tower’s difficulties are Easy, Normal, Hard, and Pandemonium. Four in total. Anyway, regardless of the difficulty, to escape the tower, you need to kill various monsters and clear up to the 100th floor, which is the top.

ㄴ GalleryMaster) You said you came to your senses and were there, right? Then to know which difficulty tower you’re in, you’ll need to clear the 1st floor first.

Tower.
A place where you have to climb floors while killing monsters.
After encountering the number ‘1’ and the giant ant monster, as someone who’s lived with subculture, I had expected this. But even though my expectations were right, I wasn’t exactly calm about it.

ㄴ GalleryMaster) The reason you’re an anomaly in many ways is because Transcendent Gallery is a place that climbers absolutely cannot enter in the first place. It’s a place where only those who have completed the tower are allowed entry.

I see. So, it’s not even a gallery of experienced users. It’s a gallery of people who have reached the top of the tower and then escaped from it, and I, a complete newbie, have entered.

ㄴ GalleryMaster) Climbing Gallery is Climber Gallery. It’s a community where people from the 4 towers can talk to each other. The Climber Gallery terminal is given only when you reach the 30th floor of the tower. Surely you can’t access Climbing Gallery yet, right?

I quickly replied.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ) No, it seems only Trans Gallery works.
ㄴ GalleryMaster) …It’s more surprising that Trans Gallery works, but anyway, most of Trans Gallery will be favorable to you. Including me.

After the GalleryMaster’s last comment, comments from other beings started pouring in again.

ㄴ The GalleryMaster guy has deployed his domain after a long time. It’s been a while since we’ve been blocked from commenting.
ㄴ It’s understandable though ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ This is a historic moment. A 1st floor climber entering Trans Gallery, what kind of situation is this ㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ Priestess) As expected, GalleryMaster. It’s the power of authority.

I was wondering why only the GalleryMaster was able to comment consecutively, but it seems he exercised his power as the head of the gallery.

ㄴ We can’t help but be favorable to him. Unlike Climbing Gallery where transcendents were only allowed to lurk, we can now give direct advice ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ It’s making my mouth water
ㄴ What’s the use of being able to give advice. If he dies, it’s over.
ㄴ Ah~~ Easy mode ham!! Stop negative thoughts! Stop critical thinking!

ㄴ LightSword) Even though the probability of dying on the 1st floor is low, depending on the difficulty, we can’t say there’s no chance at all. You need to be careful. Check if there are any danger factors.
ㄴ ㅋㅋㅋㅋ The SwordParrot is making sense, we should worship this king god newbie.

Taking my eyes off the gallery where LightSword, who had already become known to me as SwordParrot, had commented, I hurriedly looked around. Fortunately, no monsters were approaching, and nothing unusual was happening.

I wrote another post.

Title: By the way, where are you guys from? Do you know about South Korea?
Author: ㅇㅇ*
-Looking at the nicknames of the fixed nicks, it seems quite far from modern times.

But after posting, I noticed that there was a ‘*’ next to my nickname ㅇㅇ.

ㄴ GalleryMaster) You’re going to be in the spotlight for a while anyway… no, continuously, so I gave you a star to make sure you get proper attention.
ㄴ Priestess) Uuu, even when I begged for something to be added, you didn’t give me anything! It’s too much!
ㄴ HeavenlyDemon) When this one asked to add the symbol of the new religion behind my title, you didn’t even pretend to listen. How spiteful, GalleryMaster.
ㄴ Using a proper fixed nickname that only Hard mode completers can use, yet whining so much. Do you want to get beaten up by countless ㅇㅇs? But I do envy the star a bit…
ㄴ ㅋㅋㅋㅋ For real, even ㅇㅇ looks a bit more impressive with a star.

So all those using fixed nicknames are Hard mode completers.
It’s quite surprising that the Priestess who uses that strange way of speaking is such an impressive person.
Just by looking at the comments, I was absorbing information about Trans Gallery.

More comments were posted related to the topic of my post.
Replies to the question about whether they knew South Korea.

ㄴ South Korea? Ah, so you’re from the same world as those guys who suddenly started entering Climbing Gallery recently.
ㄴ Seems like 21st century Earth ㅇㅇ.
ㄴ LightSword) Korea, USA, Japan, UK, China… You’re from that strange Earth with many countries but few talents.

Hmm, my homeland.
Seems like my homeland doesn’t have a high rating.
The evaluation is terribly harsh.
I immediately commented with the question that came to mind.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ*) What do you mean by entering recently? Were there none at all originally?
ㄴ ArchMage) They’ve been appearing since a year ago. Self-proclaimed 21st century Earthlings. Even then, it’s only Easy mode or Normal mode climbers who started activities in Climbing Gallery.

I see. Then I wonder if the tower I’ve been summoned to is also an Easy or Normal mode tower.

ㄴ ㅇㅇ*) But is there any criteria for summoning? Why did I suddenly come here?
ㄴ SewerSwordSaint) The world you came from. Something might or might not have happened in 21st century Earth. Just think of it as bad luck.

I already know I’m unlucky without needing it to be emphasized.
But why do only Hard difficulty tower graduates use fixed nicknames, I was about to ask that when.

Kiruk.

A very unpleasant cry was heard.

“…”

Damn it.
I turned off the Transcendent Gallery for now.
I put the Transcendent Gallery terminal, which looked exactly like a mobile phone, into my pocket and held the spear with both hands.
Holding my breath, I pressed my body against the right wall.

My heart was beating fast.
My body fell into a state of extreme tension.
It was familiar.
It’s the pressure I felt every time when I was a pitcher in high school baseball until two years ago.

The reason I quit baseball when I had just turned nineteen was because of a shoulder injury and my parents’ divorce happening simultaneously.
The shoulder injury improved to some extent after half a year, but I couldn’t return to baseball. It felt too distant.

At that time, I ran away. Using the excuse of just half a year’s gap and the destruction of my family.

But now, there’s nowhere to run like back then.
They said the probability of dying on the 1st floor is low, right?
For now, whatever appears in front of me, I need to stab and kill it with the spear.

Just as my frantically beating heart had barely calmed down, a black shadow covered the gray floor.
I moved two steps forward while pointing the spear ahead.

Squelch!

An unpleasant sensation flowed through both hands.

Kiraaaaak!!

Clearly, the body was the same as the giant ant I had killed earlier. But the head was different.
It was a grotesque form with three human heads intertwined.

I pulled out the spear that had stabbed the upper body and thrust it again.

Squelch!
Kieaaak!!

Both hands were covered in bright red blood. But I only felt urgency.

‘Is the wound healing?’

The wound from where I had stabbed earlier was recovering fiercely.
If the body has such recovery power, do I need to crush the heads to kill it?
I made my decision.

I aimed the spear tip at the long-haired woman’s head in the center of the three heads.
At that moment, the ant’s right leg moved and slashed across my shoulder blade.

“Kuaaaaaaak!”

─Fuck!
It hurts like hell.
It was a burning pain as if my whole body was on fire. So much for the low probability of dying.
I’m certain. If I allow two or three more attacks, it’s me who will die. Not that three-headed ant.

Crunch!

I gritted my teeth and moved my body.

Crack!

First crushing the woman’s head. Then immediately crushing the bald man’s head on the left.
This time, I saw the ant’s left leg moving.

I quickly thrust the spear shaft to collide with it.

Slash!

But it sliced past my side.
It felt like a chunk of flesh had been torn off. The pain invaded my mind again, but I had to move.

I deflected the ant’s rushing right leg with the spear shaft and immediately stabbed the spear tip into the remaining head.
The body of the giant ant with human heads slowly toppled to the side.
I finally killed it.

[Experience points have increased.]
[Current experience: 70%]

[Pain Suppression Lv.1 – Skill acquired.]
[Composure Lv.1 – Skill acquired.]
[Cover Lv.1 – Skill acquired.]

Before I could feel relief or a sense of achievement, the wounds on my side and shoulder blade made their presence clearly known.

Hot blood.
I had to stop the bleeding first.

Mound.
This is the baseball mound.
I repeated that to myself while trying to hold onto consciousness.
When baseball was everything in my life, I stood and endured there no matter what happened.

My feet turned towards the back.
To where I found the terminal that could access the Transcendent Gallery.

Towards the corpse of the [Fleeing Citizen].

I picked up the pouch next to the corpse.
I took out the terminal, but there was clearly something else left.

What my fumbling hand grabbed was a round potion bottle.
Inside it was a red liquid.

Just like the text that floated above the corpse like a hologram, an explanation about the potion bottle appeared.

[Item: Grade 3 Healing Potion]
[Effect: When poured on the wound area, it heals the wound to a certain extent.]

It seems there’s no law saying I have to die.
With trembling hands, I opened the cap of the potion.