Chapter 108

A gallery without Head of the Gallery.

It was no different from a soda that had lost its fizz.

Useful functions deleted.

Marketplace items reset.

A lawless zone overflowing with tactical nukes and disgustingly bad memes.

– Tui Tia Tui U Tia… Tui Tia Tia…!

– I am a Stinkhorn Mushroom.

– What is life?

As people began to grow dazed one by one, only two announcements were posted.

[Announcement: Personal Appearance]

Author: Head of the Gallery*

Hello

Response

[Recommend 9999+] [Disapprove 95]

Exactly one week ago, when the hunting of Head of the Gallery was at its peak, this announcement from then.

The only difference from that time was the addition of the word ‘response’ in this brief announcement.

However, this time the reactions were completely different.

– The World is moving again.

– Oh no!!! What are you doing here now,,@@!!

– Hello hello hello hello hello.

– I won’t ignore greetings ever again.

– (Crying Frog Knight Kon clapping)

The gallery was truly in a festive atmosphere.

At that moment, there were no tactical nukes or disgusting memes.

Only the notice, which was going viral like mad, started to accumulate countless replies.

– You’re active again, right?

– Damn, I’ve really waited a long time for you, Head of the Gallery…

– If you go offline, I’m really leaving the gallery…

– Yeah~ Please don’t go offline~ If you go offline, it’ll be the end~

A gallery without Head of the Gallery was silent and cold like a stone floor.

Instinctively recalling the past, the gallery was truly consumed by PTSD.

They recognized that Head of the Gallery was the gallery’s manager, not a public restroom janitor.

But contrary to people’s wishes, Head of the Gallery did not add any items to the marketplace.

[Announcement: OOO]

Author: Head of the Gallery*

(Adrian Cathedral meme)

[Recommend 9999+] [Disapprove 94]

– ???

– Wh- What’s this?

– (Elf blinking dumbly)

– This problem is too hard, teacher.

They only posted a single meme as a new announcement.

That was all.

Seconds, minutes, even hours passed with no further activity thereafter.

At first, the gallery dwellers grew confused, but at least the implication was clear.

– Someone decipher the speaker’s intention, damn it.

– Answer 1.

– Oh, Head of the Gallery went offline again!!!

Decipher the speaker’s intent.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t come back again.

Immediately, the gallery dwellers squeezed their brains to complete collective wisdom and soon succeeded in interpreting it.

[Title: Interpretation of the Meme Posted by Head of the Gallery…jpg]

Hello, it’s a good day.

Actually, it’s neither a good day nor a happy one, damn it.

Why? Because Head of the Gallery isn’t coming back.

So I operated my brain at full capacity and scanned the photo with the events from one week earlier when the hunting of Head of the Gallery was happening.

In doing so, I could find something strange.

(Memes of disruptive posts pouring in)

(Memes with similar tones and correct spacing)

(Memes that always have a period at the end of every sentence)

It was the abrupt start of the bait without any context.

Normally, someone throws out the bait, and it spreads slowly, but looking at this, I could confirm that suddenly at midnight, suspicious posts about Head of the Gallery came pouring in.

The tone is strangely different, but the period is there for sure, particularly with “Do you still trust Head of the Gallery?” ← Here, ‘do you’ was consistently a typo.

What is this?

(A peasant frog holding a torch)

What is it? Damn it, it’s definitely a revolution.

[Recommend 5123] [Disapprove 93]

– So it was you guys causing the disruption.

– Now that I think about it, the dislike numbers on these posts are somewhat similar, right?

– Oh, it’s true. These guys don’t usually post, so having commonalities in strange aspects.

– (Frog Knight with a reddened face)

People started to gather all the posts from a week ago just from one photo.

They quickly grasped the meaning of the meme.

– Damn, is it you again, Cathedral?

The Cathedral caused the disruption.

*

The suspicion was clear.

Anyone could see that the Cathedral was the instigator of the disruption.

“This isn’t enough.”

But that couldn’t be the reason.

There’s nothing more dangerous than assuming the culprit based solely on tone.

[Title: This is Defamation!]

Author: Louis

As expected, Archbishop Louis came out representing the Cathedral and announced his innocence.

Where’s the evidence?

If saying ‘tone’ is evidence, then anyone could become the culprit.

How can you pin us as the culprits without reason?

This is a crime!

I will warn Head of the Gallery.

Are you posting a meme that seems to label us as culprits without any clear evidence?

Aren’t you afraid of God’s punishment for this wrongful defamation?

Stop leading more little lambs down the wrong path and repent.

Immediately delete the post and publish an apology to the Cathedral.

Otherwise, you will fall into hell based on your sins.

[Recommend 1412] [Disapprove 9853]

– Hmmm…

– But it’s cold hard truth.

– Head of the Gallery only posted Cathedral memes, but didn’t mention the reason?

Tone alone isn’t enough to pin someone as the culprit.

Without precise evidence, you stirred public sentiment by posting a meme and threatened me with hell.

But…

“So?”

What of it?

Fake news never requires a reason anyway.

Wasn’t the Cathedral always concocting witch hunts?

What the Cathedral was good at was incitement and fabrication.

I was merely employing the same methods of incitement and fabrication.

– Head of the Gallery*) LOL

LOL, just two characters.

That held stronger certainty than listing out any reasons or clear evidence.

– LOLLLLLLL

– I guess there’s a reason behind this?

– Indeed, LOL, if you have a long tongue, what does that mean?

– But the Church has seemed fishy since the beginning.

– For real, you ramble on like a nuisance.

The gallery soon began to confirm the Cathedral as the culprit as if nothing had ever happened.

“Evidence? I already have the evidence.”

More than anything, I had solid evidence that the Cathedral was the culprit.

If I analyze the IPs of posts made during the Head of the Gallery hunt, it all pointed to the Cathedral.

Of course, they tried to write under different nicknames and locations to be smart…

“Who am I?”

[Analyzing all IPs used by this user]

No matter how they changed the location to manipulate their IP, the system retained the records of previous IP logs.

This meant it was indeed the Cathedral that pushed the public sentiment against me.

Despite this undeniable evidence, the reason I didn’t disclose it was simple.

“I’ll fight fire with fire.”

They stirred up the public with fake news and attacked first?

Now, it was their turn to be struck by fake news.

*

[Title: Spooky Cathedral Updates…jpg]

(A meme of a crowd surrounding and looking around)

(A meme of priests trying to intervene but running away after getting hit with tomato baptism)

(A meme violently shaking the main door)

Open the door, dumbass!

– LOL, let’s go in~

– Revolution, it’s about time, right?

– What, is an event starting already?

After the announcement, people immediately surged toward the Cathedral.

The crowd resembling a modern gathering swarmed around the Cathedral.

“Wow, this reminds me of old assemblies.”

The only difference was that instead of signs and candles, they were holding forks and sharp objects.

“Calm down!”

“This isn’t our doing!”

Some priests came out to deter them, but that only backfired.

[Title: LOL These Guys]

(A meme showing the fridge in the bishops’ room through the window)

Looks like they were using the marketplace well?

They’ve even got that expensive fridge, LOL.

Why are the ones who used to take donations and utilize the marketplace now inciting? I really don’t get it.

[Recommend 1202] [Disapprove 94]

– Anyway, don’t use it!

– LOL, they want to use marketplace items and also want to keep a check.

– Seriously annoying, damn it, LOL.

– Didn’t they pull out their priest shields during the Great War and just observed the situation from the back?

– Oh damn, wasn’t that immunity?

– Oh, yeah, they gathered and said they were praying to avoid the fight, right?

Moreover, as past actions were laid out one by one, the situation began to intensify.

While there may have been people who were unaware of the marketplace, there wasn’t a single person who had used it even once.

Realizing the preciousness of the marketplace where prices had remained stable beneath the skyrocketing costs, the gallery dwellers grew more radical.

[Title: Please Calm Down! We Did Not Do This!]

Author: Louis

This is all a scheme from Head of the Gallery!

We did not cause this, please calm down!

[Recommend 102] [Disapprove 303]

– Seriously going too far;

– Isn’t Head of the Gallery pushing accusations without proof?

– I was going to say it’s no different from hunting Head of the Gallery. LOL.

Of course, not everyone was in agreement.

There were those who felt discomfort at the extremely biased opinions and some still trusted the Cathedral.

At this point, I decided to add a new announcement.

[Announcement: It’s Me]

Author: Head of the Gallery*

Summary of evidence that the Cathedral is causing disruption.

(Post showing previous user IP during the time of the Head of the Gallery hunt meme 1)

(Post showing the drastically reduced Cathedral IP posting evidence during the Head of the Gallery hunt meme 2)

(Meme 3 showing that Archbishop Louis IP and disruption IP match)

LOL.

[Recommend 9999+] [Disapprove 93]

Even with clear evidence, I deliberately delayed posting it.

The more I justified it, the greater the backlash would be.

– ???

– No way, I thought it wouldn’t be real, but this is true.

– Wow, did they really manipulate IPs to cause disruption?

– How many disruptive posts did one person write in a day?

– Wow, that’s seriously creepy.

The remaining public sentiment for the Cathedral swiftly turned against them.

“What can you do now?”

Even lies wouldn’t work anymore.

Yet the public sentiment warfare hadn’t failed.

The Cathedral had only one option remaining, which was to normalize things.

No, there was one more.

That was to label the protest as heresy.

– Thud!

At that moment, an arrow flew from somewhere and struck the head of a man who was protesting right in front of the Cathedral.

“Huh?”

The man in the meme collapsed right there, cold and dead.

They were truly pulling weapons on their own people.

“No way, shooting the people of the same country?”

At that moment, staring dumbfounded, the previously stagnant posts began to surge rapidly.

[Title: Damn It Damn It Damn It]

(Shots of arrows flying one by one)

(Protesters getting hit by arrows, suffering or dying)

(Images of Inquisition Officers and knights swinging swords from inside the Cathedral)

These guys must really be insane.

With no way to escape left, they began to kill indiscriminately.

The protest was labeled as a heretic riot, saying it was an act of blasphemy against God, but damn, what do I do?

I just have to run for now, so I can’t write more.

[Recommend 1042] [Disapprove 93]

– ???

– No way, they’re coming out like this?

– Damn! Save me! I feel like I’ll get captured!