Chapter 61

A few days after banning the disruption that had forcibly intruded into the Gallery.

Erzebet finally got the chance to track down the corresponding IP.

“You’ve come.”

A strange and unpleasant sensation lingered in Kellierhton.

Erzebet immediately left the castle and headed in the direction indicated by her feelings.

And soon, she discovered a rift.

Woosh!

“Something’s different.”

This rift was unlike the others.

Usually, rifts were one-way.

You could cross from here, but you couldn’t come here from the outside.

So typically, only a few monsters would come through while waiting for the right time…

This rift pulsated ominously, almost like a heartbeat.

“Someone tore it open by force.”

Even Erzebet found it hard to imagine someone having the strength to rip open a rift.

If she tried, she would definitely feel extreme fatigue.

The opponent was no ordinary monster.

Erzebet intended to continue her pursuit immediately, but the disruption had already vanished without a trace.

A few days later, she was able to pinpoint the appearance of 4.444.404.

[Destroying Gallery Wiki]

Document/Rift

6. Location of Sighting

6.1 Northern Plains of Kellierhton

(A much larger rift meme compared to others)

“Whoa, that’s quite brutal-looking.”

“Looks just like your face, right?”

“Shut up!”

As the Destroying Gallery Wiki contest began, the Gallums started sharing the information they had.

As a result, the rift meme Erzebet had tracked was circulating as well.

“I found it.”

Upon closer inspection of the meme, someone was fleeing at the end of the plains.

It appeared so small that an ordinary person wouldn’t even notice it, but it was easy for Erzebet.

Long white hair, red eyes, the appearance of a youthful girl.

An oddly clean look, almost resembling an ancient devil.

4.444.404, without a doubt.

*

I Will Not Die Even If I Am a Vampire: So I should kill it.

Head of the Gallery: No, you idiot.

I Will Not Die Even If I Am a Vampire: It’s dangerous.

The Deputy of Gallery was suggesting that I kill the girl I brought in, suspecting she was a monster who came from outside.

No wonder it had been quiet for a few days; they were tracking this kind of thing.

“Hmm.”

I turned to look at Penny.

Penny was snug under the blanket, reading a fairy tale book.

Her eyes sparkled as if the fairy tale was simply too interesting.

She had already read so many books that they reached the ceiling.

So, is that a devil?

Head of the Gallery: LOL

I Will Not Die Even If I Am a Vampire: I’m not joking.

I Will Not Die Even If I Am a Vampire: Ask the Gallery to turn on.

As the doubts from the Deputy continued, I too began to get a little suspicious.

‘Honestly, there are some points that raise suspicion.’

Penny had grown.

At least by 20 cm!

When I had picked her up, she was definitely a girl.

If she was like an elementary student in her past life, now she bore a closer resemblance to a middle schooler.

No matter how fierce the growth spurt was, this was outside the realm of humans.

‘But still, the Holy Sword didn’t react at all.’

In situations like this, it was quicker to ask directly.

I approached Penny, who was lost in her fairy tale.

“Penny.”

“What is it?”

The moment I called her name, she set the fairy tale down and looked directly at me.

Penny had significantly lowered her guard with me over time.

After a brief moment of hesitation, I spoke:

“Want to take a look at the Gallery?”

“…Huh?”

“The Deputy said he knew you. Just got a message that you might be a monster.”

I spoke bluntly.

But even as I said it, I found it funny.

A girl who could talk, get sick and hurt, laugh, and cry—how could she be a monster?

Tremble!

“Penny?”

Before I could finish my sentence, Penny started to shake.

Her hand gripping the drawer trembled as if she had activated a vibration mode.

She kept blinking her eyes as if pondering, and in a very cautious tone, she asked me:

“M-My, is it the Deputy?”

“I Will Not Die Even If I Am a Vampire.”

“Yikes!”

Could it be she had something on her mind?

Penny’s complexion turned pale.

“Malfight, how do you know the Deputy?”

“Ah, well…”

For a moment, I hesitated to hide my identity as the Head of the Gallery.

After all, the items here were an assortment from refrigerators to carpets and other various things, not normally available in the marketplace.

“I’m the Head of the Gallery.”

As I said this nonchalantly, Penny froze.

It was as if time itself had stopped; she forgot to tremble.

*

[Access to the Gallery is currently blocked.]

[Ban Period: Permanent]

“S-Sorry… I didn’t mean to deceive you.”

In the end, it seemed I Will Not Die Even If I Am a Vampire was right.

It turned out that the Deputy, whom I thought only had a diet of cola and tomato juice every day, was telling the truth.

‘Now that I think about it, she did mention it.’

When I asked her name, Penny had introduced herself as Luxuria.

At first, I thought it was some hellish concept, but now I understood its meaning.

She was the demon of lust appearing in the Seven Deadly Sins.

I Will Not Die Even If I Am a Vampire: Am I right?

Head of the Gallery: For real…

As Penny stood frozen in shock over the revelation that she was indeed a monster, she bowed her head deeply.

Penny had used her powers to forcefully tear open the rift.

The problem was that because of that, she had lost almost all of her powers.

Moreover, an immense presence emanated from the torn rift.

[Concept Post: Why is this happening, guys?]

(Northern Plains of Kellierhton Rift meme)

(The rift meme making ominous sounds as it grows)

Wow, I’ve never seen anything like this before.

[Recommended 1523] [Not Recommended 42]

– The wave warning symptoms didn’t even do that!

– This is seriously ominous; what’s going on here?

– What on earth is the size of that rift?

– Aren’t you going to do something about it?

User: Isn’t it time to do something about the rift?

User: Haha, life before dying, right?

User: Wow, thinking about what to do first while facing scary stuff is legendary!

The rift Penny had torn was indeed growing in real time.

According to I Will Not Die Even If I Am a Vampire, it would produce numbers that couldn’t even be compared to any wave seen thus far.

For now, I temporarily lifted Penny’s ban and put her into the admin chat.

[4.444.404 has been invited.]

4.444.404: …Hello?

I Will Not Die Even If I Am a Vampire: Let’s kill it!

4.444.404: Yikes!

Head of the Gallery: Let’s calm down for a moment. So, what brought you here?

That was the most curious question.

Why did she come here despite losing her powers?

Given that she crossed over alone, it seemed she wasn’t aiming to invade like other monsters.

And then the response was quite a spectacle.

4.444.404: W-Well…

I Will Not Die Even If I Am a Vampire: Not talking, huh?

4.444.404: I couldn’t help myself!

Head of the Gallery: What?

I instinctively turned my head, and there was Penny, only her eyes peeking out from the blanket, her face flushed.

Penny buried her face into the blanket with a look of shame.

4.444.404: There was nothing to do on the outside! Nothing to play with, nothing to enjoy, no pleasures whatsoever!

Head of the Gallery: .

4.444.404: How could I help the way I was born?

4.444.404: I learned about this place by consuming the memories of a human named Frederick. So I couldn’t resist coming over!

“Did you meet Frederick?”

“Yeah. I was so happy to meet my first human. I just wanted to have a little fun, but then he ended up dying on his own…”

I had heard he was exiled, but it seemed he had actually died.

“Isn’t it the norm to return in one piece when you’re exiled?”

Anyway, my first human.

It seemed Penny had lived outside her entire life.

In the meantime, she learned about this place, and despite knowing she would lose her powers, she recklessly crossed over.

I Will Not Die Even If I Am a Vampire: What a lie.

I Will Not Die Even If I Am a Vampire: How can I believe that?

Of course, I Will Not Die Even If I Am a Vampire did not believe her.

Would a demon of lust really come over to give up all its power over its cravings?

He asked where such a foolish monster, much less a demon, could be, but Penny could only not respond.

She simply looked heartbroken, curled up in the blanket.

“I thought it would be all fun here…”

But the reality Penny arrived in was one of desolation.

Hunger, disease, invasion, murder.

The rosy future she had imagined wasn’t anywhere in sight.

I Will Not Die Even If I Am a Vampire: So what about the Black Plague?

4.444.404: I almost died because of that! Why!?

Especially the Black Plague—I was a witness to it.

It had been building up even before Penny arrived.

In the end, Penny was a demon of lust who had almost faced death after crossing over without experiencing her desires.

Only after concluding that did she begin to clear her name.

Full-Peel Elf: I just woke up, what’s going on?

Head of the Gallery: Just go dive back to sleep.

Full-Peel Elf: (That old elf! Hush!)

*

Penny managed to clear her name.

But the fact that she forcibly tore open the rift when she came here remained.

And that other kinds of monsters would emerge from it was a given.

4.444.404: I’m sorry… I really didn’t mean for this to happen.

The dejected Penny finally began spilling out any information she had.

4.444.404: There’s a possibility the wave will break out in about three hours.

4.444.404: Five variant monsters will emerge.

I Will Not Die Even If I Am a Vampire: Can’t we handle them with weapons?

Actually, I was thinking along similar lines.

Well, surely a few high-explosive grenades would take care of them quickly.

But Penny had a different opinion.

4.444.404: No, that won’t work.

4.444.404: They’re monsters made entirely of steel, so unless it’s high-level magic, even scratches won’t occur…

I Will Not Die Even If I Am a Vampire: (Damn it, let’s just blast them away!)

4.444.404: Yikes!

Can’t catch them with high-explosive grenades?

If they were made of steel, even shrapnel grenades might not be effective.

It meant a horde of monsters appeared that couldn’t be taken down with modern weaponry.

“Then Kellierhton is in danger.”

If modern weapons can’t take them down, the future of Kellierhton was pretty dangerous.

Just then, I Will Not Die Even If I Am a Vampire, who had been silently observing the situation, stepped forward.

I Will Not Die Even If I Am a Vampire: I’ll handle it.

Head of the Gallery: Oh, really?

I Will Not Die Even If I Am a Vampire: But there’s a drawback.

Head of the Gallery: What is it?

I Will Not Die Even If I Am a Vampire: I’ll revert to my old way of speaking.

If I Will Not Die Even If I Am a Vampire were to step up, the problem could be easily resolved.

However, the issue was that using her power would cause her speech to revert to the way it used to be.

I closed my eyes for a moment and recalled.

Then I shook my head as memories of I Will Not Die Even If I Am a Vampire’s hellish old speech came back.

“This is bad.”

Head of the Gallery: No, I’d rather do it myself.

I Will Not Die Even If I Am a Vampire: But how?

Monsters that wouldn’t budge to explosions.

Then it would have to be something other than explosions.

I opened the shop after quite a while and entered the weaponry section I had been eyeing for some time.

[Category/Chemical Weapons]

“If the rift is a one-way street, can’t we just take them all out before they come through?”

Head of the Gallery: There’s always a way.

Now that I resolved the food problems in this other world, it was time to think about unleashing chemical weapons of mass destruction into the rift.