Chapter 43
Chapter 43
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: Lifetime Free Pass
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"Lifetime Free Usage Pass"
"Newb."
A breeze swept by, scattering her hair.
She propped up her hair with one hand and leaned her upper body toward me.
Through the fluttering strands of hair, a familiar set of features came into sharp focus.
"...You?"
Her voice came out low, and she continued with a soft smile.
"Yeah, it's me. That's why I told you not to save me. I said that thing was fake. A doll."
She paused for a moment, then bit her thin lip lightly.
"...Well. Looking back now, I was wrong."
Tap—
Her cautiously extended fingertip touched my chest.
The hand lingered there for a while before pulling away.
"...But you were right."
She steadied her slightly ragged breathing and drew a gentle smile.
"I never thought I'd be saying something like this... Feels awkward. Consider yourself lucky, Newb120053... That it was you, of all people, who went in there."
"I've tried to enter that anomaly countless times myself."
"...But it was so hard to even get in once. And even when I finally managed it... I couldn't meet you in the end."
She hesitated before opening her mouth.
"But... thinking about it now, even if I had gone in, I couldn't have done what you did. Newb."
As her words ended.
An awkward silence flowed.
She pulled something out as if forcing the awkwardness away.
"I don't have much to give you."
Her small mutter grew clearer.
"Take this at least!"
Her face flushed bright red in an instant as she placed something in my hand and whipped her head away.
"I originally meant it for someone else, but you'll understand."
Then she darted back into the shop even faster than she'd come.
At that moment, she poked just her head out through the door crack.
"I'm not here on days I go to the Management Bureau. Give me a heads-up before you come. Got it?"
Clunk—
The door closed.
I scratched my cheek blankly.
Even if she tells me to contact her.
'No number.'
***
I got off the bus in front of my house.
Fatigue hit me all at once, making my steps heavy.
I dragged myself to the front door, then straight to my bedroom door.
The moment I opened it, I collapsed onto the bed.
"Haa..."
I let out a deep breath.
I barely lifted one arm to grab the phone I'd tossed beside me.
Anomalous Tale Gallery.
My finger habitually tapped it.
The screen lit up, and one icon was blinking.
"...Oh, right. Settlement."
The settlement page opened before my eyes.
Broadcast settlement coins.
1330.
"...What? Why so many?"
My eyes widened round in an instant.
It was a number I'd never seen before.
I scrolled down.
Soon, the donation history came into view.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Donation History]
[15 coins] Anonymous: Good.
[20 coins] Anonymous: I acknowledge you as my rival.
[20 coins] Anonymous: If it weren't for the exploration team prep...
[30 coins] Anonymous: This is all I got.
[50 coins] Anonymous: Info for free.
...
[100 coins] Pa Cheon Emperor: lol cheering you on. Personal fan.
[100 coins] Hopeless Life: Newb. I acknowledge you. You're a bit cooler than me.
[100 coins] Devil Artisan: First time donating to someone. Feels awkward.
[100 coins] Crazy Woman: No need for us to become monsters just to fight one.
...
[500 coins] Not Human: ...Good work. Newb.
[500 coins] Grad Student No.12: Wanna grab a meal with our Newb sis sometime? We can have a very wholesome, productive chat too. Our lab has exactly one spot open—my assistant position is—
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
My fingertip stopped.
Familiar nicknames and their messages imprinted one by one before my eyes.
A smile naturally spread across my lips.
I immediately scrolled down and hit the post creation button.
I took a short breath, then lightly typed out the post.
[Title: You guys are all tsunderes?]
—Author: Newb120053
(Photo attached)
Title's a joke.
Thanks, everyone.
The moment I hit complete, tension melted away, and strength drained from me.
I set the phone aside, rolled onto my stomach, and stretched out my arms.
My body throbbed, sore muscles aching sharply.
But even that pain didn't bother me much right now.
I should just lie here a bit longer.
My eyelids grew heavy.
My mind faded dimly, and consciousness slowly cut off.
***
Since ancient times, the Anomalous Tale Gallery had one long-standing tradition.
A tradition that even the mods' efforts since the gallery's creation had never eradicated.
Namely, troll posts.
The advanced technique of exploiting people's expectations only to show something unrelated, leaving them empty-handed.
And the target of this round's trolling was, naturally, the user setting the gallery ablaze.
Newb120053.
Over the slightly more than a month of consecutively conquering anomalies, the gallery vets' expectations for him had skyrocketed.
The trolls didn't miss that.
Especially for Newb120053—even a sudden "entered an anomaly" claim wouldn't seem too outlandish, making him the perfect mark.
[Title: Newb's live now!!!]
—Author: Real Ru
Insane. Go watch quick.
[Cream Bun]: Oh for real?
[Dark Merchant]: Thx, heading there.
[Organism]: lololol today's gonna explode the gallery again.
[Cream Bun]: ...fuck nothing there? That's Newb 120050, not 120053.
ㄴ[Real Ru]: Still a newb tho?
[Frozen Tuna]: Fucked, got baited.
[Title: Newb120053 live right now]
—Author: Barcode99999
Should I? Or nah?
lol
Curious too.
[Hopeless Life]: Wanna die?
[Flounder]: ..Thanks. Spilled ramen on my sheets cuz of you.
[Crazy Woman]: Where you live? You just won a prize, gimme address.
[Serious Junkie]: Can't believe I fell for this trash post.
[Title: For real this time. Newb120053 live]
—Author: Hushed Ant
Had a dream like that. UwU.
(Hamster goodnight con)
[Frozen Tuna]: Baited again -_-
[Solo Nick Friend]: Let it sleep forever?
[Hell Hurts]: Hell hurts, confirmed?
[Human Centipede]: Nah, won't work on you. Become one with me.
After repeated troll posts, the gallery users who once reacted passionately began to lose steam.
Even when a post about Newb120053 popped up, they'd dismiss it as bait.
Then, one post appeared.
[Title: [One-Shot] Hey, you corpses.]
—Author: Water is Water, Bread is Bread.
Doesn't it look pathetic hanging out in the gallery all day?
Do something productive for once.
Here's the link.
[Link]
At first, the post looked like standard bait.
"Ah, troll again."
"No one's dumb enough to click that link, right?"
But some gallery users couldn't resist curiosity and clicked it.
Soon, the comments exploded.
[Pa Cheon Emperor]: Ignoring the dead now?
ㄴ[Water is Water Bread is Bread]: ?
ㄴ[Pa Cheon Emperor]: Feel free to ignore.
[Cream Bun]: Pissing me off first thing in the morning.
ㄴ[Water is Water Bread is Bread]: ?
ㄴ[Cream Bun]: ...Feel even more pissed if you want.
[Dark Meter]: So bored in space. Show us time Bill Gates power?
ㄴ[Water is Water Bread is Bread]: ?
ㄴ[Dark Meter]: The ID alone screams legend. As expected.
ㄴ[Piggy Hop]: Crazy? Why suddenly?
ㄴ[Dark Meter]: Click that link.
ㄴ[Piggy Hop]: ..I'm the crazy one. The ID screams legend—
Soon, rumors that the Newb had entered a new anomaly spread like wildfire.
[For real this time. Betting my code.]
[Newb live started. Hurryhurryhurry]
[Know you'll have to buy the video with coins if you miss it? Bro ain't repeating himself.]
[No suckers donating coins for video yet?]
[lololol 30 secs in already. Can you handle?]
[Ah lolol all those are troll posts btw. Ok? Don't look. Busy now, bye.]
Firepower no mere troll could match.
Posts flooded in, pushing previous ones down.
Soon, the watching vets paled.
It took 1 second to sense something was up.
0.1 seconds to move—
One by one, they scrambled into Newb120053's broadcast.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Anomaly Stream: Code 120053]
[Stream Start 00:00:57]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The screen showed the Newb and what looked like a nurse anomaly.
Newb reaching out.
—..This isn't an emergency patient.
[Pa Cheon Emperor]: Fuck!!! Missed the start!!!
[Cream Bun]: Ah...pleasepleaseplease rewind 30 secs? Buying video for that is too much!!!
ㄴ[Serious Junkie]: Still gotta buy it.
ㄴ[Cream Bun]: No 200 coins is insaneㅜㅜㅜ just missed 1 min!! Whose dog is 200 coins?
ㄴ[Serious Junkie]: Calm down. I missed 30 secs too.
[Poison Needle Pufferfish]: ...ha...wanna shoot everyone dead fr.
ㄴ[Water is Water Bread is Bread]: lolololol calm down
[Information Junkie]: Summary plz.
ㄴ[Water is Water Bread is Bread]: Nbd. Tore paper, entered ER. Ok?
ㄴ[Information Junkie]: Crazy bastard...? You call that a summary?
In that instant, the Information Junkie's typing hands froze at the sound from the screen. His gaze locked on.
Shwaaak—
The sound of air splitting.
First strike.
Newb dodges the anomaly's first attack by a hair.
Second strike.
He slips into the gap smoothly using the surroundings.
Third strike.
The final ambush flies in, but he drops his waist as if foreseeing it, letting it slide by.
Eyes couldn't track the continuous attacks slicing empty air.
Boom—
The delayed sound of the bed shattering echoed down the hall.
Meanwhile, Newb120053 pulled away without a single disrupted breath and dashed down the corridor.
Like a movie scene—perfect movement, no excess, no lack.
From behind, the nurse anomaly's mechanical voice burst out.
—Paaaatiiiieeent...!
The anomaly's scream-like cry synced with the chat going dead silent.
The flood of rage and questions cut off; everyone fixed on the screen.
Information Junkie barely deleted his chat and retyped.
Chase begins.
Didn't want to waste time chatting.
ㄴ[Information Junkie]: Got it. It's only 1 min anyway.