The Confession Troll, Part 1
"Is this guy out of his mind?"
It was a post venting raw, unfiltered desire, looking like it had been scribbled down after chugging a whole bottle of cheap booze. If it had stopped there, I would have just deleted the post and handed him a light one-to-three-day ban.
But then came the next one.
"Wait, this is..."
The moment I checked the photos, I froze.
And for good reason.
"This is the entrance to the mountain path that leads straight to my house!"
The bastard had actually figured out where I lived.
"C-O-D-E R-E-D!!!"
The troll who had complained about hating witches last time had only threatened me with a vague, rough location.
"But this guy seems to actually know!"
This confession troll was built different. I had no idea how he'd managed to find out, but he was broadcasting his progress in real-time as he walked closer and closer to my house.
- Head Mod? You'll welcome me when I get there, right? [113]
- Not answering? Want me to leak your location to the forum? [143]
- Should be around here... where are you hiding? [231]
He knew the familiar mountain path perfectly. He didn't even hesitate at the fork in the road, turning straight toward my cabin.
[Shaking in Fear Meme]
"Who the hell is this...?"
Seriously, I was terrified.
Of course, it was physically impossible for him to actually break into my house.
"He can't bypass the concealment shroud and the barrier."
My mother, who proudly considered herself a high-ranking mage, had layered a triple-fold concealment shroud around the property, backed by a sturdy barrier that barred entry to anyone who wasn't family.
As long as I didn't step foot outside, my real-life identity was perfectly safe. And now that I was the Head Mod, I had reached a level of self-sufficiency where I never had to leave the house anyway.
But still.
"The drama just died down, and now he's trying to ruin the mood again?"
This guy was way too insolent. Simply banning him didn't feel like enough of a punishment.
As I was looking for a way to make him pay dearly, the Operator sent me a message.
Check that anonymous user's IP! They might be someone living nearby!
"Right, let's check his identity first."
The incubus from last time turned out to be a resident of the neighboring village, after all. This guy was probably the same.
I looked up his IP.
"What the... this IP."
I recognized it instantly.
"He's from my village?"
Yurix.
A normal demon boy who had just entered puberty, and the self-proclaimed leader of the local village kids.
Lately, he was dying of boredom.
What kind of entertainment could kids possibly find in a remote mountain village like this? It wasn't like the big cities where they had public executions to watch. Here, the most they could do was raid bird nests in the forest for eggs or catch fish in the creek.
But there was one thing.
The only game he and his friends could regularly enjoy.
Their personal toy, whom they called a half-wit, an idiot, or a simpleton.
Playing with the half-demon, Derek.
Of course, they hadn't always been on such terrible terms. Derek was just a quiet young man who was rarely seen in the village. The kids had simply regarded him as a suspicious older brother hiding out halfway up the mountain, keeping their distance.
Then one day, Yurix's father called him over and gave him a stern warning.
- Yurix, don't you dare speak a single word to that Derek kid.
- Why?
- His mother is a human. Marius's second son from next door just died on the battlefield. People might get the wrong idea, so don't even go near him.
A half-demon. He didn't look much different from a regular demon, but as the war dragged on, even this remote mountain village was visited by conscription officers.
When the village youths who had been dragged off to the front lines began returning one by one in coffins, the villagers' attitude shifted drastically.
Naturally, the children were influenced by this.
They came to believe that anything associated with humans was "evil," and Derek, with his mixed blood, became a piece of trash that deserved to be punished.
So they bullied him. And by the time it became a daily routine...
"Hey, have you seen Derek lately?"
"No clue. Haven't seen him around."
"Remember when you threw that rock and hit him in the head, Yurix? Do you think he died from that?"
"Probably not. I went up there just in case, but there wasn't a body."
"Well, maybe a bear came by and dragged him off."
Derek hadn't been seen since, and the kids merely lamented the loss of their favorite toy. That was all.
A while later, Yurix's older brother, a traveling merchant who wandered all over, returned home after a long journey.
Yurix was eager to ask his brother about the world outside, but his brother brushed him off, annoyed.
"What are you doing, hyung?"
"Browsing the Gallery."
"What's that?"
"Stop bothering me and go browse it yourself. Here, connect like this."
And that was how young Yurix was introduced to the Gallery.
"Whoa..."
A whole new world opened up to him.
Not only could he read vivid stories from different worlds and races with just a few clicks from his room, but the Gallery Shop, which sold all kinds of rare items (though most were relief goods he couldn't afford), completely captured his curiosity.
Moreover...
"Oh my god... the Head Mod looks like this?"
The portraits of the beautiful girl Head Mod uploaded as fanart made the young boy's heart flutter.
Then came the day when real-time updates about the Battle of Archeinia flooded the Gallery.
"He launched it at the Head Mod? No!!!"
Yurix despaired when he read that Bernheiter, the Commander of the East Army, had launched a necromantic spell targeting the Head Mod.
But then...
- Rumble!!!
When he saw the magical trajectory streak across the sky above his village and head straight toward the mountain behind it, a question popped into his head.
"Why did the magic aimed at the Head Mod fly over here...?"
Later, when another forum user tried to doxx the Head Mod and posted photos of the surrounding area, Yurix recognized the familiar scenery of his village.
'The Head Mod lives on the mountain behind our village!'
From that day on, Yurix's obsession with the Head Mod skyrocketed. He spent all his time browsing the Gallery, reading and practically memorizing every piece of fanart and post about the Head Mod.
The conclusion he reached was simple:
'I'm going to make the Head Mod my woman!'
He had the charisma to lead the local kids. He was the cool guy who protected the village from the evil half-demon, Derek. Since he was such an impressive person, he was confident he could easily seduce someone like the Head Mod.
But...
"How do I actually seduce her?"
With zero dating experience, he turned to the "relationship advice" posts on the Gallery.
"Hmm... 'Women must feel attracted to a man's charm to be conquered.' This is hard."
Yurix lacked the critical thinking skills to distinguish truth from lies on the internet. Thus, he placed absolute trust in the words of anonymous basement-dwellers who had zero dating experience themselves but wrote highly convincing guides.
He even took advice from posts written by other races with vastly different cultural concepts of romance.
The comments mocked the author, but Yurix secretly agreed.
"Indeed. A strong man is meant to win a beautiful woman."
And the final nail in the coffin:
After reading that kind of comment from a helpful user, he felt a strange conviction that this was exactly how it had to be done.
With his mind made up, Yurix went into action.
- Head Mod, you seductive little wench, brace yourself!
- This bitch of a Head Mod doesn't understand plain English?
But the Head Mod didn't respond, likely out of shyness.
"Hehe, just a little more pressure and she'll yield."
So he pushed a bit harder.
You have been banned from the gallery for 7 days.
Reason: Trolling / Instigation
"What?!!"
Yurix had been banned by the Head Mod.
"And... cut."
I banned the bastard first.
Looking through his forum history, he had only recently joined, and his posts and comments were almost entirely focused on Head Mod fanart and relationship advice.
Analyzing the situation, the conclusion was obvious.
"He's completely delusional."
Enchanted by 2D fanart, this delusional kid had charged in blindly without even knowing if the person behind the screen was a man or a woman.
If I left him alone, the other users would have clowned on him endlessly, so I just banned him.
"But I can't let it end there."
Why?
"Because this is my prey."
I had no intention of letting others have all the fun.
Using his IP, I easily tracked down his home address. It was incredibly simple. There were barely any houses in our village, and most of them were scattered across the rugged terrain, making it easy to distinguish individual IPs.
"Yurix."
The thief who had thrown a rock at the back of my head, knocked me unconscious, and run off with all the groceries I had just bought.
"You are so dead."
I burst into a loud laugh for the first time in a while, brainstorming the perfect way to utterly ruin him.
What are you going to do? Surely you aren't going to go over there and hurt a child...
"An IRL showdown is a bit much."
I wasn't going to do something as barbaric as going over there to beat him up. Besides, I wasn't even sure I could win. The neighborhood bully Yurix had a solid build and a bunch of lackeys, while my body was soft and weak.
Then what?
"What else can a petty forum dweller do for revenge?"
I smiled as I clicked on the Point Shop.
"I'm going to socially execute him."
He'd end up begging me to just kill him instead.
"How dare she ban me!!!"
Fuming with rage, Yurix spent the entire day roaming the mountain where he suspected the Head Mod lived, but he ultimately failed to find the cabin.
"Tsk!"
In the end, he had no choice but to return home at dusk. Even as he went to bed, he still couldn't believe it.
"How could she do this to me?"
His plan had been perfect, and since he considered himself quite handsome, his pride was deeply wounded.
"Just because she's pretty doesn't mean she can do whatever she wants!"
"Yurix! Stop making noise and go to sleep!"
With no other choice, he pulled the blanket over his head, grumbling until he fell asleep, vowing to find her tomorrow no matter what.
But the next morning, when he opened his eyes...
"Ugh, why is it so noisy?"
"Yurix! Get out here right now!"
"Huh? What's going on... Ow! Ow, ow, ow!"
Yurix was dragged out of the house by his ear, courtesy of his father, and found himself surrounded by the entire village first thing in the morning.
The elderly village chief stepped forward from the crowd and asked.
"Yurix."
"Yes? Yes, Chief."
"Is this really true?"
He held out a piece of paper.
"Th-this is..."
Yurix could only hang his head in absolute, crushing despair.