The Gallery Stalker (1)
"Oh my goodness, this is..." The Operator covered her mouth with both hands. And with good reason.
"How is this here?!"
The Stone of Fortune was a highly powerful artifact she had gifted to an old friend long ago. An artifact that bestowed immense luck upon anyone who was worthy. It even granted whatever the owner desired without demanding any price in return.
"That's just the kind of artifact it is."
Because of its nature, someone who realized its power might try to steal it. To prevent this, no one besides the owner could recognize its true value. Thus, it looked like nothing more than a common pebble.
Perhaps that was why. The Head Mod frowned and prepared to hurl the precious thing away.
"Huh? Wait—"
She hurriedly expanded her message window to stop him.
"Ah, jeez, you scared me. What?"
"It's just a rock."
"What?!"
The Head Mod seemed to ponder for a moment, then asked back with a completely clueless expression, "What the hell is that, you weeb?"
"...What?"
Had the Operator broken from overwork? Or was the message window malfunctioning? Perhaps both.
"What kind of 'A ban is a ban' meme logic is that?"
It was an explanation that brought to mind the evasive answers of a certain foreign politician famous for saying things should be "fun, cool, and sexy."
"...Are you sure about that?"
At a glance, it was just a blunt gray stone, no different from a common pebble. I had no idea what the Operator was seeing to call this the Stone of Fortune.
No, in the first place...
"I got hit in the back of the head with this and cracked my skull open. Then I was forced into a deadly fifty-fifty choice between being banished from the Demon Realm or becoming the Head Mod. Is this really a stone of fortune?"
...Had I? I thought about it carefully.
Thanks to getting hit by this stone, I was able to recall my past life's memories. And by becoming the Head Mod, I was able to live a relatively comfortable life.
On top of that, unlike the Head Mods of my past life who lived as pitiful, unpaid cyber-slaves, I could actually cash out my points for real-world goods here. So, it's all good...
"—Wait, no it's not!"
Some crazy bastard threatened to kill me if I didn't meekly surrender my soul to take my Head Mod authority. And when I actually refused, he launched a legion-class necromancy spell from a magic brigade at me.
And what about recently? I was threatened twice in a row with having my real-life address doxxed on the gallery.
"How is any of this good luck?"
"Operator, are you some kind of gaslighting expert?"
Her silver tongue was truly something else. Seeing that I was still highly skeptical, the Operator made a proposal.
"A wish?"
"Hmm..."
Food, clothing, and shelter—the bare necessities of human life. I had already resolved these through the Gallery Point Shop. I had purchased food, clothes, and various daily necessities through the gallery shop, and right now, a house was being built in my yard.
What would I need next? A computer? In a world with no electricity or internet, buying one would just be a waste of points.
A car? What good is a car in a fantasy world without paved roads? Hmm... Ah!
"A girlfriend?"
"Yeah. If you're really the Stone of Fortune, bring me a fateful encounter with a sexy, voluptuous woman. It'd be even better if things could develop in a positive direction."
......
Of course, there was no answer. Artifact or not, it was still just a rock.
"There, happy?"
I probably looked a bit pathetic, but so what? If I wanted to disprove the Operator's claim about this being the Stone of Fortune, it was best to be thorough.
I went straight back inside and lay down on my hammock to catch up on the sleep I had missed during the night.
"*Yawn~* Wake me up if anything happens."
With the Operator's final message, I closed my eyes.
The Operator muttered with a slightly hollow expression. "But the Stone of Fortune is real..."
When she was reinstated after being forcibly dismissed from her post in charge of the Demon Realm, too much time had already passed. The friend she had personally gifted the artifact to was no longer of this world, and she couldn't even find their descendants.
Because of that, while she was glad to be reminded of her friend like this, a part of her heart felt melancholy.
Watching the peacefully sleeping Head Mod, she let out a long yawn and turned off her admin console. Or rather, she tried to.
"Oh my."
For a brief moment, a short but intense flash of light burst from the Stone of Fortune.
"Then, could it be...?"
The Stone of Fortune, an artifact that only bestowed its effects upon a worthy wielder. This meant it had granted the Head Mod's wish.
"No wonder. He seemed extraordinary from the moment we first met."
The look in the Operator's eyes as she stared at the Head Mod was far from ordinary.
"Shall we find out in due time?"
Waking up from a sweet slumber, I stretched. "Hup." As always, I logged onto the gallery.
I also checked the backlog of Concept Posts. The gallery's status was normal.
But then. "Huh?" There was one post among the recent Concept Posts that had a surprisingly high number of comments.
It was a post written by someone who seemed to be Yurix's older brother. In the proof shot, both brothers were kowtowing side by side. Since the gallery users seemed to be accepting it and moving on, I just watched without saying anything.
And then, two days later.
"Son of a..." Another damn fanart had been uploaded. Lately, the gallery had been flooded with topics about the Head Mod, and this fanart was one of the main culprits. There was a clear demand, and quite a few people were supplying it.
And the one churning out the highest quality pieces among them was... "The Fixed Nick, Ma-Gallery Cartoonist."
Digging through his post history, five years ago he had posted about secluding himself in the mountains to live in harmony with nature. Since then, his posts had been sporadic, until at some point, he started drawing webtoons.
"Here it is. Four years ago." I unearthed his very first drawing post.
"He's someone who worked hard in such a harsh environment for years to become an amazing artist."
It wasn't easy to openly express dissatisfaction to someone like that, especially when they were drawing fanart of me (albeit heavily distorted). Besides, even if I did complain, what would happen?
"The gallery users would throw a massive fit."
But if the gallery's hot topic was always about the 'Head Mod', browsing the forum wasn't any fun.
"How could it be fun for me when everyone is only talking about me?"
My house was still being built, and the Sub-mods were doing a fine job of cleaning up the usual trolls. And...
"As expected, that Stone of Fortune the Operator talked about was a scam."
For the past few days, forget a sexy, voluptuous woman—I hadn't even seen a woman's shadow. So, the only thing I could do was browse the gallery.
"But it's so boring..."
Thus, I had to take extreme measures.
"I shall disappear."
The Head Mod topic keeps rolling? Then I just shouldn't browse as the Head Mod. If the person in question didn't show up, the topic would naturally die down. After some time, normal topics would start circulating again.
Until now, I hadn't had much time to leisurely browse the gallery. But now that the trolls had been largely eradicated, and I had figured out a way to boost the Sub-mods' work efficiency (by delivering fried chicken, cola, and cheese balls)...
"I want to enjoy some forum time too."
Only, without the gallery users knowing it was me. So, I logged into my main account, PurebloodsMustDie.
"Man, how long has it been?"
Logging into the Fixed Nick PurebloodsMustDie, aka the PMD account, after such a long time felt like returning to my cozy room on my very first military leave. But that feeling was short-lived.
"Huh?"
I was taken aback by the mountain of notifications that had piled up.
9999+
"Why are there so many notifications?"
It wasn't common for notifications to pile up like this on an account. Notifications only triggered under three conditions: when someone commented on my post, when someone replied to my comment, or when my post made it to the Concept Posts page. But...
"Over 9,999?"
I had never experienced anything like this in all my years of browsing. What on earth...? Was it a macro... or had I been targeted by some highly inefficient, manual spam attack in this fantasy world?
Curious, I clicked on the notification tab.
"???"
All those countless notifications were comments and replies sent to me by just one single person.
What was even more chilling was that despite my extensive history of browsing this gallery...
"...Who the hell are you?"
I was seeing this Fixed Nick, Only Looking At You, for the very first time today.