Fighting Fire with Ice
(Photo of a blazing sun)
(Photo of another sun right next to it)
What the hell is this? Why are there two??? Did they start a double drop event without telling me? Or am I just hallucinating because it's too damn hot?
The photos in the "Why are there two?" post weren't distorted or out of focus. They clearly captured two distinct, crimson spheres hanging in different parts of the sky.
What was more...
It wasn't just happening in one place.
(Photo of the original sun in the sky)
(Photo of a second sun hovering near the sea)
It's floating like this here; the position, shape, and size are slightly different from the photo the other guy posted. Anyway, this sucks.
After that, eyewitness reports flooded in from all over.
"No way, surely not." Just in case, I cautiously stepped outside and looked up at the sky.
"...What?!"
There were two suns here as well. However, one looked much smaller than the ones in the photos. It felt almost like an artificially suspended balloon.
"Oh? That's that thing."
"Whoa, you scared me! Can you please make some noise when you walk?"
My mother, who was shielding her eyes with her hand and squinting at the sky, stared intently at the second sun.
"That's an artifact."
"...Pardon?"
"An artifact called a Sun Orb. Their ranks range from A to C depending on the individual piece, but that one looks like a B-rank. Its effect is to radiate heat and light."
Wait, if that was an artifact...
"Then does that mean someone put it up there on purpose?"
"Most likely. It consumes an absurd amount of mana, so it's a highly inefficient artifact that the Magic Towers rarely bring out."
"In the dead of summer? Why would they do that?"
"Well, if their plan was to make things hot, I'd say they succeeded. Highly inefficient, though. Anyway, I'm going back inside. Don't stay out too long either, or you'll get heatstroke."
I had no intention of staying out long either, so I immediately went back inside.
"Whew." If I had stayed out any longer, I would have been roasted alive.
Just as I was about to share this information on the gallery...
• It's all because of you, Head Mod [42]
• It's all because of you, Head Mod [43]
• It's all because of you, Head Mod [21]
• It's all because of you, Head Mod [64]
"?"
Suddenly, posts with the exact same title began spamming the gallery.
(Image of 8 Sun Orb artifacts floating in the sky)
The heatwave hitting the Demon Realm is retaliation for the Head Mod's reckless actions. How dare you drop a foul artifact on Aredria in broad daylight? The activation of these artifacts will not stop until the entire Demon Realm is scorched red. This is all because of the Head Mod you worship, so curse him as you wither and die!
The culprit had revealed themselves. The Ared Empire. The largest and most powerful human nation on the continent, and the one that had ignited the war between humans and demons.
But why is this my fault?
It was annoying enough that they were ruining the gallery with spam, but dragging me into it when I was just minding my own business made me twice as mad.
"I wasn't the one who terrorized Aredria."
It was true. I had never claimed responsibility. In fact, I had consistently denied it in the gallery. The gallery users had just jumped to their own conclusions, hyped it up, and run wild with the rumors.
"They believe gallery rumors without any filter?"
Well, there were plenty of people like that in my past life too. People who got overly invested in sensationalized, edited popular posts and ruined the comment sections were a dime a dozen.
Still, for this to be the official stance of a superpower like the Ared Empire...
"Look at the level of these humans."
It was incredibly disappointing.
The humans had succeeded in temporarily taking over the gallery with spam and spreading the information they wanted. However, the content of their posts was completely hollow.
"Please hate the Head Mod because it's his fault."
Just because someone with an obvious username like "Knight" spammed the gallery with lazy copy-pasted text didn't mean the gallery dwellers would go, "Ah! So this is all the Head Mod's fault!"
"What a pathetic attempt."
Sure enough, the comment section went exactly as I expected.
"You guys started this, right?"
Reina and the Ancient Demon God had cleaned up the brief chaos and taken follow-up measures, earning me a decent amount of points. Therefore...
"I'll just take a massive hit and release summer goods at cost price~"
Let's see who wins this.
(Meme of a grinning frog demon)
Sorry, but there's no such thing, Mabung-is lol. Instead, I've prepared something good, so go check out the Gallery Shop.
"Ugh, these contrarian bastards."
I had used the title as clickbait to get everyone to go to the shop, but it was a mistake. I should have used a different title. Fortunately, though...
While everyone else was clamoring for my photo, one user who had actually visited the Gallery Shop began enlightening the ignorant comment section. Consequently, the number of users visiting the shop started to grow.
(Photo of a Mabung-i wearing cooling sleeves, lying on a cooling mat, fanning himself, and eating ice)
Lying like this in the shade, I feel like I'm gonna catch a cold. Heatwave? You're a joke, lol.
(Photo of a Mabung-i with two squeeze ice pops in his mouth)
Regular ice has more volume, but it just tastes like plain water, right? But this ice is insanely sweet, lol. It's sweet, delicious, and freezing cold? How can anyone resist this???
"The response is great."
Everyone seemed to love it. There was an bizarrely long comment in the middle, but I let it slide. I didn't want to rain on the parade of the gallery dwellers who were finally enjoying some relief from the heat.
"Scorching the entire Demon Realm with mana-guzzling artifacts?"
Go ahead, try it.
"I'll just release unlimited ice~"
We'll see who goes bankrupt first.
The Gallery Administrator's good deed has been verified.
50% of the points spent on the good deed will be refunded!