The Spicy Flavor of the Gallery

I hurriedly checked the gallery's moderation logs. Until just a few minutes ago, the gallery had been peaceful.

That was one of the slightly spicy posts. Next was a review.

And then there was this one.

Posts from other users who had received random food were also popping up one by one. It seemed the other two had gotten jajangmyeon and fried chicken. I lightly disciplined the idiots spewing nonsense in between with a quick 3-hour ban.

But then.

"There hasn't been any problematic posts so far."

Yet, at some point, every single post except for the Machine Race user's review had been deleted.

"Why did they delete everything?"

Upon checking, I saw they had all been processed by the sub-mod. I didn't really care if the users complained about an overzealous mod power-tripping from day one. The sub-mod would just have to deal with the backlash themselves.

"The problem is..."

My points were being deducted.

She didn't show up even after I called her repeatedly. And when she finally did, what did she say?

"Swinging the ban hammer?"

When I checked again, another 2,000 points had been deducted. If I left her alone for a few more minutes, I'd end up completely broke.

"This makes absolutely no sense."

At first, she was an excellent sub-mod, deleting disgusting images at incredible speeds and earning points by banning trolls.

"So what's the problem?"

The deducted points far exceeded the points she had earned. Her actions made it seem like she was intentionally trying to screw me over, to the point where "You crazy bitch" almost slipped out of my mouth.

"What the hell is she talking about?"

With that, the Ancient Demon God sent me hundreds of screenshots.

My reaction speed wasn't fast enough to avoid the screenshot she shoved in my face.

"My eyes!"

I was instantly flash-banged.

"I need eye bleach..."

[...What on earth is that?]

It seemed I wasn't the only one flash-banged. That brought me a small sliver of comfort.

"You're better off not knowing."

[No, it's automatically blurred for me, so I was genuinely curious.]

"No way."

Why didn't they give me such a wonderful feature...? After rubbing my aching eyes for a long time, I typed a reply.

If that was the case, I had nothing to say. The sub-mod, the Ancient Demon God, had simply done the job she was given.

Who posted what disgusting image at what time.

Who wrote posts or comments criticizing the Head Mod.

Who was acting overly friendly and forming cliques by calling out other fixed nicks.

Santa Cla—no, the sub-mod Ancient Demon God knew everything.

"Then shouldn't they be banned? Operator, why were my points deducted?"

[After 24 hours, the gallery system automatically grants them immunity.]

"What kind of garbage system is that?"

[Well, if the gallery admins or managers couldn't handle it within 24 hours, that's considered a dereliction of duty on their part.]

Come to think of it, that made sense.

I went through the users banned by the Ancient Demon God, filtered out the innocent ones (this task alone took about five hours), and unbanned them.

"Well, the deleted posts and comments are gone for good. What a shame."

There was nothing I could do about that. There was no restore function. However...

As soon as the banned users were released all at once, the gallery began to burn furiously.

The unintentional power-tripping of the sub-mod I had appointed. Because of that, the public sentiment I had worked so hard to build plummeted straight into the abyss. My points had also taken a massive hit.

"She does her job well, but she did it a bit too well."

"Whoa, this is crossing the line."

A few users were understanding, but the vast majority were absolutely furious, dragging my parents in and out of their coffins. Ah, yes. This is the true spicy flavor of the Cheerful Demon Realm Gallery.

Since I couldn't let them insult my perfectly healthy parents any longer, I posted an announcement.

"What? The reaction is better than I expected."

Come to think of it, I recalled seeing a post in passing once. It said that there was a severe food shortage across the Demon Realm, and many people were starving. It seemed to be true.

"They go wild the moment they see food. Are they really starving?"

To be honest, when I saw posts begging for food or complaining about shortages, I had just dismissed them as attention-seeking trolls. And for good reason—even though the mountain village I lived in was considered poor, almost no one went hungry, even if we weren't living in abundance.

So I had subconsciously assumed other places were similar. But.

"This reaction is genuine."

I had heard that the Demon Realm was vast, with countless barren wastelands where farming was impossible. On top of that, with the war dragging on for centuries, many people must have been conscripted into the army. Whether in farming or fishing villages, there would have been a severe shortage of labor.

"Is there really a food shortage?"

If so, everything made sense. Why the gallery users went so wild over a food called chicken. Why they swarmed like bees at the mere mention of distributing random food to excellent reporters. And why they reacted with such deep disappointment.

[Head Mod, have you finally decided to perform a good deed?]

"It's not really that—"

[Excellent decision! The more users we have and the more posts and comments written daily, the higher the gallery's level will rise.]

"Is there any benefit to leveling up?"

[Of course! It unlocks convenient features, and the benefits for the Head Mod will increase as well.]

Is that so? If it benefited me as well, there was no reason to hesitate. I couldn't solve the widespread famine in the Demon Realm on my own.

"But I can at least provide a simple meal."

Filling their empty stomachs would give them the leisure to access the gallery. And just as the Operator said, it would help raise the gallery's level. I naturally turned my gaze toward the Shop.

"I should distribute as many cheap things as possible."

As I scrolled all the way down.

"Oh, they have this."

I found a familiar food.

"Dropping about ten thousand of these should do, right?"

Ding!

The Head Mod's apology compensation was uploaded to the gallery Shop. And the users scrambled to buy them one by one.

"Hmm, is it really that good?"

To me, someone with the palate and mindset of a modern human, it was nothing special. But to the gallery users, it was clearly more than just a small slice of happiness. I thought the incident would finally draw to a close.