Who Even Is This Person?

It's day three since I woke up in this body. By now, opening the gallery first thing in the morning had become my routine in this world.

I poured hot water into a cup of instant ramen, waited the three minutes, and refreshed the Hunter Gallery as I did.

The Basilisk guide I'd posted yesterday had blown past 3,100 upvotes, and SeoAChan♥ was holding down the first comment slot yet again.

When exactly does this person sleep? At 6:14 in the morning, they'd already left a comment: "Have a wonderful day today, [Anonymous]!!" A hunter who's a morning person, I guess?

Or maybe they run dungeons all night and open the gallery on the commute home?

Beneath the comment, the gallery conversation was flowing in an entertaining direction.

First time I'd ever seen someone describe four hours of sleep as "a whole." This person's source of energy clearly wasn't sleep — it was exclamation marks.

While eating my ramen, I mapped out today's plan.

Up until yesterday, I'd been posting guides for existing dungeons.

Since those dungeons were already well known, people could immediately verify that my guides were accurate, and that had been building my credibility.

But today, I was leveling up.

A hidden dungeon.

In Ether Chronicle, hidden dungeons were secret dungeons whose entrances only opened once specific conditions were met.

I'd discovered all 43 of them in the game, and the most accessible of the lot was the Forest Altar on Mt. Gwanak's southern hiking trail. The condition was simple.

At that particular spot, if a being with mana tapped the ground three times, the entrance would open.

Even an F-rank met the minimum mana sensitivity threshold, so in principle I could open it myself.

But opening it myself would be insanity.

Hidden dungeon or not, there'd be monsters inside, and if an F-rank walked in, they'd be dissolved within three seconds of the entrance.

The right move was to reveal the location and let someone else clear it.

I wrote the post.

"I just know" had apparently become my trademark.

Honestly, I couldn't exactly write "I know because I spent 10,000 hours playing the original game of this world in my past life," so "I just know" was the most efficient answer available.

I made the post, set my phone down, and washed the dishes.

The fourth cup ramen container needed clearing before it could join the Tower of Pisa on my desk.

A little housekeeping was necessary to maintain my dignity as a human being, after all.

When I finished the dishes and came back, fifteen minutes had passed.

The gallery was in upheaval.

31 upvotes. 67 comments.

Sixty-seven comments in fifteen minutes?

Hunter Primer's point was sharp. The mandatory reporting of hidden dungeon discoveries —

that was a real-world rule that hadn't existed in the game. In this world, apparently you had to report a hidden dungeon once you discovered it.

But I hadn't "discovered" it — I already "knew" about it. So legally speaking, was that even a problem? Ah. Yeah, I hadn't thought that one through.

Still, more important than that right now were the two reactions sitting at the very bottom of the thread.

211 was going to verify it personally. Ban request on the line and everything. This person was a confirmed doer.

The type who doesn't settle fights in words but marches out to test them with their own body. And "request a permanent ban" meant they'd show no mercy if my post turned out to be false — you can't post something like that without considerable confidence.

Which also meant this person carried real weight in the gallery.

And directly beneath that.

SeoAChan said she could "leave right now."

So this person belonged to a guild based near Mt. Gwanak.

A healer. A guild near Mt. Gwanak. In Ether Chronicle, the healer-centric guild with its base near Mt. Gwanak was...

Baekhap Guild. It had to be.

Baekhap Guild. A female-hunter-centric guild. Guild master Na Eun-su. And one S-rank healer on the roster.

What was her name again?

Ah, right. Yoon Seo-a.

...No way. Could SeoAChan♥ be...?

Nah, that's a stretch. Plenty of people are named Seo-a.

And what kind of S-rank hunter lurks on a minor gallery with a nickname that has a ♥ in it? That's just not possible.

But what if — what if, SeoAChan♥ really was the S-rank healer Yoon Seo-a?

An S-rank hunter who clears dungeons off my guides, posts seven exclamation marks under my threads, and writes "Have a nice day" at six in the morning.

...No. No way. Moving on.

2 p.m. The gallery was on fire in real time.

175's comment — "if Kimchi Fried Rice goes, it won't be there" — racked up 28 upvotes.

Kimchi Fried Rice's position as the gallery's official reverse indicator had apparently solidified completely. I'm sure he feels wronged, but honestly, he brought this on himself.

3:47 p.m.

211 was back.

347 upvotes. In fifteen minutes. Three verification photos and a single line: "223's information was accurate. Acknowledged."

211's verification carried a different kind of weight. When the person who's picked fights with you every single day goes out, checks with their own eyes, and admits they were wrong, that's a hundred times more powerful a guarantee than anyone's casual "thank you."

The gallery lost its mind.

Hunter Primer's point was sharp again.

I hadn't considered that revealing a hidden dungeon's location might count as a regulatory violation.

But I didn't "discover" it — I already "knew" about it from the start, so whether the discovery-reporting obligation applied was murky at best. Might come back to bite me later. For now, I'd play ignorant and move on.

Then came SeoAChan♥'s reaction.

"Did you come from the future?" Not the future, exactly — another world — but I suppose the direction was roughly similar.

Truthfully, "came from the future" was half sincerity, not entirely a joke — but who would believe that?

Evening fell. The hidden dungeon post passed 800 upvotes, and the Hunter ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Gallery made the real-time trending list. Rumors were even spreading that "Mt. Gwanak hidden dungeon" had hit the portal's trending searches.

I was lying in bed scrolling my phone when a DM notification popped up. A gallery message.

Sender: SeoAChan♥.

Baekhap Guild.

So SeoAChan♥ really was with Baekhap Guild. And the guild master wanted to meet me.

That was a problem — if we met, they'd figure out I was F-rank.

Out there in the gallery, I was living as this almighty guide oracle. If I showed up in person and said, "Actually, I'm an F-rank who scrapes by on convenience store lunch boxes," that trust could crater to zero.

I agonized over my reply, then wrote it.

I sent it and put my phone down.

A strange feeling lingered. The sincerity that came through in SeoAChan♥'s message was heavier than I'd expected.

"There's something I really want to ask you sincerely" — that carried a different tone from the usual disposable lightness of the gallery.

But there was something bothering me even more than that. A new post had gone up on the gallery's front page.

211 had started profiling me.

Hmm. Was I screwed?