Chapter 2
Chapter 2
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Pouring Interest
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The number of comments on my post had already surpassed thirty.
At first, there was a barrage of insults calling me some science-worshipping heretic.
Now they were asking everything from what school of magic I belonged to, to my race and the name of my planet.
Truth be told, I hadn't meant to pull this much aggro.
But seeing all this attention focused on me, it looked like my post title had struck a nerve with the mages.
From a mage's perspective, was science some kind of heresy or taboo?
Derivative posts about me were starting to pop up too.
Everyone seemed curious about my identity.
But there were so many questions I didn't know where to start, and that's when the admin showed up.
Things finally seemed to calm down a bit.
And the admin straight-up banned the worst offenders who'd been openly discriminatory.
If I didn't comment soon, I'd be next.
A flood of questions poured in under my comment.
Mostly about my race and school of magic.
I'm just a plain human, majoring in philosophy.
Had the admin gotten butthurt by my aggro-pulling title too?
What the hell was science to these gallery users?
I awkwardly explained why I'd written that science was superior.
Felt like I needed to clear up the misunderstanding first.
How the hell was I supposed to prove this?
There were magicians, but no mages.
More precisely, it wasn't primitive.
But the ice age made it that way.
Hard to call that a failure of science, though. More like nature's rampage.
The admin and gallery users demanded proof of civilization without magic.
Basically, upload a verification pic.
Night hadn't fallen yet, so I could step out briefly.
It'd burn calories like crazy, but if it meant help, I'd do it.
I left that comment and opened the entrance to my hideout.
A knife-like wind tore in, slicing at my skin.
The ice age city, now in ruins, welcomed me.
'Yeah. This is my situation. Still feels utterly hopeless.'
Talking to people after so long had made me forget my tragic reality for a moment.
Felt like a dream.
But opening the door, the bone-chilling cold dragged me back.
I'm one of the few survivors of the ice age.
Food ran out long ago.
Nothing left to burn, so I'd decided to end it all—a tiny, worthless human.
I posted and rubbed my freezing hands, breathing warm air on them.
One hard lesson from five years in the ice age:
Human hands and feet freeze fast.
Frostbite wrong, and you amputate.
Extremities freeze and rot first.
Then hell opens: inflammation, fever, coughs turning bloody.
Suffer alone, sicken alone.
Die alone.
So manage carefully.
I warmed my hands with breath before frostbite set in.
Ice age is cold, hungry, lonely.
No, loneliness is less now.
Sage Time Gallery exists.
Users who grasped my situation all offered sympathy.
From their view, surviving an ice age without mana or magic was unimaginable.
Over five years, I'd heard bits about other countries.
Japan, China, even the Pacific frozen. Couldn't verify, but three years ago a smuggler said seas were solid—no ships, so drive across.
That smuggler never returned.
Said he was heading to Hawaii outta nowhere. Died midway or settled there?
I don't get that part either.
They just said I awakened to truth.
I still don't know what magic power or mana really are.
They believed me!
Other users pitied me too. Good, I might get help.
Fill my belly?
No bugs left to eat even.
Eat snow? Too much snow drops body temp, causes cramps.
Really?
Like, for real?
This is legit?
Dimension mage can find my coordinates and send supplies!
Tears welled up suddenly.
Never got proper government aid in life.
Now aid from otherworldly mages I'd never met!
Luck.
Insane luck hit me.
The Magic Emperor trailed off.
Seemed reluctant to say it.
A user with extreme species hatred.
She's at universal level in spatial magic, the only sage who can scout or interfere with others' dimensions.
But lazy and indifferent, so low activity and chill. Still, admin seemed wary.
Wondering what kind she was, the dimension mage appeared.
Cosmic Dust, dimension mage. Race: Stardust, same as nickname.
Like something from Cthulhu mythos, eats other races' brains for knowledge.
Luckily—or not—she doesn't eat brains.
Also severe germaphobe and vegan.
And now I had to get help from this human-hater.