Welcome, Newbie — 2
Malice is not the private property of anomalies.
Humans can pour out that same horrific malice—more painfully, even, and with a sharper edge. I proved as much to those anomaly bastards, and the reaction was every bit as violent as I'd expected.
I'm not joking when I say I was pretty satisfied. Watching even those miserable anomalies recoil in disgust pulled a short laugh out of me, and what pleased me most was the reaction from the one who'd slapped up that gore shot earlier and called it a tip.
Why was I showing it? I left a reply as if I truly didn't understand a thing.
Watching that anomaly seethe cooled my anger, if only a little. A moment ago I'd been terrified, one bad minute from losing my mind in this suffocating mess, and now I was simply having a good time. All of it thanks to that Halcas image I'd seen before.
If it's an image I've already looked at, I can post it however I like. That's the only reason I pulled this off.
In a word, the picture was one I'd already seen myself.
"……Fuck."
I hadn't exactly wanted to see it either. I just couldn't sleep at dawn, went poking around some community, and there the post was. The title was pretty aggressive bait, honestly, and that's the only reason I clicked. I got played. That son of a bitch. Why me…….
"……Fine. Thanks to you, I landed a real hit on those anomaly bastards."
You piece of shit—because it was the dead of dawn and no mod was wearing the armband, you left that thing sitting on the recommended feed for the better part of half an hour. Even so, you're the reason I could fight back against the anomalies. Sincerely, thank you. I'll forgive you now. Rest in peace.
This time I went through the posts flooding the board. Just as I'd expected, the gallery was wallpapered with people talking about me.
Maybe it was because they were seeing the image for the first time. Unlike me, who'd already grown somewhat used to it, every one of them was thrashing out of their mind. Yes—fear, you anomalies. This is true horror, and true malice! Humans are more frightening than any anomaly!
Just then, a post rose to the top.
What the fuck? No way.
Thrown for a second, I hit refresh on my post.
The image I'd uploaded was gone.
No. My image. Fuck!
Maybe that was why the comments had swung so hard from what they'd been a moment ago.
Looking at the reactions, I felt a strange displeasure. Why? Because the anomalies were happy? That could certainly have been it. No—it felt purer than that. Something more fundamental. Belatedly, I understood what I was feeling.
Ah. So this is how a shitposter feels.
I simply didn't like that the mess I'd stirred up had been swept clean. My attention had been stolen. A gallery arsonist still needed the board in flames. They dared ignore me? In that spirit I wrote one more post. No disgust-image this time. Even so, the gallery was definitely going to catch fire again.
The comments landed the instant the post went up.
The first wave wasn't kind. Public opinion on me was simply bad. Most of them wrote me off as a lunatic and rushed to defend the Mod, insisting the thing had to go. It really had been an image soaked in disgust. Still, give it a little time and other reactions started to surface.
Sure enough, just as I'd predicted, opinion split dead even—like the whole board was a breath from blowing. Users who'd already been unhappy with the Mod demanded an explanation even harder. Aware of how it was going, the Mod was quick to comment on my post.
A plain explanation, if plain was the word. The moment I saw that comment I couldn't help a snort of a smile. Every piece of it was what I'd already expected. This was where it started. I didn't hesitate before putting up the next post.
Violent reactions flew back and forth, and this time the lean was a little more my way.
Everyone was busy cursing the Mod. Well, it couldn't be helped. Right or wrong, the seat of Mod was a job that lived to eat shit. Give them an opening and every user in the gallery would pile on. Thanks to that, the Mod's reputation had plunged straight into the abyss.
Opinion that had already been bad only rotted further as time went on. Maybe this kind of situation was a first for them. The speed of the response was oddly, noticeably slow. The communities I'd crawled through would've put out a statement much faster.
Only after still more time had passed did the Mod belatedly put up a post.
Reading it, I could taste the win. I'd won.
See? That's what you get for deleting an image without permission.
If you'd at least asked, none of this would've happened. Of course, even if they had asked, I wouldn't have taken it down.
Well. This is enough now.
The gallery had burned plenty, as far as I was concerned. Setting more of it alight from here wouldn't gain me anything. It was time to stop.
By now, they'll all be aware of me.
They'd have to register that someone like me existed on this board. It might still be too soon, but given time I'd become a genuinely well-liked regular. Then no matter how suspicious a post I wrote, they'd still take me for an anomaly. Perfect.
What I need now is to raise my favorability.
So I commented at once.
The anomalies' reaction to that comment was the stuff of legend.
The unlikable image ought to be gone completely now. If anything, they might cast me as some sage for having forgiven her.
"All right. Now."
I rose from my seat with the tension gathered in my chest again. It was time to get out of this filthy school.