The Black Death (1)

“That’s no Gallum.”

Resting her chin on her hand, Erzsebet leaned back against her throne.

(4.444.404). A bizarre, unregistered IP.

Of course, there were a handful of gallery users who wandered the board without a registered handle, lurking under anonymous designations. Even so, the numeric strings attached to their posts revealed their approximate origin, rendering anonymity practically meaningless. If she ever felt the urge to swing the ban hammer, she could do ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠so at any second.

“An intruder.”

This wanderer was fundamentally different.

No, calling them a Gallum was wrong to begin with. Erzsebet knew at a single glance that an agitator from the outside world had breached the gallery’s perimeter.

She shadowed the strange IP in silence.

All the while, (4.444.404) casually roamed the forums, poking around various categories and system tabs like a curious tourist.

The intruder had the gall to brazenly pry for information directly from the regulars. If there was any small mercy, it was that the entity remained locked out of Juddak’s core system tools.

Erzsebet could not stomach watching this any longer. It was bad enough that someone had interrupted her quiet celebration with her personal refrigerator, but now an outsider dared violate the sanctuary of the gallery itself?

Exercising her authority as Assistant Moderator, she spawned an encrypted, private thread and dragged (4.444.404) into the space.

The anonymous user found themselves trapped inside the isolated thread in a split second, yet not a shred of panic escaped them.

The intruder parried her interrogation with cool amusement, dropping remarks that betrayed a clear awareness of the Head Mod’s existence.

Threatening a ban did nothing to shake them. They even flaunted nonexistent emotes, wearing an aura of absolute leisure.

Erzsebet snapped.

Unleashing her sub-moderator authority, Erzsebet smashed the execution command down. In the same breath, the IP dissolved into dust and was purged from the gallery for all eternity.

Yet the unbothered arrogance the entity had displayed, alongside the sheer power required to force entry into the network, weighed heavily on her mind.

“Juddak is in danger…”

Gnawing at her thumbnail, Erzsebet rose from her throne. She was the sovereign of the Floating Abandoned Castle, but she was also a Paddak. Ensuring the personal safety of the Head Moderator fell squarely within her sworn obligations.

In the blink of an eye, she vanished from the throne room without leaving a whisper behind.

A few weeks had drifted by since the Great Refrigerator Incident.

Having spent drastically more time surfing the gallery from my bed than actually walking on my own two feet, I had my finger firmly on the pulse of the board’s collective psyche.

Naturally, the refrigerator hype had shown no signs of dying down. Users were slamming their own heads into walls to give themselves amnesia so they could wake up fresh with the thrill of expecting a fridge tomorrow, while others had concussed themselves so thoroughly they were speaking in tongues. Meanwhile, the smug minority who actually secured a unit kept pouring fresh kerosene on the burning discourse.

I had zero intention of putting up more stock, of course. Even this initial batch had drained mana stones at such a frantic rate that the city was swimming in spent Heat Stones.

“Mana stones… must be conserved.”

Groaning, I dragged myself upright. Glancing at the clock, I realized it was past time for a walk. Living like an oversized sloth had pushed my leg muscles to the threshold of complete atrophy. This was purely a survival-mandated constitutional.

“Urrrgh.”

Swinging out of bed, I set my feet down onto the floor with agonizing care. Had the Apollo astronauts felt this alienated from gravity when they first stepped back onto Earth? After taking a deep, steeling breath and completing the arduous ritual of putting on outside clothes, a soft chime chimed from the interface.

“Ah, just my daily death threat.”

Where else in the cosmos would you find an Assistant Mod actively extorting the Head Mod? But truthfully, I had grown numb to it. For weeks now, Godjukhup had sent me these menacing notes like clockwork every morning. It seemed like she had something real to get off her chest, but whether her curse had scrambled her brain or she was simply letting her true nature show, I had no earthly idea.

I minimized the window and cranked open the heavy vault door of the bunker. In a rush of warmth, the sunlight I had neglected for weeks bathed my frame.

“Maybe I should just head back inside…”

The temptation was intoxicating, but I had already indulged it for over a month straight. My skin had turned so ghostly pale that a vampire would probably mistake me for kin. Resigning myself to fate, I forced my sluggish legs into gear and adhered strictly to my predetermined minimal routine.

“Lap the square while soaking up maximum sunlight, then straight back home.”

As I strolled, I took a relaxed look around to see how the city was faring beyond the screen. The streets were markedly cleaner and brighter than when I last ventured out. The persistent threat of wandering beasts meant people couldn’t let their guards down entirely, but compared to the desolate ruin this place had once been, it was practically paradise.

“Alright, that’s plenty…!”

Exactly ten minutes into my trek, I spun around to retreat to the bunker. I was just about to reach the threshold and slip inside without incident when a sound snagged my ears.

“Uuuugh…”

A faint, ragged groan floated through the air. It was far too weak and strained to brush off as petty complaining — it carried the hollow rattle of someone taking their dying breath. Peering toward the alleyway, I spotted a tiny young girl collapsed on the ground, swathed in ragged cloth.

“She’s probably just knocked out from exhaustion,” I muttered to myself.

“So hungry… hurts…”

“Must mean she worked herself ragged today.”

“Hic… I don’t want to die…”

Curled up beside a mound of refuse, shivering violently, the girl’s feeble whimpers pierced through my rationalizations. I stopped my retreat toward the bunker and redirected my footsteps into the alley.

Storytime: So I picked up a random little girl off the street today.

“How is this my actual life…?”

“*Gulp, crunch, wolf.*”

All I wanted was a quick ten-minute constitutional to fend off heart failure, and somehow I had returned with a stray child. While I clutched my temples in mounting bewilderment, the girl was busy vacuuming down every plate within arm’s reach. Anticipating a fragile stomach, I had selected light, digestible dishes, yet the sheer volume disappearing down her small frame defied all known laws of physics.

“Hic… so good…”

Tears welled up in her wide, round eyes, but she refused to pull her nose out of the food for even a second. After several frantic minutes, she let out a long, contented sigh, savored the lingering warmth, and then abruptly snapped her gaze toward me.

“Human. What do you seek from me?”

“Excuse me?”

Had she been roleplaying some edgy forum character? Her mouth spilled out the precise cadence of an insufferable troll with a fixed handle. But this was an alternate fantasy world; frankly, nothing should surprise me anymore. An orphaned girl adopting the pompous arrogance of a forum shitposter wasn’t even near the top of the weirdness scale.

“Even if I wanted something, do you actually have anything to offer?”

“Uuu…”

She clearly didn’t have two pennies to rub together. And even if she did, my conscience wasn’t bankrupt enough to rob a starving child. More importantly, her physical condition had looked dire from the moment I found her: waxen skin, unfocused pupils, and a body that trembled continuously despite the clean, warm garments I had given her.

“C-Cold…”

I studied her for a moment before waving a hand.

“Follow me.”

“W-Where to?”

She had followed me blindly when food was on the line, but now that her belly was full, her survival instincts seemed to have rebooted. Peeking her eyes over the edge of the dining table she gripped so tightly, her gaze darted back and forth with frantic uncertainty. Realizing she had nowhere else ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to run, she crept behind me into my personal bedroom.

“It’s a temperature-controlled waterbed. You can borrow it until you’re back on your feet.”

“…Borrow what?”

“This whole room.”

There were plenty of spare rooms throughout the bunker anyway, and acquiring another mattress was trivial. With system points overflowing, being stingy over a spare bedroom was utterly pointless. At my casual declaration, fresh tears brimmed in her large eyes.

“B-But why? I… I crossed over into this place with evil intentions, you know…!”

Heavy tears spilled over her cheeks from ruby-red irises. What, had she sneaked in planning to swipe some silverware?

“Did you actually carry out those evil intentions?”

“Huh? N-No, I couldn't. Forcing my way through cost me all my strength…”

“Then you didn't do it.”

“Wait, hey—!”

I scooped the girl up, deposited her onto the mattress, and deftly rolled her into a tight, warm blanket burrito. The utterly baffled look in her eyes was priceless.

“I can find it in my heart to forgive a prospective troll.”

“W-What are you saying?!”

“Just rest here until you heal up. I have plenty of questions for you, but those can wait for later.”

Leaving her tucked away, I booted up the gallery. Several hours had already slipped past, and going this long without checking the forum was unthinkable.

“Not that anything wild happened, surely.”

It would just be the same old refrigerator brainrot that had dominated the feed for the last month. Confident in that assumption, I pulled up the latest posts.

“Wait.”

The state of the board was alarming. It looked as though a sudden plague had broken out, with nearly every single thread filled with members wailing in agony.

Just as a dreadful realization flickered across my mind, violent coughing erupted from the bed.

“*Cough! Hack!*”

“Oh, shit.”

The girl’s eyes rolled back slightly, and a dark spray of blood accompanied her hacking cough, staining the clean duvet.

In that horrifying instant, the chill in the back of my mind crystallized into certainty.

“The Black Death.”

The monstrous catastrophe that had once wiped out tens of millions in history. The dreaded specter inseparable from any medieval era had finally descended upon this world.