Chapter 5
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Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: Shocking and Horrifying Newbie (5)
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Why the Hell is an Infection Lord There??
— Ragna Rothburg
I mean, an Infection Lord showing up in the starter village is already ridiculous, but the newbie who decapitated it and killed it... what the hell?
What's the deal with that newbie bastard's identity??
What the hell did I just see?
It wouldn't die even after unloading all my ammo, so he decapitated it?
Is that something a normal person would think of?
I think the direction of this discussion is off.
Isn't it weirder that an Infection Lord showed up as the boss in the starter village?
Wasn't the fixed boss for beginner quests supposed to be an Infection Spore?
I've lived over a thousand years and this is the first time I've seen an Infection Lord as a starter village boss.
From now on, let's praise the newbie.
Earth's Slayer and Nightmare of Infection Lords!
Praise Auto-Nickname 1582!
We won't die if we don't praise him, right...?
Just posting that one photo had turned the gallery upside down.
Let me explain what happened.
Originally, a creature called an Infection Spore was supposed to appear as the ancient boss.
But instead, an Infection Lord—two whole levels higher—showed up as the boss.
Normally, that would've been an unbeatable foe, and I should've run away.
But unaware of the context, I just beat it to death.
No wonder it wouldn't die no matter how hard I hit it.
The gallery folks said a thousand rounds of ammo was plenty.
I did think it was weird that it kept tanking until I ran out of bullets.
So, to sum up the situation...
— Auto-Nickname 1582
A guy who shouldn't be in the lowbie zone showed up,
and I decapitated him to death, right?
Spot on.
Yeah, you got it exactly.
Are you even human? This situation is straight-up insane lololol
Did you do anything like hero or warrior stuff in your previous world?
— Auto-Nickname 1582
I was a total shut-in NEET?
— Space Engineer
???? Not some special forces guy?
— Auto-Nickname 1582
Ah, well, I was once kidnapped by shady dudes for a year and eight months and called a hero. Don't dig too deep, you'll get hurt.
— Space Engineer
Whoa, so he wasn't ordinary after all. Now it makes sense.
It seems I'd stirred up quite the storm.
The gallery folks were showing this much interest, after all.
After staring at the gallery for so long, my body felt stiff.
I stood up, stretched, and loosened up.
Beep! Beep-boop!
As I was stretching, a strange mechanical noise came from the side.
Catching my attention, I turned toward the sound.
There lay the corpse of what the gallery called an Infection Lord.
And it was being cleared away by robots that had appeared out of nowhere.
They'd shown up when the ship's systems activated.
I examined the robots closely.
They had a pretty cute design.
Overall, they looked like eggs.
No legs—instead, they floated through the air.
How the hell did that work?
It wasn't propulsion for lift; it seemed like some third force keeping them afloat.
Beep! Beep-boop!
Noticing my stare, maybe? The robots turned to me and smiled.
Well, more accurately, they displayed smiling emoticons on their interface panels.
'They've got tech to make legless floating robots, but the interface is this janky?'
The robots extended built-in arms to clean the ship and incinerate the corpse.
Thanks to them, the ship interior was already pretty clean after just thirty minutes.
I got up and approached the working robots.
"Hi! What's your name?"
"Nice to meet you, Captain! I'm Unit 137. Is there anything I can help with?"
The robot's voice was as cute as its looks.
It expressed emotions through facial expressions on its interface panel.
When I patted its head, it seemed pleased and made happy eye shapes.
"You guys are so freaking cute."
I stroked Unit 137's head.
Unable to resist the cuteness, I snapped a photo.
The moment I opened the gallery to upload it,
I sighed at the sight of the gallery folks still chasing my bait.
Shouldn't they take a break after eating already?
They're rolling the bait even harder now?
So the newbie was a hero in his past life?
— SF Worldview Fanboy
The monster who massacred millions of civilians and terrorized the entire continent of Asia is now in our gallery, right?
You understood correctly.
I knew it from when he casually talked about wiping out a human subspecies.
I wondered how he came up with turning humans into soap, but after seeing the newbie today, it fits.
— Auto-Nickname 1582
That wasn't me, fuck. Wanna die for real?
I'd just said it as a joke.
But now they're rolling more bait with it.
In the gallery folks' worldview, I was already a continent-terrorizing slayer and a special forces agent hiding immense power.
I let out a big sigh and shook my head.
These guys never stop with the brainrot.
To change the mood, I uploaded the robot photo I'd just taken.
How about we talk about my cute robots, folks?
— Auto-Nickname 1582
The cutest thing I've ever seen in my life.
Eggies are cute, yeah.
Lvl 0 baby Eggies, it's been ages lololol
What? Bragging about your kids time?
— Auto-Nickname 1582
Kids bragging?
— Cleaning Specialist
Call the Eggies you posted pics of your kids. It's like a nickname lol
— Cleaning Specialist
Think of the ship main computer as the wife, and Eggies as the kids lol
— Cleaning Specialist
Speaking of which, lemme show off my kids too.
While the bait's rolling, time to brag about my kids
— Cleaning Specialist
Aren't my babies cute?
What gym do your Eggies go to?
Whoa, those gains are insane lololol
Isn't that a Tiberium Ion Cannon on its arm?
— (OP) Cleaning Specialist
As expected from an engineer, good eye. That's the one.
— Space Engineer
Tiberium Cannon? That's an anti-tank weapon! Why strap it to your arm, you madman lololol
— (OP) Cleaning Specialist
In our line of work, it's infantry-grade firepower.
That gallery user's Eggies looked ridiculously buff.
Mine couldn't even compare.
Borrowing one gallery's term, they'd "bulked up."
The others were shocked too, so it seemed that user's Eggies were exceptionally strong.
Whoa, why do your Eggies look so strong??
— Auto-Nickname 1582
Did you buy them somewhere for money?
I want buffed-up Eggies too. How do I get them?
You don't buy them—you level up and upgrade them along with the ship.
— (OP) Auto-Nickname 1582
Level up? Like a game system?
— Cleaning Specialist
Think of it like playing a ship-raising game. Explore ruins or eliminate Anomalies for rewards.
Use those rewards to upgrade the ship or strengthen the Eggies.
I couldn't keep up with the conversation flow at all.
The most baffling part was the word "Anomaly."
What's an Anomaly?
Then the gallery folks started piling on comments like they'd been waiting.
Whoa! You don't know what an Anomaly is?!
To sum it up, it was something like this.
This world has a system called "Anomalies."
An Anomaly is a catch-all term for supernatural phenomena that completely defy normal physical laws, each manifesting differently.
Sometimes an entire civilization goes mad.
Other times, monsters appear out of nowhere.
According to the gallery, I'd already experienced an Anomaly myself.
Us crossing dimensions to get here.
That in itself was the result of an Anomaly phenomenon.
Thinking about it, it made sense.
Humanity wasn't native here—we came from another dimension.
So how do Anomalies occur? Just randomly?
— Ragna Rothburg
Nah, it builds up like stacks.
— Auto-Nickname 1582
Stacks?
— Ragna Rothburg
Heard of stacks building up in poker? Same thing.
Anomaly stacks follow a simple formula.
Anomaly Stack = Civilization Level × Event Intensity × Population
The higher the civilization level,
the bigger the event in the area,
and the larger the population, the higher the Anomaly chance.
For example, say there's Civilization A in the Ariel Star System with advanced tech.
Then A starts a conquest war against the whole galaxy with its mighty power.
It succeeds, boosting their tech and population even more.
As their civ level and pop rise, Anomaly odds go up.
Plus, the war is a massive event, so intensity spikes too.
Stacking too much like that triggers a powerful Anomaly,
and boom—civ destroyed.
Then "ruins" spawn in its place.
Explore those ruins for good rewards.
That was the gallery's explanation.
Listening sparked one question.
Got a question
— Auto-Nickname 1582
Wouldn't it be better for survival if we humans stuck together?
Our population's low, no real civilization, so as long as we don't cause trouble, seems fine.
Why communicate only via gallery and travel solo?
The gallery responded immediately.
We used to think that naively too.
We're people too—we want to. Being alone sucks. But there's a reason we don't.
The truth they revealed was shocking.
We're not normal sapients—we count as Anomalies, so two or more of us together multiplies stacks by hundreds.
In Alpha Universe, humans are special.
Extradimensional aliens.
So we have great power and potential, but a horrific curse.
Its name: Solitude.
In the early days, unaware, we gathered, made friends, colonized planets.
But we noticed something off. Anomalies got worse the more we grouped up.
Eventually, some smart gallery figured it out: humans grouping spikes stacks massively.
And even doing the same things, we stack more. That's why we can't build huge empires like others.
Realizing the truth, I stared blankly into space, overcome by emptiness.
Live alone in this vast universe?
That's seriously fucked. Never meet anyone, live alone forever? Endure that loneliness for centuries, millennia?
Right then.
One gallery dropped a meaningful comment.
Aren't you curious why those Xeno bastards exist?