Chapter 11

「Monkey Gallery」

An internet community popped up.

Monkey Photo (1) yea(992.201)

What species is this monkey? (3) yea(321.31)

It looked like a community where people just talked about monkeys, the animal, literally.

Though, maybe it wasn’t very active, since there were long gaps between posts.

A month, or even a few months at most.

And that made sense, since monkeys weren’t exactly a popular animal.

If it were a dog or cat gallery, posts would be uploaded in no time.

But monkeys…?

If you asked whether they were mainstream, well, they weren’t.

I recalled the words of ‘Five-Clan Eliminator’, the one who had handed me the link to the 「Monkey’s Paw Site」.

-It’s the 「Monkey’s Paw Site」. It’s a Q… QR code you can use to access it. It’s a… a reward you get for being a Monkey Gallery blue tag for a whole year.

It seems your constitution changes when you become a mage.

I remember his trembling voice and every last bit of his gaze vividly.

My memory definitely feels sharper.

‘He definitely said Monkey Gallery. Is this the right gallery?’

Five-Clan Eliminator.

Is it true that he was a blue tag in this community?

For reference, “blue tag” is short for “blue badge.”

It’s slang for community administrators.

Depending on their rank, an orange or blue badge would appear next to their nickname.

To use a restaurant kitchen analogy, the orange tag, ‘orange badge’, would be the head chef in charge.

The blue tag, ‘blue badge’, would be about the level of a sous-chef.

What these badge-wearing admins do is block trolls or delete macro posts that don’t fit the community’s purpose.

‘Five-Clan Eliminator’ probably did those kinds of things as one of those badge holders.

Though, I doubted whether the ‘Monkey Gallery’ he said he managed was really this place.

Maybe there’s something else to it.

Just as I was frowning with that thought.

Shhhhhhh─.

The letters of the posts spread out before my eyes began to move as if alive, like ants.

It felt like all my pores burst open at once and my mind went numb.

The letters, swarming like living creatures, rearranged themselves and lined up new sentences.

Like below.

「yea(321.321)」

How many digits is this damn prevention code? (3)

Writing one post takes a shitload of damn effort

└The Anomaly-Clan trolls got us a 12-digit code on entry lol lmao

└Seeing the Anomalies jump around, looks like the Nguyen witch kicking the bucket is truelol lmao

└└It’s Thailand, not Nguyen, you dumbass

「Sillim-dong Magic Claw」

Don’t like the prevention code? Then get a registered user, lol (2)

Of course, with your average ‘juice magician’ level, you can’t even see the ‘make registered user’ button lol

└Don’t you know that making a registered user gets the Management Foundation monitoring you? I’m not making one on purpose.

└Ah, just juice! The excuses are pa. the. tic!

「Our Neighborhood Shaman King」

I made this new cooking foil armor, what do you think? (97)

(A photo of a coat plastered with cooking foil)

└lmao Gonna be damn hot wearing that in summer

└Wearing that, aren’t you just announcing ‘I’m a magician’?

└The monkeys will just think you’re some crazy lunaticlol lmao lmao

└Our Neighborhood Shaman King: No, but this shit’s effect is insane, trust me. Blocks most Anomalies from getting close.

「yea(44.44)」

I can see that ghost, please save me (3)

「God Who Rules the Korean Peninsula」

Don’t click the post above, it’s a trolling post from the Anomaly Ledger (5)

It’ll be deleted soon

└This blue tag’s doing a good job lmao lmao

└IP address 44,44, what the hell is thatlol lmao

└They hung 12 Anomaly prevention codes on it, what kind of Anomaly manages to get through that?

└Curious? If you’re curious, go ahead and click it yourself.

└Looks like the three guys already commenting got caughtlol lmao lmao

“Oh… ohh!”

Thump-thumpthumpthumpthumpthump-.

My heart pounded harder than at any other point today.

The secret revealed once a flimsy curtain was pulled aside.

The ‘Monkey Gallery’ really existed!

Are all the people writing posts here like me?

Are they mages who see what others can’t see, just like me?

Excitement made my fingertips and toes tingle as if electric currents were running through them.

The thought that I could learn more about what I didn’t know made every hair on my head stand on end.

There were so many things I wanted to ask them.

The thing I wanted to ask the most was, of course….

I glanced at Boribori.

Boribori, curled up in the corner, staring at me.

She seemed to like the 30,000-won cushion I’d bought this afternoon, as she was sitting nicely on top of it.

The demon, Boribori.

Would anyone in this ‘Monkey Gallery’ know who that thing is?

So I pressed the write post button.

But then─.

Code input: Jde55123aasdzxc1213

When writing a post in the gallery, there were times you had to enter something called an auto-entry prevention code.

I don’t know the details, but it’s a system to prevent things like macro spam posts.

Normally, they seemed to be about 2 or 3 digits.

But the prevention code in front of me now was at least 15 digits.

After entering it one by one… Enter.

Click.

And then, in an instant, all the lights in my house went out.

Buzzzzz-.

“What the hell, all of a sudden?”

# # #

The lights came back on about 10 seconds after I pressed Enter.

I frantically turned the computer back on, and thankfully, my post was uploaded without any problems.

====

Is this where mages gather? (0) 「yea(3.0)」

Is information exchange possible here?

====

Now, what’s going to happen?

I hope comments get posted.

Maybe I should have thrown in some more clickbait in the title or content to grab people’s attention.

Just as I was thinking that, a comment appeared.

└3.0? The hell is that IP supposed to be lol lmao are you some kind of Anomaly?

└First time seeing a single-digit IPlol lmao

└You guys up there are feeding the Anomaly well lmao It’ll visit your dreams tonight. Good luck lol

Anomaly?

If it’s an Anomaly, they mean something like Ming, the Thai ghost, or ‘Wogijagi’ from the building basement.

It seems that in this community, those kinds of strange things also post from time to time.

And I guess they can tell those Anomalies apart by their IP addresses.

My IP, ‘3.0’, seems a bit unusual to them.

Soon, another comment was posted.

└God Who Rules the Korean Peninsula: If you’re an Anomaly, get lost. If you’re a transfer student, go read the notice first.

Ah, the notice.

I dug through more posts and found one titled ‘Monkey Gallery Notice’.

The notice’s contents were simple.

====

1. Never expose your real name.

2. Do not write posts that could reveal your identity.

3. No socializing.

====

Up to the 3rd item, it all seemed pretty sensible.

But from the 4th one, things got hard to understand.

====

4. Keep posts, including comments, to 3 or fewer per day.

5. Completely ignore the 6th notice, no matter what it says.

6. Turn off the gallery right now and look in the mirror.

7. Access the gallery on mobile whenever possible.

====

The rules ended there, with these 7.

Some of them were so bizarre that it felt quite strange, but that suspiciousness actually made it feel more real.

It’s like how the truly good restaurants are often shabby, run-down old places.

The notice also had comments on it.

└But why do we have to write 3 or fewer posts including comments?

Yeah, I was a bit curious about that too.

Under that comment, there was a reply.

And it was from a pretty familiar nickname.

└Five-Clan Eliminator: Ever heard of the monkey banana experiment?

Could it be the man who gave me the link to the 「Monkey’s Paw Site」?

He left this comment.

The monkey banana experiment.

1. Put five monkeys in a room, hang a banana from the ceiling, and set up a ladder.

2. When a monkey climbs the ladder to get the banana, spray all the monkeys with a blast of water.

3. Replace one monkey.

4. When the new monkey tries to climb the ladder for the banana, the original monkeys who were sprayed grab it and beat it mercilessly.

5. Replace another monkey.

6. When the new monkey touches the ladder, even the monkey that was just replaced and never sprayed joins in to beat it.

Without knowing why they’re hitting it, or why it shouldn’t climb.

7. Eventually, all the monkeys in the room are replaced.

Now, not a single monkey in that room has ever experienced the water spray.

But no one climbs the ladder.

They just stop anyone who tries, for no reason at all, and resort to fists.

Five-Clan Eliminator: That’s why we’re the ‘Monkey Gallery.’ We’re exactly like the monkeys used in that experiment. The rules are weird, but when they say not to do something, it’s best not to do it.

“Oh, that makes perfect sense.”

Five-Clan Eliminator.

When I met him in person, he was a strange guy.

But online, he talks this well, huh.

Anyway, I read through the notice.

But looking now, there are some pretty interesting posts in this ‘featured posts’ section.

「Making Holy Water Anyone Can Do (999+)」

「How to Make Anomaly and Archmage Armor with Cooking Foil (787)」

「How Transfer Students Can Raise Their Magician Rank *Must Read* (999+)」

At a glance, the titles look useful.

Holy water probably means that kind of water you use to drive away demons in movies.

Cooking foil… I’m not sure about that, but the word ‘armor’ definitely caught my interest.

Also, the title ‘How Transfer Students Can Raise Their Magician Rank’ piqued my curiosity all on its own.

Raising your rank probably means increasing your level.

‘This is exactly the info I wanted!’

Making holy water. Making armor.

Those two probably need ingredients, so I decided to check them out later.

For now, I clicked on the post about raising magician rank first.

====

Author: 「Get Caught Up in Ghost Stories」

Title: How Transfer Students Can Raise Their Magician Rank *Must Read* (999+)

We, transfer student magicians, started way later compared to the originals.

Those silver spoon bastards aren’t just a few steps ahead, it’s not even close.

So what do we do? We started late, so we have to run faster.

You have to deliberately shove your head into Anomalies and mysteries, force your eyes wide open, and constantly heat up and warm up our pineal gland.

If you want to raise your magician rank, click on those trolling posts from Anomalies on purpose too, lol.

Also, if you see requests for Anomaly extermination on Hobak Market or the internet, click on all of them no matter what.

I used this method to raise my rank from twilight-tier to harmony-tier in a year.

└Five-Clan Eliminator: It’s true, deliberately getting tangled up with Anomalies has the best effect.

└But isn’t there a chance you’ll die or get contaminated by an Anomaly?

└You coward, if you don’t have the guts for that, then just stay a damn juice magician lol

└Just being a harmony-tier magician means you can easily make 100 to 200 million a year, how can you resist that lmao?

====

If you want to raise your level as a magician, deliberately make contact with Anomalies.

That sounds reasonable.

It was also a perfect tip for me.

‘Dori Building Basement.’

I recalled the space of anomalous phenomena in my neighborhood.

I was able to escape that place solely thanks to the magic circle.

In other words, it was a bug play.

It was far from fair and square.

I want to get stronger, learn more knowledge, become a more perfect and excellent magician, then challenge that place and test myself against it─.

That thought crossed my mind.

In a way, it’s a revenge match.

If I could fully conquer that place, wouldn’t my own level rise a notch?

Like a Michelin star going up.

“Today, I’m definitely making holy water and cooking foil armor.”

Even if I was just a lowly intern, I was still a cook at a Michelin restaurant.

As for cooking foil, my house was practically overflowing with it.

“Holy water is…”

I glanced at Boribori.

“Boribori, is it okay if I try making some holy water?”

Isn’t holy water and Boribori, a demon, obviously a bad match at first glance?

Whether Boribori didn’t understand me or just didn’t care, she only wagged her tail gently.

I’ll take that as an OK sign.

But while reading these posts, I suddenly got curious about something.

‘Why do they call themselves magicians, not mages?’

Magician.

Aren’t those the people who pull doves out of hats and find the card you shuffled?

So I wrote a post.

====

But why magician and not mage? 「yea(3.0)」

Aren’t magicians the ones who do card tricks and dove tricks?

If you can make holy water, wouldn’t mage be more accurate??

└Is this guy talking out of his ass or genuinely asking?

└There’s no such thing as a mage in this worldlol lmao

└└It’s an Anomaly baiting for attention and the feeders are biting hard lmao

====

There’s no such thing as a mage in this world?

What does that mean?