Chapter 2

Multidimensional Transcendent Gallery

There are times when people say that a post is noisy.

Right now, I was witnessing in real time the very pinnacle of synesthetic imagery—feeling an auditory impression through sight.

[ You really brought Oz here? For real? hahahahaha ]

[ Wow, Wandering Merchant actually did something for once hahahahaha ]

[ Oz, you bastard, why the hell am I A-tier? At least tell me why, fuck ]

[ Upvote if you've been waiting for this day hahahahahahahahahahaha ]

[ Now we don't even have to go all the way to the Lower Realm gallery ]

[ So what the hell is Oz's identity? Doesn't Wandering Merchant know? ]

[ Oz, hurry up and come out and post something ]

[ No, seriously, when are you making the Blood Demon Realm tier list? ]

Multidimensional Transcendent Gallery.

A community whose name I had never once heard or seen before.

And apparently, I was quite the celebrity there.

[ Oz, you fucking bastard ]

[ Oz, you're finally here lol Write down your address ]

[ Fellow Daoist Oz, I challenge you to an offline duel according to the laws of the Great Dao ]

"..."

Naturally, infamy was also a kind of fame.

____________

After staring blankly at the feast of posts for a while, I finally came to my senses.

Then I slowly began reading through the community's posts.

Lurk First, Talk Later!

Originally, the phrase meant to shut up and lurk for three years, but since the atmosphere felt somewhat familiar, I could drastically shorten that period.

And after roughly thirty minutes had passed.

"...Is this for real?"

The thought I'd considered impossible turned out to be true.

That is, assuming everyone here wasn't just role-playing.

This really was the 'Multidimensional Transcendent Gallery.'

And one of them had kidnapped me and invited me here.

As for why? I'd already found the answer quite some time ago.

"They saw all of it."

Apparently, the tier lists, rankings, hypothetical battle analyses, and similar posts I'd uploaded whenever I had time over the past three years had caused quite a stir here.

[ What the hell is this guy? Why is he posting shit like this? ]

At first, it seemed to have been a chance discovery.

According to the common sense I knew, transcendents of this caliber had no particular reason to look through a community mainly used by mortals.

But apparently, one bored bastard among them had browsed a community used by Lower Realm mortals and gotten thoroughly triggered.

[ No, but that actually has some basis... ]

[ What? How does he know about the Great Void Meditation Diagram? There's no way people in the Lower Realm could know that??? ]

[ It seems this fellow Daoist does not fear causality. ]

However, what I had written consisted of things that mortals in the Lower Realm could not know.

Since all of the evidence behind the contents was accurate, they apparently assumed it was some transcendent amusing himself.

But as more and more of that content accumulated.

And eventually grew into an amount that was difficult to ignore.

[ Oz, that guy, seriously,,,,,, ]

[ Does it make any sense that nobody knows who Oz is even now? ]

[ Even Asura says he doesn't know hahahahaha ]

Eventually, every topic in the Transcendent Gallery began revolving around me.

In truth, three years was close to a single instant for them, so there was no reason to be surprised that they'd been discussing the topic for such a long time.

At the same time, countless transcendents had searched for me during that period, and eventually one of them managed to find me.

Then why had it taken them so long just to find someone as insignificant as me?

Because it had never even crossed their minds that I might be in the Lower Realm.

And even if they had known, it probably still wouldn't have been easy to find me.

This was because of something called the 'law of causality.' To put it simply, transcendents above a certain level cannot greatly interfere with the Lower Realm.

In other words, trying to find the community username 'Oz' in the Lower Realm was like trying to find Mr. Kim somewhere in Seoul.

And yet, someone had managed something even harder than that.

[ Wandering Merchant! Wandering Merchant! Wandering Merchant! Wandering Merchant! Wandering Merchant! ]

[ Wandering Merchant, you're the hero of our gallery!!! ]

[ Is Wandering Merchant your buddy or something? Show some respect and add a title ]

[ Radiant Merchant! Divine Merchant! Supreme Merchant! ]

Gallery username: Wandering Merchant.

A guy famous enough in the original story that I could guess his true identity from his username alone.

Of all people, he was the one who had caught my trail.

[ But I don't know Oz's identity though? ] - Wandering Merchant

I never said I knew who Oz was;;

I just roughly scanned his access range and happened to guess right.

I probably couldn't do it again even if you asked me to. I couldn't identify his main body, or even his incarnation...

Upvotes 166 Downvotes 74

Comments(39)

-Old Newbie) Fucking Merchant! Good Merchant! Shit Merchant!

└Wandering Merchant) This guy is completely insane;;

-Passing Immortal) Is such a thing possible? I am already familiar with Fellow Daoist Wandering's abilities, but this is difficult for this venerable one to comprehend.

└Wandering Merchant) All I can say is that I got lucky;

└EatsWheneverBored) Of course you did

└Wandering Merchant) Shut up

At least one fortunate thing was that he hadn't figured out my identity.

Which meant that transcendents furious about their tier placements or rankings of strength wouldn't come over to crack my skull... no, to slice apart the planet I currently lived on.

"...So something like this existed."

Once I'd sorted through everything that had happened, this was the first thought that came to mind.

The Multidimensional Transcendent Gallery was a setting I knew absolutely nothing about.

Being called the 'Freak Who Read It 42 Times' didn't mean I literally knew everything.

In fact, there were things never depicted in the original story whose true nature I only learned after possessing someone in this world.

So this gallery was probably another example of that.

The problem was that its scale was far too large for something like that.

Still, even that made a certain amount of sense.

There hadn't been that much story left after the protagonist became a transcendent, so there probably hadn't been time to bring up some gallery like this.

"Interesting."

After living in this world for three years, I had never even imagined that I might be able to encounter characters who had appeared in the original story.

For one thing, this was a point in time before the original protagonist of this world had even been born, and my life was poorer than that of the protagonist, whose life had itself been portrayed as fairly difficult.

I'd probably just live like this until the time came for me to drop dead.

Things were bad enough that this wasn't even a particularly pessimistic way of looking at it.

Of course, being invited to this gallery didn't mean my circumstances had changed in any way.

But being able to directly talk with characters from the story who were alive and breathing made my inner fanboy start to surface a little.

I couldn't help but enjoy it.

[ Oh, yeah. Nice to meet you ] - Oz

So all of you were really looking for me?

This is kind of embarrassing

It's not like I'm some kind of cosmic idol...

Upvotes 559 Downvotes 11

Comments(233)

-Divine Maiden) Why don't you begin by telling me how you discovered information concerning this palace?

└Oz) What information are you talking about? What did I write again? I don't remember lol

└Divine Maiden) How frivolous...!!! I will most certainly hold you accountable for that offense!

└Oz) Kay

└Divine Maiden) What does that mean?

└Oz) You held me accountable lol

└Divine Maiden)...

└Moonlit Night Journey) hahahahahahaha

└Dictation) He really is insane hahahahahaha

└WriggleWriggle) Wriggle wriggle

-Nonexistent) No, why the hell am I third place in the Fifth Dimension?

└Oz) So you're saying you can beat the two above you?

└Nonexistent) Obviously I can lol

└Oz) Go beat the Demon God next door first, yeah. You'd normally get stopped at the Gravekeeper Who Risked Death. In pure strength you're fourth-place trash, bye

└Nonexistent) Where do you live, you bastard

└Sun Picker) hahahahaha You should be the gallery master. I approve

└Outside the Boundary) As expected, the Five Sovereigns give the most accurate evaluations hahahahaha

It was simply fun talking to people whose identities I could determine just by looking at their usernames, as though they were ordinary humans on the same level as me.

Because I knew what sort of positions they originally occupied.

As I received every comment and all the attention pouring in from my very first post, it felt as though I could briefly forget my shitty reality.

Yeah, this was enough.

It wasn't as if stirring up a few power-scaling fights on an internet community would somehow grant me a fortuitous encounter capable of changing my life.

I was chuckling as I continued posting replies when it happened.

[ You have reached 10,000 points. The Archive and Marketplace functions have been unlocked! ]

[ You have reached 15,000 points. The Request Board and Sponsorship functions have been unlocked! ]

[ You have reached 25,000 points. The Private Message function has been unlocked! ※Default Setting: Block All Conversations ]

"...Hm?"

Notifications popped up one after another with repeated dings.

Only then did I notice the profile section in the upper-left corner.

"What?"

The post I'd uploaded had surpassed 1,000 upvotes, and roughly 90,000 points had accumulated.

But I had no idea what exactly these 'points' were.

It was something I hadn't seen even once while browsing the gallery's free board.

[ Posts containing the keyword 'points' are prohibited ]

[ Posts containing the keyword 'po1nts' are prohibited ]

[ Posts containing the keyword 'po1n1ts' are prohibited ]

[ Posts containing the keyword 'po1234in6969ts' are prohibited ]

...So that's why I hadn't seen anything about it.

In any case, it seemed I'd have to enter one of the newly unlocked boards to find out what these points actually were.

[ Archive ]

The Archive board, the first one that had been unlocked.

I pressed it.

And.

[ Crash Course! Learn the Heavenly Demon Divine Art in Seven Days and Nights! ]

[ For Wanderers Beginning Their Study of Herbalism (Beginner Edition) ]

[ How to Create an Artificial Constellation Without Failure - Basics ]

[ Learning Spatial Severance for the First Time (Dotted Guidelines Included) ]

[ Learning Necromancy Again - From Soul Capture to Legion Formation ]

[ Learning Immortality Through Failed Cases ]

[ How to Respond When Encountering the Nameless Ones ]

"What the hell is this?"

What unfolded before my eyes went far beyond anything I had imagined.