Wading through the sticky, pooling blood wasn't exactly a pleasant experience.
But I suppressed the feeling.
"…"
First, I gathered all the bags they'd been carrying into one spot, then started going through the bodies.
The greatsword and armor the man had been gripping.
The staff and blue robe from the mage's hands.
The small leather pouches I dug out from inside the woman's coat.
I swept through everything without leaving a single thing behind.
After roughly wiping the blood off the equipment, I lined it all up on the table and emptied out the bags too.
Then I turned on the hologram camera and took a single photo of all the items.
And picked them up one by one to photograph each.
______
Title: Took pics of everything.
Author: Anon (60F)
{Photos of looted items}
Wiped off some of the blood and piled it all together for now. Anything useful here, Gear Chaser?
_______
The moment the photos went up, reactions came pouring in.
Anon (421F): Jackpot lmao
Anon (321F): Holy shit. How many pieces is that.
Anon (249F): The day we get to farm a hero party has finally come lmaooo
└Anon (650F): We?
Anon (413F): Looks like at least 30k gold worth imo
Anon (418F): What's that engraving on the greatsword, is that a holy sword??
Anon (551F): So many consumables damn
Anon (321F): Nice haul, real nice!
Anon (351F): Is that gem on the staff tip for real;; gotta be at least Epic imo
Anon (741F): Look at that shine on the armor even with all the dents—isn't that adamantite or something?? damn
Anon (148F): Goldmine. Absolute goldmine.
Reading the gallery's excited comments, I felt my own anticipation quietly swelling.
'Well, it's a party that made it all the way to a tower like this… they probably came equipped with decent gear.'
But everyone's expectations were promptly shattered.
SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: ……
└Anon (312F): Why the ellipsis, you're making me nervous.
SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: This is way worse than I expected?
└Anon (418F): Huh?
SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: …This is literally a trash heap…
└Anon (288F): Mood killer.
SSS-Rank Gear Chaser: I'll write up what's worth salvaging. Give me a sec.
A moment later, a new post from SSS-Rank Gear Chaser appeared at the top of the Gallery's main board.
______
Title: Appraisal results for newbie's looted gear
Author: SSS-Rank Gear Chaser
I'm the most disappointed one here…
No need to get too starry-eyed about stuff from the outside world…
Engraved greatsword:
Looks like people were hoping this was some holy sword or something—it's absolutely not. Just iron ore with slightly higher purity. Doesn't even qualify as a fine blade. There seems to be an enchant on it but it's… mediocre. Underwhelming.
Silver armor:
Not adamantite. Also just iron plates with a shine spell slapped on.
Staff and wand:
Well… the magic stones attached to both aren't bad in themselves, but the craftsmanship is low-grade. The way they're set, any gallery member around floor 200 pumping mana in hard would probably shatter them in two uses.
Bracelet:
This one's decent. Looks like an item that boosts mana recovery speed. But it's not exactly amazing either.
Consumables:
Hard to tell just by looking, and it's not my specialty so I can't say much.
Overall verdict: everything's incredibly bland. The bracelet at least might last until the next Golden Carriage.
[Comments]
Anon (205F): Total mood killer.
Anon (411F): Wait, were they actually just scrubs…
Anon (350F): Huh
Anon (188F): The yield on this lmaooooo
Anon (350F): Wait weren't they supposed to be a hero party?
Anon (510F): Newbie with current stats beat them, so yeah, scrubs checks out. Why were expectations so high.
Anon (621F): These invaders suddenly feel real disappointing lol
└Anon (360F): Fr lmao, starting to get what the Void Hermit was saying
└Anon (597F): Wait, so the Golden Carriage supplies were actually the good stuff??
_____
"……"
So there really wasn't anything worth having.
Or maybe the Demon Army's standards are just high.
These were people who received hundreds of gold coins every month just for existing, and who browsed a shop stocked with items even that wasn't enough to buy. That probably had something to do with it.
└Anon (60F): Thank you! But what are the rarity tiers?
└Anon (431F): Yeah why didn't you list the rarities?
└Anon (320F): Probably too deflated to bother?
SSS-Rank Gear Chaser (OP): …
└Anon (431F): ?
SSS-Rank Gear Chaser (OP): The only thing with a rarity is that bracelet.
└SSS-Rank Gear Chaser (OP): Bracelet's Rare. Everything else is Common-tier.
└Anon (310F): You're joking lmaooooooo
└Anon (381F): So everything except the bracelet is junk—should she just hold onto it and melt it down at the next Golden Carriage?
└SSS-Rank Gear Chaser (OP): Yeah melt it and slot it into a misc ring
"……"
Anon (431F): If it was gonna be like this, would've been better to just leave the bodies and give them a proper burial;
Anon (280F): Fr lmaooooo, bad omen messing with them for nothing.
└Anon (60F): Why would I do that.
A burial. I had absolutely zero intention of doing anything that revolting.
Killing them with my own hands and then praying for their souls—what a disgusting thing that would be.
That wouldn't be a burial. It'd be closer to desecration.
Even if the gear turned out to be worthless, the moment I killed them, everything had to be put to use.
Making all of it count—that was the only thing I could do for them.
I clasped the bracelet around my wrist and swept all the remaining weapons, armor, and miscellaneous items scattered across the table into my inventory.
The looting was more or less done.
I moved away from the bodies rolling across the floor.
And the moment I opened the Gallery again—
Anon (702F): Wait what are you all on about? There's some seriously good stuff here.
└Anon (146F): Who's this guy now.
Anon (702F): Amateurs smh
└Anon (418F): Huh? Gear Chaser said it was trash though.
└Anon (351F): You know gear better than Gear Chaser?
└Anon (631F): Is this bait lol
└Anon (450F): Floor 700s, probably not bait
Seemed like someone had a different take.
Was there actually something good in the items after all?
Anon (702F): There's S-rank crafting materials just lying around? Looks absolutely delicious.
└Anon (431F): Crafting materials?
└Anon (148F): What are you on about. Gear Chaser said he didn't know much about consumables, but besides the potions and a few magic stones, what else is there? Looks like garbage at a glance.
Anon (702F): I'm talking about the bodies.
└Anon (352F): ?
Bodies?
A chill ran through me at the ominous feeling.
└Anon (352F): Bodies are gear?? lmao
└Anon (702F): So many uses for all of that. Not a single part worth throwing away.
└Anon (351F): lmaooooo sounds like the mindset of a restaurant owner running a nose-to-tail kitchen.
The Gallery was buzzing at the appearance of an anon calling corpses crafting materials.
That's when a regular with a fixed username—one who'd always left gentle, measured replies on my posts—stepped in.
One Who Savors a Cup of Black Tea: Oh my… you're right…! What truly magnificent materials…! ^^
└Anon (352F): ?
One Who Savors a Cup of Black Tea: A heart that was beating just moments ago… fresh eyes… and above all, the red, hot blood that hasn't yet gone cold…! Haah…! How utterly, breathtakingly tempting… ^^
└Anon (148F): ? Ma'am?
└Anon (650F): I thought this person wasn't a natural Demon Army type, what's gotten into her..
└Anon (315F): That's scary…
One Who Savors a Cup of Black Tea: Hoho… Newbie. It seems my turn has finally come…! First things first—before those fresh materials spoil, would you mind storing them in your inventory right away? ^^
└Anon (431F): Yikes
"……"
I didn't know the specifics, but I was starting to get a sense of what she was saying.
I stared at the bodies scattered across the floor.
Anon (432F): Oh I get it, isn't Floor-702 and Black Tea lady into necromancy or whatever.
Anon (702F): Yeah. I'm a necromancer.
"I… wasn't planning to make use of everything to this extent…"
I'd told myself I'd make everything count, but the idea of using the bodies themselves as materials for something was a completely different matter entirely.
"I'll just store them for now, I guess…"
"If the system allows it…"
I reached out with a trembling hand, placed it on the torso of the blood-soaked human swordsman, and activated my inventory.
Shhk—
[Human Corpse]
Right before my eyes, the massive body was sucked into the hologram window.
"This is insane. Genuinely."
Eyes squeezed shut, I swept every scattered limb and the swordsman's skull into my inventory as well.
└Anon (60F): It works… just tried it and it shows [Human Corpse ×2];; One of them was so mangled it only shows blood and a skull though.
└Anon (341F): Holy shit lmaooo the system treats corpses as items lmaooo
└Anon (352F): Is this okay…?
└Anon (479F): Fr, that's grim. Real grim.
Floor 60 was clean.
I dropped into a folding chair and let out a long sigh.
And then, as if it had been waiting for me to finish tidying everything up—
A post refreshed to the very top of the Gallery's main board.
[Title: Read this when you're done looting. Kinda urgent.]
"Urgent?"
It was a word that didn't quite land anymore, given that everything had been urgent lately.
So I clicked into the post without much thought.
But the moment I saw the floor number next to the author's name and read the first line, my heart dropped.
______
[Title: Read this when you're done looting. Kinda urgent.]
Author: Anon (574F)
Something's gone pretty wrong.
If you hadn't gone three days without sleep back on floor 25, you might never have known… not sure whether to call that lucky or not.
Anyway. Listen up.