D-Rank Constellation Hunter… Stuck Without Internet! - Chapter 106

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 106
“In the end, Constellations are beings who love the fleeting moments of others.”
Constellations are those who indulge in and savor narratives.
So they create history by loving the fleeting moments of those who present narratives.
Does that paradoxically become a love that is historical in nature?
“Then perhaps I have been loving quite abundantly all this time.”
“Indeed, you may be the Constellation with the most love of all.”
I nodded in agreement.
Yet my doubts were not entirely resolved.
I understood that I was a Constellation with more love than others, and regarding history as well.
But this could not be a fundamental answer to what I had been carrying within myself.
“However, that is love for my clients, not love for the world itself, is it not?”
I had nurtured countless clients throughout my existence.
And true to my nature as someone from Korea who loved competitive gaming, I had made many of them into those who would leave their mark on history.
Yet that did not mean I loved that entire world.
Rather, I had thrown tantrums, demanding why they were taking away my children.
“What matters to me is that word—history.”
Though the question might have seemed somewhat impertinent, Sungho the Constellation continued speaking gently.
He resembled a professor addressing an undergraduate who had failed to grasp his lecture.
“History, you say?”
“Yes, whether I wish to make this child into history within this world… or.”
He deliberately let the silence hang.
But I was terribly vulnerable to such dramatic pauses.
In that brief moment, my hand had already risen halfway, as though I might seize him by the collar and shake him.
Sungho the Constellation seemed genuinely startled, realizing I had nearly threatened him.
“…It seems your patience is not particularly strong.”
“My apologies. My origins carry certain racial traits that make it unavoidable. So is it that you wish to make this child into history within the world, or what comes next?”
He pointed toward empty space.
I nearly found myself captivated by the sight of his fluffy hand.
Following the direction of his fingertip, my gaze shifted to reveal a vast universe beyond the glass.
The universe containing Earth was nothing but a speck—that infinite realm.
The infinite space we gazed upon below spread out like a night cityscape.
“Whether you wish to make that world into history among those stars.”
“History among the stars….”
“Se-um, what are you thinking now? Are you satisfied with your cherished client becoming the history of that Server? Or do you wish for that Server itself to become a single history known by those stars?”
“….”
I gazed upon the infinite constellation of stars before slowly opening my mouth.
“Now I think I understand what love truly is.”
“Is that so?”
Sungho the Constellation looked at me with an expression of utmost satisfaction, smiling.
I honestly never imagined a day would come when I’d seek counsel from him on a matter like this.
How could I have, really?
That world held no fond memories for me.
Even if my time there had stretched a little longer because of Ha Gyuhyuk as a client, those painful recollections wouldn’t simply vanish.
Besides, I am a Constellation.
But the trouble began once I started noticing the humans in that world, unable to look away from them.
“I fear I may come to regret casting my gaze upon so many, when I cannot elevate all of them to Constellation status.”
This confession wasn’t something I was seeking an answer to from Sungho.
Suppose I desperately conjured a miracle and elevated Ha Gyuhyuk to Constellation status.
But that wouldn’t allow me to do the same for Kim Gyuwun, Ji Chae-ah, Dan Yibum, and the others.
Parting is inevitable, and precisely because of that, excessive affection toward them in Sungdo is unwise—or so I’d been told.
“Well, isn’t the pain of parting something only those who live long lives can truly experience?”
“Can it truly be experienced as a blessing? It seems only to bring suffering.”
“Longing and suffering are separated by but a thread. If you love without reservation, it need not be painful. And you see, Se-um—you’ve already made your resolve, haven’t you?”
“Made my resolve?”
He smiled at me gently.
It was a tenderness tinged with profound understanding.
“You seem determined to elevate someone among them to Constellation status.”
“Ah, that…”
“As long as there is someone to grieve with you, it will never be mere suffering. Suffering is usually the companion of loneliness, after all.”
Suffering and loneliness.
Suffering and longing.
And longing and loneliness.
Emotions separated by but a thread.
I said nothing, yet Sungho rose as if he understood everything.
His soft hand patted my shoulder lightly, as if offering encouragement.
“I hope you succeed. That you may welcome your beloved client as a fellow Constellation.”
“Yes.”
Beloved client.
I didn’t bother denying the word love, simply watching Sungho’s receding figure.
He was right.
Perhaps loving a client and loving a world was nothing to be ashamed of.
* * *
What Tasha did was merely calculation.
It was entirely different from glimpsing the future at the cost of incurring penalties from causality and the Constellation System.
Predicting all possible futures and deriving several conclusions with the highest probability of accuracy among them.
‘If that’s all it is, it’s essentially process of elimination—wouldn’t the probability of accuracy be low?’
One could think that way.
But could such words ever be spoken before that Constellation?
It was no accident that she was called the keeper of the Akashic Record.
One who encompasses all knowledge and derives the possibilities of past, present, and future through nothing more than the process of calculation.
An accuracy rate comparable to Constellation Cassandra, the omniscient seer.
That was Constellation Natalia.
‘I never imagined I’d go to such lengths just to figure out something like a Dungeon appearance schedule.’
Even by my own standards, it felt like a terrible waste of talent, but what could I do?
My client was sitting there with such a troubled expression, lost in thought.
Even if I could no longer call them a client, my heart couldn’t help but soften.
My eyes never ceased scanning the monitors.
Countless equations that no living being could possibly comprehend poured forth from all directions.
Countless possibilities, and even more errors than the number of those possibilities.
Failures and successes, every conceivable outcome.
Even for one who occupied the position of an omniscient star, the speed and calculations were beyond belief.
“Franson, call Se-um for me.”
“Huh?”
Franson, who had been lamenting after killing a randomly selected client from another Server, lifted his head.
I had returned to my room and concentrated on calculations without moving an inch until now.
Franson secretly worried that the Constellation before his eyes might turn to stone at this rate.
They say that world still maintains its lifeline with only that Constellation’s brain alone.
They say that world is still barely hanging on by just one of that Constellation’s brains.
“Since I’ve gotten some results now, I need to inform them.”
“Already? Honestly, I thought it would take at least a year in human time.”
“Would a mere 700-year calculation really take that long?”
Generally, clients would need to invest several years to predict the future seven years ahead.
The time I consumed was barely over an hour by human standards.
“Since it was a Server that nearly closed, it did consume more time than usual.”
“Uh, what? Uh, uh….”
Franson cleanly gave up trying to understand and decided to summon Se-um instead.
There was no point in trying to make sense of it anyway.
Sometimes, not understanding each other and simply accepting things is the shortcut to maintaining a friendship peacefully.
“But didn’t Se-um say they were going to meet Sungho right now?”
“Yeah, it seems like they need to hear something from that side.”
“What is it?”
I didn’t bother explaining.
And mere seconds later, Se-um burst in with a loud commotion.
“Se-uuuum?”
“I’m being tortured by dramatic silence right now, so just tell me the conclusion first. Don’t do that ‘reveal in 30 seconds’ thing. The conclusion.”
I opened my mouth, watching Se-um speak without even pausing for breath.
“If more than 150 additional Constellations log in here, Landquake will erupt in 254 years. On the condition that you don’t log into Earth at all, Se-um.”
“…If I do log in?”
I shrugged and erased the 2 from the number ahead.
“54 years.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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