D-Rank Constellation Hunter… Stuck Without Internet! - Chapter 139
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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 139
“Se-um, don’t you want to know what Ha Gyuhyuk is doing?”
“Nah, I’m not curious.”
“Really…? That’s cold.”
Tasha and Franson took turns trying to coax me out of my mood.
They were worried because I, who used to keep Ha Gyuhyuk close to my side every single day, had suddenly come back looking dejected and locked myself in my room.
They’d apparently reviewed what happened between them, racked their brains over it, and ultimately decided that consoling me was the best course of action.
“I’m fine, really.”
“Fine? What’s fine about it? Your face is covered in storm clouds. Get up, you irresponsible thing!”
Franson shouted in a tone I couldn’t place where he’d learned from, smacking my back repeatedly with sharp slaps.
It didn’t hurt, but strangely it brought back faint memories of being scolded by my mother three hundred years ago.
When I reluctantly got to my feet, I caught sight of the two Constellations looking down at me like I was some sort of test subject.
“You didn’t even fight with Ha Gyuhyuk—you were the one who said you’d go to Sungdo first and wait for him.”
“Tasha, I just don’t understand the human heart at all.”
I stretched both arms out petulantly, and Tasha’s tentacles naturally wrapped around me in an embrace.
Soft and warm.
I buried my entire body in what must have been dozens of tentacles and closed my eyes for a moment.
I’d only moved from the bed into Tasha’s arms, but this felt better.
“Tasha.”
“What is it, Se-um?”
“Is three hundred years enough time to forget what human emotion even is?”
That’s why I couldn’t understand Ha Gyuhyuk, I thought.
Tasha blinked slowly and paused for a moment in contemplation.
It was rather amusing to be seeking advice about human emotion from someone who had never once been human.
“So what you’re asking for advice about is this? That you can’t understand human emotion?”
“No, that’s separate. This is just….”
“Relationship advice? It’s relationship advice!”
Franson suddenly interjected.
The way he casually rested his chin on my head as I lay buried in Tasha’s embrace was oddly familiar.
“Relationship advice, you say.”
“What else? I’ve watched every Korean drama there is, and whenever someone says they don’t understand people’s hearts, it’s always about love.”
“How could a Constellation and a client possibly be in a romantic relationship?”
Setting aside whether I even feel love in the first place.
When I spoke irritably, Franson gave me a puzzled look.
“You just make them a Constellation and date them, right? It’s only fifty-four years max anyway. Oh, do humans fall out of love and love someone else during that time?”
He really knew how to drive a dagger straight through my heart.
Yet I wasn’t anxious about it.
Ha Gyuhyuk wouldn’t turn his eyes toward another human or Constellation while I existed.
If I abandoned him and left, he’d probably spend his entire life alone in chaste devotion.
I almost just bragged about him again like an idiot. I need to get my head on straight.
Tasha waited patiently for me to ask my question.
“A bit faster than 54 years….”
“One Constellation’s power alone won’t be enough to restore it. We need to save everyone who could die from the aftermath and absolutely find a means to clear it.”
And she had perfectly grasped what I was about to ask.
Tasha knew everything all along—she was simply waiting for me to speak first.
“…Se-um hasn’t even finished asking yet, and you’re already answering?”
Only Franson looked like he didn’t understand.
“Whether there’s a way to safely clear the Landquake if we open it before those 54 years pass. And whether we can accumulate enough karma in the process. That’s what I wanted to ask.”
“Huh… and you answered everything without even hearing the full question.”
“It’s not exactly a difficult problem.”
“No, it’s actually incredibly difficult…?”
Franson stared at Tasha with the kind of eyes one might use to observe a new species.
Despite having watched her for so long, she remained incomprehensible no matter how much he observed.
“Are all of your kind this intelligent?”
“Well…. By general standards of intelligence, we all surpass the human species, don’t we?”
“In computer terms?”
“Processing speed might be comparable.”
And Tasha was the most intelligent among them, at that.
I found myself newly impressed by the one holding me.
After all, she was a being who contained all the truths of the world within her mind.
“Honestly, I don’t quite understand how Tasha still has things she’s curious about. Haven’t you already discovered everything knowable?”
“The universe expands eternally. And there are probably Servers I haven’t confirmed yet.”
Tasha laughed, playfully tapping my nose with a tentacle.
There were certainly Servers that the Constellations could no longer access, sealed off completely.
And Tasha seemed to want to reach even that undiscovered knowledge.
“Sometimes I think I might have been better suited to be a High Priest rather than a Constellation.”
“Why?”
“Then I could observe all the Constellations. I hear the Servers require constant management too.”
“The Server Management Team won’t hire anyone with fewer than 12 eyes. You probably would’ve ended up in the Customer Service Team.”
“Tasha, what a waste. I’m just barely 10 eyes short….”
“What do you mean barely.”
I was desperately taking Tasha’s side when Franson obliviously interfered again.
I shoved him with my elbow and opened my eyes as beautifully as possible.
To hear the means to ‘absolutely’ clear it, I needed the power of the most intelligent Constellation.
I cleanly ignored Franson, who lay helplessly sprawled on the ground, unsure if he’d landed properly.
After all, it was karma he’d brought upon himself.
“You’ll help me, right?”
“I’m not sure if my help alone will be enough.”
“Huh?”
For the first time, Tasha spoke with such uncertainty.
I never once imagined those words—”I’m not sure if it’s possible”—would come from his mouth.
Wasn’t he the type who judged every matter by probability and reached conclusions accordingly?
He’d even calculated when that damned Dungeon would rupture, accounting for every variable.
“If you’re softening the blow because you’re worried I might get hurt, just tell me straight… I’ll put Ha Gyuhyuk in cryogenic storage for 54 years and come back.”
“That’s a good idea too, but that’s not what I was trying to say is impossible.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
Tasha, who had been patting my back as if to comfort me, conjured a monitor in the empty air.
It was crammed with tens of billions of characters I couldn’t comprehend.
It seemed to be Tasha’s language, no doubt about it.
“Most Constellations accumulated Karma for different reasons before reaching that position. You know that, right?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s why it’s not easy to calculate how much Karma needs to be accumulated to ascend to a Constellation position stably.”
How to price the life of an entire world, how to judge the countless consequences and variables that would result from it—things like that.
This Constellation System had selected those who would sit among the stars using criteria and calculations far more complex than what Tasha could manage.
And since Tasha didn’t know many Constellations to begin with, she couldn’t have gone around asking others either.
“So when I calculated it using the data I have available, this much is what’s needed.”
A terrifying number appeared. I counted up to ten thousand, hundred million, trillion, then gave up.
“Anyway, it’s a lot.”
“If you forcibly open that Gate, you’d need about twice the Karma that Se-um currently has to prevent the damage.”
Doubling what I currently have seems possible somehow.
What are Koreans, after all?
Aren’t we the race of the hardcore grind?
While I was thinking it over, Tasha continued speaking.
“As for the clear difficulty once you go inside, well, I figure humans might be able to calculate that too, so I won’t mention it.”
“I don’t think we can calculate it.”
Franson, who had crawled over laboriously, lifted his head.
I thought the same, but I didn’t bother objecting.
Tasha continued speaking casually.
“Once you clear it that way, you eliminate the threats that could arise in the future, so theoretically you could accumulate that much Karma.”
Theoretically.
I hate that word.
I’d used it to show Ha Gyuhyuk the harsh reality, and I’d suffered for it myself.
Tasha, seeing my tense expression, gave a bitter smile.
“But this is only possible if your client clears the Dungeon alone. You can’t forget that.”
Ah.
Right.
I realized what I’d overlooked.
“Karma is distributed equally among those who contributed to it.”
It became clear.
The moment Ha Gyuhyuk receives help from others, he cannot accumulate the Karma needed to ascend to the Constellation System.
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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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