D-Rank Constellation Hunter… Stuck Without Internet! - Chapter 152

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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 152
I wished he would think more about it.
Please, think more so you can give me time.
I deliberately averted my gaze from Ha Gyuhyuk, whose eyes were fixed on me as though entranced.
[ Franson: Did Tasha keep asking if you showed her? ]
[ Franson: Oh, did you show her? ]
[ Se-um: I haven’t really shown her yet ]
[ Se-um: But why do you call her Natalia but write Tasha? ]
[ Franson: Because I have to type fewer characters lol ]
[ Franson: But what do you mean you haven’t really shown her?? ]
[ Franson: Either you showed her or you didn’t ]
[ Franson: There’s no in-between ]
[ Se-um: Ah, let’s say I’ve shown her about 80% ]
[ Se-um: Kind of on the verge of showing, but not quite ]
[ Tasha: What are you talking about? ]
[ Se-um: Tasha, it’s been a while ]
Apparently thinking I’d said something ridiculous, Tasha suddenly appeared in the chat.
But she vanished just as quickly, as if catching herself.
These days, Tasha had been going silent under the pretense of training Ji Chae-ah.
It seemed she kept meeting Franson in Sungdo. Maybe I should just go to Sungdo and see her face to face?
That thought kept shrinking away from me.
If I asked, “Why won’t you tell me directly?” she’d counter with, “Why won’t you show Ha Gyuhyuk your corpse?”
I could never win a logical argument against Tasha.
In the first place, was there anyone in Sungdo capable of defeating that Constellation through logic?
Regardless, I had already decided in my heart when that time would come.
The moment he chose his ability, I would show him.
“I’ve decided.”
“Huh?”
It came out wrong.
Completely wrong.
How could this happen the moment I made such an agreement with myself?
As I stared at him in disbelief, Ha Gyuhyuk noticed.
“Um, did I perhaps choose something incorrectly?”
“No, I don’t even know what you chose yet. That’s not the problem.”
The problem was that this happened before I was fully prepared mentally.
I could brush it off by saying the previous moment was just practice and this is my real resolve, but my heart felt uncomfortable with that.
Hadn’t I postponed it until today?
Though only a few days had passed by the calendar, my heart had been troubled the entire time.
Since this was a mountain I had to cross to move forward, I couldn’t afford to delay any longer.
Yes, Se-um. The moment you decide, you must act. Get yourself together.
“Ha Gyuhyuk, if I ask you to go somewhere today, will you go right away?”
“Yes, anywhere at all.”
“What if Guild Master duties pile up like a mountain and become unmanageable?”
“It’s fine. Kim Gyuwun Hunter is handling everything well in my stead.”
Kim Gyuwun, sitting honorably in the vice-Guild Master position, was swamped with work.
He fought with Dan Yibum, made up with him, and diligently ran the Guild in Ha Gyuhyuk’s place.
This is what happens when you fall for the Constellation’s seductive schemes even once.
When work becomes too grueling, even love can grow numb.
“Would you be alright if I showed you something bewildering today?”
“How bewildering could it be?”
“More bewildering than whatever you’re imagining. The kind that makes you wonder, ‘Why are you showing me this?’ That level.”
A troubled expression flickered across Ha Gyuhyuk’s face.
I secretly hoped he would refuse.
So I’d have an excuse to postpone it.
“I’ll go.”
“…No regrets?”
“If you’d rather not show me, Se-um, then don’t. But if it’s because you’re concerned about me, I’ll look.”
Ha Gyuhyuk’s focus had always been on me.
Whatever decision he made, it revolved around my feelings and thoughts.
He had removed himself from his own world and placed me at its center.
I should tell him to put himself back at the center of his world, but that’s only the standard for humans and heroes.
I was a Constellation, and I needed to have him.
Wasn’t the current situation perfect for that? I smiled and rose to my feet.
We were perched precariously on the building rooftop.
I summoned a portal stretching toward the universe. It consumed a staggering amount of karma.
“Take my hand.”
“Are we going to the Constellation System again?”
“No, this time to a corner of the universe.”
At the mention of a corner of the universe, Ha Gyuhyuk’s expression turned blank.
“Is the bewildering part starting now?”
“No, you’re still far from being properly bewildered.”
I lifted him lightly in a princess carry and leaped straight into the portal.
Ha Gyuhyuk, nestled obediently in my arms, flushed with embarrassment.
It wasn’t like this was the first or second time, so why was he being so shy?
The scenery began to shift in an instant.
We traversed countless universes.
“Originally, a Dungeon is where Earth and a distant Server connect. It could be from a very distant realm.”
“Does greater distance mean a larger Dungeon?”
“No, greater distance means a more dangerous Dungeon.”
Scale and danger level are different things.
But the Landquake is both massive and dangerous.
Occasionally, such cursed dungeons do exist.
We didn’t approach the Gate directly, stopping in the vicinity instead.
“Do you see it over there?”
“Pardon?”
Ha Gyuhyuk seemed bewildered by the cosmic landscape before him for the first time, unable to find where to focus his gaze.
He appeared unable to comprehend how he could breathe in the vacuum of space, or how visibility extended to such impossibly distant horizons.
Even so, he shifted his gaze to follow the direction of my fingertip, straining to hear my words.
“There—that particularly dark area.”
“But this is space, so everything is already dark… Oh.”
Ha Gyuhyuk’s confused expression fell silent.
He must have seen it too—a space so dark it stood out even against the darkness of the cosmos itself.
Darkness darker than darkness itself; the formless Gate pulsed, expanding and contracting as if writhing.
“It looks similar to the Gate I saw inside the dungeon before. Though smaller.”
“Right, exactly. Not similar—it’s the same thing.”
What he’d witnessed then was only a fragment; this was the Landquake itself.
“If you get closer from here, you’ll be consumed too, so I’ll magnify it for you to see.”
“Magnify?”
“Yeah. If a human camera can do it, why can’t I?”
Modern cameras can magnify up to a thousand times, or so I’ve heard.
The moment I made a playful magnification gesture, the Landquake Gate began to grow as if drawing closer.
Ha Gyuhyuk flinched slightly, apparently believing it was real.
“No, it’s just magnification. Magnification. The distance is the same. Look at it properly. Isn’t there something on the Gate?”
Ha Gyuhyuk, who had been blinking slowly, furrowed his brow.
Why was someone with such keen eyesight straining so hard to see?
It was plainly obvious—something utterly alien to the cosmos was restraining the Gate from bursting outward.
“White, no… that is… uh.”
“I’ll magnify it more.”
I had deliberately held back slightly.
With one more magnification, it became unmistakably clear.
“A person…”
“A corpse.”
“A corpse? But anyone can see they’re still…”
Ha Gyuhyuk, who had been speaking thoughtlessly, froze in place as if struck by sudden realization.
He seemed to have grasped what it was.
A human gradually becoming transparent.
Dry black hair, eyes closed as if in sleep, clothing of clearly poor quality.
“Not Hunter gear—just ordinary clothes. Strange, isn’t it?”
“Se-um, I…”
“Yes, it’s me. Or rather, it was me—the version of myself that I had to destroy to become who I am now.”
The corpse of the human Se-um.
“In fifty-four years, it’ll decompose completely. Or disappear for some other reason. Either way.”
“I heard the explanation, but I’m not really… I mean.”
“Isn’t it strange that a single corpse is blocking the Gate? That it hasn’t rotted, that it’s just… sitting there like that.”
In truth, it wasn’t strange at all.
My nonexistent heart hammered wildly, and cold sweat pooled from the tension.
It felt exactly like someone was forcing me to expose a massive secret I’d been carrying.
Tasha, why did you insist on showing me this?
Why did you make me witness this moment firsthand?
I couldn’t accept it. If anything, I was less prepared to face myself than Ha Gyuhyuk was.
“Frightened? You’ve seen plenty of corpses, but you’ve never seen one stuck in a place like that for over three hundred years, have you? More intricate than a mummy… Ah, it might be interesting, so feel free to take photos if you’d like.”
My words kept tumbling out incoherently.
I never imagined I’d show myself like this.
He must think I’m pathetic.
It must be ridiculous.
Acting as though I knew everything, as though I were strong, and then feeling embarrassed over showing him a single corpse.
But the expression on Ha Gyuhyuk’s face that I observed swept away my dizzy thoughts in an instant.
“Ha Gyuhyuk, you…”
Ha Gyuhyuk was crying silently.

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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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