D-Rank Constellation Hunter… Stuck Without Internet! - Chapter 157

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

Chapter 157
“Does this mean you’re asking me to rely on affection or something like that?”
As I gazed at Franson with narrowed eyes, he shrugged his shoulders.
His eyes conveyed that I understood the emotion of affection far better than he did.
This wasn’t a problem that could be solved by affection alone.
If I asked, which Constellation would actually grant my request? Franson, Tasha. And….
“Sungho the Constellation…?”
As I spoke with obvious uncertainty, the two beside me shook their heads. Was I wrong?
“I’m wrong?”
“You think there are only one or two Constellations who want to help you?”
“If anything, it would have been zero.”
“No, Se-um, why are you saying something so unlike you with such low self-esteem?”
Franson, who had even pressed me on how unlike myself I was being, threw himself into the corner with a disheartened expression.
He collided midway with Tasha, who was still waiting for me to find the answer, and crumpled into the corner.
I had no idea what kind of spectacle he was trying to put on.
“So all you need to know is that there are Constellations willing to help even after I’ve wagered karma as insignificant as mouse droppings as compensation. I’ll figure out the rest by confronting it directly.”
Still, because it was a method Tasha had proposed, I felt confident it would succeed.
Was I relying too much on Tasha?
What was wrong with a client relying on a Constellation?
“If anything comes up, contact me again. I’ll come running immediately.”
“Where are you going?”
“Where I need to go.”
The moment Franson made a blank expression, Tasha waved her tentacles. As if to say she knew exactly where I needed to go.
Indeed, only my Constellation would do.
* * *
Ha Gyuhyuk was looking at me with an anxious expression.
He had asked me first to find a way, yet now that I appeared, he couldn’t say anything—what was that about?
I deliberately said nothing and simply looked at him, watching Ha Gyuhyuk’s face gradually fill with worry.
“Did something go wrong with the Constellation System, perhaps?”
“What do you think happened?”
“Hmm….”
He wore a serious expression, trying to gauge my feelings.
But distorting his expression like that wouldn’t help him find the answer.
What would he do if he heard that I intended to spend all my remaining karma to grant his request?
He might panic and ask me to take back everything he’d said so far. He hated burdening me.
“There isn’t a complete absence of a method. But I can’t guarantee this will be realized 100%. And even if it succeeds, this alone won’t be enough for you to become a Constellation.”
“If I can’t become a Constellation….”
“You’ll accumulate a certain amount of karma. But that’s all. You also have the desire to prevent the catastrophe of the world you love, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
I would prevent that destruction that would surely come someday before it arrived.
To do so, I would squander the immense karma I’ve accumulated over eons, and afterward, I’d have to throw myself into karmic retribution for that human all over again.
But what can I do? I suppose it’s time I allowed myself to lose once.
I am the Constellation of the Entangled Apocalypse’s Finalizer.
To see that even now I’ve been entangled by a mere human—it feels fitting for a star living a life befitting my epithet.
Now the true time of ending draws near.
As I fell silent in thought, Ha Gyuhyuk’s voice suddenly cut through.
“Just knowing there’s hope is enough for me.”
“If you hold hope, won’t you despair all the more when that expectation shatters? And if this fails, you alone must bear all responsibility for opening that Gate.”
You would have to shoulder alone the karma of robbing countless people of their present and future.
I would make every preparation to ensure such a situation never comes to pass, but still, Ha Gyuhyuk needed to understand precisely how much weight his task carries.
If he dares attempt to reopen the world’s destruction that I sealed away without even that level of resolve, then I will oppose it.
As I stared intently at his face, a look of firm determination appeared on Ha Gyuhyuk’s features.
A good expression.
“I don’t easily trust human emotion. Humans are infinitely fragile—the moment before and the moment after are completely different.”
So speak your resolve in a way that I can believe.
You made me believe in love, the most capricious of human emotions. I think that’s enough to move me.
Ha Gyuhyuk took a long moment choosing his words, as if understanding that no words might suffice.
“You are my universe.”
“Yes.”
“And I will never, under any circumstances, wish to destroy the beginning that brought my universe into existence.”
Whether I like it or not, he is the cause that brought my existence into being.
The calamity that elevated me to an honored Star’s Seat—he meant he would not sully the history I have built.
Not some grand declaration about saving the world or refusing to let anyone be hurt.
Yet still, it’s an aspiration I favor.
“The fleeting moment we grant them becomes the history of that world.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s an ancient maxim passed down through the Constellation System for ages.”
For us it is but a moment, for them merely an instant of salvation—yet it becomes the world’s history.
Stars leave the footprints of countless histories across worlds as they live.
“Every star’s beginning is history, and perhaps its end will be too.”
I could not know whether this moment would be the beginning of the star called Ha Gyuhyuk, or the end of the star called me.
Even though infinite time still remained for me, I felt strangely uncertain.
After this is over, everything will be different in some way.
Above all, tremendous change will come to my existence.
I had no choice but to decide.
I too would need to prepare my heart, bit by bit.
My proclamation spread through the Constellation System.
【 One week from now, on the night the full moon rises, I declare the true end of the human Se-um. This shall be the world’s calamity, and I swear by my epithet that I shall absolutely carry this out. 】
【 Therefore, to all Constellations who have set foot in this world, I ask that you lend your support to those I have chosen and aid their destinies. 】
The highest tier of oath, sworn by a Constellation’s epithet.
Whatever I did, it was a declaration of war—a proclamation that I would thwart the prophecy I had just uttered.
Every Constellation who had ever logged into Earth would have checked that system window.
[ The Constellation of the Entangled Apocalypse’s Finalizer demands that all Constellations connected to Server 34R7h fulfill their contracts according to the ‘Nebula Priority Right’. ]
A system I had implemented faster than anyone else when I first arrived in this world.
The Constellations who entered this land must unconditionally prioritize Korea’s side whenever the priority right activates in times of crisis.
Wasn’t this the privilege that the land which created stars deserved to obtain?
[ Tasha: Well, with the competition and the Nebula Priority Right combined, Korea will definitely be safer. ]
[ Franson: Ooooh ]
[ Tasha: I didn’t know Se-um had thought of that too. How impressive. ]
[ Franson: Waaah ]
[ Tasha: You forgot about it. ]
[ Franson: Uuugh… ]
I smiled briefly while reading the chat, then rose to my feet.
Ha Gyuhyuk waited as if ready to follow whatever I decided to do.
“Of course, the stars will lend their strength to conquer the dungeons, but that doesn’t mean we can become hunters and rely solely on that.”
“Yes, that wouldn’t suit Touch One.”
Touch One began with those who once occupied the lowest positions, looking up at the stars.
We must show the stars that beings from the lowest servers—ones they wouldn’t even glance at—can overcome the apocalypse with pride.
A narrative that we can be passionate about.
“From now on, prepare strategy teams across all guilds worldwide to prepare for Landquake.”
“Yes.”
“And of course, we’ll be taking command.”
If words won’t work, I’m prepared to seize it by force.
I have the right to do so, and this land has the power to back it.
And the Constellations won’t dare interfere as long as the Nebula Priority Right exists.
Ha Gyuhyuk nodded with a resolute expression. Until then, it was a very promising start.
If not for the bomb Kim Gyuwun brought just four days later.
“So, Jang Deuk-sung and a few others are opposing it?”
“Huh? Who does he think he is?”
And who are these “few others”?

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