D-Rank Constellation Hunter… Stuck Without Internet! - Chapter 38

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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 38
“Back when I was alive, hair loss treatments and complete cures for rhinitis were utterly impossible.”
After finishing our meal, we moved to a cafe, ordered simple coffee, and sat across from each other sharing stories of the past.
“Really?”
“Yes. I even thought to myself that curing hair loss might be humanity’s final frontier.”
“Oh….”
I was packaging it as ancient history, but it was really a story from three hundred years ago.
Even if modern times preserved information as completely as possible, much of it differed from the truth.
“So now hair loss treatment is completely possible? What about rhinitis?”
“Well, rather than medical treatment, you just request a Healer and it gets resolved well enough.”
“Humans found a way regardless. Though there’s no romance in it.”
The System advancing faster than medicine was inevitable.
The System was an omnipotent being by human standards, after all.
I nodded solemnly with my arms crossed.
“By the way, Ulrim, is the iced Americano alright? It seems like it might be bitter. Perhaps something sweeter…. Oh, never mind. At your age, sweet things might not be ideal.”
“My age…?”
Technically my age was three centuries, but that didn’t seem reason enough to be called elderly.
My avatar standing before him appeared to be the same age as him or perhaps slightly older.
I had died in my early twenties, but fearing he’d feel too much of a gap, I’d adjusted my appearance to look like someone in their late twenties.
“Ah, I, um, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Is the word ‘age’ not appropriate?”
“How can I take back words already spoken? And I can’t exactly deny it either.”
At least he wasn’t calling me an ancestral Constellation. I let out a bitter laugh and took a sip of coffee.
I had actually expected that if I told him I’d grant him anything he wished, he’d come back with some new request.
Perhaps not a sudden fortune, but maybe he’d waste a million won on something pointless, or ask me to buy him a watch or phone worth hundreds of millions.
Instead, he made the modest request to sit in what was called a luxury cafe where a single cup of coffee cost over 10,000 won and simply have tea.
“Back in my day, you could get an Americano for 1,500 won if you found a cheap place, and now there’s an extra zero.”
“Prices seem to rise every day, whether back then or now.”
“It’s worse now.”
As I joked, he, who seemed to be watching my reaction, slowly smiled along.
Perhaps worried I’d hold a grudge over the comment about my age.
I was hurt just a little, but I would become a magnificent Constellation who didn’t mind such things.
“Alright, we’ve had our luxury coffee together. So what’s your next plan?”
“I’d like to talk here. There are so many things I want to ask or hear about….”
Finally.
I had worried he’d only want to do frivolous things.
I could indulge him for a few days, but to clear the fastest Dungeon, he needed proper training beforehand.
Simply raising his mental strength wouldn’t make him a strong Hunter.
I wanted to train him directly, teach him, and make him into someone respectable.
“Tell me what you’re so curious about.”
I lightly tapped the table.
In an instant, the world around us fell silent.
The people chattering all around us remained absorbed in their own conversations, yet their voices no longer reached us.
I had preemptively isolated the table where we sat from the space beyond it, creating a perfect separation.
“Now, no one will hear a word you say.”
“Ah…”
“I can tell you most things, but there exists what we call the revelation of heavenly secrets.”
I raised my hand and pointed toward The Sky.
The protection of causality—when one reveals the forbidden secrets of the gods, humans call it by that name.
Every time a secret is revealed, a considerable amount of karma must be paid. This is why Constellations only share such knowledge with their own clients.
The more people who hear such secrets, the greater the karma Constellations must expend.
“However, once you’ve heard this, you too must keep the secret. Will that be acceptable?”
“Yes, I’ll take it to my grave.”
A wave of sincerity flowed from his words.
Right now, it would be nothing but genuine, but I don’t trust human sincerity.
Even if it were true in this moment, it could easily change the instant he faces a life-threatening situation.
Is there anything that changes as constantly as human emotion?
[ You have sponsored a ‘Confidentiality Agreement’ to your client. ]
After the familiar window appeared, a single sheet of paper fell before Ha Gyuhyuk shortly after.
This is truly moving progress for the Server.
While I rejoiced inwardly, I maintained a composed smile on my face.
“Sign there, and I’ll answer anything you ask. Ah, but my name and such are prohibited by regulation, so exclude those sorts of things.”
It was possible to convey my name through my divine form, but I decided to postpone that for now.
I had initially intended to tell him immediately, but I changed my mind.
Seeing my client alive and moving before my eyes, I found myself wanting to test him a bit more.
After all, I am inevitably a Constellation, an existence beyond human standards.
No matter how much I try to be benevolent, there are aspects of me that cannot be human.
“Yes…!”
He might have felt hurt by my distrust, but he signed without hesitation.
[ A contract is established under the guarantee of the Constellation System. ]
It’s clear he didn’t even properly read the contents before signing at my command, but there’s no taking it back now.
I clasped my hands together, rested my chin on them, and stared intently at his face.
“So, what do you want to ask?”
What is your favorite food, Ulrim?
What color do you prefer?
What kind of life did you live as a human, and how did you accumulate so much wealth?
What is the life of a Constellation like?
How does one become a Constellation?
Countless questions flashed through my mind.
“Actually, I want to know about the Hunter System and Dungeons.”
“The Hunter System and Dungeons?”
I naturally assumed he would ask me questions about myself. To think I’d make such a mistake.
It was only natural that he’d be curious about how to navigate his own life, not mine.
I suppressed the embarrassed expression threatening to surface and blinked my eyes.
“What exactly is all of this? Why are there grades in the first place, and why can’t they be eliminated entirely….”
Well, it’s not an unreasonable question.
For them, it’s like a secret of the world they’ll never unravel in their lifetime.
The Hunter System is utterly trivial to the Constellations.
But for these humans, it’s a persistent and inescapable problem they must confront and resolve throughout their single life.
I withdrew one of my hands from my chin and made a gesture pointing into empty space.
“There exists a force in this world that maintains balance. For instance, if you accumulate virtue, it returns to you as karma; if you commit sin, you receive punishment; if you show kindness, fortune comes back to you.”
“Yes.”
“This world should have perished long ago. It has always faced such dangers.”
The very fate of humanity as a species was such.
It should have been destined for erasure.
“Perished?”
“Yet there have always been humans who prevented such destruction, time and again. They say heroes emerge from chaos.”
Those who defy the conditions of fate, survive catastrophes, end wars, and throw their entire bodies into sealing the Dungeons.
Heroes of chaos.
The terminators of apocalypse.
“Because things that should have perished stubbornly clung to life, the force seeking erasure grew ever stronger, and eventually took the form of Dungeons.”
Disasters, wars, famines—nothing that occurs in this world can suppress humanity.
So there was no choice but to borrow power from another dimension.
Another world connected through the Dungeons.
“But humans awakened with the will to overcome, and the will of the stars countered by creating a system.”
A naturally arising will of the stars.
In the end, the system is the power of the stars, meant to protect all those who live upon its surface.
Created by consuming all of its karma.
“Then is Earth also a Constellation… of sorts?”
“No, it hasn’t reached that level. It can no longer accumulate karma, nor does it harbor regret.”
I traced a circle with a water droplet pooled on the table.
“This is merely a star that has expended all of its will.”

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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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