D-Rank Constellation Hunter… Stuck Without Internet! - Chapter 39

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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 39
“….”
“Your very existence, sustained by that will, is proof itself that this star has succeeded.”
A star possesses will by its very nature.
It is a concept fundamentally different from the life that Constellations or humans carry.
This resembles instinct—each star possesses an instinctive aspiration, a ‘star’s end’ toward which it naturally gravitates.
For Earth, that end is ensuring the survival of all life forms that walk upon its surface.
Yet the total force generated by that will fell short of achieving it, and I could only create a system in its stead.
“In the end, what ranks truly represent is the system’s judgment—the most effective means of preserving human lives.”
“Ah….”
“If you had never known you were D-rank, would you still be alive right now?”
Whether driven by greed or circumstance, the probability was high that you would have entered another Dungeon, made no resistance whatsoever, and breathed your last.
I struck the table lightly.
Ha Gyuhyuk nodded with considerable gravity.
“For someone like me, it seems absolutely necessary.”
“Precisely. To save lives.”
Every additional person saved delays the inevitable collapse.
“But that was merely the star’s attempt—it could never be the true answer.”
“The true answer?”
“The system is inherently imperfect. You witnessed it yourself, didn’t you? How I alter it at will.”
Ha Gyuhyuk nodded earnestly.
It seemed that moment when I directly intervened had left quite an impression on him.
Understandably so.
To him, I must be a being beyond the reach of even S-rank Hunters, yet I shook the very place where they struggled as though it were nothing.
With a single word, not only the monsters that threatened humanity’s very existence but everything within the Dungeon itself vanished.
“Yes, I saw it.”
“The star exhausted all its power.”
“Now it cannot intervene with the system.”
I nodded.
Such a being, wounded by the sound of a year, now sips Americano—perhaps to him, reality itself feels distant and unreal.
“Earth’s will no longer flows. Now the system can only respond fluidly, adapting as circumstances demand.”
“Fluidly?”
“When human ability changes, the stats reflect it one step behind. The current system is nothing more than a tool for expressing status—it no longer serves to protect humanity.”
The same applies to rewards granted upon clearing Dungeons, and their byproducts as well.
The system does not grant them; they are merely things that happen to emerge from another dimension by chance.
The system exists to protect humans.
Dungeons exist to balance those who defy fate to a suspicious degree.
These two stand in sharp opposition, yet that very tension alone maintains a kind of equilibrium.
“Then might the system someday disappear?”
“As long as life exists on Earth, it will not vanish. Should the system ever disappear, that would be a harbinger of Earth’s destruction.”
I shrugged my shoulders.
Even if the day came when Earth perished, that wouldn’t be Ha Gyuhyuk’s concern.
There was no possibility of such a thing occurring before his lifespan ended.
But Ha Gyuhyuk would likely worry about destruction even after his own death.
“There’s a variable, after all.”
“You mean Ulrim?”
I nodded. He was sharp.
I smiled faintly before continuing.
“There exists before you a being capable of shaking this balance however it pleases.”
“A being capable of shaking it however it pleases….”
“If you desired chaos in this world, I could twist causality itself and eliminate the system for you.”
From that point on, the world would truly become a mess without any restraining force.
I knew all too well that Ha Gyuhyuk didn’t want that, but I threw the words out anyway.
As expected, his face went pale.
“I’m just speaking hypothetically.”
“Ah, I understand.”
He clearly didn’t.
Perhaps I needed to train him to distinguish between jokes and serious statements.
Or maybe the problem was that I was such an exalted being to him that my jokes couldn’t be received as jokes at all.
“But that won’t happen. My current client is precisely the sort of person who needs the system’s protection.”
“Um, Ulrim. If I’m interrupting, I apologize, but what you used last time….”
“Carpe Diem—what is it?”
“Yes…!”
His eyes widened as if I’d read his mind without him saying a word.
It was written all over his face that he wanted to ask about it.
“It’s a power that fulfills the wishes I couldn’t achieve while I was alive.”
“A wish?”
“Yes, it’s like a unique ability each Constellation possesses. Among the Constellations, only I can shake Dungeons.”
He nodded as if he understood immediately.
“That makes sense—humans could never change a Dungeon’s rules or clear it with just a few keystrokes.”
“Exactly.”
“So you can intervene in any Dungeon like that, Ulrim?”
“Theoretically, yes. But I don’t examine every Dungeon that appears on this land, so I can’t be certain.”
In theory, I could easily destroy even that Landquake consuming my body and continuously expanding even now.
If Ha Gyuhyuk desired it.
But if I made that choice, I would have to walk a path of irreversible bankruptcy.
I would have to be prepared to spend not only the karma I accumulated while dying, but everything I’d gathered since then.
Even if I exhausted all my karma, I wouldn’t face things like being stripped of my Constellation status.
I’m taking the possibility of bankruptcy seriously, yet Ha Gyuhyuk is marveling at it.
“Is that what you want? The annihilation of all Dungeons?”
But if I did that, Ha Gyuhyuk’s original resolve would crumble.
I took interest in him not because he was weak.
It was because I could see him striving to improve and learn despite his weakness.
I enjoyed lifting children who lacked environmental support or favorable circumstances to the highest positions.
If I truly chose the other path here, my interest might fade entirely.
Fortunately, Ha Gyuhyuk shook his head vigorously from side to side.
“No, that would cause problems not just for me, but for other Hunters as well.”
This world had far more Hunters than the era I once lived in, after all.
Eliminating Dungeons would be no different than severing the livelihoods of countless people in this world.
Doing such a thing would accumulate sin rather than karma.
“A good choice. But you understand I can’t simply remain as someone you buy galbi jjim for, right?”
“Yes… but I can’t think of anything I particularly want to do right now.”
“Then may I suggest something?”
Finally, the topic I desired had arrived.
I wasn’t foolish enough to miss timing in such situations.
Fearing I might lose the moment, I spoke immediately, and Ha Gyuhyuk, eyes widening, slowly nodded.
“In three weeks, there’s a scheduled clear of an SA-rank Major Dungeon. The current planned party size is thirty-two.”
“Ah, could it be…”
“You’ll be entering with us.”
“I don’t think I’d have the qualifications to enter.”
“I gave you the entry ticket.”
“But they’ve already assembled a strategy team, so they won’t let me join.”
Ha Gyuhyuk’s expression darkened as he mentioned how the looks from people hadn’t been favorable when he’d participated in the last SA-rank Dungeon.
I reached out and gently cupped his cheek in my hand.
Startled by the sudden touch, he opened his eyes wide and looked at me.
I opened my mouth with a soft smile.
“When you entered that Dungeon then, and that world learned I had acknowledged you, everything changed.”
“Ulrim…”
“I’m not limited to merely intervening in Dungeons. My foolish but adorable child.”
Grasping and shaking something as purposeless as a Dungeon or the Hunter System was nothing to me.
A Constellation’s authority doesn’t come from such things—it manifests through the living beings who inhabit that land.
“Just by visiting Taemyeon Guild now, how they treat you will change. Though I’ve given them a little scare for now.”
“Taemyeon Guild…?”
I nodded and turned the matter over in my mind.
“Let’s just wait exactly three days.”
And exactly three days later, we stood before the Taemyeon Guild Building.
He fidgeted nervously, saying that even for a washed-up Guild, visiting such a large organization required prior arrangement.
“Follow me.”
I began walking toward the front entrance of the Guild Building, gripping his wrist.
Security naturally tried to block us, but a different voice called out from behind them.
“I’ll move out of the way.”
It was Kim Gyuwun’s voice.
Everything was unfolding exactly as I had foreseen.

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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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