D-Rank Constellation Hunter… Stuck Without Internet! - Chapter 42

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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 42
Once you’ve resolved to climb through your own effort, you must understand that the path will not be easy.
My heart aches, but that doesn’t mean I can afford to be lenient with Ha Gyuhyuk now.
“He’s walking quite the arduous road.”
By the time Ha Gyuhyuk had died roughly forty times, Tasha had returned to her original form.
In truth, I could have opened an easier path for him whenever I wished.
Had Ha Gyuhyuk desired it, I would have illuminated that road for him without hesitation, though I might have felt some disappointment.
“But that’s not what he wants.”
“Well, Se-um does have a weakness for clients like that.”
It was a preference I could no longer deny.
I nodded with an ambiguous smile playing at my lips.
If I’m being honest, I might simply enjoy crafting heroes.
Characters who walk the righteous path you’d see in a shonen manga.
“But the narrative is beautiful, isn’t it? The narrative.”
“Constellations are always—”
“Obsessed with narrative.”
I laughed along with Tasha, who playfully sat on my lap and swayed her body.
Constellations love narrative. Every scholar who studies us says the same thing.
What we need is ‘a client’s story capable of stirring our hearts and emotions’.
In the end, Constellations are beings who buy the stories they peddle and transform lives in return.
“What about this client captivated Se-um’s heart?”
“I wonder what it could be.”
I watched Ha Gyuhyuk rushing eagerly toward his forty-first death.
I’ve always been this way.
I enjoyed creating environments for those who possessed potential but whose circumstances wouldn’t easily support them.
But that potential refers to ‘talent’.
“Se-um simply can’t leave talent unblossomed due to circumstance alone.”
“Haven’t we all wondered once—what if I possess a talent even I don’t know about?”
“Humans seem to enjoy such fantasies.”
“But what if luck never favors us enough to let that talent bloom?”
“So Se-um becomes that luck?”
“I have the power to recognize such talent, and I know how brilliant it becomes when it unfolds.”
I spoke with playful intent.
It wasn’t a unique ability of mine alone.
All those who bear the name Constellation possess this power.
The ability to perceive a client’s talent.
Of course, unlike Tasha, I couldn’t grasp concrete possibilities or latent potential and utilize them.
I could only estimate the magnitude of the dormant power within that life form.
I couldn’t even discern ‘what’ that power was.
“But sometimes you end up choosing a dud anyway.”
“No, isn’t this the wrong timing for something like ‘Sometimes I find that Se-um so incredibly cool’?”
“But a dud is a dud, after all….”
I exhaled a sigh toward Tasha, who spoke with rather rigid conviction.
That’s right.
I’ve definitely had the experience of betting on mere potential and raising a criminal who came to dominate the back alleys.
I learned just how stingy I had to become when cultivating the next client to restore the karma I’d squandered back then.
“But this one isn’t a dud, is it?”
“Either it is or it isn’t—what’s this ‘isn’t a dud’ nonsense? Se-um, are you gambling again?”
Tasha opened her mouth in a playful tone.
I wanted to speak with confidence too, to say that this one has potential.
Isn’t it already different from the start, just because Ha Gyuhyuk holds the conviction to save lives?
“…Honestly, I’m not sure.”
“About what?”
“Whether the latent potential this child possesses is enough to overturn the world, whether it can repay me with karma of that magnitude—I’m just not certain.”
When the target he could reach without my arbitrary intervention becomes so painfully clear.
When I can see that no matter how hard he tries, he’ll never stand among the S-rank Hunters who dominate this land.
This moment, where I cannot directly affirm that he truly possesses talent as a Hunter, felt oddly awkward.
How cruel is the fate of having to acknowledge that he cannot succeed alone.
“If I exert myself a little and invest karma, whether it’s an SSS-rank Hunter or an EX-rank Hunter or an L-rank Hunter—it’s hardly difficult.”
“That’s true.”
“After all, it’s not the entire world, just intervening in the causality of that child’s destiny.”
Even if a rare genius emerges here, it won’t change the world’s fate.
It’s something I can accomplish with just a little involvement.
“But Se-um, you don’t like children who can only change through having their fates altered like that.”
“Exactly. That’s why I’m uncertain too. About my feelings toward him.”
I tilted my head ambiguously side to side.
When selecting clients, I always had my own reasons.
Tasha would always listen to those reasons and construct justifications that made sense.
If I said the light in that child’s eyes was good, she’d understand it as—I made that choice because I saw conviction in those eyes.
“He just caught my eye among all those countless people. Isn’t that strange?”
There are countless painful lives in this world, yet I couldn’t explain why this particular child weighed so heavily on my heart.
Right now, I struggled to articulate that reason clearly.
“Sometimes you have days like that.”
“Hm?”
But Tasha opened her mouth as if she understood it even more.
The solemn light in her eyes seemed to embrace me entirely, and my heart grew at ease.
“That feeling where you can’t give a clear reason yourself, yet that child catches your eye and you want to offer some help.”
“Have you ever felt this kind of unreasonable intuition, Tasha?”
“For a Constellation, it’s just a matter of timing—surely you’ve felt something like that at least once? With 300 years, Se-um, you’ve reached the age where you’d experience such a sensation.”
“Is three centuries late or early?”
“What, just a reasonable amount?”
If Ha Gyuhyuk had overheard, he would have been bewildered by such a distant concept of time.
I glanced away briefly before returning my gaze to the screen.
In the short moment I’d looked away, Ha Gyuhyuk’s death count had already increased noticeably.
“How many times has he felt the limits of his own talent?”
“Right, even if we can peer into a client’s memories, we can’t truly fathom the emotions they felt in those moments.”
“I just hope that when he hits a wall—when he feels he can never rise again—he doesn’t fall into despair.”
“Is that pity?”
“It feels different from pity.”
“Then what is it?”
“Hmm.”
If I had to name it, it was something buried in a memory so ancient—something a human once possessed.
Perhaps a sense of kinship.
“I understand.”
* * *
“You died seventy-three times in total today.”
“My whole body feels like it won’t move….”
“Yeah, that’s normal.”
If this weren’t the Training Ground, you’d have had to die and be reborn several times over.
“Did your stats improve at all?”
“Um, it says ‘currently being reflected’….”
“Right, when you suddenly enter a Constellation domain and grow at such a rapid pace, the system can lag a bit in updating. It’s a lower concept than Sungdo, after all.”
“Ah, so, does that mean they’re rising a lot?”
“Probably.”
His mental fortitude had risen to a considerable level, so he needed to condition his body accordingly.
Though no matter how hard he tries now, breaking into C-rank or higher might prove difficult.
Generally speaking, even for lower-ranked Hunters, it takes a minimum of two years of training to change one’s rank by human standards.
And this Training Ground is a place where you can accomplish that in a single day.
“When stats suddenly increase, you might experience severe muscle soreness, so prepare for that in advance.”
“Yes, yes!”
“I’ve sent you some pain-relief potions just in case, so make sure you take them.”
Despite looking utterly exhausted, Ha Gyuhyuk nodded earnestly, determined not to forget a single word I said.
“Will you come here again tomorrow…?”
“What, are you asking because you want to watch me fall apart?”
“Huh?”
“No, I mean your body won’t be able to handle coming here again tomorrow.”
I’d flared up for a moment.
Thinking about the karma consumed each time I use this Training Ground, the words had slipped out before I could help it.
As I scrambled to smooth things over, his face brightened with understanding.
“Will you sleep here again tonight…?”
“Sure, if that’s what you want.”
I had originally planned to return to Sungdo, but seeing that brightened expression, I found myself unable to refuse.
Gazing at the radiant face, I let out a laugh that sounded like a sigh and activated the teleportation.
“Let’s go, let’s go.”

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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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