D-Rank Constellation Hunter… Stuck Without Internet! - Chapter 57

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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 57
“Why did you do that?”
“The other Constellations were coming in, so I thought I needed to assert dominance a bit….”
Tasha looked at me with a pitying expression.
I had certainly succeeded in intimidating the Constellations. Anyone could see they were thoroughly exhausted.
I had long been notorious for retaliating against anyone who touched my clients.
But altering the Dungeon’s rules with my avatar body consumed a tremendous amount of Karma.
“You made the welcome event spectacular and bankrupted Se-um in the process.”
“I’m already regretting it without you spelling it out so bluntly—please stop tearing my heart apart….”
To be honest, it wasn’t quite bankruptcy, but I had completely depleted the Karma I’d been carefully saving.
To recover from this, I’d need to scatter my clients across multiple worlds like octopus tentacles and squeeze them dry.
“Can’t Karma be loaned?”
“It can’t.”
“So our Ha Gyuhyuk has to grow up starving beneath such a poor Constellation?”
“That’s right.”
“Ah, how heartless!”
The reality Tasha spoke of was cruel.
But precisely because she sometimes refused to forgive me and scolded me for my mistakes, I regained my senses.
Just like now.
My choice back then wasn’t wrong.
My spending wasn’t wrong either.
What was wrong was only my luck!
“So Se-um, what are you going to do now?”
“I suppose I have no choice but to try Karma gambling….”
“Franson won’t go there either.”
“Then I give up.”
Franson, who had been dejected after receiving a harsh scolding from me, made an aggrieved expression.
He said he wanted to extract me because I was receiving too much human attention in the Dungeon.
He often intervened at absurd moments like this and caused trouble.
“I want to know a way to gather Karma in a short time without much effort.”
“The Constellation System doesn’t have things like lotteries like Earth does.”
“What if I developed one now? How would doing business in the Constellation System sound?”
Tasha sighed and waved both her tentacles dismissively.
I know it too. That private Karma transactions are forbidden.
That’s why even the officially sanctioned Karma gambling is ultimately hosted by the Constellation System, which takes a 45% commission.
“It’s so cruel that the only way is to earn through honest labor—why must I receive compensation for working righteously?”
“Because that’s the fundamental nature of labor.”
Tasha patiently listened to my complaints, tedious as they were.
I know. The spending was my choice, and recovering from it is my responsibility.
I exhaled a long sigh and rose to my feet.
“How is Earth doing right now?”
“The Server has kept expanding since we logged in. Hundreds must have entered by now.”
“I really did spread the word effectively.”
“Everyone was too curious to resist. Of course, plenty of people logged out after realizing the Hunter System was getting stale.”
It made sense—worlds with Hunters only felt interesting when there were just a few of them.
Even a hundred years as a Constellation, I’d witness countless Hunter worlds beyond counting. Some people simply wouldn’t develop a taste for them.
I couldn’t exactly walk around with a spoon, offering everyone a taste of the Hunter world. I understood their perspective.
“There are definitely people who’ve already chosen their Clients.”
“Of course.”
“What about Tasha and Franson?”
“I haven’t yet.”
Tasha bounced lightly, saying she wanted to think it over a bit longer.
Since you could only form a contract with one Client until they died, and this was her world, she wanted to be more careful about the choice.
“What about Franson?”
“I’ve looked around here and there, but honestly, there are too many S-ranks. It doesn’t appeal to me.”
“S-ranks? Why?”
“More precisely, S-ranks who believe they’ll be chosen by a Constellation.”
I understood what he meant.
Earth’s world still carried that stance strongly.
When would they finally understand that a mere alphabet ranking held no appeal whatsoever?
Of course, that inability was what made them human.
“Ha Gyuhyuk will be waiting for me.”
Just then, I could see Ha Gyuhyuk’s situation on the screen.
Ever since I left for Sungdo, he’d been featured extensively across all media.
‘A D-rank Hunter chosen by the first Constellation?’
Something along those lines, roughly speaking.
And there was absolute chaos trying to explain why the Constellation had chosen this man, Ha Gyuhyuk.
From “the Constellation saw his face” to “Ha Gyuhyuk is actually a hidden SSS-rank” and so on.
People who’d once looked down on him were desperately reaching out—needless to say.
“How simple they are. They probably think everyone will listen if I just say I made a mistake back then.”
“I thought your Client might be decent enough to accept that.”
But Ha Gyuhyuk coldly cut them off, as if determined never to tarnish my reputation.
He would have done the same even without me.
There was no need to show mercy or forgiveness to those who’d turned away from the hand extended when he lay at the very bottom.
Though neither was revenge an obligation.
“And apparently so many people are trying to get even a single photo of Ulrim.”
“People from Se-um’s world tend to be too obsessed with records.”
“Some are even faking it, so Ha Gyuhyuk’s been running around frantically trying to stop them these days.”
Whenever he had time, he’d send me a message saying he wanted to see me.
[ Ulrim, have you eaten? Today I went around catching another scammer claiming to have your photo. I collected the photos just in case, but as expected, it was all fake. ]
[ That’s not what I meant. ]
[ Really! ]
Though it sure sounds like you want one.
“Franson.”
“Hmm?”
“Later, could you teach me how to take prettier photographs?”
When I descended again, I’d need to be a wealthy Constellation once more.
As it stood, my reputation was already soaring to the heavens for obliterating an entire Dungeon back then.
“Se-um, then let’s visit the Fragment Karma Room, meager as it may be.”
“…I really was hoping to avoid that choice….”
“You’d forgotten about it anyway, so come along.”
“Okay.”
I’d completely forgotten about it.
The Fragment Karma Room.
Small amounts of karma accumulated when people other than contracted clients received aid from a Constellation—karma that would gather dust until someone came to collect it.
There were those who visited periodically, believing that many grains of sand make a mountain, searching for karma to claim.
“Since I managed to resolve things by properly cultivating just one client….”
“True, Se-um has always accumulated enough and settled accounts while spending it.”
“But this current client seems to be causing unusual overspending?”
I walked through the Constellation System corridors, following the chuckling Franson and Tasha.
“No, it’s just that this type consumes more karma than the others.”
“I doubt it. If anything, the old martial arts world where I had to clash with the Blood Cult and Demonic Cult was far more severe.”
I entered the Fragment Karma Room, deliberately ignoring the sting of those words.
[ Welcome to your first visit, Constellation Se-um. Will you be collecting Fragment Karma? ]
“Franson and I come regularly to collect ours, so there won’t be anything for us. You just need to collect yours, Se-um.”
“Okay…. But how much could possibly accumulate….”
And then I saw the amount of karma I needed to collect, and my words simply died in my throat.
It was the sort of quantity one would only obtain when a client became a founding contributor to a nation or became the hero who defeated a world-ending calamity.
My people had helped so many others without my knowing?
As the karma flowed into my account, I felt an inexplicable heaviness settle behind my eyes.
“What? More than you expected?”
“I think I’m starting to understand why I have to help others, not just my clients….”
“The Constellation System encourages everyone to live righteously.”
Even that brief visit left my head spinning.
My steps back were so unsteady, like a newborn giraffe, that Tasha and Franson had to support me on both sides.
“With this, the Dungeon….”
“Don’t destroy it—think about using it wisely instead.”
“…Okay.”
“Aren’t you Se-um?”
And in the midst of it all, I was stopped again on the way out.
It turned out to be Sungho, the Constellation who had organized the competition.
He wore a pleased expression as he looked at me.
Perhaps because I had saved the world he frequented, he had been checking in on me regularly and warmly ever since.
“Greetings. I hope you’ve been doing well?”
“Yes, I’ve heard that Se-um has been absorbed in her own world lately.”
Word of my foolishness had spread that far… Just as I was about to press my forehead, his words continued.
“It seems you’ve found something you like?”
“…Pardon?”

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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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