Return of the Shattered Constellation – Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Regression of the Constellation (3)

‘So you’re telling me straight-up that I’ll die if I fail.’

Changseon thought it was absurd and snorted.

This is why he hated gods and constellations. They – who think themselves as almighty – consider others only as a mere form of entertainment.

And if their interest falls even a little, they throw them away mercilessly.

Fortunately, Changseon believes he’s done well enough to avoid that fate.

‘Even if I just play along as their entertainment, I’ll be able to take as much more.’

‘What’s more, it’s a dagger with a dragon scale pattern. It would definitely be of great help if I could get it.’

“All right. What should I do?”

[You have accepted the bet.]

[Divine Being, ‘A Good Season To Hunt’ bursts into laughter due to your courageous spirit.]

[A Sudden Quest: Hunter’s Certification, has been created!]

— — —

Meanwhile, in the safety zone that Changseon had left…

“First of all, gather around here!” At the shout of the man in military uniform, people’s eyes turned to him.

“What’s happening?”

“Does he want to act like a boss or something?” 

The soldier pulled out his ID card and showed it to the crowd.

“This is Lieutenant Park Hae-seong, a C-class player belonging to the Awakened Unit under the Military Security Support Command. As an emergency order, everyone please follow my instructions.”

More than a dozen years have passed since the dungeon was opened in earnest, and each country created an emergency disaster manual in preparation for a number of situations in which the general public was caught up in a random break that occurred without any sign.

The first rule among them was that if there is a player in the dungeon, they were to follow their instructions unconditionally.

This is because, in general, when a player is officially registered, he or she must complete the relevant training.

Moreover, if the player is a soldier, trust is inevitable.

People were divided into formation according to the instructions of Second Lieutenant Park Hae-seong, and each one took out basic weapons from their inventory and prepared for the monsters to come out of the forest.

“It’s a good thing we have at least one player. If not, ugh… !”

“We still don’t know what will happen, so let’s keep our heads up.”

“Of course. But will that guy be okay?”

“Huh?”

“The guy who ran in as soon as the first dungeon mission appeared.”

“Ah!”

When people’s mental panic subsided to some extent, they began to worry about Changseon.

“His body was absolutely wrecked, and he didn’t look too good.”

“I hope nothing bad happens to him.”

“Yeah, he was in a hurry. Did he think he would make a lot of money?”

There were many moths attracted to fire who thought of the dungeon as a land of opportunity rather than a disaster, and jumped in for quick success.

This was especially the case for those lowest-income people who had a hard time making a living.

“That guy? He’s got way more money than you guys.”

At that time, a young man in his 20s suddenly interrupted their conversation.

“Huh? How do you know that?”

“He is the Tyrant. The leader of ST Band.”

“Ah, I knew I had seen him somewhere!”

“People say he argues with his team when they don’t listen to him, but has done a lot of advertisements because he’s handsome. Because of that, he’s got a 100-Pyeong¹Pyeong is a Korean measurement unit for area. 1 Pyeong = 35.58 Square feet. apartment in Jamsil. And even though he was born with a golden spoon in his mouth, people say his family’s wealth has nothing to do with his own.”

“Why would someone like that run out there?”

The young man perked up his shoulders as if he already understood it.

“I heard that he became addicted to alcohol after retiring as a gamer. There are also rumors of him getting into discord several times too. And who knows? He must have gone to commit suicide because he was too tired to live.”

“Hey, can’t you shut up? Haven’t you sobered up yet?”

“What did I do?”

At one point, the young man’s tone was mixed with contempt and ridicule. The friend who had been with him tried to calm him down, but the young man seemed to have a strong grudge for some reason.

He really wanted Changseon to commit suicide.

Strangely enough, the people’s expressions began to change.

The atmosphere grew uncomfortable, as some of them even tried moving elsewhere, saying they needed to go to the toilet or other excuses.

But then…

[Ding!]

[All ‘Black Mamba’ in the dungeon have been killed!]

“…?”

“…?”

“…?”

Everyone tilted their head at the same time. All the attendees were currently gathered in the safety zone, so who killed the monsters?

[All ‘White worms’ have been killed!]

[All ‘Blue Crow’ has been killed!]

[‘Red Mamba’ are being killed rapidly!]

[Player, ‘Lee Changseon’ is going berserk!]

Everyone stared at the messages that popped up one after the other with shock in their eyes.

In particular, the eyes of the young man who’d been talking about Changseon’s backstory grew shaky.

— — —

[Hunter’s Certification

Type: Sudden Quest.

Explanation: The growth of ‘A Good Season To Hunt’ has been stagnating lately, so she shows great interest in nurturing her apostles and priests to gather more faith.

Unfortunately for her, most people of talent are already being sponsored by their own patrons, leaving her no choice but to monitor novices… until she found you.

‘A Good Season To Hunt’ considers you, with your fluent body movements and excellent hunting skills, a suitable candidate for an apostle.

However, it would be too premature to simply accept you straight away as an apostle candidate.

Thus, she would like to test you.

You must take the temporary dagger and slay all the Bloody Mamba within the next 24 hours.

Conditions: 

Upon Failure: 

• Death.

Upon success:

• ‘Evil Dragon’s Snaggletooth’ will be awarded.

• Apostle Candidate selection.]

‘So that’s how it is.’

After reading the entire quest window, Changseon laughed.

No wonder she showed such great interest in me from the start.

It seems that she was less interested in his potential as a hunter and more because she was in dire need.

‘Come to think of it, there’s been a lot of conflict between Tiamat and Bel-Marduk lately. Does this have anything to do with it?’

Bel-Marduk, also known as Taurus, belongs to the zodiacs, and he is one of the strongest among the constellations.

I didn’t know if it was really necessary to have faith to wage a war with such a being.

If he was right, then there were plenty of things that were up for grabs.

‘The bigger the bet, the better.’ Changseon checked the contents by looking at the dagger with the Dragon Scale Pattern on it.

[Name: Evil Dragon’s Snaggletooth

Description: For the sake of her child the ‘The Primordial Evil Dragon’ pulled out her own tooth to create this dagger. It has its own personality.

• Type: Sacred Dagger

• Attack Power: Immeasurable.

• Effect: Unknown.

* You are currently ‘renting’ the relic from the original owner.

* You cannot use the function of the Divine Relic because the qualification requirements are not met.

* Since the qualifications have not been met, the details of the relic cannot be checked.]

Most of the functions were locked, so he was only able to use it as a practically high-quality dagger, but it was enough.

After all, Changseon had dealt with and robbed many Divine Relics in his time, so he immediately realized that the function of this relic wasn’t something simple.

‘Hmm… Does it have ‘Gluttony of Evil’ and ‘Continuous bleeding’? On top of that, it’s a growth type too. That’s good enough.’

‘Continuous Bleeding’ causes damage to the opponent the more they are damaged, and ‘Gluttony of Evil’ absorbs the curse and resentment of the opponent. It had the effect of increasing the attack power by absorbing the opponent’s malice.

Changseon really wanted this.

But something like this would be too common for Par-Bill-Sag.

‘If I’m going to receive a present, it’s better to aim for something bigger and more glamorous.’

With that in mind, he looked up into the air somewhere where Par-Bill-Sag would be and asked…

“By any chance would you be interested in adding another condition?”

[Divine Being, ‘A Good Season To Hunt’, tilts her head in confusion.]

“30 minutes.”

[Divine Being, ‘A Good Season To Hunt’, is confused and is still tilting her head in confusion.]

“I’ll kill the Bloody Mamba within 30 minutes from now. Since I’m providing you with more entertainment, please provide a greater reward.”

[Divine Being, ‘A Good Season To Hunt’, opens her eyes wide at your words as she had never thought of this.]

[Divine Being, ‘A Good Season To Hunt’, finds your request amusing and is smiling very widely.]

[Divine Being, ‘A Good Season To Hunt’, accepts your offer! However if you lose the bet, She warns you that your death will not be a peaceful one, revealing her canine teeth.]

“Thank you.”

Changseon twisted the corner of his lip.

At this moment, he thought that his smile would not be much different from the one Pa-Bil-Sag was making.

Although the meaning behind it was completely different…

And that’s how Changseon’s massacre began.

It was never easy to reach the area where the boss mob, Bloody Mamba is.

On the ground, he encountered Red Mamba, and unpredictable White Worms. From the sky, Blue Crows descended and attacked him.

Because he had to deal with various kinds of monsters at once, his senses were sharp as a sword at all times.

Slash! Slash! Slash!

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Strength has increased by 3.]

[Stamina has increased by 2.]

[The rumors of a bet between you and the ‘A Good Season To Hunt’ spread rapidly across heaven!]

[Some gods are watching you with skeptical eyes.]

[Some gods are showing interest in your battle as they stroke their chin.]

The gods and constellations that Changseon knew were always curious and nosy, since they couldn’t cope with the boredom that naturally accompanied eternity.

As such, it was only natural that the bet between the two would spread this quickly.

The main reason he proposed this bet was to increase his popularity and establish himself as a super rookie through this large-scale event.

Just as Pa-Bill-Sagh threw [Evil Dragon’s Snaggletooth] casually, the gods and constellations all tend to do this as impromptu amusement, so the more popularity the better.

[Divine Being, ‘A Good Season To Hunt’ is a bit perplexed by the unexpected number of visitors.]

[Divine Being, ‘A Good Season To Hunt’ strongly warns the gods and constellations who have shown interest in you, the one she has chosen!]

Of course, considering she wanted Changseon for herself, she was a bit displeased when things had unexpectedly gotten blown out of proportion.

‘How many more gods showed up? I hope there’s at least one decent god in the mix.’

[Level Up!]

[You have reached level 10. You have successfully grown out of the Novice state.]

[Achievement Accomplished!

Title: A talent who broke away from being a novice in the shortest time.

Rewards: 

• All stats increased by 5. 

• Secret Class unlocked.]

A glint flashed in Chang’s eyes.

‘A secret class.’

‘As expected, the thing I wanted appeared.’

Considering that he could barely grow by getting a normal class called ‘Spearman’ in his previous life, he swore he would never select a mediocre class in this life.

‘It would be nice if something like a dragon lord or dark king appeared, but that would be difficult. And anyways, for the path I’m choosing to tread, [Berserker] would be the best choice.

The biggest weakness of the [Berserker] was that they would lose their sanity in exchange for an explosive increase in their attack power, but Changseon had some back-ups in mind.

So he wasn’t too worried about it.

But more than that…

The reason for choosing Berserker was that it was the fastest starting point to reach the final class that he was aiming for.

‘Even if it’s not for that, I have to choose [Berserker] right now so I can kill the Bloody Mamba.’

Bloody Mamba is a monster that is difficult to kill even for level 20 players.

The reason Changseon, who was just a level 10, accepted such a ridiculous bet was because he believed it was possible with this.

[Once your level reaches the two-digit mark, you can pick a class and get a skill tree to match it for faster growth.]

[Based on your achievements and records, we’ll review the appropriate classes.]

[The results are now available.]

[Classes available:

• Swordsman

• Spearman

• Martial Artists

…

•  Dragon Child (Secret!)

•  Wanderer of the Darkness (Secret!)

…

•  Rune Keeper (Secret!)

Considering that the average number of classes given when selecting a class for normal people is five, and those classified as geniuses are given up to ten, it was an absurd number.

In addition, almost half of them were secret classes, just one already was considered a jackpot.

Changseon’s eyes were trembling for the first time as he looked at the list.

‘Berserker….it’s not there.’

[6 minutes remaining.]