Otherworld Constellation Gallery Chapter 11

Otherworld Constellation Gallery

Chapter 11

The child’s body glowed brightly as if a fluorescent light had been turned on after drinking the potion, then gradually subsided. More than that, She’s fine. No, I did give it to her to make her better… She just became completely fine without showing any signs of pain or even wincing.

“Doesn’t it hurt?”

 “…Should it hurt?”

The kid asks back with a puzzled expression.

“…”

When you put it that way, it makes me sound like I was trying to poison you. What’s with this kid? Her gaze is so innocent that it’s even more absurd.

“As far as I know, people usually feel pain before being healed.”

The kid, looking completely clueless, examined her palms and the backs of her hands, turning them over.

“Hmm… I don’t really feel any pain, but my body feels incredibly light.”

The kid lightly clenched and unclenched her fist, then continued with sparkling eyes.

“My head has never felt this clear before. It’s like the morning fog has lifted.”

Seems like it’s definitely working. But… why doesn’t it hurt? I recalled the description of the low-grade potion.

‘May cause extreme pain.’

No way.

‘May cause.’

It was a probability? So I could have recovered without pain too if I had been lucky? Ah, shit. I suffered for nothing.

I want to check, but I can’t waste a potion just for that reason. There’s no benefit in it for me. That’s when it happened.

DING!

[‘Dawn Singing of Hope’ has sponsored  3,000 gold.]

“…!”

Oh! A sponsorship actually came in! This isn’t simply getting double back. I used a potion worth 1500 gold, but received 3000 gold in return. Moreover, I essentially converted an item that could only be used as a potion into pure funds.

‘This is a huge win?’

But that thought didn’t last long. The trickle of sponsorships that had been coming in was significantly reduced. It wasn’t just a gradual decrease in interest; it clearly dropped off right from the moment I handed the potion to the child.

‘What’s going on?’

I checked the gallery to gauge the atmosphere.

[Title: First Hunter was a sucker LOL] I liked him because I thought he was a cold-hearted man, but I take it back LOL

ㄴFor real LOL hypocrisy at its finest.

ㄴNo different from those angel types.

ㄴIt’s always guys like that who get backstabbed, give up what they’ve raised, and get taken advantage of. I’m gonna be sick.

Fuck, are there Constellations who hate kindness? Are they treating this as a game or what? Though I guess to them it is just simple entertainment.

‘So to play both sides, I need to walk a tightrope.’

This might be trickier than I thought.

“Did I really fully recover?”

“I don’t know either. If that’s how you feel, then it’s likely.” 

“Thank you!”

The child showed tears while expressing gratitude. With lips still curved in a smile.

“Don’t cry.” 

“Ah, I’m, I’m sorry. It’s just that this is the first time I’ve experienced this kind of physical condition…” 

“Why get happy at a time like this? You should be upset about why it had to be now.”

The kid was silent for a moment, then looked up at me with a bright smile.

“…If this hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have met you, mister.” 

“…”

Is this what they used to call a ‘lucky victim’ mindset back in the day?

“I didn’t just save you for nothing.” 

“Pardon?” 

“You can move without problems now, right?” 

“I, I think so…” 

“Then you need to earn your keep.”

The child blinked.

[Title: First Hunter is devilish OL] He’s immediately trying to put a kid who just escaped death to work LOL.

ㄴIs this finally the ‘earn your keep’ thing? Is it? 

ㄴSo he was a companion character after all LOL.

ㄴOi oi~ First Hunter, I was believing in you.

ㄴDid I just sponsor the devil?

ㄴIsn’t that what just happened?

ㄴHow shocked must this guy be LOL.

The sponsorship alerts started to increase again.

‘Fuck…’

But that wasn’t what was important right now.

[Title: But there’s something weird about First Hunter, I’m telling you] Remember when I first posted about how strange it was that he was staring so intently? You guys dismissed it saying he was just reading the contract But look at this.

1. He buys when we’re talking about guns.
2. He notices when we talk about the woman following him.
3. He realizes when we mock him for not knowing about the inventory.
4. He saves the kid when we say he needs a companion. 
5. When we call him a sucker, he suddenly tries to put the kid to work OMG At this point, hasn’t First Hunter infiltrated our gallery? 

ㄴHoly shit this is creepy.

ㄴI kept posting and commenting about how strange this was and asking what was going on but everyone just dismissed it as coincidence.

ㄴWhen you put it that way…

ㄴBut humans absolutely cannot see our gallery? 

ㄴIs First Hunter actually a Constellation? 

ㄴA Constellation participating in the game? Wtf is he the old man from Squid Game? LOL Why would he do something that could get him killed?

ㄴAnd Constellations can’t participate even if they transform into humans.

ㄴThen what is he, you bastards?

ㄴNumber 2 is the weirdest. I thought he had high intelligence, but when he was raising stats, his intelligence was only 1 OMG.

ㄴChilling.

ㄴA dagger flies something something.

The truly chilling one is not you guys, but me. 

Should I refrain from constantly finding what the Constellations mention? The timing of discoveries could coincidentally overlap.

And fuck, should I check and watch my step since I don’t know if posts are being made or not? What if there’s an urgent situation and I delay acting because I’m afraid of raising suspicion? I’ll end up dead either way.

‘Fuck off, you idiots. I’ll handle this my way.’

By the way, if I didn’t have ‘Constellation’s Spirit,’ I’d probably be trembling right now thinking I was almost caught, but now I’m more focused on how the situation is unfolding. 

It’s chilling, but not very anxious. Is that why the ‘fuck off’ mindset came out first?

If I had shown a panicked face right now, suspicions would have exploded. 

Then they would have observed me more closely. Before long, they might have become convinced I was looking at the gallery. 

But thanks to Constellation’s Spirit, there’s no anxiety showing on my face, so it’s just suspicion.

‘More importantly, what does it mean to be ‘caught’?’

Do I need to mark someone as an enemy like in a mafia game? 

Everything is confusing. Anyway, I know what I need to do now. Cover for myself while answering my curiosities.

[Title: Stop with the bullshit spy rumors] These shit-stirrers keep spreading garbage bait LOL Let me clear things up.

1. He buys when we’re talking about guns -If you think about the year, you guys said it was normal.
2. He notices when we talk about the woman following him -Unlike ghouls, humans have a ‘sense of presence’.
3. He realizes when we mock him for not knowing about the inventory -Would someone who can handle a status window not know? Much more likely he temporarily forgot or was confused, and the timing coincidentally matched when he figured it out.
4. He saves the kid when we say he needs a companion -First Hunter might have been considering it and decided he needed help, or it could just be sympathy making it hard to just walk away.
5. When we call him a sucker, he suddenly tries to put the kid to work -If he gave the potion to get a companion, of course he’d put her to work. Did you think he’d just adopt the kid?

I know this won’t be enough to clear things up But if you think about the things First Hunter did proactively before you guys said anything, you’ll see the answer.

1. He searched everything before farming was even mentioned, and even figured out the automatic body adaptation on his own.
2. He massacred the ghouls by himself, making his own judgment without anyone posting ‘this would be awesome if you did this’.
3. He sent away the “woman” you guys were interested in to get food (important). If he was trying to get on your good side, he would’ve kept her around and shown you what you wanted.
4. He saved the potion even after seeing the advice post about regretting being stingy.
5. He leveled up a bit late, but did it before you guys could mock him for not knowing how.

It’s pathetic to see Constellations fixating on coincidental overlaps and having confirmation bias How are you any different from those superstitious idiots who get scared every time they see 4:44 on the clock? And if a human is spying on this place, what could you even do about it?

ㄴFuck, where’s the three-line summary? 

ㄴNow that I think about it, that does make sense.

ㄴBut why are you defending First Hunter? 

ㄴBecause I’m disgusted by people like you, idiot.

ㄴEven if someone is spying, there’s nothing we can do right now. Unless the human leaves a post.

ㄴTrue, how would you know which one is the human to ban among all the anonymous Constellations here.

ㄴDon’t resolve these kinds of posts. If a human is watching, they’ll stop posting to avoid leaving a trail.

ㄴRegardless of all that, humans can’t access the gallery, can they? 

ㄴThere’s nothing to be done about this. How would a human spy anyway?

ㄴThis is no different from those who believe in shamanism. 

ㄴBut Constellations are what they believe in through shamanism, Is this person really stupid?

Wait a minute… there’s no way except posting? Shit, did I leave a post for nothing?

No, stay calm. First, I don’t know if that comment is true. Also, it’s better to plant opposing logic than to let suspicions continue to spread.

‘Most importantly, if I delete the post after seeing that comment, it could increase suspicion.’

That would put me in the line of suspects. I’d be just like Light who limited himself to Tokyo while trying to protect the Death Note.

‘Anyway, from what I’ve seen so far…’

It seems there’s no penalty besides being banned from viewing the gallery if I’m caught, and if I just lurk without posting, they can’t identify the specific person. If that’s the case, I need to gather information without posting, though I don’t know if that will be possible later.

‘The advice to use it without getting caught wasn’t simply about not revealing that I’m watching.’

It was about not leaving posts that are too obvious. The post I just left is too obviously human… but that’s only clear to me because I know the truth. Deleting it would be an even more suspicious action.

That’s when it happened.

“Mister, something strange appeared in front of me after I drank what you gave me. What is this?”

The child was looking at me with an innocent face.

“Are you a Constellation?” 

“…What?” 

“A Constellation wants a contract. I know what a contract is, but what’s a Constellation? Is it like a god?”

It was at that moment a new incarnation was born before my eyes.