Otherworld Constellation Gallery Chapter 25

Otherworld Constellation Gallery

Chapter 25

The woman made a flustered face and stammered.

“I don’t quite understand what you mean by accepting the party…” 

“So, accept the party invitation…”

DING!

[This person cannot currently be invited to a party.]

Huh? Didn’t they say the party capacity increased? 

What’s this?

Could it be that people who haven’t awakened can’t be invited at all?

‘Oh? If that’s the case…’

If my assumption is correct, I now have a way to determine whether someone is awakened or not. 

That’s a truly significant discovery. Of course, I’ll need to increase the party capacity first.

“Sorry, looks like you can’t accept it right now.”

She blinked and looked at me. She probably doesn’t understand what I’m talking about.

“Since I’m sorry, give me your bag. I’ll carry it for you.” 

“It’s okay! I should be able to take care of my own belongings!” 

“Shut up and hand it over.”

I stretched out my hand.

“Carrying that bag is just a waste of stamina, which is more inconvenient.”

She hesitated for a moment but eventually looked at me cautiously and took off her bag to hand it over. I carelessly took the bag and immediately put it in my inventory.

“Wow… It’s amazing no matter how many times I see it. Where does it disappear to? You can make it reappear, right?”

I looked into her eyes. And then with a serious face, I said,

“No. I can’t take it out anymore.” 

“What? What do you mean? Give me back my bag!” 

“I’m joking. Consider it a lesson not to carelessly entrust your belongings to anyone.”

She heard my words and breathed a sigh of relief.

I arrived home and opened the door. The door was intact as usual, and the interior hadn’t changed since I left. On the first day of doomsday, my home was waiting for me, unchanged.

“Come in and make yourself comfortable.” 

“Then excuse me!”

Tulip fidgets while taking off her shoes.

“Keep your shoes on.” 

“What?” 

“With the situation as it is, we need to be ready to move at any time.”

Tulip and the woman stood at the entrance with contemplative faces.

“Somehow my mind strongly rejects the idea.” 

“I know. I understand it logically, but my body won’t listen.” 

“This space will be abandoned tomorrow anyway, so just do as I say.”

As I crossed the living room with my shoes still on, they hesitantly followed, keeping their shoes on. Tulip made a sound with each step she took.

“Ugh… the guilt. We’re going to be living in dust this way.” 

“You’ll probably miss this time before you know it.”

The guide tilted her head at my words.

“Why? You’ve probably gathered plenty of food, can’t we just safely hold out here?”

I sat on the bed and smirked.

“No, you can’t. Even if you lock the doors, nowhere is safe anymore. Forget monsters—one swing of an axe from looters will easily break down a door like this.”

Tulip pressed her lips together. Beside her, the guide asked with an anxious face:

“Then wouldn’t other places be even worse?” 

“That’s exactly what we need to think about from now on.”

Just then, the guide stared at me intently and asked again:

“By the way, what happened to you?” 

“Huh?”

Her gaze scans my body. I’m wearing a short curtain skirt with a bulletproof vest.

“Oh, this?”

The guide nodded.

“I’ve been through too many things. It’s really tough.” 

“…You look like it.” 

“I was joking.”

Despite my words, the guide’s face remained serious.

“You seem a bit strange.” 

“The mister is definitely a strange person.” 

“With a doctor here, I guess I don’t need to go to the dentist.” 

“Ah, seriously…”

While Tulip was grimacing, the guide continued to express her curiosity.

“But unlike when I first saw you, now you’re carrying a shiny sword… Are you actually a demon? Is this contract a deal with a demon or something like that? Right?” 

” Mister isn’t a demon, he’s a god.” 

“…I’m neither.”

As I was making a dumbfounded expression:

“Oh, right, mister! Earlier when I treated people, I received sponsorship!”

Tulip proudly announces with a bright smile. As I listened to her excitedly listing the sponsorship details, I fell into thought.

Sponsorship comes when you perform certain actions. That might not be simple charity. They’re probably inducing behaviors they want. Using the gold we want as hostage.

“Congratulations, looks like your good deed was recognized.”

At my casually thrown words, Tulip nodded with a satisfied face. The kid is taking it as simple recognition. But my thoughts were different.

Strengthening behavior by providing rewards. This is a very basic conditioning training. When a dog is given a treat for performing a specific action, it will repeat that action. Sponsorship is essentially the carrot that The Constellations use to tame us.

‘Come to think of it, I was the same.’

When I killed the thugs. When I made them kill each other. For such actions, large sponsorships came in. In other words, The Constellations want me to continue such behavior.

“Well, anyway, it’s a good thing, so keep doing it.”

If her good deeds can become a cash cow that attracts sponsorship, there was no need to discourage her. Then suddenly something occurred to me.

The Constellation Gallery. While the kid was treating others, this post had been uploaded:

[Title: My Incarnation has begun walking] 

And it’s the path of light.

ㄴ Damn, I’m jealous you found a good master. 

ㄴ But why don’t you use a named account? You’re rich.

ㄴ Unlike certain others, I have no desire to cling to such trivial titles.

ㄴ  Lol, what nonsense. It’s just because if you use a named account, you can’t participate on the first day, right? You got a useful Incarnation on day one precisely because you didn’t use a named account. 

ㄴ This guy’s smart.

ㄴ Makes sense. Named accounts probably get restricted on day one to balance things out.

ㄴ Guys, sorry for the off-topic comment, but how do you get a named account? 

ㄴ Shut up, blocked.

ㄴ Idiots, how do you get a named account lol?

ㄴ Sent you the info~

I didn’t think much of it at the time. I thought it was nonsense because I didn’t understand. But thinking about it now, what does ‘walking the path of light’ mean?

What is light? The source of life that allows lifeforce to bloom. The act of healing someone, the act of breathing life into someone. That can be ‘light’ for the person concerned.

‘But why would they leave a post about that?’

Could it be… I narrowed my eyes as I looked at Tulip.

‘Was I wrong about Tulip’s Celestial?’

I sighed and looked at the guide.

“By the way, read the contracts that have come in.” 

“Oh, they’re quite extensive, should I read it all?” 

“…Extensive?”

She nodded with a puzzled expression.

‘Did the contracts flood in after seeing Tulip?’

Well, that’s not a bad thing. It just means more options. The guide began reading them one by one.

“That’s all.”

I folded my arms as I listened to the contract details. There were exactly two Constellations I could infer with near certainty.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 

[Constellation Contract: The One Who Counts Stars While Climbing the Mountain]

“I am one who lives in turbulent times, one who possesses the strategy to cut through chaos.” 

“When light cannot be seen, I forge a path, and before impenetrable barriers, I raise the wind. Yet I am not a tool. As much as you demand of me, you too must satisfy me.”

“If you become my Incarnation, I will show you the optimal choices. But the choice is ultimately yours. You are free to follow or reject my advice. But remember this: Even I cannot save you from a wrong choice.”

 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Constellation Contract: The Blacksmith Who Eats Flames]

“I am the one who carves down everything with the heart of fire. The hand that holds tools is the origin of civilization, and the hand that holds weapons is the beginning of survival.”

“I have never stopped once. Not for a single moment have I let go of iron. If you become my Incarnation, my flames will become yours.”

“However, what meaning does a fine sword have for one who cannot wield it? A weapon wrongly given only hastens the world’s demise.”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

One was obviously a strategist.

One is obviously a blacksmith.

I couldn’t quite grasp the first Constellation from just the modifier, but after hearing the contract contents, I had a rough idea. 

If not Zhuge Liang, then it would be Sima Yi.

Having a Constellation to take on the role of strategist was very appealing.

Perhaps the decisions I’ve made so far could have been more efficient.

But there’s a problem. It’s unclear exactly how much intervention ‘strategic advice’ entails. 

Additionally, while having a strategist is good, if they’re too smart, they could potentially use me. 

They emphasize ‘loyalty,’ but whether they’ll truly offer absolute loyalty is unknown.

Though there’s the safe protection of a ‘party,’ what is a strategist? It means that if they have an intention, they could find a loophole in the system and potentially target me.

‘On the other hand, does the blacksmith… have such concerns?’

From my current perspective, rather than someone who thinks well, I desperately need someone who can efficiently craft weapons and armor. 

Information can be found by searching The Constellation Gallery or asking questions if urgent, but equipment crafting is a different story.

“I think it would be good to contract with The Blacksmith Who Eats Flames?” 

“This isn’t selling your soul or anything like that, right?” 

“I don’t know either. But it’s certainly more advantageous for survival.”

The guide seemed to have made up her mind.

“How do I make the contract?” 

“Just accept it.” 

“I mean, how do I accept…?” 

“You can press the accept button or just sincerely think about accepting the contract in your mind!”

Tulip interrupted instead of me and explained the method. One well-trained deputy is worth ten Constellations.

“But if you make a mistake, it’s really serious. If by any chance you accidentally contract with a different Constellation, we can’t take responsibility for you.”

The guide swallowed hard at my warning. Then she stared into space and took a deep breath.

Soon after, the atmosphere changed.

 It was different from when Tulip had contracted.

A stuffy heat spread through the space. 

What was eerie was that this heat wasn’t a piercing hotness on the skin, but a heavy temperature like stepping into a forge engulfed in flames.

The guide’s body was tinged with a red glow. 

At first, it was a faint glow, but it gradually became more distinct, and an intense, red light spread across her skin. 

Like molten iron in a blast furnace at the height of bellowing, her blood vessels were tinged with a slight red energy.

“Wow…”

Tulip marveled with bated breath. After a few seconds, as the light subsided, the glow that had formed on her body faintly cooled.

“Tulip, your experience was similar.” 

“Really?”

She looks like she can’t believe it. I turned my gaze to the guide.

“Alright, now it’s finally time for you to join the party, don’t you think?”