Chapter 4: Would You Like to Connect?

“You want to make a contract with me?”

Mo Jun-young wasn’t a bad choice.

Among the S-ranks, he was the most sane, had high attack power, and could serve as a tank within the party.

‘But still… could I really contract with multiple people?’

If I knew that for sure, I would’ve agreed immediately, but the lack of any information about “contracts” in the explanation for the first quest bothered me.

Rather than recklessly touching what I didn’t understand, it seemed safer to finish this quest properly first and then use the Summon Skill.

Rushed meals always upset the stomach.

<The Constellation, Creator of Sacrifice, wishes to postpone the contract.>

–Why? Is it because you don’t like me?

<The Constellation, Creator of Sacrifice, says she did not sponsor him with a specific purpose.>

–Ah. So you don’t want to taint your pure devotion to civilians? You’re saying you didn’t donate to seduce me, is that it?

<The Constellation, Creator of Sacrifice, nods.>

–A Constellation with plenty of coins but no greed… That’s unusual.

‘It’s not that I have no greed, though…’

Anyway, even someone as suspicious as Mo Jun-young should be sufficiently influenced by this.

He was the character most serious about saving humanity, after all.

As expected, the window began to shake, and a message appeared.

<The doors of the Awakened Management Center close. 10 seconds left. Connection will be terminated. 8 seconds left.>

–Let’s meet again next time.

<The Constellation, Creator of Sacrifice, extends his hand.>

–A handshake? How embarrassing.

<Connection will be terminated. 5 seconds left.>

At the message saying five seconds remained, Mo Jun-young clicked his tongue and reluctantly reached out his hand.

<The Constellation, Creator of Sacrifice, clasps his hand and shakes it.>

Despite my dulled senses, his grip was crushingly strong, as if my hand might shatter.

–Constellation, Creator of Sacrifice. Next time we meet, prepare a contract.

Even as the window shut, Mo Jun-young acted like the one in charge.

‘That wasn’t how I designed him…’

Public servants abusing power is dangerous, you know.

Still, it was a relief that I’d safely earned his favor.

<Beginner Quest: Building Favor with Awakened Ones

Quest Details: Match with a total of 10 Awakened Ones and build favor with them.
Favor accumulated before accepting the quest will be counted.

Current Favor: 8 / 10

Quest Rewards:
– Summon Skill (Allows you to summon a chosen Awakened One)
– Logout Skill (Allows you to disconnect at will)>

The only S-rank I hadn’t met yet was Joo Ji-chan, right?

There were only two matching opportunities left.

I had to meet him somehow within those.

****

The next match was an A-rank character.

I was disappointed that Joo Ji-chan didn’t appear, but the quest still had to continue.

Thankfully, just distributing 500 coins was enough to earn favor, raising the total to 9.

Not long after, a chat window suddenly appeared.

I naturally assumed it was Joo Ji-chan, but this window was different from any I’d seen before.

When a Constellation user talked or used motions with avatars, it appeared as a system window, so why a chat window all of a sudden…?

[General] Constellation, Observer of Wisdom— 10,000 coins, huh.
[General] Constellation, King in Ceremonial Robes— At this rate, they’ll take all the S-ranks.
[General] Constellation, Observer of Wisdom— Isn’t this basically hacking-level play?
[General] Constellation, Warrior on the Chariot— Agreed. Should we really let this slide?
[General] Constellation, Wizard Who Casts Off His Robes— Pretty bold for a newbie.

I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t even speak.

Of course players with lots of gold or coins had an advantage, that was just how games worked.

From a developer’s perspective, paying users deserved preferential treatment.

The thought that users like these would bash spenders once Become a Constellation officially launched made my head hurt.

Wait… the game hadn’t even entered open beta yet, so how were they logged in early?

Ah.

Right.

This was a dream.

Realizing how immersed I’d gotten, I tried to ignore the continuing messages.

But the Constellations showed no sign of stopping.

[General] Constellation, Observer of Wisdom— You □ like □□.
[General] Constellation, Observer of Wisdom— Means you’ve got something stuck between your legs.
[General] Constellation, King in Ceremonial Robes— □□ is really □□ acting up.
[General] Constellation, Warrior on the Chariot— □□□.
[General] Constellation, Wizard Who Casts Off His Robes— Kinda wanna □ them.

Even without explanations, I could guess what kind of filth they were spewing.

Seong Joo-an had fought plenty of trolls in previous games and was confident in chat battles.

Still, for now, he wanted to preserve at least a shred of developer dignity.

[General] Constellation, Creator of Sacrifice— Thank you for playing Become a Constellation. This is GM J-A.
[General] Constellation, Observer of Wisdom— Developer? Become a Constellation? What kind of bullshit is that?
[General] Constellation, King in Ceremonial Robes— What’s a GM?
[General] Constellation, Warrior on the Chariot— □□□□□□□□□□□□□!
[General] Constellation, Wizard Who Casts Off His Robes— Isn’t he just saying stuff because he’s got nothing else to say?

They didn’t know what a GM was?

While playing this game?

Unable to believe it, I reread the chat several times.

No matter how many times I read it, it seemed like they didn’t realize they were users inside a game.

Or maybe… I was the one who’d gone crazy.

I was in a dream where characters moved like real people.

To them, users weren’t users, they were real beings.

Constellations.

Of course they wouldn’t know the game’s name or how to properly insult someone in chat.

Anyway, it was a dream.

Joo-an took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.

No over-immersion.

No over-immersion.

[General] Constellation, Creator of Sacrifice— GM means game operator, and Become a Constellation is the name of this game.
[General] Constellation, Observer of Wisdom— What? A game? Are you mentally ill?
[General] Constellation, King in Ceremonial Robes— Must be a freak.
[General] Constellation, Warrior on the Chariot:— Hey, you don’t have any friends, do you?

The anger I’d been suppressing shot straight to the top of my head.

Asking someone with plenty of friends if they had any wouldn’t hurt, but asking someone who truly had none was a direct stab.

Up through college, Joo-an had been fairly sociable.

But after joining KA Soft and meeting a garbage team leader and worse teammates, he’d become a complete outsider.

Relentless workloads drove away what few friends he had left, leaving him trapped in a routine of commuting between work and home.
He was already furious about that, and now they were poking the wound?

[General] Constellation, Creator of Sacrifice— You dumbasses don’t even know how to swear in chat, yet you’ve got big mouths. I’ve got no friends? f*ck off.
[General] Constellation, Observer of Wisdom— Th-that was it? Bastard-ah! So that’s how you swear!
[General] Constellation, King in Ceremonial Robes— Holy shit…
[General] Constellation, Wizard Who Casts Off His Robes— Gasp.

I’d only shown them something simple, yet they reacted as if I’d revealed some grand secret.

It felt like I’d landed a hit, but this wasn’t enough.

[General] Constellation, Creator of Sacrifice— And you’re jealous over just 10,000 coins? I’ve got 999999999999999999999999999999. Infinite.
[General] Constellation, Warrior on the Chariot— What the hell…
[General] Constellation, Wizard Who Casts Off His Robes— They discriminated by rank when we were Awakened Ones, and now by coins as Constellations? Damn gold-spooned trash…
[General] Constellation, Observer of Wisdom— Shitty system! What’s the point of being a Constellation? f*ck. We can’t do anything. How’s this different from being an Awakened One?

Awakened Ones?

At that unexpected word, Joo-an’s fingers froze mid-swear.

Here, avatars were called “Awakened Ones”, so if what they said was true, these Constellations had once been characters themselves.

It was strange… but if characters could suddenly become users, then anything was possible in a dream.

As I was thinking that, a whisper came in from one of the Constellations.

[Whisper] Constellation, King in Ceremonial Robes— How do you get S-rank favor?

Of course.

There were people like this everywhere, only out for themselves.

[Whisper] Constellation, Creator of Sacrifice— How should I know? They’re the ones begging me to contract.
[Whisper] Constellation, King in Ceremonial Robes— □□ you, you □□ bastard!
[Whisper] Constellation, Creator of Sacrifice— I already taught you how to swear. Guess you’re just too stupid to learn.

Chatting with Constellations was getting exhausting.

I scrolled to the far right of the window, spotted the X, and clicked it.

Thankfully, the chat window could be closed freely.

After that, no matter how long I waited, no new matches appeared.

There was no time limit on this quest, was there?

Worried the settings had changed, I checked the quest window, it still read <9 / 10>.

When I closed it and opened the system window, a message appeared.

What was this supposed to mean?

Even knowing it was a dream, anxiety crept in at the thought of failing the quest.

I paced around the house restlessly, then glanced toward the window.

It was pitch black outside, no light at all.

Only then did I understand.

Looking back at the pattern so far, every avatar I’d met had been doing something at that time of day.

So the reason no matching was happening now… was probably because it was night.

…Should I sleep?

But could you even sleep inside a dream?

I lay back down on the bed anyway.

Maybe from thinking too much all day, my body felt limp, like it had been soaked in saltwater.

So you could sleep in dreams, huh.

I hoped that when I woke up, it would be reality.

Not seeing my shitty team leader’s face was nice, but still, please, let it be reality when I open my eyes…

However, Joo-an’s earnest wish was not granted.

When he opened his eyes, everything was exactly the same as yesterday.

Judging by how sunlight filled the house, he must’ve slept a long time.

Checking the system window showed it was 1 p.m.

And then, finally, a message appeared.

<Awakened One Joo Ji-chan is requesting assistance. Would you like to connect?>

Joo Ji-chan.

The Joo Ji-chan he’d been waiting for.

The moment I hit accept, his figure appeared, and it was bad.

Joo Ji-chan was sprinting like a madman while holding a small boy in his arms.

As if that weren’t enough, a giant beaked bird was chasing them close behind.

Why was a monster that belonged in a dungeon running through the middle of the city?!

Until now, whenever an avatar appeared, I’d always admired the appearance of the characters I’d created, but this situation was too urgent for that.

–f*ck. No matter how bad it gets, I never wanted help from some damn Constellation…!

He started hostile right out of the gate.

But offended or not, the child in his arms looked critical, I needed to help first.

I instinctively opened the skill window and reached for the donate button…

Then hesitated.