Chapter 128
Chapter 128
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 128
Chapter Title: Please Take Justice Away!!! I Was Raising the Guild Prettily Just to Hand It Over to You-!!!
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“I'm sowwy...
But Cacty can't live without Taeyang-nim's care anymore...”
“What nonsense is that? Care? I took good care of her too! I watered her regularly and gave her plenty of sunlight...! Do you know how much attention I paid all this time?!”
He probably didn't even realize he had anything to be sorry for.
People think plants just grow on their own if you water them on time and give them some sun.
“Hey. Can you take responsibility for those words?”
“Of course!”
But that's just because they don't know the first thing about plant constellations.
“How dare you strut around with a plant constellation like it's some lapdog?! Huh?!”
“What...? But constellations naturally stick with their heroes—”
“Hey, hey! That's just from your perspective! Cacty's a full-on plant-based constellation! Didn't you just mechanically water her once every two weeks?!”
“W-What's wrong with that?!”
Truth be told, they're all the same if you get down to it.
Plants and people are both living creatures.
Living creatures are affected by their environment.
People get stressed from environmental changes too.
Plants are no different.
In fact, plants are even more sensitive to things like temperature and humidity.
“Isn't it basic plant butler duty to check the soil based on humidity and temperature fluctuations and adjust watering accordingly?! Do you want your plant turning into a mummy or a bloated ramen brick?! Constant environmental shifts stress plants out, making them vulnerable to pests and diseases, and reckless outdoor exposure causes mosaic virus, anthracnose, and all sorts of fungal infections! Hey!”
“If there were problems like that, Cacty would've said something ages ago...!”
“Why do you think she would’ve told you?”
“......!”
Honestly, heroes chosen by plant constellations have it easy.
While others pull out all the stops to win their constellation's favor, plant constellations are just so adorably dumb and sweet that they won't run off as long as you water them and give them sunlight.
They get complacent with that stability and neglect proper constellation care.
Jeong Isol.
Sorry, but Cacty's way too lovable and precious for you!
“C-Cacty... Are you really leaving me?”
“Hawawa...”
“I'll do better...! I'll check the humidity, the soil condition...? I'll monitor all that, and if you're sick, I'll take you to the hospital...!”
“Hey, idiot. You think plant hospitals exist? Heh heh heh.”
“......”
Thump- thump-
Cacty bounced up and hid behind me.
She clearly had no interest in talking to Jeong Isol anymore.
“Cacty...”
Thud.
Her legs gave out, and Jeong Isol collapsed right there.
But I had no intention of letting her give up.
You can't exploit someone who's given up, right?
“Hey. You giving up just like that?”
“What...?”
“You never know? If you show some real sincerity from now on, super-sweet Cacty might come back to you? Heh heh heh.”
Of course, that won't happen.
I'll make sure of it.
“Cacty! Are you listening?! I'll try harder from now on...!”
“Hey, hey! Who said you could talk to her?! Don't speak to her without my permission!”
“...Are you planning to give permission?”
“Of course?”
“What do I have to do for that?”
“First, switch teams.”
“!”
Jeong Isol was now part of our team.
Not as a ranker, but as grunt labor.
“Follow me, you sow grunt!”
“G-Grunt...?”
“If you're not a grunt, then what are you?! You got dumped by your constellation and now you're just a regular awakener! A B-rank at best, and you expect ranker treatment?!”
“I've got seniority! Grunt is too much!”
“Tch. Whatever. I'm not even taking you because I need you.”
“What? Wait! Hold on...!”
And just like that, our team gained a grunt.
Former S-rank grunt.
*
“Ack?! No-Mama Jeong Isol! Why are you doing the dishes, nya?!”
“Get lost, Caroline...”
“Rumors say your constellation got stolen! Is it twue, nya?! Jesus Chwist! Too funny! I'm outta hewe! My bellybutton!”
Caroline and White Rose had left the team after clashing with Jeong Isol.
There was no reason not to tease the now-grunt Jeong Isol.
White Rose joined in.
“What was the reason for the Kim Taeyang terror incident?”
“It was your self-staged play!”
“But the intent to kill was real. Am I wrong?”
“Shut up!”
Caroline and White Rose had defected.
It was partly due to the team's selfish tendencies, but the decisive factor was Jeong Isol.
She had tried to kill Kim Taeyang.
It wasn't just about hating the trolling.
There had been orders from their constellations.
Flutter flutter-!
A notebook came flying in like a butterfly from somewhere.
It was White Rose's constellation.
“Veritas-nim. You're back.”
“Rose! I confirmed Kim Taeyang's truth!”
“Really?”
“Asmodeus's magic power from his smartphone—! Mmph!”
White Rose quickly covered the notebook.
The tightly shut notebook couldn't speak anymore.
“Anyway, no-Mama Jeong Isol! Do your work right! Or I'll intwoduce you to your gweat-gwandma!”
*
“Whoa~ Super-cute parrot constellation get!”
“Whoa- whoa-”
I kept stealing more constellations after that.
“Whoa~ Spider constellation that'd turn into a gloomy big-tits girl! Found it!!”
“Kikik?”
Some constellations had low affinity with their heroes and simple desires.
Things like nuts, earthworms, that sort of stuff raised their favor plenty.
“Whoa~ This bag constellation is suuuper loose! Hup!! Zipper time!!! I'll stuff it full as emergency rations!!!”
“So full~♡”
In total, seven constellations stolen.
I didn't formally contract any.
Contracting all of them would tank relations with my existing ones uncontrollably.
So I left them in a neutral state.
“What did you do to my parrot god?!”
“Give back Arachne-nim...!”
“Backpackus-nim...!”
“Grunt pig bitches. Come clean up.”
All whose constellations I stole became grunts.
“You dare make me a grunt?! Think you'll get away with this insult...?!”
“Hey, hey! Why's being a grunt an insult?! No such thing as high or low jobs!! We wrote proper contracts complying with labor laws and signed them—why the tantrum?! Huh?!”
Why's being a grunt humiliating?
I even offered full pay...?
When will they grow up...?
Anyway.
The waves kept coming.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [The wave begins.] ⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [7th Wave] [Achievement Goal] [Deaths: 0/1]
Already the seventh wave.
“Harin! At this rate, we'll get breached! Retreat for now!”
“No, Unnie!”
“Why?!”
“Master-nim's words are law...! Master-nim's strategy is victory...! No matter what, we must make it succeed...!”
The heroines displayed inexplicable combat and command prowess.
I fought in a trance as well.
Pomi, Koobul, Samsaek... even pulling out Karon's skeletons for battle.
The non-awakeners shone too.
Even with death looming before their eyes, they didn't retreat.
“Charge with sow spirit!!!”
“Oink! Oink!”
“Oiiiiink!!!”
It was thanks to Abigail's excellent leadership.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Wave cleared] [No deaths]
In the end, we held through the 7th wave.
If my memory's right, the next one is the boss wave.
And as expected.
Park Hee-yeon's team was having a real headache.
“Hey! Guild leader sow!!”
“Ugh...”
I approached her with my hands in my pockets.
Park Hee-yeon looked utterly pissed.
“You get hurt or something? Heh heh heh.”
Park Hee-yeon had taken serious injuries.
She could barely walk on her own.
We had injuries too, but mostly minor ones.
And unlike her team, they were all non-awakeners.
“Strutting around all cocky, and look at you now?! Should've joined me from the start—no need for this mess.”
“Shut up...”
Constant constellation thefts had rankers defecting.
The more they did, the weaker Park Hee-yeon's team got.
Rankers would feel the pinch and waver psychologically.
This was the result.
Mass ranker injuries.
At this rate, all rankers would defect to my team.
Park Hee-yeon couldn't as team leader.
She'd be left alone and die in the boss wave.
Of course, I had no plans to let her die.
Instead, I'd make her owe me her life and turn her into my loyal dog.
“Hey, guild leader sow. Crawl between my legs and oink, and I'll let it slide.”
“I said shut up...”
“You already did the sow dance—what's this? Huh?”
“Think cheap taunts like that work on me?!”
“Hey, hey! How's this a taunt?! I'm worried about you, you sow with that massive flopping ego!!”
“You thug cult leader wannabe...!”
Finally, she snapped.
Grabbed my collar and headbutted me.
“Keurgh...?!”
But she took the hit.
Thorns had sprouted from my face.
“W-What is this...?!”
“Hawawa~ It's dangerous to hit heroes with Cacty as their constellation~ Thorns sprout even from the face~”
Blood poured from Park Hee-yeon's thorn-pierced forehead.
Thorn skin.
A stigma from super-cute Cacty.
“Guild leader! Are you okay?!”
The rankers belatedly tended to her.
Their voices sounded oddly sweet.
“Guild leader. Don't hurt...”
“Guild leader was the best leader ever.”
“Justice's history will remember you, guild leader.”
“Yeah... Thanks... Wait, history will remember me? What do you mean...?”
The rankers' faces hardened.
They defected to my side, avoiding her gaze.
“W-We wanna switch to Blue Team too. Thanks for everything, guild leader!”
“Hey, wait... I can't switch teams!”
“Yeah... That's too bad...”
“You guys have no loyalty?!”
If they did, would they have acted like this all along?
Park Hee-yeon was hopeless.
Desperately clinging to these trash-personality rankers.
No wonder her guild was failing.
“D-Don't abandon me...!”
“......”
Well, this was her chance to rethink things.
“Jihwan! Ricky...! Mason...!!! I'll give you anything you want...! Rewrite the contracts, just come back...!!!”
“......”
“......”
It'd be a bloody valuable lesson.
*
[20 hours 42 minutes until next wave]
The terror of not knowing when it'd strike scared people.
The dread of knowing exactly when dried them up.
“Ten times the salary!!! Save me and I'll raise your pay tenfold!!!”
Park Hee-yeon wailed pathetically.
Now, no one was by her side.
All guild members had defected to Kim Taeyang's team...
[10 hours 15 minutes until next wave]
“Even the junior heroes!!! Ten times the salary!!! No, twenty!!! I swear it's not a lie!!!!”
Some staff and junior heroes pitied her.
But from the grunts' view, Park Hee-yeon's image sucked.
She'd always sacrificed the bottom 90% for the top 10%.
Even in dungeons.
Kim Taeyang fought for the weak; she sided with the strong.
She even endorsed sacrificing the weak to save the strong.
[2 hours 24 minutes until next wave]
“You can't do this to me!! Do you know how much I racked my brain to save everyone!!!”
At least that's how it looked to the crowd.
Park Hee-yeon's desire to save as many as possible was genuine.
Though it ended with her stoned as a rice witch.
[30 minutes until next wave]
“Please...! You're gonna let me die like this...?! This is murder! A crime!!”
“......”
“How much have I devoted to the guild?! Jeong Isol, you bitch! How much did I overlook your dogshit?! Ricky! You too! How much hell did I go through cleaning up your messes!!!”
“......”
“Please... Forgive me... I was wrong...! So let's fight together one more time...! Okay...?”
“......”
“Aaaack!! You fucking bastards!!!!”
[5 minutes 13 seconds until next wave]
From then on, Park Hee-yeon said nothing.
Just stared blankly at the ceiling with dead eyes.
Perhaps her attachment to life had loosened a bit.
That's when the situation finally came into clear view.
"Knowing when to ignore bullshit is a guild leader's virtue."
It wasn't coincidence that Oppa’s words came to mind then.
‘I wasn't a leader...’
She turned to look at Blue Team.
Kim Taeyang still stood at the heroes' center.
Everyone listened intently to him.
Everyone admired him.
Everyone relied on him.
Of course, rankers probably still resented him.
Those who lost constellations became grunts,
and those who didn't felt overshadowed by him.
But.
At least outwardly, they followed him.
Striving not to earn his dislike.
‘Kim Taeyang made it that way...!’
Defying him now meant no comeback.
One wrong move, and they'd end up abandoned like her.
‘How did that guy pull it off?!’
Her mind raced from there.
Ironic.
Her grip on life loosened, but her desire to become a great leader burned strong.
‘Grab the small fish tight to build power, overwhelm the big ones with force...’
The polar opposite of her strategy.
It resembled her brother Park Choong-hyun's approach.
But that strategy had a fatal flaw.
The leader had to be exceptional.
No use without charisma to captivate the masses.
Even Park Choong-hyun never recommended it to his sister.
‘That guy has that kind of charisma...?!’
Why.
Why had she only seen Kim Taeyang as a thug?
Why hadn't she believed Abigail and the others?
‘I thought a guy who looks like that couldn't possibly be competent......!!!’
It was his appearance.
Absurd, but true.
His thug, third-rate villain look had biased her heavily.
But what were the results?
Kim Taeyang became the leader everyone followed,
and she was discarded.
Left with not a soul beside her... no different from street trash dumped in an alley...
“Hey. Guild leader sow.”
“!”
Only 3 minutes till the wave.
Kim Taeyang had come.
“What...?”
“You planning to die all helpless like that?”
“No choice.”
“Heh heh heh heh.”
Kim Taeyang laughed vilely as always.
He'd win gold in a nasty laugh contest.
He licked his lips and continued.
“Offer up Justice.”
“What...?”
“Beg to hand over Justice—'Please take it!' Maybe I'll save you then!”
She couldn't grasp his intent.
Normally she'd brush off the mockery, but...
Now, her dreams and hopes were shattered.
“I-I'll offer Justice... so please take it...?”
“Hey, hey! Use respect!! You incompetent sow!!!”
“P-Please take Justice away!!! This guild leader sow begs youuu!!! I was raising Justice prettily just to hand it over to youuu-!!!”
Kim Taeyang grinned brightly.
His tanned face made his teeth gleam whiter.
“Heh heh heh heh. Begging that hard? I'll devour it deliciously...! Justice you nurtured? I'll ram it full and remake it completely into my guild!!!”
“Th-Thank you...!”
“See ya!”
“?”
Kim Taeyang left.
“Hey, wait... You said you'd save me...?”
He turned back, face twisted in amusement.
“Hah? You idiot?! You actually believed that?!”
Snap-
Something broke.
Probably her last shred of pride.