Star Tracker

"Aaaah!… Uh… uh! This junior greets their senior!!!"

Watching the little spirit herb that had been hiding burst out into the open, Togo kept his eyes closed and expressionless, gently wrapping the newborn nestled against him in spiritual power so she wouldn't wake, and put the question to it.

"What are you to the newborn?"

"I don't think Hee-ah is a newborn, though… I'm Hee-ah's captive."

"I can feel the newborn's presence on you, so that much isn't a lie. Heh. Then why don't you come here too?"

The way it stayed bristling with wariness toward a cultivator of higher realm while forcing itself to obey was so transparent it was almost endearing. Yes—for a cultivator, that was the normal reaction.

The newborn, on the other hand… was far too defenseless!

That pure, openhearted quality of hers—the kind that would hand over her whole heart the moment she decided to trust someone—worried him so much he half-suspected she had spent a hundred years doing nothing but cultivate in isolation.

More than anything, the fragile Golden Core he had examined with nothing but his Nascent Soul in that poison-choked sea had not been the product of proper training. It looked like something inflated with spirit medicines.

"There's a great deal I'll need to teach you."

Whether they would have enough time no longer concerned him. After all, the newborn possessed genius-level talent!

Of course, it did not take long for that particular misconception of Togo's to shatter into pieces.

"Newborn, this is a basic technique of the giant race. For a newborn who can already handle the Laws, this is something you ought to be able to do with your eyes closed."

Her talent was catastrophic. The newborn's sense for spiritual power was so wretched you could have called her a complete layman. The only thing she possessed a peerless instinct for was the energy she called slaughter energy.

And with that alone, she had stacked her own tower high enough to touch transcendence from the Golden Core realm.

"I worry for you, newborn…"

"But Elder Togo, you can't come out onto the map with me!"

Even if he was Mythic-grade, was the judgment just for decoration? I'd hoped otherwise, but of course freeloading all the way wasn't going to fly. Then again, I was already freeloading about halfway as it was.

"It would never do for me to accompany the newborn into the lower realm—that much is only natural. I have no ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠intention of leaving the newborn behind in the lower realm and returning to the upper realm alone."

"Elder Togo…!"

"Still, I worry for you. Would it be all right if I left an eye with you?"

"Yes!"

I nodded, feeling rather like I was getting a CCTV camera stuck to me—and from the main body rather than the hologram, meaning from inside the Star Eater, that compressed final weapon bound by the Laws, something like a small drone popped out and latched onto the top of my head.

"Hmm, better put it here!"

I plucked the drone off my head with one hand and set it on my left shoulder. Having it on top of my head would just get in the way whenever I pulled out my wheel!

It registered as a captive! Meaning I could take it onto the map!

I was drowning in the bleak prospect of having to fly around this ridiculously vast map all over again, hunting for monsters whose numbers had already been cut down to almost nothing on the minimap, when my thoughts suddenly snagged on Elder Togo's drone.

He'd definitely said it was a tracking annihilation drone.

"Um, Elder Togo—could you find monsters for me with the drone?"

"Monsters, is it… What exactly counts as a monster by our newborn's standards?"

Standards for a monster? If a red dot showed up on the minimap it was a monster, and if a gray dot showed up it was a neutral NPC—but how was I supposed to explain that?

"Could you just find any living beings at Golden Core or above?"

"Cultivators of that caliber are hardly common. Still, very well."

The drone stuck to my shoulder fired a beam from its eye into empty air, and the beam became a circular ring that erupted into a vast wave of energy sweeping every direction in an instant.

Ooooooh.

"There. All done."

A plus icon appeared on the minimap. When I tapped it, the entire map lit up bright—even though I hadn't killed a field boss—and every last red dot and gray dot became visible.

Hidden treasure chests and dungeons still didn't show, but even so, this technique was basically a map hack! How was he casting techniques through a drone? Could I do that map hack too?

"That's amazing! Is this how you do it?"

I was sure I'd copied it exactly with slaughter energy and burst out a ring of my own—but nothing registered, the minimap didn't change, and instead every enraged gray dot and red-dot monster came charging at me in unison like a coordinated assault!

Why?!

I'd copied it exactly the same way, and Elder Togo's version was a map hack while mine was a taunt skill!

"Auto-Battle!"

Was it because I'd inflated my stats again? Most of them I managed to crush with Decisive or Overwhelming results—but as always, the experience was thin.

The killing intent Elder Togo had radiated had been so sweet. The experience, I mean!

Auto-Battle had cheerfully carved through the nearest neutral NPC and two monsters in an instant, but because I'd spread slaughter energy across the whole map as a taunt, monsters ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠higher-level than me started swarming in like I'd smeared myself in honey.

"I don't even have to go looking for them, so maybe this isn't so bad…?"

Of course, consecutive monster fights meant an Eok-kka event could trigger if I got unlucky, so I was never doing this again! If I screwed up and an Abyss Defense popped, I'd have to reload!

"Newborn, why did you kill them? You were the one who threatened them with slaughter energy and drew them to you first."

"Well, it was one gray dot and two red dots?"

One neutral NPC and two monsters. What reason was there not to kill them? Even most of the humanity clones inside me were nodding along in agreement on this one.

If the neutral NPC had tried talking first, maybe—but it had clearly been drawing up spiritual power to join the monsters in a coordinated attack!

"So colors are visible to the newborn's eyes. What color was I, then?"

"Green, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of course!"

Friendly NPC! An ally with no Eok-kka events! Fully trustworthy, stamped and sealed!

"And I only get stronger by killing living beings! So—Auto-Battle!"

I casually swiped through two more approaching monsters with Auto-Battle. I'd been thinking of switching to manual if most of them came up Overwhelming instead of Decisive!

"And those cultivators just now?"

"Monsters!"

Which was exactly why I'd hit Auto-Battle without a second thought.

"So the newborn has been led around by the stars."

"…Me?"

After five kills, the red dots on the revealed minimap finally seemed to realize something was wrong and started scattering, while the gray dots changed direction. I floated my wheel into the air, rose into the sky, and immediately went hunting.

"……"

I tilted my head briefly at Elder Togo going suddenly quiet, but filling my experience bar came first—so I urgently chased after the prey before they could all escape.

"This won't work! Flee, junior brother! I'll buy us time!"

"Senior brother! But—!"

"Go! Hurry and run! Hrk…! Go and tell them! The Slaughter Immortal has come!"

"One red dot and one gray dot—you two are the last ones!"

At that cheerfully bright child's voice, their whole bodies began to tremble of their own accord. Just hearing it was enough for their instincts to understand that death itself had arrived right at their noses.

"Auto-Battle."

The cultivator who had been ready to burn his own Golden Core just to buy time against the Slaughter Immortal coming to claim his life looked up at the sky, almost as if cursing heaven itself—

And met a pair of crimson eyes.

"Ugh, thrashing around to the bitter end. Gross."

One of my arms had been blown off by a dying monster's last desperate strike. A death-throes thrash pattern—seriously filthy! Thinking that, I looked at the one remaining gray dot.

Might as well kill that one too and heal up.

The potions really were excellent. Under normal circumstances a permanent injury like [Right Arm Severed] would have stuck, but physical wounds could be healed as long as you had enough high-quality potions!

And I had plenty of potions. Ordinary low-level monsters and cultivators dropped them, of course—and if I was truly desperate, even killing background characters ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wouldn't give experience, but slaughter energy still came in, so recovery was possible!

Ugh! Ack! Gyaah!

The damn humanity clones inside me started beating me black and blue with the weapon called conscience, and I twisted and shuddered under the assault. Fine, shit, I get it! I get it already! There's no need to kill background characters for recovery when the absolute values heal me anyway! I'm not killing them, okay?!

I couldn't even argue back against the humanity clones screaming that I'd kill them if I needed to. They weren't even NPCs—just background characters.

Like the villagers and your parents that you killed?

"Son of a bitch."

Ah. That one actually hurt a whole damn lot.