Spoiler (1)
The engine roared like thunder.
A motorcycle tore down the empty midnight road.
It was Kang Hae-il.
The cool night wind whipped across his entire body.
For a brief moment, his racing thoughts seemed to scatter into the air.
But then the traffic light ahead turned red.
He squeezed the brake and came to a slow stop.
“Hoo…”
Kang Hae-il let out a shallow breath and dialed a number.
“Yeah. Director. It’s me.”
The person on the other end was Kim Daecheol, head of the Special Disaster Management Headquarters.
Kang Hae-il had his direct line.
“It’s nothing serious, but… that goggle… it broke during the fight. Can you send me another one?”
Broke during the fight? The Constellations were confused.
Of course Kang Hae-il had left the goggle with Junil. It hadn’t broken in a fight at all.
It wasn’t a mistake.
He had intentionally left the goggle for Junil.
“No need to send it by courier. Regular delivery is fine.”
With those final words, Kang Hae-il hung up.
Then he muttered to himself.
“Consider it my last gift.”
Maybe sticking to one path no matter what eventually earns respect?
The Constellations who had stayed until now were all drawn to Kang Hae-il’s original character. Watching him give the porter one last thing even as he walked away—that was just who Kang Hae-il was.
It was only natural they’d be moved.
The light turned green again. He twisted the throttle.
Vrooooom!
The engine sang brightly.
[Night Drive BGM]
The Storyboard 3.0 system had automatically laid down fitting background music.
A refreshing yet wistful melody that perfectly matched the night cityscape.
Just watching Hae-il ride alone through the night had the Constellations hyped up.
Somehow, a sense of hope was rising.
At first they had hoped Kang Hae-il would somehow notice the porter’s suspicious behavior, but that seemed too far off.
They realized it was better for him to stay away like this.
With the refreshing music and the open road, their hearts felt lighter.
However, the Constellations’ feelings and Hae-il’s own heart were not the same.
Was I being nosy?
Hae-il stared at the blurred city lights that looked like watercolor bleeding across the night and fell into thought.
The words he had heard earlier echoed in his ears.
「Then just don’t catch the World Boss. Wouldn’t that solve everything?」
It was as if someone had dragged the contradiction lurking deep in his heart out into the open.
I only wanted to repay the favor.
The favor of being saved from the graveyard. The favor of organizing his items and turning them into money.
He had only wanted to repay those debts.
Or so he thought.
Was it really just for myself?
It wasn’t about repaying a favor at all.
He had simply forced the porter into his own schedule without considering the other person once.
In the name of repaying kindness, he had only burdened the other party.
He had simply needed the porter. That was all.
I still have a long way to go.
The image of his father opening the front door on his way to work rose in his mind.
「Dad’s heading out.」
That was the true hero’s back that Hae-il knew.
When he was little, Hae-il had grabbed onto that back and asked.
「Dad…! Why don’t you tell people you saved that kid?」
A photo of his father carrying a child out of a massive fire had made the news, and his father had received a lot of attention.
He could have become famous.
But he had done every interview anonymously and kept the child’s identity strictly confidential.
Young Hae-il had found it frustrating.
He wanted his friends to know his father was a hero.
「Hae-il.」
His father had turned around at the front door, sat down, and gently stroked his head.
「That child will eventually find out they were saved by me, won’t they? The whole world will know too.」
「So what?」
「A favor too big for someone to handle can ruin them. That child is already carrying too much. I don’t want to add any more weight.」
「What does that even mean… just tell them.」
Little Hae-il hadn’t understood those words at all.
「It’s a good thing anyway. Wouldn’t it be better if you became famous? The kids… they make fun of me saying firefighters don’t even make money…」
He had thrown a tantrum out of pure selfishness.
His father hadn’t said anything then.
He had simply looked at him for a long time before asking.
「Kang Hae-il. Want to eat chicken when Dad gets home tonight?」
「…Really!?」
The foolish young Hae-il who would forget everything at the mere mention of chicken.
A smile spread across young Hae-il’s face.
「Yeah. Dad’s heading out.」
The front door closed.
Thud!
The motorcycle hit a speed bump and launched into the air.
Hae-il snapped back to reality.
Ah.
Screeeech… creeeeak…
A strange noise was coming from the bike.
Did it break?
Must be that.
He realized it was because the sidecar was empty.
Should I take it off?
The next day.
5 a.m.
“Uwaaaaaah!”
Moon Junil woke up screaming.
Cold sweat soaked his back.
“Damn it.”
Why had those old memories suddenly resurfaced?
He picked up an old photo sitting on the corner of his desk.
It was a picture from his orphanage days. Young Junil was forcing a smile, but faint burn scars were visible on his arms and face.
“Ugh. Those damn orphanage brats.”
He had played the hero seven times, yet the nightmares that haunted him weren’t about the Demon King—they were about those orphanage kids.
They really were something else.
A few Constellations who watched even while he slept had unexpectedly learned a bit about Junil’s personal history.
“Haa.”
Junil put the photo back in the drawer.
“Let’s just throw it away.”
Most of them were faces he never wanted to see again.
He should have burned it.
But there had been a few good connections too, so he couldn’t.
Above all, keeping this photo had a crime-prevention effect.
“Haa. At least half of these guys are probably scammers and the other half gangsters by now.”
The Constellations who learned about his personal history were excited.
But Junil was dead serious.
“Please still look exactly the same.”
He was certain that by now most of them had become outstanding criminals.
They had shown their true colors even as kids.
He had memorized their faces so he could avoid them if he ever ran into them on the street.
Junil had studied hard to escape that hellhole, and he had no desire to get involved with them again.
…That’s how it was.
Even these orphanage memories were almost forty years old for Junil.
They were faint.
Who could have known he would go on to play the hero seven more times after that?
Let’s just do the commission.
Even now, land prices in Apgujeong and Banpo were rising.
He needed to focus on this damned commission.
“Jjarururu…”
What was it again?
Too lazy to get up properly, Junil simply called the name.
“Hey, Ham.”
Poof!
Ham popped out.
“Huk… W-wait, what happened to the summoning incantation!? You’re supposed to call my name properly!”
He looked nervous about getting caught.
“Hae-il already thinks you’re Ham anyway. Why the hell is the incantation so weird?”
“B-because it’s my favorite food in this dimensional phase!”
“…Do you even eat it while working here?”
“Do you think we work without eating!?”
“Anyway… give me the briefing.”
He wanted to know how much Kang Hae-il’s Constellation count had dropped.
Last time it had been 87,000.
“It’s 73,000 now!”
“That’s not that much of a drop?”
“That’s still a huge drop!”
There was still a long way to go.
Even after pissing them off that much, so many still remained.
“If it were me I would’ve left ages ago.”
“The current trend is that ‘heroic fantasy’ is super popular, and the Storyboard 3.0 promotion effect is massive. Plus, after the graveyard incident, Kang Hae-il had a mental awakening and is now completely focused on growth. He’s extremely hardworking. So he’s getting a lot of support. It’s that ‘Our hardworking big brother who’s a bit lacking but tries so hard!’ vibe?”
It seemed the scenes of Kang Hae-il working hard to become stronger had been very effective.
But I worked hard too?
Then what the hell was Julian’s first round?
He had been the embodiment of effort.
“Why are they so lenient only with Kang Hae-il?”
Junil felt a fresh wave of dissatisfaction.
Why were the standards so strict only when it came to him!
“They were just as lenient with Lord Julian! When Lord Julian got continuously rejected by women versus when Kang Hae-il got beaten up by Lord Julian, which one caused more Constellations to leave?”
“…Me?”
“See!? Even you think so!? But Kang Hae-il lost way more! Get it now? The Constellations are originally generous!”
“That’s just because I did my job well, you idiot.”
Poof.
After getting flicked on the forehead, Ham scratched his head.
“Huh…? Y-yeah, that’s true, isn’t it?”
It was true that Kang Hae-il’s Constellations had left because Julian had done his job too well.
Realizing he was at a disadvantage, Ham quickly changed the subject.
“Ah, right! So, Lord Pam asked something.”
“What?”
“Why did you choose to separate from Kang Hae-il? His Constellation count isn’t dropping as fast, and you won’t receive the benefits of the Main Stream.”
Main Stream.
The center where the story flows.
In other words, near the protagonist.
Being there caused viewer Constellations to multiply like crazy.
“If I stayed any longer, I’d get suspicious.”
“Huh? Why?”
“I just have a feeling. Pro’s intuition.”
He couldn’t say he had seen it in the Constellation chat.
“Ah… if it’s that kind of feeling then there’s nothing we can do. But if you don’t operate in the Main Stream, you’ll have a hard time catching up. You should keep that in mind.”
That was true.
It was definitely a problem.
Ham didn’t know, but Junil’s combat power changed depending on his viewer count.
If his viewers dropped, it would be trouble.
“Can’t I get my own stream? There must be times when they show the supporting cast’s perspective too.”
“…Huk? How did you know that?”
Ham was shocked by Junil’s understanding of streaming.
“Because I’m a pro.”
Click.
Junil unconsciously struck a pose before awkwardly stopping.
No one was watching right now anyway.
“There is such a thing. It’s called a ‘Sub-Stream.’ When non-protagonist characters create another flow of their own…”
Ham’s expression turned a little troubled.
“It’s definitely not easy.”
Ham turned on his Wisp Watch.
The Wisp appeared and spat something out.
It was data.
He read it and muttered.
“Right now the only one creating a Sub-Stream is… the main supporting character who leads the massive force in Incheon. So many people are entangled with him and his influence on the world is so large that a second stream was generated.”
A massive force?
Junil didn’t have anything like that.
“How do I make one?”
“Wouldn’t you have to claim a major event before the protagonist?”
Getting on a main event before the protagonist was the best option.
And there just happened to be one.
“Like the World Boss?”
“Ah… yes! That too! And there’s news! I did some spying on Ram’s side!”
The Wisp popped out again, spat out more data, and Ham read it.
“Ram is preparing the World Boss!”
“…I already knew that?”
“Not that! Um… t-today!”
After calculating the dimensional time difference, it was today.
“There’s a very high chance they’ll just summon the World Boss today! The narrative power of the story is getting stronger, so this will be the final big intervention!”
Today?
According to the book, today was supposed to be the day they gathered sacrifices, not the summoning.
Yangcheon-gu, Mok-dong Station.
He remembered the exact location.
But they were summoning the World Boss today?
“Is only the timing changing? Location stays the same?”
“Yes! According to the intel, only the time has changed! They’re forcing the summon even if the World Boss will be in an incomplete state!”
“……”
Crack.
Junil tilted his head once.
“Haa. Can’t be helped.”
Grab!
He snatched Ham and immediately shoved him into the inventory.
“Uuuup!?”
Whoosh!
A moment later the inventory spat him back out.
“Puhhaa…! W-why are you mad even after I told you!?”
Ham exploded.
“You should’ve come out yelling ‘Breaking news! Emergency!’ the second you knew! Why are you only telling me now!?”
“T-that’s because I didn’t know it was today! Interpreting this stuff is hard for me too! Tch!”
Poof!
Ham suddenly vanished mid-sentence.
“…?”
The paused time began flowing again.
What the. Is he sulking?
Junil couldn’t tell if Ham had gotten offended or if his stay time had simply run out, but he had suddenly disappeared.
Anyway, today’s job just got urgent.
Junil needed to finish all preparations as quickly as possible.
Moreover, an incomplete summoning…?
It meant the World Boss would be weaker.
Which meant they were definitely planning to kill it.
How do I protect the World Boss…
How could he keep it alive?
He still had two levels left.