The Constellations' Game — Laika

After finishing my gear maintenance in town, I hit Level 11 on the way back to the hunting grounds.

My experience bar had been nearly full already, so the level simply ticked over on its own as I made my way toward the Level 15 hunting grounds.

But this was only the beginning. Once I actually arrived at the Level 15 hunting ground, I started rampaging like an absolute madman.

The Valley of Silence is a hunting ground crawling with monsters between Levels 15 and 17. Originally, I'd planned to grind my way up to Level 13 or 14 before setting foot in here—but thanks to the Moonlight Sword, my specs had come together a whole tempo ahead of schedule. Honestly, I was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠far better off than I'd have been even at Level 14 without it. So I tore through the place without stopping. In the most literal sense, I drove the local monster population to extinction. With Sword-Body Union igniting on top of everything else, ordinary mobs simply weren't a threat anymore, no matter what level they were.

Of course, that only held true within the Island of Beginnings.

Anyway—yes, I was having the time of my life. If you asked me what could possibly be so thrilling about repeating something I'd done over a thousand loops, I'd tell you this: it feels like I'm playing a completely different game than I did across those thousand loops. Back in the beta, with my fairy-certified trash-tier talent, every single battle was an exercise in suffering. Everything that happened inside a gate was a threat to my very survival. But now? Now I was operating in a state of pure flow. How far had that gone, exactly?

The constellations' smug little chatter had blurred past my eyes without really registering.

The donation alerts, however, were a different story entirely.

Whether it was 2 LP or 1 LP, a paying customer was a precious customer. Gratitude had to be expressed clearly and without hesitation.

"Thank you for the donation, hyung-nim!"

That said, the donations had gotten awfully sparse lately... It was probably because I'd been doing nothing but boring, grind-heavy hunting, right? Nothing in the constellations' chat exactly sounded like complaints, but still, I figured I'd better start paying attention. The viewer count, which had once climbed past fifty, had quietly slipped back down, and it nagged at me more than I wanted to admit.

So the moment I filled what little experience I had left, I'd need to cook up some proper entertainment for the constellations.

And with that, first objective complete. Ring—

Shall I raise the tempo one more notch?

"Alright then... I'd say the Valley of Silence has shown us everything it's got."

At my words, the constellations jolted upright in alarm and immediately pushed back.

"I'm graduating from this hunting ground."

Graduating from a hunting ground he'd only just arrived at—sure, that had to sound like complete nonsense.

The constellations each threw in their two cents, but of course I already knew all of it. Apparently, though, not a single one of them had thought this far. Probably because I was only Level 12.

"There are dungeons, you know, hyung-nims."

But that wasn't where it ended. finishing things off at Moonlight Garden would be underselling it—I'd gotten stronger a lot faster than I'd expected.

"Something similar, but a whole lot more fun. That's where we're headed."

The moment the destination surfaced in my mind, my mouth began to water. The constellations stirred.

Which meant it was time, once again, to deploy a wide-area taunt in the name of viewer retention.

"Here's one hint, hyung-nims: it's a hidden dungeon."

Granted, the hidden dungeons on the Island of Beginnings were fairly well-trodden territory—for me, at least. But surely they were at least a little curious what it might be?

Except the constellations' reaction was, once again, slightly off from what I'd anticipated.

"Just what I said. A hidden dungeon."

Huh? These constellations didn't feel like they were joking this time... which, ironically, left me the confused one. The truth was, this island had two more hidden dungeons besides the one I was heading to. And yet they'd never even heard a hidden dungeon existed? Were the constellations really allowed to be this clueless?

Why posture, hyung-nims, when you're about to get exposed in mere moments?

"You promise?"

Aaah—!

So taunting constellations makes money multiply! At this point, it was practically a law of nature. You're thinking, even if that constellation didn't know about it, he could just claim he did—there'd be no way to check, right? Our constellation hyung-nims may be hopeless at games, but they're not the petty sort. So I choose to believe.

And with that, I set off at once.

"Alright, hyung-nims, let's head out!"

"That's right. We have to pass through Moonlight Garden first."

The moment I said we needed to stop by Moonlight Garden first, the constellations' suspicion only deepened—but all I had to do was prove it where they could see it with their own two eyes. I certainly wasn't turning off the broadcast before then, so the situation was ideal. That side of things was no problem at all. There was, however, one very small problem...

That problem was the simple fact that Moonlight Garden was a party dungeon.

"I'll just grab whoever happens to be standing around."

Truthfully, if I stopped by Bereshit, a solution did present itself. Just like in the beta, I could go to the Adventurer's Guild in the village and sweet-talk an NPC into partying up. That would be easier and quicker in every way than trawling the hunter community for a party member. But another round trip would eat up far too much time, so I found myself hoping I'd run into someone suitable.

And it was with exactly that thought in mind that I arrived in front of Moonlight Garden—

A single player, locked in combat near the dungeon entrance, drifted into my field of view.

Jung Hyunwoo had turned twenty-four this year, and he had awakened on his birthday, exactly as the calendar flipped. In the year since, he had spent nearly every waking hour preparing, in total secrecy from his sister, to enter a gate. And about two weeks ago, he had finally stepped through one for the very first time.

If his sister—an eight-year veteran hunter—ever found out, she would absolutely explode. But there had been no other ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠way.

Finally... I'm a hunter too.

Hyunwoo had grown up looking up to his sister, and to him, hunters had always been the stuff of dreams. I'm going to become a ranker just like her. I can't let her carry everything alone forever. After losing both their parents in the gate incident, it had been his sister who raised him through ten long years. Now it was his turn to repay her—and he had the means to do it. She didn't know yet, but his potential had been measured at a staggering A-rank. A-rank, the highest grade a measurement device could even register. Which meant that somewhere beyond it, the dream-grade S-rank might be waiting. It was that extraordinary potential that had given him the courage to sneak into a gate behind her back.

So all I have to do is prove it. Then she won't be able to object anymore.

He hadn't even needed to agonize over which class to pursue. His aptitude assessment had come back with a 99% compatibility for the Swordsman class. And once he was actually inside the gate, fighting the monsters that so many rookie hunters dreaded had felt surprisingly manageable. So naturally, Hyunwoo was brimming with confidence. Add a little effort to talent like this, and becoming a ranker was only a matter of time.

As proof of that: roughly two weeks in, Jung Hyunwoo's level was already 17. By general consensus, two weeks was barely enough time to scrape together Level 10—and that figure came straight from the Awakened Wiki, so it couldn't be wrong.

After crossing Level 10, the scout offers had started rolling in from every guild imaginable—and not just from small and mid-tier ones. Several major guilds, the kind whose names anyone with even a passing interest in gates would recognize, were mixed in among them.

Whew... alright, just a little further, Jung Hyunwoo.

But even a talent like his carried one gnawing worry: the money he'd painstakingly saved to enter the gate was already running dry. His entire life savings, plus an Awakened loan on top—some 20 million won in total—had been picked clean in just two weeks. To be fair, nine-tenths of that had gone into gearing up, so when he'd first entered ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the gate, he'd had about 2.5 million won on hand, exchanged for 250 LP. Even so, it had been no small sum, and now less than 30 LP remained. The biggest culprits were scroll costs and potion costs.

The lowest-grade potions Hyunwoo relied on cost 5 LP apiece, and hunting a single monster typically burned through three to five of them. Even reinvesting every LP he earned, he was running a deficit every single day. And equipment repair costs are coming next month, too... Recalling that his gear's durability was already nearly half gone, a dizzy wave washed over him and he let out a long sigh. Repairs supposedly drained hundreds of LP at a shot—he needed to come up with something before then. So this is why people need guild support.

Recalling his first goal as a hunter, Hyunwoo clenched both fists. That goal was joining the Silver Knights, the finest guild in South Korea. It was precisely this goal that had made him turn down every other major guild's offer.

Securing his eligibility before next month's entrance test was, right now, the single most important thing in his life. That was exactly why he was pushing himself so hard to level up quickly. Only by hitting Level 20 as fast as possible and farming the Mark of Moonlight could he enter the Knights' selection exam. Honestly, it would be easy enough with his sister's help—but he had absolutely no intention of doing that. I have to prove it on my own, so even she has to acknowledge it.

In that spirit, Hyunwoo intended to run a dungeon today as well: Moonlight Garden, famous as the richest source of experience on the entire Island of Beginnings. From Level 15 onward, this was where he'd been grinding.

"Hm. No party again today, huh."

Glancing around, Hyunwoo resigned himself to hunting the monsters near the dungeon while he waited for another player to show. He'd put up a post on the hunter community too, so someone was bound to reach out if he gave it a little time. And then, a short while later—

"Oh, hey. Are you by any chance running Moonlight Garden?"

A man had appeared out of nowhere at the dungeon entrance and struck up a conversation.