The Constellation's Game [Laika]
In the heart of Hannam-dong, on the most prime plot of land in the entire district, stood one conspicuously opulent private residence. It belonged to none other than Korea's second-ranked chaebol, Segwang Group — a home built exclusively for the owner family. Which meant that Kang Min-woo's room, occupying a whole annex of the estate, was more dazzling than most museums.
Yet the owner of that magnificent room was currently sitting on the sofa with his face twisted into a scowl.
"Phew."
And standing before him…
"Min-woo."
…was a woman with a cool, forbidding air, arms crossed. Executive Director of Segwang Group's Strategic Planning Office, and Min-woo's half-sister, eight years his senior — Kang Ji-yoon.
"Are you done yet, noona? I'm busy. I have to go check my equipment soon."
Min-woo replied while irritably polishing the platinum-colored mana rifle laid out on the table. Ji-yoon let out a long sigh and looked down at the grotesque weapon in her brother's hands.
"So you're really going through with that show?"
"I already submitted my application. It's too late."
"Cancel it. I'll talk to Grandfather myself."
"No!"
Cancel it? Absurd. There was no faster route to Grandfather's recognition than proving himself this time around. The fact that Grandfather had permitted it at all meant he was expecting something.
"Min-woo. Why? Why on earth do you want to go smear Segwang's name with some clown show?"
It was only natural, then, that Kang Min-woo's expression contorted with more irritation than ever before.
'A clown show, she says. From a mere mortal who couldn't so much as take two steps in this world if she weren't an Awakened herself.'
The truth was, barely a year ago Kang Min-woo had been the family's pathetic black sheep — with nothing on his accomplished older brothers and sisters, nothing at all. While each of them excelled in their own field, Min-woo couldn't do a single thing well.
But exactly six months ago, the event arrived that would turn his entire life upside down.
Awakening.
Min-woo had accomplished what no one else in Segwang's bloodline ever had — an Awakening.
"Why? Why does everyone do nothing but get in my way?"
"Excuse me? Get in your way?"
"My brothers are off studying abroad and running subsidiaries while climbing the ladder! Why am I the only one being told to sit still like a dead mouse?!"
"What your brothers are doing and what you're planning to do… are completely different things."
Ji-yoon's voice was calm, but that very calmness flipped Min-woo's insides over.
"How are they different?"
"They're each contributing to Segwang's standing in their own way. That's the difference."
"……!"
"You, on the other hand. What… Hunter's School? Are you planning to become a celebrity? What exactly do you think you'll accomplish at a place like that?"
Min-woo thumped his own chest, bristling.
"I'm an Awakened, noona. There are things only I can do. I'm the only one in this family who was chosen by the System!"
"…Chosen?"
Ji-yoon let out a hollow, incredulous laugh.
"Don't flatter yourself, Kang Min-woo. Being Awakened doesn't make you chosen — you of all people should know that better than anyone."
"What did you just say?"
"Your potential grade barely scrapes a B. The only reason you've leveled at all is all the money this family has poured into you. Get a grip on reality."
Ji-yoon's venom found Min-woo's most painful spot with surgical precision. His C-Rank potential was, in fact, his most agonizing weakness.
But of course, Min-woo denied that reality outright. Because he genuinely, truly believed he still had a chance.
"Potential, huh…."
Kang Min-woo bit his lower lip.
"You wouldn't understand, noona, but potential isn't everything."
"Then what is?"
"The ones with high potential were simply chosen by mana, the same way I was chosen into Segwang's bloodline. And I've already found a way to overcome that."
"……."
"So all I have to do is prove it this time. Simple."
"Min-woo."
And then Kang Min-woo finally exploded. He was, after all, the first person to feel the contradiction in his own words.
"Forget it — get OUT!!! I said get out of my room!!!"
He hurled the smartphone he'd been holding onto the floor. Ji-yoon bit her lip, glared at her brother for a long moment, then shook her head and turned away.
"You idiot child… Don't do something you'll regret. Consider this a warning."
SLAM—!
The heavy door crashed shut. The silence that settled over the room lasted only a moment.
"AAAAAARGH!!!"
CRASH! CRUNCH!
Min-woo snatched the crystal ashtray off the table and flung it. The frame of a painting worth tens of millions of won shattered against the wall, glass shards spraying everywhere.
"Luck? Get a grip on reality? Don't make me laugh! You're all the same! My brothers are geniuses, and I'm just a lucky idiot — is that it?!"
Still unable to vent his fury, Min-woo bellowed at the servants who hadn't done anything wrong.
"Hey! What are you all standing around for?! Clean it up! Did you think I pay your wages so you could freeload my meals?!"
"F-forgive us, Young Master! We'll clean it up right away!"
Uniformed bodyguards and maids went pale and dropped to their knees, crawling across the floor to sweep up the glass fragments.
Min-woo sank back onto the sofa, heaving furious breaths. His fingertips trembled uncontrollably with rage.
'I'll show them all. In the end, the name that fits Segwang best… will be mine.'
I am an Awakened.
I'm a different species entirely from my brothers — relics of a bygone era.
Money? Sure, I spent some money. But if the results are good, does anything else matter? After all, this company called Segwang would never have grown this far without the gate industries, would it?
"Phew."
So if I can just prove my talent as an Awakened, my family will have no choice but to acknowledge me in the end.
With that thought, Min-woo steadied his ragged breathing.
Seila Novin had recently experienced something deeply unsettling.
About a fortnight ago, she had followed Belik — a dear, if somewhat dim, friend — to the Rumentis Abandoned Mine to help him out, and there she had encountered a person she simply could not comprehend.
"Ah, I have a hidden class, so I'm not a knight class."
"More of a… evasion-counterattack tank kind of thing, I guess?"
A mysterious, bizarre player who had appeared out of nowhere in the mine's hidden zone. The man introduced himself as a tank, and proceeded to demonstrate gameplay so absurd that Novin had never once seen its like in her life. He claimed to possess a special hidden class, and that his impossible playstyle was because of it — but…
'That was never merely a matter of some class.'
The shock Novin had received that day had been beyond imagination.
'Even my guild has never seen play at that level.'
The truth was, Seila Novin had been concealing her identity to a considerable degree. This held true even with Belik, her close friend. There were… important circumstances involving her family that demanded such secrecy.
Which meant that Novin's real name being Seila Von Novin… that the guild she belonged to was none other than Black Crown, ranked second in the entire world… and that she was in fact not a level-40-something player at all, but a top-tier level-100+ player who had already completed her Second Class Advancement… were all facts that no one outside her guildmates knew a thing about.
Though perhaps… perhaps that man called 'Dave' had caught on to some of it.
'Just as I caught on to some of his.'
As far as Novin could tell, the man known as Dave was one of two things. Either a player of at least level 100 or higher who had already completed his Second Class Advancement through a hidden class — someone who surpassed even her…
…or else a super-rookie of historic, generational talent, being secretly groomed as a ranker by one of the world's ten great guilds.
If he was neither of these, the man's skill simply could not be explained. A run-of-the-mill player would never know the holy-attribute shield skills in such exhaustive detail.
'Knowing even the cooldowns of Divine Shield by heart… means he's at the very least run in a raid party of an upper-tier guild.'
And there was no way he could have accessed an information guild either.
"Dave, how on earth did you know all this?"
"I bought it from an information guild."
Of those two possibilities, Novin leaned toward the latter. The reason was simple. Despite being born with an innate, extraordinary talent for sensing mana, the amount of magical power she could feel from Dave didn't amount to so much as a handful.
'That man. The mana he radiates is absurdly, impossibly low.'
His claim of being a tank was obviously nonsense as well. The way he moved was absolutely nothing like any tank she had ever seen.
A player trained as a tank never preemptively seizes aggressive positions the way Dave does. That wasn't a question of skill — it was a matter of playstyle and fundamental combat doctrine.
As far as Novin could tell, the player called Dave… was unquestionably a swordsman-class player.
And one blessed with monstrous, overwhelming talent, at that.
That was the caliber of swordsman he was.
'Though for the life of me, I can't figure out why he'd hide his identity while going so far as to tell that absurd lie about being a tank…'
In fact, at the very beginning, Novin had briefly considered digging into the man's background. Black Crown's intelligence network was the finest in the world, and if an elite guild member like her put her mind to it, she could gather just about any information she wanted.
But in the end, Novin hadn't done it. She couldn't very well burn through her guild's infrastructure just to satisfy a personal curiosity.
Which was exactly why the unexpected contact from Dave had been such a welcome surprise.
"I wonder if I'll manage to learn something this time."
She had no idea what hidden motive drove him to reach out again, but it was undeniably a shame that all contact had vanished after that single party run. If she could build up a rapport little by little starting from this, she figured she'd at least learn which guild he belonged to.
That was the reason Novin was willingly setting foot into a low-level hunting ground like the Rumentis Abandoned Mine a second time.
'The way he handles that sword, plus the fact that he's Korean… I half suspect he's with the Silver Knights.'
So when Novin arrived at the abandoned mine and found herself dumbfounded all over again, it was perhaps only inevitable.
"Hey, are you gonna hurry up and walk over there or what? You're definitely getting a refund."
When she reached the agreed meeting spot, the Dave who entered her vision…
— Barney, this is exhausting. Rather than walk ten more steps… Barney elects to perish.
…was cosplaying not only as a tank, but now as some kind of necromancer as well.
And the weapon Dave was carrying — was a bow.
'What in the world… is going on?'
With Dave's identity thoroughly scrambled beyond recognition, Novin could only stand there, utterly bewildered.