The Constellations' Game [Laika]

For the record, I spotted Mr. Yeongtae all the way from the front gate of the Gate Management Bureau.

Something about the familiar-looking middle-aged man made me do a double take, and though I wasn't sure at first, one sly glance as I brushed past him settled it for good.

Wait a second—when did this uncle become a hunter?

And why was he coming out of the Bureau building...?

As far as I remembered, he'd been an ordinary civil servant.

Then again, maybe he'd dropped by to clean up after that punk Gyeongjun's mess. The guy was an eight-year veteran hunter at a major guild, after all.

"Hmmm."

Honestly, I was glad to see him. It was a memory from ages ago, but I remembered one thing with absolute certainty—he'd been a genuinely good man.

But I couldn't be the one to pretend we knew each other first.

Why?

Because he'd just seen me walking out of the Management Bureau.

If I greeted him now, it would only be a matter of time before my parents found out I'd gone into a Gate.

So I played blind, hurried past, and made a beeline for the subway... and that's when the problem started.

The uncle happened to be headed home too.

Uh oh.

I hadn't noticed on the way there. I'd been too busy scouring the awakened-community forums to spare a single glance at my surroundings.

But apparently he'd boarded the same subway car as me. Otherwise there was no way we'd be meeting again in our apartment building's elevator.

"..."

Getting off the elevator now would have been too awkward, so I just stood there in frozen silence. He had to have noticed by this point...

And so, after descending to our floor in that excruciating mutual pretense of not-noticing, the uncle finally spoke first.

"Do you, by any chance... know someone named Kim Gyeongjun?"

Of course I do, uncle. How could I not?

"Ah... it's been a while, sir. I'm Gunyul—Gyeongjun's friend."

"...?!"

The look on his face—both eyes gone perfectly round—told me exactly how stunned he was.

Ha. Well, that's that.

All I could do now was hope the uncle kept his mouth shut around my parents.

Just when I'd been thinking everything was going suspiciously smoothly all day, disaster had to strike at a moment I never saw coming.

"Well, I'll be—it really is Gunyul! What on earth happened to you?"

Oblivious to my inner panic, the uncle's face lit up with genuine delight.

"I mean... you came back, and your father never said a word about it?"

By "hyung-nim" he meant my father. As far as I knew, Dad was about two years older than Mr. Yeongtae.

"I'm sure it just never came up. My father's been in quite a state of shock himself, so..."

He asked a lot more questions after that, but there's only so much two people can discuss in an apartment hallway. So I gave him the appropriately edited version.

"Ah, don't worry—it wasn't like I got sucked into a Gate or anything like that."

It wasn't as if I'd disappeared for just a day or two, but there was no way I was telling him the full job-seeking-hero ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠saga, right?

"I tried contacting Gyeongjun first, but he was inside a Gate. Couldn't reach him at all."

Luckily, the uncle didn't keep me pinned for too long. Instead, just before heading into his own unit, he handed me a single business card.

And this time, it was my turn to be shocked.

"From the look of you, I'd say there's a good chance I'll be of some use to you."

Hold on, there's something seriously off about this card...

Is this for real?

I'm no expert on the civil service, but... isn't a Director-grade position at minimum a Grade 2 official?

And the Gate Management Bureau, of all places.

That man's pull could not possibly be a joke.

I was still reeling from that realization when the uncle dropped one more bomb.

"By the way, becoming a hunter—presumably that's a secret from your parents?"

A chill ran down my spine.

I'd been racking my brain over how to bring up exactly that topic before we parted ways, and yet—

How on earth did he know?

"If you'd told your parents you were becoming a hunter, I imagine word would have found its way to this uncle's ears already. That's all."

Well, fair. If Dad knew, his personality being what it was, he'd have gone straight to Yeongtae's uncle with it.

Asking him to look out for me, maybe?

Yeah, right.

More like please, for the love of god, talk my son out of this.

So I begged in the smallest voice I could manage.

"So, um... about not telling my parents..."

The uncle gave a small chuckle and nodded.

"There, there. Don't you worry. Nobody knows a child better than a parent—believe me, this uncle knows that better than anyone."

Right.

The man had already tried and failed to talk Gyeongjun out of it once. He had experience.

"In exchange, if you ever run into trouble, you call this uncle. And make sure you accept Gyeongjun's help too."

"Thank you... sir!"

Truly, his words alone were enough to bring tears to my eyes.

We weren't even family, and he was looking out for me like this.

For a talentless, spoon-less hunter like me, that was honestly a tremendous source of strength.

"Then let's all get together once Gyeongjun's back."

"Yes, sir."

I'd never imagined I'd acquire this kind of backing (of sorts)... I wasn't expecting any practical help, exactly, but I definitely felt sturdier somehow.

And suddenly I found myself wanting to see Gyeongjun again too.

Was it because the guy looked almost identical to his father—like two fishcakes from the same mold?

Click—

With a polite bow to the uncle, I finally stepped through our front door.

Glancing at the clock on the living room wall, I saw it was already well past ten in the evening.

Today had felt incredibly long.

All I needed now was a nice deep sleep and the day would be perfect...

"Gunyul. Do you know what time it is?"

My mother sat on the couch glaring at me, her expression carrying a fully loaded fury.

Thanks to which, I only got to collapse into bed after enduring a lecture that ran well over two hours.

The moment morning sunlight touched my closed eyelids, I shot upright in bed without thinking.

"Agh, what time is it?!"

Eight in the morning. No time for this—I had to get to work.

"I'm heading out!"

"Gunyul, what about breakfast?"

"A quick sandwich ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠will do!"

"Curfew. You remember?"

"Yeah, yeah, got it!"

Excuse me—curfew? What is this all of a sudden?

Well, to explain that, we need to rewind briefly to last night.

Look, I completely understood why they were worried. Their son had vanished once before—that kind of trauma buys you some leniency.

But still. An 8 p.m. curfew? Wasn't that a little much?

Even back when I was sixteen, in middle school, I used to stay out at the PC bang until ten.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"..."

Anyway, that's the story of why I was currently scrambling out the door in a mad dash.

I'd fed Mom a plausible cover story: a friend's workplace had an opening for a part-timer.

Once I dropped Jungmin's name—one of my close friends—she seemed to accept it without much fuss.

Phew. But seriously... am I actually going to keep this curfew?

If it put my mother's heart even slightly at ease, then I figured I owed her at least that much.

Which meant that to secure enough working hours, I had no choice but to start getting up early.

Eight today—but tomorrow I'd need to be out the door by six.

I was, after all, a man who earned exactly as much as he worked.

Vroooom—!

And just like that, as I stepped through the Gate, the blinding morning sun of Laika World greeted me.

Since when did the air inside a Gate feel this refreshing?

Had I finally lost my mind?

"Hoo-ah."

After one big, deep breath, I set off at once and left Bereshit behind.

Today I planned to push deeper into the hunting grounds than yesterday, so I had to move—and move fast.

My destination was the Shadow Canyon field that opened up just past the western edge of the Forest of Beginning.

It was a hunting zone populated by Level 13-and-up Gray Wolves, so even factoring in my 'Giant Slayer' title, I'd be able to hunt comfortably up to Level 12.

Hit 12 there, then clear the Moonlight Garden dungeon—that was the goal I had to accomplish within today's shift.

I was in the middle of cutting across the Forest of Beginning, mulling all this over, when—

Out of nowhere, in one corner of my vision, a type of chat message I had never once seen in my life began to appear.

It was an entirely new kind of system message—nothing like the standard system notifications or chat logs.

And so I froze solid right where I stood, completely dumbfounded.

What is this?

No way... could it be?

"...!"

As a single possibility crystallized in my mind, my pupils dilated wide—and there, reflected on their retinas, small and shimmering, glowed a line of crimson text.

On the subway home from Seoul Station the day before, I'd done a bit of studying on the streaming system.

Which is exactly why I never imagined I'd pick up a viewer this fast.

Why?

Because according to what I'd read, a Constellation latching onto the stream of a player who hadn't even completed their class advancement was an exceedingly rare occurrence.

For reference, class advancement became available at Level 20.

So a single viewer attaching themselves to a Level 9 player like me—that qualified as monumentally rare.

Which is why I'd stood there frozen for a moment...

Ding—!

And then one more line of system text floated up before my eyes.

Startled wide awake by a donation I'd never dreamed of, I stammered out a reply.

"Uh, so, um... I didn't know how I was supposed to answer."

Ten LP, for doing absolutely nothing?

Isn't this just free money?

But then again, was speaking out loud like this even the right way to respond? It felt... awkward.

"Like this?"

It was technically a stream, but with a grand total of one viewer, I somehow ended up in a conversational back-and-forth with a Constellation of all things.

That arrangement, however, didn't last long.

Ding—!

For whatever reason, brand-new Constellations had begun pouring into the stream.

Ding—!

The flood of Constellation chat was chaotic and disorienting—and, honestly, fascinating.

Because the awakened wiki had been full of stories about people waiting months for a single viewer.

So what exactly was different about me?

That question was still forming in my head when one of the Constellations casually dropped something loaded with meaning.

As if censored, patches of noise garbled parts of the Constellations' messages, making them hard to read—but from that chatter, I managed to glean a few key facts.

First: whatever was happening to me right now was not a normal situation by any stretch.

Second: it seemed to be connected, in some way, to my beta test play records.

And last but not least...

I also learned that dealing with Constellations was never going to be easy.