Chapter 102: Constellation, A Tiny Mischief 3
Chapter 102: Constellation, A Tiny Mischief 3
The plan was simple: a ghost appears, they scream, I send a message as a Constellation, soothe the startled hearts of the streamers and viewers, and then send out a feeler for a mission success.
The two veteran streamers could handle the middle steps—the reactions and damage control—on their own. My real goal was to publicize Han Ye-ji's ID as 'The Incarnation Favored by the Constellation.' That label fit her perfectly.
Because at her core, Han Ye-ji was the definition of an ordinary person. The peak of luxury for her was buying a pile of snacks and cola at the local convenience store. When I ordered her to spend some money, she'd turned to sponsoring online streams. Spending a hundred thousand won a day was, to her, obeying a divine command. That unassuming little act was her idea of 'extravagance.'
So, I never imagined it would play out like this.
[Get it, get it, stomp it!]
[You, you crazy son of a bitch!]
Crunch! With a sound of splintering, the Nightmare I'd sent dissipated into smoke. The long-haired woman who saw the ghost twisted her wrist free, and the short-haired one snatched up a keyboard and swung it. Then, together, they grabbed chairs and keyboards and started beating the thing in a frenzy.
A wooden chair, hoisted high overhead, slammed directly onto the ghost's crown. A low kick, the wind from it whistling clearly into the microphone, smashed into its shin.
My Nightmares were only terrifying in appearance; in reality, they couldn't even beat a single adult woman. Of course, they couldn't withstand two strapping women smashing its face in with wooden chairs, dumbbells, and every other heavy object in reach.
[What the, it disappeared?]
[What the hell was that?]
The short-haired woman, clutching a broken keyboard and a dumbbell, muttered. The long-haired one set her chair down with a thud and kneaded her shoulder. Through the camera, I felt a surge of fear, confusion, relief, and a smug sense of satisfaction. What kind of satisfaction comes from beating a ghost to a pulp? I focused my magic power to find out. Their minds were shaken enough, so I figured I could skim a few thoughts.
"Well, at least the money I spent at the dojo paid off."
"So was that one of those mini-Gates or something? Guess that bastard wasn't a scammer after all."
What the hell did that mean? I sharpened my focus.
"Constellation? Are you alright?"
A sudden headache hit me, and I let out a groan. I could feel Han Ye-ji, still wrapped around me, gently stroke my hair with worry, but my curiosity took priority. Maintaining the Clone while also trying to use Mind Reading sent a sharp spike of pain through my skull. I pushed through the headache with the warmth against the back of my head and kept manipulating my magic.
A large, open-front self-defense dojo in the middle of the city. A stocky woman packed with muscle. People in uniforms—was that judo or taekwondo?—working out. And the two streamers, filming their workout.
A world where monsters pop out in cities and psychic powers exist. A world with hundred-story health towers. A life where learning self-defense and martial arts was as normal as slum gangsters carrying pistols. Now I understood why I never saw fat, out-of-shape people on screen.
The bar for 'average' in this world had been jacked up for the sake of survival. If I had to make an analogy, it wasn't a world that bragged about a 300-pound big three—it was a world screaming for a 400-pound one. Just like kids back in the Republic of Korea went to taekwondo studios, in this world, working out in case a monster chased you was a given. They'd turned that into content, spent good money to train their bodies and learn self-defense, and now they were putting it to use.
Who would ever guess that a gaming-obsessed online streamer could land a perfect hip toss like a judo black belt? Watching that flawless execution, even Han Ye-ji, still clinging to me, whispered in my ear, a quiet, 'Oh, one round...'
[The Constellation, Lethargic Nightmare, applauds the ghost-beating!]
[The Constellation, Lethargic Nightmare, smiles and says the mission was a failure, but fun!]
I left the Clone nestled in Han Ye-ji's arms and moved my main body to send the messages. As my Dream Demon abilities had grown, I could now maintain a Clone while simply severing the connection. The two streamers flinched at the Constellation's message and looked around frantically.
[Constellation? Wait, so the one who set the mission was a Constellation?]
※
The situation spiraled in a weird direction thanks to a cultural difference I hadn't anticipated, but, the result was exactly what I'd originally intended. The two women, still breathing heavily from the thrill of the fight, jolted in shock at my message appearing before them. The viewers went wild, demanding proof. The whole violent mess was so absurd that even an admin from the streaming site briefly hopped in and left a Super Chat. I mean, how baffling is it to see a ghost appear out of nowhere and get beaten into submission with a keyboard? And in the middle of it all, they're staring at thin air, shouting 'Constellation? Constellation?' like a pair of lunatics. Of course they drew suspicion.
And even putting that aside, a video of two women assaulting a man with weapons was a problem in itself. If the 'ghost' hadn't dissolved into smoke and vanished, someone probably would've called the cops. In the end, I had to send a Clone to calm them down, and even send them chicken I bought with points before the whole fiasco was finally settled. I'd realized this during the coffee incident before, but food bought with points was ridiculously delicious—even the 1 pt stuff put most famous restaurants to shame.
[Well, never thought I'd live to see the day a Constellation sends me chicken.]
[I know, right? But it's so good. Now I get why Incarnations get fruit or food as rewards from their Constellations.]
Their years of streaming experience hadn't gone anywhere. The two of them naturally settled in front of the camera, tearing into the hot chicken and launching into a discussion about Incarnations. Watching them, I grabbed a drumstick for myself.
"Still, that's kind of impressive. They made it look like just a casual broadcast stunt, but that takedown was so clean..."
Han Ye-ji, a drumstick in her hand beside me, murmured the same thing. Maybe it was because she'd watched Namgung Hui flip people over every day during training? She'd been visibly shocked ever since the streamers body-slammed the ghost. Then again, she was a fan, so she'd probably watched every one of their streams, even the workout ones.
none of that mattered right now for our stay-at-home date. The bizarre system gave us a variety of sauces with our points purchase, but no cola. Well, cola wasn't coffee; how different could it really taste? I watched from beside her as Han Ye-ji plunged her drumstick deep into the sauce and took a bite.
Eating a drumstick while watching a stream—there was no way she'd keep it clean. A few crispy fried crumbs and a couple drops of sauce plopped downwards. The crumbs bounced off to the floor, the sauce landed right on her chest.
'I think her breasts have gotten bigger...'
I didn't have some magic skill for measuring cup size by sight. But her skin was clearer, her face more beautiful, her figure better—so hadn't her chest gotten bigger, too? That was all I was thinking. A single dot of red chili sauce rested just above her cleavage, which was looking more and more stunning thanks to her increasingly fair skin.
Seeing that, I simply leaned over and stuck out my tongue. I pinned her left arm—the one reaching for a tissue—against my body, and aimed for the valley of her breasts where the sticky sauce was smeared. The sweet and spicy flavor hit my tongue instantly. Before I could even marvel at the perfect balance of taste, the tip of my tongue registered a faintly salty, warm body heat.
"Hyaah?!"
The soft texture was more amusing than I expected, so I moved my tongue a few times. Even if the clothes were loose, she was dressed, so there wasn't much exposed. Still, it was enough room for a little tongue to flick back and forth. Han Ye-ji, who had yelped at the sudden sensation of her chest being licked, let out a bashful giggle. Unlike Lee Ha-rin, she didn't treat me like an untouchable deity, and she'd had plenty of experience aggressively clinging to me first.
"Hyaak!"
As I was wondering how she'd respond, a warm, soft sensation nibbled the tip of my ear. When I'd ducked my head to lick her chest, my pointed elf ear had ended up right in front of Han Ye-ji's mouth.
'The elf ears, I didn't think about that...'
A languor spread through me, the strength draining from my body as if she'd pressed on the tendons in my neck or arm. Just like I'd felt before, these ears weren't exactly an erogenous zone, but they were definitely sensitive. Her lips, glossy with grease, moved curiously, kneading the pointed tip of my ear with a soft, kneading pressure.
"Constellation, your body... it smells like a plant. Like grass or something."
Maybe she felt bad about her greasy fingers, because Han Ye-ji raised the clean hand I'd pinned and gently stroked my hair. We were tangled together, my chin resting on the curve of her chest, her chin on my face.
"Must be the elf body."
"Yeah, how should I put it? Like the greenhouse at the botanical garden I visited on a picnic? A flowery scent? Something like that."
I could feel so many things through my sensitized ear. The soft, warm lips pulling away. A long, trailing strand of saliva slipping down. Her excited, ragged breath brushing past my hair and over my ear. And the low, murmuring sound of her voice.
Like soaking my tired body in a warm bath, the drowsy heat from the tip of my ear spread through my whole body. I basked in it and tugged on Han Ye-ji's loose shirt. The worn-out t-shirt stretched down with a rip, letting her full breasts spring free. I buried my face in that softness, and with a soft 'Hoo-hoo' of a laugh, she began to gently stroke me.