The World Created by the Constellations (8) EP.24 - Story Changed by the Main Character's Death
A sudden notification floating before my eyes left me no choice but to panic. Though it had only been a hypothesis, most of my calculations were already complete. I had come looking for Noya because I believed I could figure out how the original story connected and ultimately led to a clear, yet the figure I considered most central was already dead.
The story will change due to the death of the main character.
This means… there’s no one left to ask about the path to the second floor.
That was my working theory. After the scene I witnessed in the illusion, the mage who had cast the curse would honor the king’s last wishes and dream of rebuilding the royal palace. Then, countless people from outside the tower would begin flowing in because of the constellations. The mage who had become king would activate a spell across the entire castle with the single-minded resolve to protect the children—so they would not lose their parents and descend into madness within this abnormal reality. And so the threatening outsiders entering the tower for the first time would not harbor hostility toward the first floor.
The mage… or rather, the man now standing before me as a cold corpse—Noya—would not have held any particular hostility toward us.
If he had, he would have suppressed us from the beginning instead of extending an invitation.
He would have thrown us into the underground prison and simply waited for us to wither and die. But he had not done so. Not out of goodwill. He had probably intended to simply observe, making sure the players caused no physical trouble that might stir up commotion.
Because after a week they become perfectly docile.
The mission penalty I had received upon first arriving here rose in my mind.
Permanent decline in stats.
After one week, players would degenerate from superhumans into nothing more than ordinary citizens living mundane social lives. That meant a drop in Status, and players reduced to such a state would likely forget not only any thought of resistance but even the fact that they had come from outside the tower, living out their days as ordinary residents.
……This is the first floor of the tower created by the constellations. Converse with the people. Find the path to the second floor. The path will be closer than you think.
Therefore, what we should have done was make Noya understand that although we possessed power, our only objective was the road to the second floor. Perhaps the master of the first floor would have allowed us to leave without refusal if we promised not to cause trouble and simply asked for directions.
It’s absurd, but at least he wasn’t lying…
Theme: Rest and Information Gathering
Whether a short rest or an eternal one, the message window that had appeared before us had not lied. Fail to complete the mission and you would become an NPC on the tower’s first floor, living out a brand-new daily routine. If not, the idea was that you could shake off the fatigue accumulated in the tutorial here and simply ascend to the second floor.
But…
The peaceful route had already sailed far beyond reach. I had no way of knowing why Noya had died. There was simply no method to determine whether the original scenario had been meant to flow this way or whether some external force had intervened. What mattered now was that if Noya’s death became known inside the castle, the knights and soldiers living here would be consumed by soaring hostility. Even if they were brainwashed, the fact that he had died while we were visiting made it an indisputable truth.
“First, I need to secure that staff.”
I picked up the staff embedded with the blue gem that Noya had used. An unpleasant sensation, as though my mind were slowly being shaved away, churned inside my skull.
“Ugh.”
Namgung Cheonho and Han Gamin, who had been following me, began to stagger as if their heads were splitting. Lorang beside them already had his eyes completely glazed over, his mind thoroughly pickled by the mental attack.
I gripped the staff and snapped it cleanly in two. What I needed was not the staff itself but the Memorial Piece contained inside it.
Crack!
As the staff split apart, the cloudy eyes of Han Gamin and Namgung Cheonho gradually began to clear. Yet, as if the constellations had never planned for a player who climbed the tower to destroy the staff, a new alert rang out.
The main story’s artifact has been destroyed.
The existing mission can no longer proceed.
Countless red exclamation marks bloomed before my eyes like warnings. But the alert lasted only a moment before a helper was dispatched to resolve the problem that had occurred on the tower’s first floor.
A helper will be dispatched to the corresponding coordinates on the first floor of the tower.
Creeping upward.
-Uwooooooo!
Familiar sparks burst in the empty air. From within them came the voice of the rabbit who had guided us to this place.
“No! This guy is actually insane! I knew he was strange from the start, but this is way too far!”
The rabbit stepped out of the portal that had formed in midair and appeared before us. I possessed no talent for reading animal emotions, but the rabbit’s current expression and reaction made it look exactly like a supervisor forced into sudden overtime by a subordinate’s blunder.
“Didn’t I already display the mission message? I told you it would clear if you just rested, so why did you have to stir up so much trouble!”
From the rabbit’s outburst, it seemed the helpers did not monitor every single action of every player who climbed the tower. The furious words it kept spitting out were proof enough.
“The first floor is supposed to be easy! Rest and information gathering! Sure, it had the brainwashing keyword, but I thought you’d handle it fine since you had the skill. What the hell is this…!”
The rabbit circled me frantically, its tiny feet stomping in clear frustration. Helpers were forbidden from directly harming players, so it seemed to be venting its anger by pacing and stamping.
A small number of constellations are watching the situation with interest.
A small number of constellations are wearing sly smiles.
The Star Who Likes to Adventure asks the helper if there isn’t another episode available.
“Sigh… Yes, yes. The constellations always crave new stories, don’t they?”
The rabbit answered reluctantly, glaring at me. But this time its gaze was different from usual. It was not mere annoyance at being dragged into a nuisance; the expression was a complicated mixture of worry and concern.
“Isn’t this a little too harsh…? Ah, yes, yes. If ordered, I must obey.”
For the first time, the rabbit had talked back to the constellations. But the rebellion lasted only a moment. It snapped its fingers with a heavy sigh.
“Whew… This is all because of what you caused. You should have been moderately talented or a little less conspicuous……”
Snap!
Main mission changed.
New mission assigned to all players.
The scenario previously titled Floor 1 – Dreamlike Time slowly faded away. In its place, a new and peculiar mission began to form.
Floor 1 – A World Created by the Constellations
📍 Theme: Information Gathering and Combat
📍 Difficulty: C+
📍 Description: This is the first floor of the tower created by the constellations. A place accompanied by an unknown death. While staying here, collect as much information as possible regarding the final boss before you die. Discover his identity and defeat him, and the path to the second floor will open naturally.
📍 Mission: Annihilate the Enemy
📍 Time Limit: None
🎁 Reward: Permission to enter the tower’s second floor
📍 Failure Penalty: Death
“From now on we will proceed with a different story. For your information, this mission was the original one used for the tower’s first floor. The clear probability was so abysmal that we changed the scenario after a meeting.”
The rabbit’s expression grew gloomy once more. Listening to its grumbling, I began to understand what it was truly worried about.
It’s afraid we might all die.
Reading the mission details, it clearly carried far higher risk than the previous one. From what I had observed of the helpers so far, it could not possibly benefit them if every player perished. The helpers offered entertainment to the constellations through the players and received compensation in return. They also took a portion of the sponsorship given to players.
And most importantly—
The coins obtained through sponsorship hold infinite value.
With coins you could acquire miraculous items such as potions that could not be obtained in the outside world. Moreover, simply drinking the Fountain of Awakening purchased with coins could raise one’s Status, and merely spending coins could elevate stats to absurd degrees. I did not know how high this tower ultimately rose, but it was obvious that the higher the floors I climbed, the greater the value of those coins would become.
“Rabbit.”
“……This guy is calling me so casually now. Am I your friend?”
“Should I consider the difficulty of this situation to have risen?”
“Are you seriously asking me that? I told you the clear probability is abysmal! It may be labeled C+, but it’s practically a B or B+ mission!”
Resentment was written all over the rabbit’s face. The chain of coincidences born from the Rapid Comprehension skill and the magic power stat had combined to create an entirely new situation. The result was an increase in difficulty. Which meant—
“The rewards rise as well, right?”
“……You must be crazy.”
“The rewards definitely rise too, correct?”
At my question the rabbit slowly nodded. I stared quietly into its eyes. The gaze that had been filled with worry and irritation gradually hardened into firm resolve the longer I held it. And then—
“Aish, damn it! I don’t care anymore! Let’s do this! I’ll pull every string I can for sponsorship and give you full support!”
At the rabbit’s words I broke into a sly grin. I read over the new mission that had been given to us once more. Annihilate the final boss and find the path to the second floor. When I located the bastard who had been complicating my thoughts all this time, I intended to repay him with a proper strike he would never forget.