Chapter 7
“The Protagonist’s Younger Sibling is Reborn as a Constellation
“What are you doing, not coming? It’s going to close soon.”
Kim Igyul, whom I thought had gone out, suddenly appeared behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder.
I didn’t know exactly what the ‘light’ was, but at least this warm feeling didn’t seem harmful to me.
As soon as Jin Serin and Kim Igyul left, the dungeon entrance closed as if waiting for that moment.
Just before disappearing, the dungeon displayed a window no one could have seen.
ERROR! ERROR!
Due to an unknown error, the existence of this dungeon will be erased.
“That’s strange.”
“What is?”
As I looked around the unfamiliar place, Kim Igyul frowned and said,
“There’s no one outside.”
“Why is that strange?”
“It’s a guerrilla dungeon, but there’s no rescue team or anyone controlling it. That’s strange.”
“Huh?”
“I mean, the people who should be here aren’t. Don’t worry about it.”
I didn’t understand, so I asked again, and he gave me a brief glance before brushing it off.
“Are you going to the memorial ceremony?”
“Memorial… ceremony?”
Ah, why do I only know how to repeat what’s said? But I really had no idea what he meant. A memorial for what exactly?
“It’s the 10th anniversary soon—the First Incident.”
“Wha—10th anniversary?! Ah, right, haha, that’s true!”
The First Incident was the day I had dreamed about.
It was the day ‘Jin Serin’ in the original story died so that Jin Sehyuk could awaken.
In the original story, many died or were injured that day, and it was later named the ‘First Incident,’ commemorating the victims every year.
And that was ten years ago?
Even I felt awkward reacting naturally, but Kim Igyul laughed without concern.
“It’s fine. You don’t have to know everything.”
Though he smiled, a shiver ran down my arm for some reason.
He took out his phone to check the time and started speaking.
“Let’s go home first. It’s late, I’ll take you there.”
“Huh?”
If ten years had passed, would the house be the same? Did I even know where ‘Jin Serin’s’ house was?
Suddenly, the structure of a house, both unfamiliar and familiar, flashed in my mind and disappeared.
I remembered: the room near the living room bathroom was my brother’s, and the room across from the master bedroom was mine.
How did I know this?
“Jin Serin?”
Only after saying my name could I shake off my thoughts.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I just remembered somewhere I need to stop by, so let’s go home separately!”
Kim Igyul paused at my refusal, then, after a brief silence, gave a faint smile and nodded.
“Alright. Just a moment.”
He looked up to the sky and spoke to someone.
“Give me a pen.”
And that someone was probably me—the Constellation.
Surprised, I looked up at him. I couldn’t see his face, so I had no idea what he was thinking.
Constellation ‘Nobility Returned from Death’ gifts you the item ‘Basic Pen (C)’.
I had secretly purchased a pen from the shop and handed it to him.
He immediately tore off a piece of cloth, wrote something on it, and handed it to me.
“Here, this is my number.”
I just stared at it without taking it, so he placed the cloth in my hand himself.
Kim Igyul, smiling with crescent-shaped eyes, whispered,
“Contact me if anything happens. I can help you now.”
“Can help now?” What did he mean? I couldn’t understand his words and said nothing.
“I’ll go first. Be careful, Serin.”
Before I could question him, Kim Igyul left.
Watching his retreating figure, a system message appeared out of nowhere.
A space has been allocated for the Constellation. Do you want to move?
I couldn’t go to Jin Sehyuk anyway.
If this is truly ten years after the First Incident, <Destruction End> is in full swing.
If my younger sibling, whom everyone thought dead, went to find Jin Sehyuk now, the original story would be ruined. The world might even collapse.
There was somewhere Kim Igyul could hear me, but I had nowhere to go here.
With nowhere to go, I nodded lightly to the system.
The moment I accepted, my body was instantly transported. There were no windows, only a white, glowing space.
“Just like a pocket dimension.”
There was only a large screen, a desk, and a single book.
“What’s that screen?”
I muttered, and immediately information appeared. In short, it offered a streaming service to observe the contractor.
“How do I turn it on?”
I wondered if there was a remote, but the silent space had nothing but the screen.
The system replied that it only works after meeting the contractor at least once after entering the pocket dimension. Not exactly a simple mechanism.
Seeing my reflection on the dark screen, I surveyed the endless space and muttered,
“At least there could be a bed.”
My body felt like lead after leaving the dungeon, and I was barely standing.
Just as I was about to despair at the empty space, a flash of light appeared before me, and a bed materialized.
Lying down, sleepiness overcame me.
Before I fell asleep, I decided to tackle the things I had been putting off since the dungeon.
What should I check first? The book? The profile? Something else?
There was so much to check that even deciding the order was overwhelming.
I decided to start with the book and picked up <If You Read Only This, You Too Can Become a Constellation!> from the desk.
Flipping the first page, I saw a neatly organized table of contents.
Following my principle of reading novels but not general non-fiction, I aimed to solve my curiosity first by checking the contents.
Or so I thought.
{1. What is a Constellation?
Beliefs and Duties of a Constellation
Abilities of a Constellation
Relationship Between Constellation and Contractor
Shop
.
.
.}
I was curious about what a Constellation does, so I thought I should go to section 2.
As I flipped the pages, the book felt strange.
Only limited portions were readable.
The table of contents was clear, but the internal text was mixed with broken characters.
The only readable part was the Constellation’s duties.
“‘A Constellation guides the contractor to clear dungeons’?”
That single sentence was all I could read. Everything else was broken.
“Are they trying to tell me not to read further?”
I shook the book and checked for hidden pages. Nothing.
Everything was just unreadable characters.
“How am I supposed to see the rest?”
If you want to read more of the manual, awaken as a Constellation!
Current Awakening Rate: 7.2%
A small, cute number. The decimal made it annoyingly precise.
Awakening as a Constellation meant I had to help Kim Igyul grow so he could clear the dungeon, as the Constellation’s duty dictated.
The “Main Quest 2 (In Progress)” message at the bottom of the status window was annoying.
It wasn’t in the original story, so it felt out of place.
Even though <Destruction End> is a vague, secretive novel, did it have to hide this too?
‘It was only from Jin Sehyuk’s perspective.’
No wonder world-building details were sparse.
I checked the reward for Main Quest 2. Surely it included a wish to return to reality.
Then I noticed tiny text under the reward.
Condition 1: Keep your Constellation awakening secret for a set period
Condition 2: Do not register the contractor as a Hunter for a set period
In the original story, awakening meant reporting to the Hunter Management Bureau within two months to measure rank and register as a Hunter.
After some training, they would join dungeon raids.
The government-run Bureau had a decent system for training Hunters, though the director messed it up later.
The system’s demand to “prevent Hunter registration” meant confronting dungeons directly without training.
“I know nothing about growth!”
I jumped out of bed, clutching my head.
Though I had awakened as a Constellation and was helping Kim Igyul, I had no knowledge to actually grow him.
Facing the possibility of raising him to S-rank without the Bureau’s help felt impossible.
But what choice did I have? I had to do it.
I had to check new skills, too, but I lay down, sending a message to Kim Igyul not to reveal my awakening.
Turning my head sideways while lying down, I stared at the black screen, nothing transmitted.
To activate, I would need to go meet Kim Igyul…
I squeezed my eyes shut at the overwhelming to-do list.
Ding!
A sudden notification popped up, and a message appeared.
