Chapter 3

Chapter 3. Congratulations on Becoming a Constellation (2)

“An Apostle, trying to pull a scam like this? What a joke.”

I snatched one of the sheets of paper fluttering through the air and checked its contents.

“The observation device normally costs twenty million, but if I sign a ten-year contract, it’s ‘essentially free’...? I’d still have to pay hundreds of thousands every month just to use the observation network. How the hell is that free? And you even added in tiny letters that the network fee can be increased later? Are you kidding me?”

“Ugh... Uuugh....”

Number 49, who had been beaten by me, groaned as his body twitched.

I glared at him while roughly going through the documents.

“I know very well what you Apostles are like. You call yourselves representatives of the Constellations, but in reality, you’re merchants who act as middlemen between Constellations and Contractors while trying to squeeze out as much profit as possible, right? I thought you only drained Coins from Contractors, but now I see you’re also sucking Origin Power out of Constellations.”

“N-No, that’s not true, Great One....”

“What do you mean, it’s not true? Every contract you recommended is designed so that if I stamp them all, I’ll go bankrupt within a few years.”

“T-That isn’t the case. Of course, it is true that the costs are high. However, if you obtain even more Origin Power from the human world....”

“You expect that much from someone who just became a Constellation? Do you even know who I am?”

“I-I do not know what kind of person you were when you were human, but you are an S-rank Constellation. I’m certain you will achieve great success as a Constellation as well....”

“What a load of nonsense.”

Still, I had obtained a fairly important piece of information during our conversation.

So even an Apostle couldn’t tell what kind of person I had been when I was human.

“I’m not interested in signing up for anything you recommended.”

“G-Great One....”

“For now, I’ll just buy the lowest-spec observation device listed here. I’ll pay the five hundred thousand Origin Power points upfront. And if I use the cheapest network plan, even with a one-year contract, it’s only ten thousand points per month, right?”

“Y-You can barely do anything with something that cheap. Please invest just a little more.”

“No. If I decide I need something better later, I can just buy another one.”

“Then you’ll only end up losing money in the long run....”

“Or another Apostle might come along later and offer me something cheaper than you.”

Number 49 flinched.

“What are you doing? Hurry up and prepare it.”

“Y-Yes, understood.”

Number 49 got to his feet and gestured into the air.

A contract appeared in front of me.

It looked exactly like the contracts I had dealt with through Apostles when I was human.

[Would you like to purchase the observation device ‘Mercury No. 1’?]

[Would you like to sign a one-year contract for the ‘Simple Light-Class’ connection network?]

After carefully reading through all the accompanying explanations, I signed with my finger.

Then, a machine resembling an old CRT television suddenly appeared in midair.

It looked ancient at first glance, and the screen was small, but starting with something like this seemed like the right choice for now.

“Number 49.”

“Yes....”

“I know you guys have a hard time making a living too.”

Number 49 flinched again.

“Competition between Apostles is fierce, and sometimes you get pushed around by powerful Contractors or Constellations. Sometimes, you even lose your lives.”

“....”

In a way, they weren’t much different from Contractors.

They were simply struggling to survive and succeed.

“But there’s a limit to how far you can get by ripping other people off.”

“....”

“Think carefully about what you’re going to do from now on.”

If a bottom-tier Contractor bound to a D-rank Constellation had said something like that, the Apostle would probably have laughed in his face.

But right now, I was an S-rank Constellation.

From an Apostle’s perspective, he had no choice but to take my words seriously.

Anyway, he’s the first Apostle I’ve met since becoming a Constellation. I need to make sure I’m the one holding the reins.

As a Constellation, I was probably a complete failure.

I had been granted the position of an S-rank Constellation, but during my human life, I had merely been an ordinary Contractor who had achieved nothing of significance.

Most Constellations possessed abilities derived from the legends and stories surrounding their accomplishments.

They revealed their presence in the human world by lending those abilities to their Contractors.

But someone like me, who had lived as a bottom-tier Contractor, couldn’t possibly possess abilities like that.

But that doesn’t mean I have any reason to lose confidence.

I had been given the position of an S-rank Constellation.

If that was the case, I needed to make the greatest possible use of it.

I had absolutely no intention of sitting around peacefully and wasting my time.

I had ended my human life as a loser....

But as a Constellation, I would succeed no matter what.

“Great One....”

“Stop calling me ‘Great One.’ It feels weird.”

“But you still do not have a Constellation Name....”

A Constellation Name was, quite literally, the name a Constellation possessed.

It was separate from the True Name they had used while human, and normally, a Constellation would be referred to by this name.

“If you tell me your True Name, I could call you by that....”

“....”

I didn’t particularly feel like telling him the name I had used as a human either.

What should I do?

“Just call me Nameless.”

“Nameless?”

Because when I was human, I had been a nameless Contractor.

Giving myself some grandiose name would only feel awkward.

“Understood, Lord Nameless. Until you officially receive a Constellation Name, I will address you that way.”

“Then you can leave now. I’ll call you later if I need something.”

After saying that, I began fiddling with the observation device.

It looked exactly like an old-fashioned CRT television, but surprisingly, it had a touchscreen.

I could scroll across the screen with my finger, as well as zoom in and out.

There were also numbers displayed in one corner of the screen, which seemed to use the same coordinate system as the human world.

What I’m looking at right now is... southern Korea?

A relatively familiar landscape came into view.

The map had changed a lot after the world merged with the Great Fantasy Realm, but massive mountain ranges and similar terrain had mostly remained intact.

However, I wasn’t here to sightsee.

What I needed to watch were Contractors.

“Um....”

At that moment, Number 49 spoke from behind me.

“You’re still here?”

“It will be difficult to find Contractors with that observation device. It does not have a search function....”

“A search function?”

“It doesn’t even have a function to search by specific conditions, let alone a function that marks locations where Events are currently taking place. You’ll have to scroll across the screen and search for everything manually.”

So high-end observation devices had functions like that too?

It sounded like some kind of smart TV.

“That’s why I told you to invest just a little more....”

“Can’t be helped.”

I kept scrolling across the screen as I answered.

The truth was, I already had a certain place in mind.

“Found it.”

“Lord Nameless, that place is....”

What I had found was a church located deep in the mountains.

“Isn’t that a facility belonging to a cult?”

“You know it?”

“I have never personally been involved with that particular facility, but I have handled several Events related to that cult.”

The Order of the ‘Morning Star.’

It was a cult organization with considerable influence throughout East Asia.

Many Contractors belonged to it, and it was known for committing all kinds of atrocities, including human experimentation.

“As far as I know, several Events have taken place at that facility as well.”

“Really?”

“Yes. That facility is actually used for human experimentation, and the Events involved freeing the people imprisoned there. There were several attempts.”

“I’m guessing they all failed?”

“They kept failing, so the other Constellations eventually lost interest.... Now the place has basically been abandoned.”

Under normal circumstances, Contractors participated in three types of incidents.

Scenarios, Events, and Quests.

Large-scale incidents related to the fate of the world were known as Scenarios.

Incidents that weren’t quite important enough to qualify as Scenarios, but were still fairly large in scale, were called Events.

Minor incidents involving small missions were called Quests.

In terms of scale, the order was:

Scenario > Event > Quest.

The larger the incident, the more Constellations watched it, and the greater the rewards became.

Events weren’t quite on the same level as Scenarios, but they were still watched by a considerable number of Constellations.

Naturally, many Contractors participated in them as well.

“Number 49, can I open an Event there?”

“What? An Event?”

Number 49’s eyes widened.

“You can freely organize Events or Quests using a Constellation’s authority, but... even if you open an Event there, it will be difficult to gather Contractors. And you probably shouldn’t expect other Constellations to participate either.”

“I don’t care.”

“You should probably reconsider.... I’ll benefit because I can collect the agency fee, but if nobody participates, you’ll be the only one taking a loss.”

“How much will it cost?”

“Events start from one million Origin Power points. On top of that, there is an additional five-percent agency fee paid to the Apostle.”

“So I have to go through an Apostle no matter what?”

“Yes. That’s one of the reasons Apostles exist.”

Number 49 didn’t seem to be lying.

“And the basic fee isn’t the end of it. You also have to provide rewards to the Contractors. If you want to open an Event here, you’ll need to advertise it as well, so the additional costs could end up higher than the Event itself. You would probably need to invest around five million points.”

“....”

“Ah, I’m not telling you this because I’m trying to rip you off, Lord Nameless. Please believe me.”

“I wasn’t thinking that.”

I observed the church facility.

I participated in an Event here before too.

It had been an Event where Contractors were supposed to defeat the cultists and rescue people from the human experimentation facility.

I had joined alongside other Contractors, but the cult’s forces had been far too powerful.

In the end, we were forced to retreat.

But....

While recalling the past, I experimented with the touchscreen.

Before long, the inside of the church began appearing on the screen.

Right. Of course I should be able to see inside.

A Constellation really was a Constellation.

I couldn’t hear any sound, but being able to freely observe almost anywhere was incredible.

I was gradually becoming accustomed to operating the touchscreen as well, and I confidently scrolled through the facility.

Where would it be?

I had no interest in the priests or combat personnel walking through the dimly lit corridors.

What I was looking for would be hidden much deeper inside.

There it is.

At last, I found my target.

“Hey, Number 49.”

“Yes?”

“I’m starting an Event. Keep the basic fee at the absolute minimum, and there won’t be any rewards.”

“N-No rewards? Then who in the world is going to participate in the Event?”

“Advertise it instead. You can spend around one million points on promotion.”

“But why would you spend that much advertising an Event that no one will participate in....”

“Someone will participate.”

As I said that, I tapped the observation device’s screen.

“This guy will.”

“What?”

What I was pointing at—

was an experimental animal imprisoned deep inside the facility.

“I’m going to make a contract with this guy, so take care of that for me too.”

“L-Lord Nameless, what exactly are you planning to do....?”

“An escape show.”

I rubbed my chin as I spoke.

“They’ve already failed countless times trying to attack the facility from outside and rescue the test subjects. If we try the same thing again, the other Constellations won’t care. But what if the story is about escaping from the inside?”

“...!”

I had spent a very long time living at the bottom.

That was exactly why I understood what people at the bottom truly wanted.

“Let’s put on an entertaining rags-to-riches story.”

Right now, I was an S-rank Constellation.

An existence with the power to drag someone from the very bottom—

all the way to the top.