When I stepped out of the long hallway of light, I saw my kingdom… was what I would have said if the world was kind to me. Unfortunately, all I saw was pitch darkness.
“Whoa, what is this? It’s so dark!” I said.
There was nothing but darkness. As I took a cautious step forward, my feet sank into something squishy. The texture of the darkness was almost exactly like a lump of mud.
“It’s because nothing has been created yet,” the Primordial Staff answered from behind. “This place is like bare ground where not even the framework of a house has been built. There’s no roof, let alone built-in furniture. Scream Sky, you earned enough to buy the land from clearing floors, but you haven’t built the house yet.”
“So I’m a landowner but not a homeowner, huh?”
If that was the case, then it meant that buying a plot of land needed grinding from the tenth to the eightieth floors. Supposing that I compared life to this Tower of one hundred floors, then acquiring the land for my home would be equivalent to completing eighty percent of my life’s goals. That was both realistic and kind of unpleasant.
“Where can I find an architect and interior designer to hire?”
“Sorry, but you are the architect and interior designer. You’re no longer a Hunter who just accepts and completes quests. Well, if I had to describe it like a quest, it would be like this.”
The Primordial Staff etched snow-white letters in the air with the tip of her staff.
—Build your own kingdom!
—Constellation: Scream-Gathering Sky
—Difficulty Level: Undetermined
—Goal: Create a holy ground.
“That sounds simple enough.”
“Be a good person, save the world, help humanity… The most difficult tasks in the universe can be described in one sentence. While you diligently build your palace, I’ll stand by and help out here and there.” The Primordial Staff sighed. “But there’s one problem.”
“Life is nothing but problems.”
“Yeah, but this problem needs to be solved immediately. The good thing about you is that you leave things neatly wrapped up when you have somewhere else to go, but you left one knot untied.”
Really? Did I forget about something? Ever since I danced the hopak for Yoo Soo-Ha, I thought I wrapped up everything there was, as if I scrubbed the floor with bleach.
“Haha. I think you’re misunderstanding something. I’m a man who ties up all his loose ends.”
The Primordial Staff shook her head. “Actually, I was waiting for you to come here. Stopping him is okay for a couple of days, but he barges in every single day and torments me. I really can’t hold out any longer.”
Craaaaaaaaack.
That sounded ominous. I turned my head and saw a crack opening in the distant space above—a barrier that I couldn’t tell if it was the sky, the ceiling, or simply more darkness.
“Congratulations, Scream Sky.” The Primordial Staff took three steps away from me with an ominous smile, clearly wanting to stay out of this. “You’re now undeniably a celebrity in the world of Constellations.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“There’s a stalker in the world of Constellations who only follows celebrities. You attracted attention from countless Constellations, so unfortunately, news about you seems to have reached the stalker, too. Well. I can’t help you, so good luck.”
Crraaaaaaaaaaaacckkkk.
The crack widened and oozed fluid. The place was dark, and the area beyond the curtain was equally shrouded in darkness. But the being that fell to the floor, drenched in the fluid, wasn’t pitch black.
[Warning.]
[The Constellation Murderer has descended to the eighty-first floor.]
[The Constellation Murderer is hostile toward you.]
That being had silver hair, platinum-blond even.
“Are you the Scream-Gathering Sky?” the silver-haired man asked me in a familiar voice.
However, that was the only familiar thing about him. The cold gaze fixed upon me was entirely different from that of my vassal, who had regained the name Kim Yul. Above all else, the man before me still had his hair tied back with a yellow rubber band.
“Lefanta Aegim,” I muttered.
The Constellation Murderer tilted his head. His eyes, as blue as a newborn star, stared at me.
“Do you know me?”
I clenched my teeth. “Yes, I know you very well.”
Yes, he was the one loose end I had forgotten about, just like the Primordial Staff had said.