The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was a white ceiling, the small figure of Apollo, and… a dog?
Before I could even process the confusion, the tiny, doll-like Apollo lunged forward and threw his arms around me, while the dog beside us whimpered anxiously and paced in place.
“Apollo?”
“You idiot! What a fine mess you’ve made!”
My body felt unnaturally light—almost weightless—but oddly unfamiliar, as if it didn’t quite belong to me. I wriggled my fingers and tried to peel Apollo off my neck, but the dog below rubbed its snout against my legs.
The creature had pitch-black fur, upright ears, and was adorned with golden accessories that gave it a regal, almost luxurious aura. I wasn’t especially fond of animals, so when I tucked my legs away, it let out a high-pitched whine and desperately tried to make contact again.
Apollo, clearly irritated, snapped at it.
“You, go curl up in a corner somewhere!”
Amazingly, the dog actually lowered its tail and slunk off to a corner, curling up pitifully.
Dumbfounded, I looked back and forth between the two until Apollo tapped me on the cheek with his soft little paw.
“You finally awake?”
“Where is this?”
“Where do you think? You’re inside your soul, you dumbass. Can’t you tell?”
Inside my soul? Did that mean this was my Sanctuary of the Soul?
I could only look around with a puzzled expression. Even if I generously assumed that the worn mattress and furniture matched what I’d originally placed here, the space had expanded way too much.
Like when you decorate a room in a simulation game and set the walls ridiculously far apart just for aesthetics.
While I sat there stunned, Apollo sighed.
“It means your Contractor has grown that much.”
“Contract… Oh, right. Baek Tae-beom!”
I shot upright, causing Apollo—still clinging to my neck—to shriek.
“You bastard! Move more gently!”
Ignoring him completely, I grabbed Apollo in one hand.
“Tae-beom. What happened to Tae-beom?”
“Why the hell are you asking me that?”
“Because you were desperate to link us together just a moment ago!”
“A moment ago?”
Apollo sounded incredulous.
“You’ve been asleep for nearly two years.”
“…What?”
The words slipped out in a dazed murmur. Then, instinctively, I reached for my abdomen.
The sensation of the blade piercing through me came back with horrifying clarity—one memory I had no desire to recall. Grimacing, I touched my belly. Apollo scoffed.
“To think your pathetic little body would just die from that… You really need to train.”
“Most people die when they get stabbed, you know?”
“You’re hardly ‘most people.’”
He had a point. Still, something felt off.
“What’s with that dog?”
I pointed toward the corner, where the dog whimpered quietly. The moment I spoke, it wagged its tail gently and glanced my way, clearly ready to run over at a single call.
Apollo let out a wicked little chuckle.
“That’s Anubis.”
“…Wow.”
A dry laugh escaped me. That was Anubis?
‘That’s him?’
“He’s acting like that because he feels guilty. After you died, I explained everything—who you are, what kind of being you are, and what your presence means to this world.”
“Well, what perfect timing for that little info dump.”
As we spoke, Anubis slowly crept forward and lay flat before me.
His exaggeratedly apologetic posture was so absurd, I couldn’t help tapping him on the snout. He whimpered louder, clearly overplaying the act.
Apollo sounded thoroughly exasperated.
“Stop pretending you can’t talk when you obviously can.”
……
Anubis, who had been rolling on the floor with his belly exposed, slowly sat up and spoke in a deep, resonant voice.
“I. Am. Sorry. I apologize. To you.”
‘Is this guy seriously playing a character right now?’
“…And did you really think I’d just go, ‘Ah, okay,’ and forgive you just because you said sorry?”
The large dog shook his head solemnly, then placed a massive paw over my hand.
Immediately, something like a black vein sprouted from the contact. The pulsing thread slithered up my arm, climbed my shoulder, and reached my nape—then, in an instant, surged upward and burrowed into my eyes.
Everything turned pitch-black.
[You have acquired a new skill.]
[Skill: Eyes of the Dead]
[By borrowing the power of the dead, you can accurately perceive the status of others. The strength of this power varies depending on the Constellation’s ability.]
[Constellation ‘One Who Seeks to Escape Destruction’ is now synchronized with the Holy Vessel.]
[Your personal channel on the Constellation Communication Net has connected with ‘One Who Guides the Dead.’ You may now communicate via the Constellation Communication Net anytime, anywhere.]
Well, that changes things.
I immediately grabbed Anubis’s front paw and shook it up and down. Ignoring the startled look on his face, I flashed the kind of customer-service smile honed through years of pain and tolerance.
“Ah, I look forward to working with you~?”
“I… am confused. A little….”
“This guy’s seriously out of his mind. Didn’t you say you wanted to check your Contractor’s status?”
“Oh, right, right. But uh, anyone seen my phone?”
Apollo grumbled about how he’d apparently become a full-time babysitter now, even having to fetch stuff like this. Muttering about how I ought to be doing things myself if I were a proper Constellation, he still pulled the phone from his pocket.
Now that I looked, my clothes were still soaked in blood.
“Let’s see, what the hell is this?”
As I tried to check the phone, a pop-up appeared, making me blink in surprise.
[Your ‘Sanctuary of the Soul’ has been upgraded. You’ve reached a certain threshold and may now connect with new devices. Would you like to synchronize?
( Yes / No )]
It showed up so naturally, like a basic phone update prompt, that I hit Yes on instinct, without feeling the slightest sense of wrongness.
The screen flashed with sparkles as new messages began flooding in.
[Upgrade complete. New synchronization established. The skills of ‘One Who Seeks to Escape Destruction’ have been updated.]
[↓ New Update Details ↓]
[Limited-time Random Box for Fragile Constellations★ Scroll down now to open↓↓↓]
[Breaking news! A daily login bonus has arrived for low-tier Constellations! Just log in once a day and get 100 Coins daily?!]
[This price, this performance—perfect equipment for your personal Contractor… See More]
[New Grade Detection Service now available! ▷Check your Status Window Now◁]
I stared blankly at the flood of popup ads, then calmly began clearing them one by one.
“What the hell is all that?”
“I have no idea either… It says it’s a skill update.”
“What even am I?”
Good question. I answered Apollo absentmindedly as I opened my status window.
“Status window.”
[Constellation: One Who Seeks to Escape Destruction]
[Coins Held: 400
Contractor: Baek Tae-beom of Dynamism
Grade: F-Class
Skill List – Open]
What an absolutely pathetic status window. Not even an E-class—F-class? Nobody even bothered with F-class Hunters.
I snorted quietly, prompting Apollo to eye me suspiciously.
And that ‘Dynamism’ title… What dungeon had Tae-beom cleared to earn something like that?
[※Now that you’ve connected with a new device, you may stream your Contractor’s status anytime via phone.※]
Well, that kind of update was definitely welcome.
Even though Apollo claimed I’d been dead for about two years, it still didn’t feel real.
The memory of being stabbed felt like it had just happened yesterday. I could still vividly recall the system message that coldly declared my death.
Feeling oddly lighthearted, I activated the Contractor streaming service.
Baek Tae-beom’s little brother must be doing fine, so surely nothing too serious had happened, right? That kind of naive thought passed through my mind.
Maybe—just maybe—I had managed to avert destruction.
Time to check Baek Tae-beom’s status… and double-check fate with the Magic Conch Shell.
But what appeared on the phone’s screen was blood.
At first, I thought it was a display glitch.
Then I saw red liquid trailing down Baek Tae-beom’s cheek—and realized something was horribly wrong.
His hair, now longer from the past two years, was darker than pitch, and his golden eyes gleamed more ferociously than any beast.
With a blank expression, Baek Tae-beom was beating people with his fists in what looked like a department store.
They were wearing red uniforms—clearly a guild.
And I had a hunch which one.
‘Why the hell is he beating up members of the Red Apple Guild?’
The Red Apple Guild had been one of the vile organizations that Kang Si-hoo had dismantled.
Why was Baek Tae-beom smashing through them like they were actual apples?
In the original storyline, Baek Tae-beom had undeniably been a villain.
The reason why a trashy guild like Red Apple had lasted so long was precisely because Baek Tae-beom had been propping it up behind the scenes.
Which made this scene all the more baffling—almost refreshing, in a way.
Had Baek Tae-beom truly changed?
At least he apparently hadn’t held me in high enough regard to spiral into grief.
I thought we’d grown close during those months together, and while the realization stung a bit, I couldn’t help but feel a strange fondness—like I’d nursed an abandoned baby bird back to health, only for it to fly off without a second glance.
“Well, what can you do…”
I muttered and studied the screen more carefully, struck by a sudden sense of déjà vu.
Baek Tae-beom slowly turned his gaze.
Toward an empty space—toward my space, toward the very screen I was watching from.
Black hair soaked in blood. Golden eyes flashing.
His demeanor was terrifying, but the sheer beauty of it was overwhelming.
Too beautiful.
[Your eyes have met with your Contractor’s.]
And then, realizing something was seriously wrong, I screamed and hurled the phone away.
“Who the hell is that?!”
“Who do you think it is? That’s your Contractor!”
“I didn’t raise that! That tiger-looking monster is not what I signed up for!”
[Your Contractor is calling the Constellation, ‘One Who Seeks to Escape Destruction.’]
I screamed again.
