Chapter – 06
What the Hell is Causality Exactly?
“Uh… Well, there is a place, but… What kind of crime could a young lady like you have committed…?”
“Attempted murder of a guild traitor. I almost ended up in jail.”
I was never good at lying like this. I could never do it, even as a joke. But look how a person can change. I found it so funny that I laughed spontaneously.
“Ah… Hahaha!”
Finally, the knight—no, the taxi driver—closed his mouth.
“Mister, if you know a decent place, could you recommend it? Hmm?”
I urged the driver, who had suddenly become very quiet.
I had a somewhat reasonable reason. Taxi drivers travel all over and meet lots of people, so they might know something about that kind of place, right?
“So the young lady… Hmm, that’s why you can’t find a job. Well, there is a place that might be okay…”
He really knows one.
“Where is it?”
“……”
Why can’t he say it?
“Hey, if you know something, please tell me, okay?”
The driver still hesitated. Well, in that case, I have my methods. Throughout history, East and West, this has always been the best way to make sealed lips open.
“I’ll double the fare.”
“You know the market near the train station on the way to the hotel area?”
It was a pretty tempting amount to refuse. As if he’d never been silent, the taxi driver started readily spilling the information he knew.
“There’s a dabang in that market. It’s on the second floor? It was originally a dabang, but it changed to a cafe midway. It’s called Garam Cafe. It’s run by an old man, not an Awakened, just a regular person.”
Listening to the man’s fluent explanation, it seemed similar to the landscape I saw through my ability.
“But that place, it’s not just a cafe.”
“Then what is it?”
“It’s a hunter manpower office. But it’s illegal, illegal. It’s a place that finds jobs for Awakened or Hunters who aren’t registered with the state, or for those with red lines through their records.”
Even though only he and I were in the taxi, the driver spoke in a hushed voice as if someone might be listening.
I also quietly gulped.
In my entire life, I had never done anything illegal even once.
_’Even when I got a loan from a secondary financial institution, I thought my heart would drop out.’
I have to go to a place straight out of a movie? Having been an ordinary office worker until a few days ago, I felt scared first.
No, wait a minute.
‘The end of humanity is supposedly coming, so what does it matter?’
Thinking of my cheat code for courage, ‘the end of humanity’, I became blind to everything again.
“Mister, what time do they open there?”
“Y-you’re really going to go?”
“I’m not in a position to be picky about shady work right now.”
“That’s not the problem. If you go there and take a job, even if you die in a dungeon, no one would know—! There are so many crazy psychopaths these days.”
“It’s fine. I’m the one who tears people apart.”
The inside of the taxi fell completely silent because of my lie.
We arrived at the 5-star hotel while maintaining a pleasant atmosphere. I held out the cash I had withdrawn earlier.
“Mister, don’t talk about me anywhere. I’ll find out.”
It was roughly four or five 50,000-won bills I had grabbed from the paper bank envelope.
I gave it to him with a friendly smile, and the taxi driver’s eyes widened as he took the money with trembling hands. Then, he quickly took my luggage out of the trunk and left without giving me a chance to say anything.
But, captivated by the splendid exterior of the Taejeong Helios Hotel, I didn’t pay any more attention to the taxi driver.
‘Awesome!’
I had arrived at a place I never thought I’d set foot in my entire life.
The hotel, named after the sun god, was like a small sun itself.
The area around the building was as bright as midday. Entering the large revolving door, like a jewel box, it finally felt real.
‘I can never go back to the life I had before contracting with the Constellation.’
The path of my life had twisted in an instant. I got on the merry-go-round in a daze, but when the ride stops, only a dark, closed amusement park might be waiting for me.
But what can I do? For now, let’s enjoy it.
Holding the room key, I trembled amidst people dressed stylishly as if on business, while I was all alone and shivering. Even though I had enough money, having never been to a place like this before, I felt intimidated.
But the moment I opened the door to my hotel room, where I was staying long-term.
“Wow…”
The night view spread outside the full-length window was brilliantly flashy, without substance. Enough to make me momentarily forget the hardships that had been weighing on my heart. I approached the window and stared blankly at the view.
Afterwards, I washed up with hot water and threw my tired body onto the large, soft bed. I hadn’t had dinner, but I wasn’t hungry. I was just too tired.
The end of humanity or whatever, I wanted to sleep first and think after waking up.
A thought suddenly occurred to me.
Soon, the world would become one where even gods were dead. For gods to exist, humans must exist, and for humans to exist, gods must exist.
‘If I fail to change the one and only SSS-grade oracle, and I’m left alone in such a world.’
Then, what would I become?
Thinking that, the red giant standing before me in the oracle came to mind.
‘Ah, it might not be just me surviving alone…’
I don’t want a survivor comrade like that.
A loneliness for which I couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason began to creep insidiously into my heart.
But fatigue was one step faster.
Unable to even think about organizing the suitcase I had roughly rummaged through, I fell into a deep sleep, wearing only the soft bathrobe.
Amidst people who seemed to have places to go, I leisurely ate breakfast, dragging my feet, and even managed to get a post-meal coffee. It seemed I had already adapted, as I left the hotel feeling relaxed.
Now, I planned to take a taxi and go to the place I saw in yesterday’s B-grade oracle.
‘Garam Cafe, right?’
To be honest, bad thoughts came to mind first.
‘What if the place I’m going to is involved in other crimes besides illegal gate broker work?’
It felt very uneasy, but it was too late to back out now.
From now on, even if the oracles I receive are low-grade, they are ultimately connected to the unique SSS-grade oracle. So, the cafe/illegal office shouldn’t be just a passing location for a fire incident in daily life.
And…….
If by any chance innocent casualties occur, I want to prevent it.
I don’t know if I can prevent it or not. But if I can prevent it by somehow making a fuss, I want to.
‘Even if I’m standing on land where someone might have died every day, I still don’t want to see someone die with my own eyes.’
Having such gloomy thoughts on a beautiful spring morning made me sigh.
As I passed the hotel front desk, a marble decoration, the kind you might see in a Greek temple, caught my eye.
Suddenly, the figure of Cassandra from Greek mythology flashed through my mind. They say she received the gift of prophecy from the sun god Apollo’s love, but at the same time, because she rejected his advances, she earned his hatred and was cursed so that no one would believe her prophecies.
‘What if people don’t believe what I say?’
If my claim that the beginning of humanity’s destruction is on Korean soil is judged as the ramblings of a madman on Line 1 and ignored? There would be nothing I could do.
This is exactly like being a powerless prophet.
Moreover, while eating breakfast, I learned about a new limitation.
Ironically, I myself cannot ask the Constellation about the oracles I’m curious about.
And due to the favorability restriction, I couldn’t even hear the reason. It was infuriating.
What kind of half-baked divine agent is this?
In that case, there are only a few things I can do.
First. Cursing the hell out of the Constellation who didn’t give me a proper ability.
Second. If the situation seems to be going strangely, striving to end my life before anyone else to avoid the ending where I’m the only human left.
_’Absolutely, no matter what happens, I don’t want to be left alone with that unknown being. That must never happen!’
My fists clenched automatically from the tension.
The idea of me alone surviving, going crazy in a burning world… would mean that I must have seriously messed up in my past life.
When the Constellation offered quests and promised to unravel the tangled karma and causality of my life as a reward, I felt it implicitly.
Me, it seems I must have sold out the country in my past life.
Otherwise, my luck couldn’t be this twisted.
‘I can’t get in a time machine to go beat up my past self.’
One who can bear the causality.
I was still bothered that I couldn’t precisely understand what this phrase meant. What the hell is causality exactly?
Thinking that I might have to go experience my past life soon, I got into the taxi.
It wasn’t very far. Arriving near my destination, I got out of the taxi and walked down the street I had seen with my prophetic ability.
Around the modern, clean train station, there were, in contrast, old buildings that hadn’t been developed, and the narrow sidewalks in front of them were packed with people going their own way and elderly street vendors.
I stood in front of one of those old buildings.
It was exactly the same as the landscape I saw with my oracle ability.
On the second-floor window, the shop name ‘Garam Cafe’ was attached in a tacky way with faded blue contact paper.
“……”
I had come here boldly without asking or questioning, but standing at the entrance, I hesitated.
According to the taxi driver I met yesterday, even criminals treated as villains come here.
As an F-rank Awakened, if a dangerous situation occurs, I have no ability to escape…
“Well, I have money.”
The Constellation ‘Prophet of the Sun’ asks if you need money.
“Instead of money, do you have any items? Something that lets me escape in a crisis, like a teleportation stone or a weapon?”
The Constellation ‘Prophet of the Sun’ consoles you, saying that the moment its divine power shines upon you, you will fear nothing.
“Uncertain comfort like that is useless right now, okay? Let me see something tangible with my own eyes.”
The Constellation ‘Prophet of the Sun’ laughs as if amused.
Constellation bestows the title upon entity ‘Kim Eun-sol’: The Woman Who Treats Me Coldly
Favorability with Constellation ‘Prophet of the Sun’ acquired (+5%)
Constellation ‘Prophet of the Sun’ gives you a Golden Sheep Summon Ticket (1 use).
‘Did I really get involved with a pervert bastard?’
I still hadn’t confirmed what kind of being this Constellation was. So, I had no idea why it was giving me something like a Golden Sheep Summon Ticket.
Come to think of it, I had gained one more passive skill besides the oracle skill.
S-rank Divine Power.
I had inherited the authority of the ancient Pythia, also known as a shrine maiden, who directly received and delivered oracles from the gods.
[Divine Halo (S)]
Skill Description: As one who serves the ‘Prophet of the Sun’, you receive protection with fitting divine power. (Single-target passive skill. Area effect not possible. Resistance and defense against darkness, evil, curses, and disbelief increase explosively.)
From now on, I am a hybrid, an F-rank dealer position mage combined with extreme S-rank divine power.
Since it’s a passive skill like the oracle, I guess it feels like an automatic shield? I haven’t tested it yet, so I don’t know.
‘Even when I want to think positively, the opposite thoughts keep rushing in.’
I can’t help but think that in a crucial moment, this passive skill might become the reason I can’t die…
A life where you die even if you want to live, and can’t die even if you want to die. This absurd trap. Is this really how people live?
To be or not to be, that is the question.
