Chapter 1 :

Episode 1. An Opportunity Is Given.

 

“Ha, f*ck.”

 

The building had been perfectly intact just moments ago.

 

But now, it was nothing more than a pile of rubble.

 

Standing in the middle of the ruins, Limon swept back his hair with a blood-soaked hand.

 

Then, looking at the countless gun barrels aimed at him, he calmly considered the situation.

 

‘What the hell did I do wrong?’

 

If his opponents had simply been criminals, he would never have bothered asking himself such a question.

 

Whether it was the boss of a vicious criminal organization.

 

A politician who manipulated the affairs of an entire nation.

 

Or a general from a mighty superpower.

 

Whenever he faced people who corrupted nations and threatened humanity,

 

he had never once hesitated to swing his sword.

 

Yet there was one reason he was hesitating now.

 

The people pointing their guns at him were not criminals.

 

There were even many among them who had been his colleagues until yesterday.

 

“You bastards set up a trap like this, framed me with some ridiculous accusation, and now you’re trying to kill me.”

 

“Guys, I seriously can’t figure it out no matter how much I think about it…”

 

That was why

 

Limon could not hold back his question.

 

“Why the hell are you doing this?”

 

He had fought for humanity his entire life.

 

He had no intention of claiming that everything he had ever done was righteous.

 

But he had never committed evil for the sake of his own selfish desires.

 

There had even been a time when his devotion was acknowledged and he was praised as a hero, and he had once risen to a position where only one person stood above him and countless others beneath him.

 

That was why he could not understand.

 

It was not a lament.

 

Nor was it sarcasm.

 

It was neither anger nor a scream of despair.

 

What filled his voice was pure incomprehension.

 

He simply could not understand why they wanted to kill him.

 

Framing him was one thing, but they were even willing to sacrifice his subordinates just to dispose of him.

 

The people aiming their guns at him gave no answer.

 

As though they had received an order from someone, several of them merely stepped aside.

 

And through the opening they created, one person appeared.

 

The moment Limon saw the mastermind behind all of this,

 

he finally understood.

 

“…Ha.”

 

And he let out a hollow laugh.

 

“So this is what they mean when they say the hunting dog is discarded once the hunt is over…”

 

The reason was painfully simple.

 

Once the hunt was finished, it was only natural to want to dispose of a hunting dog that was no longer useful.

 

Especially if that dog was a mad one that acted however it pleased.

 

Even if that mad dog happened to be the greatest contributor to protecting the nation until now.

 

The country that Limon had protected through countless brushes with death no longer needed him.

 

Instead, claiming that he was now an obstacle to the national interest, they had piled every imaginable crime onto him and were trying to get rid of him.

 

Perhaps it was only natural.

 

The era when Limon had stood as an absolute being was long gone.

 

What the nation needed now were other people, while he was merely called an outdated relic of a bygone era.

 

Even though he still possessed enough power to fight the entire world.

 

“Yeah, I guess I was the one who screwed up.”

 

“So you’re saying an old relic like me isn’t needed anymore?”

 

He had always known there were plenty of people who found him inconvenient.

 

But he had never particularly cared.

 

He had spent his whole life enduring the jealousy of petty people.

 

More importantly, no matter what anyone said, he had believed his country would never abandon him.

 

But that had been a miscalculation.

 

No, perhaps it would be more accurate to call it arrogance.

 

Once he understood that much,

 

Limon finally realized it.

 

The reason he had ended up in this situation.

 

The decisive mistake he had made.

 

“I was the idiot for working so hard to protect a world like this.”

 

He had neglected wealth and power.

 

He had lived while valuing duty and responsibility.

 

He had shown kindness and made concessions to the weak.

 

Even while scoffing at things like patriotism, he had risked his life to protect the world.

 

That had been Limon’s mistake.

 

If he had accumulated wealth and power.

 

If he had seized authority and wielded it as he pleased.

 

If he had ignored peace and lived selfishly.

 

…And if he had accepted the offer she had made back then.

 

At the very least, he would not have been discarded like this while feeling so utterly filthy inside.

 

[A small number of Constellations who have been watching you resonate with your wish.]

 

[The “Trickster Who Toys with Fate” offers you a contract. If you agree, you will gain the power to change fate.]

 

[The “Merciful Guardian of Resurrection” offers you a contract. If you agree, you will gain the power to reverse death.]

 

[The “Raven Who Watches Over Glory” offers you a contract. If you agree, you will gain the power to seek glory.]

 

[Which Constellation would you like to contract with?]

 

“…Huh?”

 

‘If I were given another chance…’

 

Limon suddenly thought.

 

What if he had the power to turn back time?

 

What if he could live his life all over again?

 

At that exact moment,

 

three beams of light shot down from the sky.

 

Three rays of light poured down from the stars.

 

As one message after another appeared before his eyes, Limon blinked.

 

He could not immediately understand what was happening.

 

Perhaps his old, stiff brain simply could not process it fast enough.

 

The ones who truly panicked were the others.

 

“W-What?! Why would Constellations…?!”

 

“That radiance… D-Don’t tell me they’re Monarch-class Constellations?”

 

“That’s impossible! Not one, but three Monarch-class Constellations appeared and offered him contracts?!”

 

As though their previous silence had been a lie,

 

Limon watched them erupt into chaos and finally understood.

 

What exactly was happening.

 

And what he needed to do.

 

The moment they saw what happened next,

 

everyone present dropped their jaws.

 

It was not because of the sword that had somehow appeared in Limon’s hand.

 

The three brilliant beams of light from moments earlier

 

had all been shattered into countless fragments.

 

That sight left them utterly dumbfounded.

 

“Fuck off, you scammer bastards!”

 

“Kill him! Stop him before he contracts with a Constellation!”

 

Perhaps terrified by the sudden change in circumstances,

 

the mastermind behind the trap shouted, and the others hurriedly tried to attack Limon.

 

But they were already too late.

 

Before they could even pull their triggers, Limon had already moved.

 

Standing amid the fragments of light he had sliced apart, Limon roared fiercely.

 

Then he glared up at the stars in the sky and raised his middle finger straight at them.

 

“My fate belongs to me! I’d rather die than sell it to bastards like you for such a shitty bargain!”

 

“That… crazy bastard…!”

 

Slash!

 

“…!”

 

They were left speechless.

 

Ordinarily, people would desperately wish for even a chance to form a contract with a Constellation.

 

A contract with a Monarch-class Constellation, in particular, was something only those blessed with extraordinary fortune could ever hope to obtain.

 

It was the dream of every Player.

 

Yet not only had he rejected such incredible fortune,

 

he had cut apart the Constellations’ blessings with his sword.

 

The fact that such a thing was even possible was absurd enough.

 

The fact that he had actually done it before their very eyes was even harder to believe.

 

But beneath their shock, they simultaneously understood.

 

This man was Limon Asphelder.

 

The hero of humanity who had once stood at the summit of the world.

 

And the worst mad dog in existence.

 

The fragments of light Limon had cut apart

 

suddenly began thrashing wildly and swirling around him like a vortex.

 

“What are you, door-to-door salesmen?! Hey! I said I’m not signing any contracts, so piss off! Why the hell do you keep clinging to me?!”

 

“What the fuck are you staring at, you bastards?! You think I’ll let you off just because you’re pretending to be spectators now?!”

 

As the remnants of light drew closer, Limon shouted furiously and swung his sword again.

 

But no matter how many times he cut through them, they only scattered.

 

The light refused to disappear and instead continued gathering around Limon.

 

It was a phenomenon none of them had ever seen or heard of before.

 

Both Limon and those surrounding him were unable to hide their confusion.

 

However, the ones most bewildered by the situation were somewhere else entirely.

 

Rumble, rumble, rumble.

 

“Huh? What kind of trick is this now?”

 

And just as that mad dog rolled his eyes and looked ready to charge at them,

 

a storm of light clawed across the night.

 

[System error. Error code k94o0a4. A bug has occurred due to forced system severance during contract execution.]

 

[Fragments of the damaged Constellations are being absorbed by the target.]

 

[The “Trickster Who Toys with Fate,” whose hand has been stolen, rolls around in agony.]

 

[The “Merciful Guardian of Resurrection,” who has lost one wing, is flustered.]

 

[The “Raven Who Watches Over Glory,” whose pair of eyes has been stolen, rages in fury.]

 

Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble!

 

It was a boundary between thought and reality that seemed neither dream nor waking life.

 

Limon had been endlessly submerged within it, slowly forgetting even himself.

 

Then a single voice dragged him back into reality.

 

Like victims who had gone shopping only to have their belongings snatched away,

 

three stars flashed violently in the sky, whipping up furious winds and shaking the earth.

 

But no matter how fiercely the stars struggled,

 

the flow of light did not stop.

 

“Team Leader? Team Leader?”

 

“What? Hey, you bastards! Who said you could shove things into someone else’s body?! Get out! Are you deaf?!”

 

Limon pondered.

 

Who the owner of that voice was.

 

And why a voice he clearly recognized somehow felt so unfamiliar.

 

While everyone else watched in a daze,

 

the particles of light that had fallen from the stars were sucked into Limon’s rampaging body like a whirlpool.

 

And finally, when even the last strand of light had completely seeped into Limon—

 

the world collapsed.

 

“Stop sleeping and wake up already! This is why everyone says you’re such a hopeless bastard, Team Leader…!”

 

Flick!

 

“Kyaaah?!”

 

“Who are you calling a hopeless bastard, you brat?”

 

It was a strange sensation.

 

He felt as exhausted as though he had not slept for a hundred years,

 

yet at the same time, he felt dazed as though he had spent those hundred years wandering through a dream.

 

Whether his mind had fully awakened or not,

 

his body reacted instantly.

 

The moment he heard himself being called a hopeless bastard, he flicked his finger and struck the forehead of the person shaking him awake.

 

“Ow! Why did you have to hit my face?! If I can’t get married because of this, are you going to take responsibility, Team Leader?!”

 

Apparently, the spot he had struck hurt quite badly.

 

She clutched her reddened forehead and groaned before shouting at him with tears welling in her eyes.

 

Limon stared at the woman with a strange expression.

 

Because he had finally remembered who she was.

 

“Yu Na-kyung?”

 

“What?!”

 

“Na-kyung, my team member?”

 

“Who else would it be? I’m the only Na-kyung on your team, aren’t I?”

 

Name: Yu Na-kyung.

 

Age: Twenty-six.

 

Occupation: Specially recruited civil servant.

 

Height: 158 centimeters.

 

Weight—

 

Status: His team member.

 

Characteristic: Subtly insolent.

 

Leaving all that aside for the moment,

 

Limon spent a while reviewing the memories of her that came flooding back, as though something clogged inside his head had suddenly broken free the moment he remembered her name.

 

Then he pushed all those memories aside.

 

And asked her the question he wanted answered most.

 

“Why are you alive?”