INPCD 05

Chapter 05

First, I ran to a phone shop near my studio apartment and got myself a phone that I could use immediately. I changed my number completely and even blocked all my family members’ numbers.

Just thinking that I wouldn’t have to answer their calls made me feel like a weight had been lifted from my chest, but…

Whenever I thought about the ending of the latest SSS-rank Oracle, where I completely lost my mind, I couldn’t help but swear.

Compared to that kind of future, the S-rank items I received through contracts were nothing more than a tiny consolation.

But hadn’t someone once said this?

It was better to cry inside an expensive car than to cry while riding a bicycle.

‘I want to change my fate, even if it’s only a little. Even if it’s already too late.’

Yesterday, after visiting the Item Exchange and having a huge amount of money deposited into my account, my various debts were paid off in an instant. That was when my primary bank called me.

They wanted to make sure I hadn’t been scammed.

Or that I hadn’t scammed someone else.

They were checking whether one of those two things had happened.

But once I mentioned a ‘Constellation,’ they understood.

This was a world where all sorts of unbelievable things happened.

There were plenty of cases where someone brought back a single magic stone from a dungeon, only to discover that it was an incredibly high-grade rare magic stone and suddenly become filthy rich.

Yeah.

This was a world where everything had been turned upside down because of Constellations and Gates.

Apparently, all the other Awakened had gone crazy and ended up coming to an F-ranker like me because they had no choice.

Apparently, the survival of humanity rested on my pathetic shoulders!

But I was certain of one thing.

I was absolutely not the kind of person who could become a hero.

‘Even right now, the world’s number-one ranked player, Gi Hae-jin, is in the Yongseon Guild.’

I didn’t want to become some hero.

I just wanted to straighten out my miserable life, even if only a little.

There was no reason for me to regret it.

“Yeah. I’ll accept the quest.”

I barely paid attention to the joy radiating from the ‘Prophet of the Sun’ before returning to my studio apartment.

Unfortunately, my credit rating didn’t go up.

Even a high-ranking Constellation was ultimately no different from a natural disaster. Because of the instability involved, it couldn’t improve my credit rating.

‘But that’s actually good.’

For the time being, I shouldn’t go around carelessly announcing that I had contracted with an S-rank Constellation.

If I wanted to stir up the Yongseon Guild, it would be more convenient to remain an inconspicuous F-rank Awakened.

If my face appeared on the terrestrial news and my family recognized me, or if the Yongseon Guild found out about my existence, things would become troublesome.

‘Then there’s really only one answer.’

I needed to find someone in the underworld who could stand in my place and do the work for me.

Which left me with one problem.

How did you get to the underworld?

I bought a large garbage bag.

I packed my belongings while boldly throwing away anything I couldn’t take with me. I opened the window to let the burnt smell from the TV escape.

I had to leave immediately before my family came barging in.

But where should I go?

“Oh! Right! Let’s do that!”

I had a long-standing dream.

Being a long-term guest at a five-star hotel despite having absolutely nothing to do!

A freelancer who drank morning coffee in the lobby every day, looking like someone who had an absurd amount of money despite nobody knowing exactly what they did for a living!

Dreams like that were only worth pursuing while I still had some sanity left.

I hastily packed only the things I needed into a suitcase, ran out of my studio apartment, and immediately hailed a taxi.

“…Hello? I’m the tenant who lives in Room 305.”

When I told the driver to take me to a famous hotel I had wanted to visit for a long time, he worried that the fare would come out to around 50,000 won.

Fortunately, money wasn’t a problem anymore.

I reassured the driver and checked the photo I had taken earlier.

It was the phone number of the building owner, printed outside the studio apartment along with a notice saying, ‘Tenants Wanted at All Times.’

“I’m moving out starting today.”

Naturally, the fussy old landlord went into an uproar.

My ears felt like they were going to burst, so I frowned and glanced at the rearview mirror.

The driver seemed to be subtly keeping an eye on me as he drove.

“I had some circumstances come up. I won’t take my security deposit. Yes, you can keep all of it. I really mean it. I’ll keep paying the rent until you find another tenant. Ah, you’re asking about the money I just transferred?”

The TV had exploded, and my four-year-old phone had exploded too, so I had transferred two million won to cover the repair costs for the soot-blackened wallpaper.

Someone might be surprised by how excessive the amount was, but considering what had happened in the past, it was a small gesture of gratitude toward the landlord.

“If my family comes looking for me, please don’t tell them too much. Just tell them I ran away in the middle of the night because debt collectors were after me. Yes? Please.”

The story from back then went like this.

It was when I had gotten into a fistfight with my older brother.

My mother had gone all the way to my studio apartment in another region to find me.

In Korea, there was no way around it. Even if an adult child registered as the head of a household at another address, their parents could still find out their address.

The last time, knowing that, I had temporarily taken refuge at a friend’s house.

At the time, I had been carrying a mountain of luggage out of my apartment when I happened to run into the landlord and explained the situation.

I told him that I was having serious conflicts with my parents.

That they might come looking for me themselves soon, so I would be staying at a friend’s house for a few days.

And that they would definitely try to get inside my apartment somehow, so I begged him never to let them in.

The elderly landlord, whose hair was already mostly gray, sighed and said he understood.

And eventually, the day my mother came looking for me arrived.

My mother told the landlord, ‘I’m the mother of the kid who lives here, so give me the master key so I can go inside.’

The landlord, who had a rather sensitive temperament, refused to hand over the master key.

Instead, he demanded that she prove she was family and made a huge fuss about it.

If she had gone as far as obtaining a family relationship certificate, I might have been in trouble.

But whether she simply didn’t want to go through the trouble because of me or for some other reason, instead she lied and claimed that she was worried because I had been suffering from mental health issues lately.

Naturally, the landlord didn’t believe her.

In the end, my mother gave up and left.

That alone said everything.

‘If she had gotten inside, who knows what she would have done after rummaging through that tiny studio apartment.’

I still felt indebted to him for what he had done back then, so I had added some extra money as a token of my gratitude.

That much should have been enough for him to understand what was going on.

Sure enough.

After hearing me out, the landlord clicked his tongue several times and, after saying he understood, hung up.

That was what I liked about the man.

As long as the rules and interests of the villa were kept in order, he didn’t meddle in his tenants’ lives.

“……”

The taxi driver was clearly keeping his mouth shut despite having a lot he wanted to say.

Unlike him, however, the ability I had suddenly acquired wouldn’t leave me alone.

“Gah! Ah, shit…!”

A scene suddenly flashed into view, startling me so badly that I swore.

Passive Skill Activated!

Oracle (B)

!Vision is restricted due to the ‘Veil of Night’ debuff!

Clarity: 61.29%

The scene looked more familiar than I expected.

I could see a familiar train station, and beyond the edge of the station, I could see the streets that came into view.

Near a fairly large central market.

On the second floor of an old building, next to a chicken restaurant, there was a café.

‘A café? Why?’

Humanity was supposedly on the verge of extinction, and the first Oracle I received after making the contract was an oddly specific café location?

I couldn’t believe it.

But that tacky café was on fire.

Blazing fiercely.

The flames were even spreading to the ginkgo trees lining the narrow alley.

“What am I supposed to do with this? Go put out the fire?”

The Constellation ‘Prophet of the Sun’ explained that all of the Oracles that Contractee ‘Kim Eun-sol’ would see from now on would ultimately be connected to the SSS-rank Oracle.

It warned me not to overlook even the smallest detail!

All the questions I had been holding onto suddenly came rushing back.

When I heard the word ‘Oracle,’ I couldn’t help but naturally think of the Greek version.

And considering the message from before about ‘playing the lyre,’ there seemed to be a high probability that the Constellation attached to me was related to that mythology.

But in Greek mythology, prophecies and fate always came true somehow, no matter how desperately humans struggled to avoid them.

And that wasn’t limited to humans.

If my shallow knowledge was correct, even Zeus, the famous king of the Greek gods and mighty god of thunder and lightning, had been unable to do anything about fate.

In other words, it was an absolutely unchangeable flow.

Did Zeus know about this situation?

Did he know that a Constellation who might be his own child was trying to change the future because of some nonsense about love?

‘What if I get caught in the middle of the gods despite being only human and get grilled by lightning? What if I get turned to stone or something?’

Since things had come this far, maybe I should ask them to cut me some slack.

If they killed me and turned me into a constellation, I’d just have to show them my own design.

‘Focus.’

I shook my head roughly and concentrated on the B-rank Oracle.

According to what I had seen, the unnamed old café would soon catch fire.

It was evening, my connection with the Constellation was unstable, and my favorability was low, so I couldn’t make out the café’s sign clearly.

If I searched around and warned the café owner in advance, could I change the future?

And what did this have to do with the SSS-rank Oracle?

In the end, there was only one way to find out.

I had to act.

“Why are you doing that, student? A-are you okay? Want me to pull over for a minute?”

I shook my head frantically, trying to erase the scene occupying my vision.

When I looked ahead, I saw the taxi driver’s worried eyes in the rearview mirror.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

“Uh, well, I wasn’t trying to listen to your phone conversation or anything, but I couldn’t help hearing it. Seems like things are a little complicated with your family?”

It seemed like he was trying to ease his own anxiety through conversation, perhaps wondering if he had picked up the wrong passenger.

“Yeah… something like that.”

“Ah, everyone’s having a hard time these days─.”

The driver looked like he was about to unleash some old-fashioned, preachy wisdom disguised as concern.

“Still, there’s nothing like family. Don’t be too hard on them─. The world’s already a rough enough place, so family should trust and rely on each other. Right? I mean, even if you ain’t got no money, the only people in this whole wide world who’ll take you in are your parents─!”

“My parents aren’t like that.”

“Oh, really?”

Silence.

“Are you still a college student? You look young. You know, over in the area where I picked you up, there’s Taeseong University. My son graduated from that university, and…”

“I graduated from college.”

“Oh. Then are you working?”

“I’m unemployed.”

Silence again.

But the driver, possessing an indomitable spirit, continued talking.

“Well… don’t stress yourself out too much─. These days, because of all the Gates and whatnot, there are actually quite a few jobs available. Lower your standards a little! Then there’s nothing in this world you can’t do!”

“My standards aren’t high.”

“You look like they are.”

Seriously.

Wasn’t this guy lacking situational awareness, talking about how high my standards were when I literally couldn’t see a thing?

“You’re an Awakened, aren’t you, miss?”

“How did you know?”

“You’ve got the face for it. You can tell at a glance!”

“……”

“Go to the National Awakened Employment Center and talk to them. Ah, or have you already been there?”

My eyes suddenly lit up at something I hadn’t considered.

‘I never thought of an employment agency.’

An Awakened with enough guts to dig into the Yongseon Guild.

Someone capable.

Someone who needed a large amount of money immediately.

Someone who would be willing to do shady work with me as long as I paid them.

I could find someone like that through a private Awakened employment agency.

“…Sir. I have a criminal record, so it’s pretty difficult to find a company that’s a good fit for me.”

“What, what?”

The moment I received an SSS-rank Oracle, I had given up on something deep inside myself.

Decency.

Conscience.

Something along those lines, anyway.

“So, if you know any good private agencies, could you recommend one to me?”