## Chapter 245 – 245. The Starting Floor
#245. The Starting Floor
“To all Player Candidates who have cleared the tutorial, may the Tower’s blessings be with you in your future endeavors.”
“Transfer will now commence.”
With those words, the individuals hunting monsters throughout the forest began to disappear one by one.
There were no dropouts.
This was because Baek Ji-hyuk had shared the WP he had accumulated.
I couldn’t understand his actions until the very last moment.
Or rather, I didn’t want to understand. I would refuse to be such a pushover, even if it meant death.
Did they even realize?
That their survival was entirely thanks to Yoo Ah-rin.
If she hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have helped them, and naturally, they wouldn’t have been able to hunt, leading to numerous casualties before the final night was over.
Even if dawn broke, they would have had to abandon someone due to insufficient WP.
It wasn’t that I expected gratitude from them. I simply hoped to never encounter them again.
People forget thousands of things every day.
This incident, too, was just one of the many memories that would eventually fade away.
Shortly after, my vision turned pure white, and the transfer took place.
A strange sense of floating passed, and I could feel that the surrounding air had changed.
When I opened my eyes, an endless corridor stretched out before me.
A dreamlike landscape entered my vision through the pillars erected at regular intervals.
“…It doesn’t seem like a dream.”
The vast universe replaced the sky, occupying its place. Beyond the starlight flickering in the darkness, a golden planet shimmered.
In the unnatural silence, Lucifer’s words suddenly came to mind.
*Ding-*
“You have entered the special zone, the Corridor of Stars.”
The Corridor of Stars.
A place only those who had been chosen by a Constellation among the Player Candidates who had passed the tutorial could come to.
I swallowed hard, suppressing my nervousness.
The uniqueness of this place was renowned even within the Tower.
And for good reason.
“The Constellation, ‘The Holy Woman of Uruk,’ is watching you.”
Because a mere Player Candidate could directly face the owner of the stars that illuminated the high heavens.
A strong presence made me turn my head involuntarily.
The moment I made eye contact with the woman splashing in the pond beyond the pillars, goosebumps erupted all over my body.
It was similar to the sensation I had felt when I encountered the snake head on the sixth basement floor, yet subtly different.
Back then, it was the chilling feeling of walking on a knife’s edge, but now it felt like my every action was being observed.
If I had to choose which was more unsettling, I would personally pick the latter.
I cautiously moved towards the woman… no, Ishtar.
“Why, am I so beautiful that you’re speechless?”
Was this what it felt like to have one’s skin crawl?
Of course, as expected of a goddess, she was devastatingly beautiful. Even her voice was a captivating, melodious sound.
But I couldn’t say anything. As if even answering required her permission.
An overwhelming pressure, different from what I had heard through sponsorships, enveloped me.
Cold sweat poured down.
“…I feel like I want to kneel on one knee and propose right away.”
Ishtar chuckled softly at my words.
“Would just one knee be enough?”
Her reddish hair, eyes overflowing with divinity, and attire that unreservedly revealed her voluptuous figure were similar to those of the Sumerian civilization seen in history books.
The only difference was the amount of exposure.
“A man doesn’t kneel on both knees, even if his head is about to be cut off.”
“Hmph…”
My heart ached at her beautifully curved eyes.
There was a reason she was called the Goddess of Love.
But even though she wasn’t in her true form, her presence was immense.
I suddenly wondered if I had been underestimating the existence of Constellations.
Of course, not all Constellations possessed transcendent power.
But at least the woman before me was undoubtedly a high-ranking deity who could kill a human like me without batting an eye.
“Are you nervous? I didn’t think you’d be the type, you have a surprisingly cute side?”
“…Who wouldn’t be nervous in the presence of Ishtar, the Goddess of Love and War?”
“Hehe, you even know how to flatter?”
Ishtar beckoned me with her finger.
Her playful expression bothered me, but I wasn’t in a position to refuse.
As I approached, Ishtar pulled me in as if she had been waiting for it. I could have avoided it if I wanted to, but I didn’t want to upset her and risk what she might do.
*Splash-*
Ishtar laughed gleefully as she watched me fall into the pond.
As if she liked the fact that my eye level was lower than hers, she crossed her legs and revealed her sensual figure. I was momentarily captivated by her fair and smooth thighs.
“But what I want isn’t a jester to entertain me, but a hero who will achieve feats that will send everyone into a frenzy, you know?”
Ishtar’s fingertips brushed my cheek and reached the tip of my chin.
“The ‘Holy Woman of Uruk’ proposes a Constellation contract to you.”
“Take my hand. I’ll give you the power to rule the Tower and the charm to seduce all women.”
It would be a lie to say that her offer wasn’t tempting, but I couldn’t accept it.
Because that was a poisoned apple.
Certainly, Ishtar was one of the seven ruling gods who determined the fate of the world, and a high-ranking deity belonging to the 3,000 gods.
If I could contract with her, I could become strong quickly.
Moreover, with the help of the system, I could even hide the fact that I had contracted with Lucifer, so there was even less reason to refuse.
But before that, I needed to think again about what kind of god Ishtar was.
In the original legends, she tried to seize the throne of her sister, Ereshkigal, the ruler of the underworld, for more power, and she was furious with Gilgamesh for refusing her flirting, causing Guggalanna to devastate the earth.
Besides that, there were countless incidents and accidents involving her.
Thanks to such achievements, Ishtar was considered the quintessential arrogant troublemaker of Mesopotamian mythology.
If I contracted with her, it was almost certain that I would be caught up in troublesome events.
But I couldn’t refuse either.
Gods were generally more narrow-minded than humans.
They would be outraged by even small mistakes and faults, treating humans as enemies, and Ishtar had a stronger tendency to do so than other gods.
If I rejected her offer here, I might end up becoming her enemy.
So I needed a different approach here.
“…Ishtar, as the goddess says, I will become a hero someday.”
I approached her as she sat by the water, looking at me.
Of course, I didn’t raise my eye level. Given her arrogant personality, she would pathologically hate being looked down upon.
“But right now, I’m just a common player. How could I dare to carry the name of Ishtar?”
“…So?”
I acted with sincerity.
I even faked the trembling of my eyes.
“I swear in this place. Someday, I will achieve feats that will shock everyone in the Tower, dedicate that glory to Ishtar, and accept the position of Apostle.”
An Apostle meant the Constellation’s only contractor and representative.
The reason Lucifer was able to share S-class authority with me was because she had a contract with her as an Apostle.
The Apostle contract was important to the Constellation as well.
Even if the Apostle died, they could not make an Apostle contract with another person.
“So I humbly request that you withdraw your excessive proposal.”
That was a lie.
I was planning to switch to a stronger and kinder Constellation than her later.
I acted desperately to avoid being caught in such intentions.
I was getting anxious about the increasingly long silence.
“Hehe.”
I heard a strangely pleased laugh.
I was about to lift my head slightly to see her reaction, but Ishtar took the lead.
“?!”
I felt a soft and moist sensation.
I returned to reality at the same time as I came into contact with a hot, fleshy mass.
I stared blankly at her glistening lips for a moment.
“I’ve received many proposals from humans, but this is the first time I’ve received such a fervent one.”
Ishtar, her face slightly flushed, got up from her seat.
Her body gradually disappeared.
“Well then, I’ll be looking forward to it?”
*Ding-*
“You are leaving the Corridor of Stars.”
“Congratulations. You have become a formal Player.”
“We look forward to the story you will create in the future.”
“You have achieved the feat of killing an Incarnation containing the Constellation’s Holy Marriage.”
“The title, ‘Snake Slayer,’ is granted.”
“Name: Kang Hyun-woo
Age: 21
Contract Constellation: Fallen Star
Title: Snake Slayer – New!
Affiliation: –
Authority: Black Flame (C)
Exclusive Trait: Path of the Devil (S), Unbreakable Vajra Body (A-),
Exclusive Skill: Fire Magic (B), Lightning Magic (B), Imperfect Eye of the Moon (B-), Scarlet Cloud Lightning Strike (C), Melee Combat (C), Killing Intent (C)…
Trait: Magic Resistance (D-)
Skill: -“
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When I opened my eyes, I was standing in the middle of a crowded square.
I let out a heavy sigh as I looked at the white clouds floating in the sky.
“…I’m glad it seems to have gone well according to plan.”
If Ishtar had noticed my intentions, there was a high probability that I would have died on the spot.
Even if I had survived, I would have become enemies with the Constellations of the Mesopotamian lineage.
“Just thinking about it is terrible.”
I suddenly remembered that the ‘Dancing Destroyer’ and the ‘Dweller in the Swamp’ hadn’t appeared, but I decided not to worry about it too much.
It was strange in the first place that Ishtar had proposed a Constellation contract to a Player Candidate.
“But I thought the Dancing Destroyer would appear.”
Unlike the Dweller in the Swamp, the Dancing Destroyer had always shown a favorable reaction to me. I thought there was some possibility, but it seemed like it was just my imagination.
But I wasn’t particularly disappointed because there was an unexpected gain.
I opened the status window and checked the new title.
“Snake Slayer
Classification: Title
Rank: S
You have an advantage when dealing with anything related to snakes.”
It was an S-class title.
I quietly offered a prayer to the first tempter.
From the corpse to the title, it was a snake head that gave generously.
“I hope you go to heaven… no, should I say hell?”
Well, I’m sure he’ll go wherever he needs to go.
I shook off everything about him. As I said before, people forget thousands of things every day. The snake head was just one of them.
I smiled and looked at the beautiful cityscape that stretched out beyond the giant obelisk.
A landscape that mixed the Middle Ages and the modern era in moderation, it was the starting city of Arcana that the players who entered the Tower came to.
It was like a starting village in a game, but the scale was as large as a decent metropolis.
I wanted to go sightseeing at my leisure, but I didn’t think that would be possible.
“Hey, hey, look over there.”
With someone’s voice, people’s eyes gathered one by one.
“Wow… Is a large clan doing a promotional shoot because new players are coming in? How can women be so pretty?”
“Didn’t a celebrity just come in?”
“One looks like a mixed race, and the rest are Asians.”
“Seriously, I’d believe that the purple-haired woman is a goddess?”
“No, you idiots. Look at the bottom.”
“…Aren’t those the ‘Black Lore’ guys?”
In the place where people’s attention was focused, there was Lucifer, trampling on three rough-looking men.
Behind her, I could see Lee Se-rin, who was restless, and Yoo Ah-rin, who was quietly watching the situation.
I smacked my forehead without realizing it.
