Chapter – 06
“Unni, do you really have to find that person?”
Here, that person referred to the sharpshooter who had knocked someone unconscious with a thrown stone.
“Of course. With that level of skill, they must be someone incredible.”
I didn’t know their gender or their age.
But their skill spoke for itself.
And on top of that, they had protected a delicate(?) girl like me…
Who would have thought someone that kind still existed in this crappy world besides Lilia?
As I smiled slyly again, Lilia shook her head.
“There are plenty of good people even if it’s not that person.”
Lilia was right.
There were quite a few people here with decent Constellations even without him.
The Last Companion, Son of the Lion, The Long Wanderer, Divine Dragon of Shangshan— all of them had respectable stats.
But like the rotten potato rule, if one person was good, the rest were weird.
And if everyone seemed average, then their skills were ridiculously useless.
A Blessing of the Broom? What, are they planning to leisurely clean dungeon floors while blood is flying everywhere?
Naturally, all rejected.
Let me say this again: choosing teammates must be done carefully.
Once a team is formed, you cannot leave unless every member dies, and the team’s overall rank depends on the abilities of its members.
Ranks go from S to F.
The stronger the members, the higher the chance of getting S rank.
S-rank benefits were double recovery during rest and potions every twelve hours, right?
There were some other minor benefits too…
But I couldn’t remember them clearly since they weren’t that important.
They only really mattered early on when there were no other advantages.
Later on, everyone just crushed monsters without needing those perks anyway.
With a calm expression, I looked around.
In some places, people were shouting accusations about fake skills or fake Constellations.
And over there… well, I didn’t even need to look.
One strong Constellation paired with four barely-worth-calling-Constellations.
And not just one such mess—more than twenty teams like that.
People who hadn’t even properly learned the basic rules.
They panicked at the warning that they would die if they failed to form a team and ended up recruiting anyone just to fill slots.
Anyway, it’s not like I rejected everyone without thinking!
The members chosen now would stay together at least until the third gate.
I knew from the original story that the team composition wouldn’t change until then.
Life is unpredictable. You never know when you might die.
In an apocalypse like this, I couldn’t afford to trust my back to a poorly built team.
I let out a small sigh and checked my Stigmata again.
Ding!
<Magic Cart> <Big Data>
“…This seriously sucks.”
Though honestly, I might be the worst one here.
Fortunately, others could only see the skill names.
Unless I told them myself, they wouldn’t know what the skills actually did.
I don’t even know the exact performance of my own skills besides Dimensional Storage Spear yet.
Who knows.
Maybe these new skills are ridiculously overpowered.
And I already had the infinite trust of the original female protagonist.
At least I had already avoided the “nutritious monster food ending.”
As long as we found Lilia’s teammates and survived the upcoming gates.
If we survive…
Sigh.
As I exhaled, I felt someone poking my back.
It was Lilia.
“Shouldn’t we also join a team soon?”
Her face, which had been slightly flushed earlier, was now pale.
Her crystal-clear eyes had lost some of their vitality.
The floating hourglass in the air had already passed halfway.
If Lilia—who normally followed my words without question—was saying this, then things must really be getting bad.
I need to hurry.
There was no exact timer displayed, but the team selection mission would end soon.
If we couldn’t find that person, maybe forming a team with someone I had previously considered wouldn’t be so bad.
There were a few concerns, but dying without even trying wasn’t an option.
We absolutely had to form a team.
Still, if possible, I wanted to stay within the original storyline.
There was no need to wander off the safe path when I already knew where it was.
While checking the remaining sand in the hourglass and searching for the original team members—
When about one-third of the sand remained—
“Found them!”
Finally.
A tightly set jaw, a powerful and intimidating appearance.
Red hair, a muscular body radiating feral strength.
A man with ominous yet mystical violet eyes.
[Kaltein Illion]
[Constellation: God-Slaying Warrior]
There was no doubt.
It was Kaltein, the male protagonist of the original story.
[Stigmata: Demon Suppression]
[Stigmata: Combat Addiction]
[Stigmata: Slaughter Frenzy]
After checking his Stigmata, I nodded.
Just at Constellation selection and already this broken…
As expected of the male lead, his Constellation was Asura, a demigod obsessed with battle.
Once combat began, he would go completely berserk, attacking friend and foe alike.
But that was why his compatibility with Lilia was so good.
He was like a nuclear bomb to everyone, but Lilia’s skills allowed only allies to avoid the fallout.
And the other two members of his group were also top-tier characters worthy of the protagonist’s party.
[Javier Cluy]
[Constellation: Cow of Salvation (Lion of Wrath)]
Sekhmet, the Egyptian goddess of healing and regeneration, but also of rage and destruction.
As her incarnation, Javier was famous as a hybrid damage dealer and healer.
[Eltein Kartego]
[Constellation: Sun Slayer]
And Eltein, the incarnation of Hou Yi from Chinese mythology, who shot down the suns, was considered the greatest ranged damage dealer in the world.
“Excuse me!”
With Lilia as the tank…
And if someone like me, who knew the original story, joined them—
It would literally be the most perfectly balanced party.
With them and Lilia, clearing future gates wouldn’t be a problem.
Add my knowledge of the story, and we might even reach the final battle without major obstacles.
“How about cooperating with us?”
I stepped forward with a confident smile, extending my hand while Lilia hid slightly behind me, intimidated by Kaltein’s fierce appearance.
“It’ll be hard to find better teammates than us.”
Come on, accept this irresistible offer…
“What?”
But my dream of riding the protagonist party’s bus to easy victories shattered instantly at his cold response.
“Us? With someone like you?”
His eyes looked at me like I was ridiculous.
Like he couldn’t understand where my confidence came from.
Kaltein even frowned in irritation.
“With such pathetic stats and a worthless-looking Constellation, you’re awfully confident.”
Something was wrong.
In the original story, they had accepted immediately when Lilia and Wendy proposed forming a team.
Ah… damn it.
That’s right. The original Wendy had received a fairly strong Constellation.
But my current Constellation was…
— PinkMadWarrior: Who does Wendy think she is? Looks useless.
— TruckDriverReincarnator: Seriously, the secondhand embarrassment is real.
You useless Constellations are talking about yourselves, you reader bastards…
I clenched my teeth as I watched the floating comments appear before me.
I thought about how to persuade these idiots looking down on me.
“Wait, there seems to be a misunderstanding. My Constellation is…”
Should I bluff and claim it’s actually amazing?
Or should I just act crazy and grab their pant legs?
Though honestly, I didn’t like the idea of begging someone who would eventually abandon Wendy in the monster forest.
“Don’t insult my sister!”
While I hesitated, Lilia suddenly stepped forward and shouted.
“How great do you think you are to look down on others like that?”
Her eyes were red with anger.
I tried to stop her, but she was already furious.
Stop, Lilia…
They really are amazing, you know.
Even if they’re jerks.
“This one seems useful.”
“Isn’t that the Furnace of the Universe? That goddess?”
“Was she relying on her little sister’s Constellation?”
They examined Lilia while whispering among themselves.
It was true.
Lilia, chosen by Hestia, was exceptional talent.
Maybe their attitude would change?
“The older sister is unimpressive, but if we can recruit someone like this, bringing along one porter wouldn’t be so bad.”
“If she slows us down, we can just abandon her.”
…A porter?
Well, joining that party would definitely be beneficial.
If I stuck it out and grew stronger, it could become a good opportunity.
Alright, I could swallow my pride and join as a porter for now—
“We don’t want to team up with horrible people like you either!”
But before I could decide, Lilia shouted that.
Then she grabbed my sleeve and said:
“I’m sorry, sister. I don’t want to be with people who insult you.”
As she looked up at me with shining eyes, how could I possibly tell her to swallow her pride?
“You’re right, Lilia. If we go with jerks like them, we’ll probably get stabbed in the back and fed to monsters.”
That’s right.
In the original story, Wendy gets abandoned by that team.
Maybe I could change that now.
But if things turned out like this, there’s no choice.
I couldn’t hurt the feelings of the protagonist who cared about me this much.
“Looks like we’ll have to go with Plan B.”
If the original story was already starting to twist…
I might as well shatter it completely.
