"Is it like an egg?"
He paced the length of his apartment.
Three steps forward, a sharp pivot, three steps back.
On the scratched wooden table sat the object of his mounting anxiety.
It was the star-seed he had gotten.
He leaned in, his eyes narrowed.
"If it's an egg, how long does it take to hatch? A week? A month? A century?"
He ran a hand through his damp hair, his mind racing through the knowledge he had of beings he had encountered in the tower.
If this was the offspring of a Constellation ...then whatever came out of it wouldn't just be a child.
It would be a Calamity.
"The Reaper who ended my life..."
Min froze mid-step.
The Goddess's words rammed in his head.
He hadn't processed in the heat of everything that happened.
Nurture the very essence of the thing you despised... the thing that ended your life.
A cold, white-hot fury suddenly erupted in his chest, making his mana channels flare with violent electricity.
He slammed his fist onto the table, barely stopping himself from shattering the wood.
"Those bastards!"
"Using my blood was one thing!"
The memory of the 666th floor flashed; the sky turning the color of dried blood, the crushing pressure of the Final Boss, and the moment the Calamity had triggered its self-destruction, turning the summit into a void of nothingness. It was the monster that had erased his life's work. The monster that had made his long climb meaningless.
"But fusing it with the Red-Black Calamity?!"
And now, the Stars had stitched its essence together with his own and handed it to him in a glass jar.
"What kind of sick, twisted joke is this?"
He grabbed the edge of the table, his knuckles white.
"There is no way in fucking hell I am doing this—"
The moment the words left his lips, the air in the room went cold.
The light of the Star-Seed turned a violent, bruised purple.
A series of system windows erupted in his field of vision, flashing with a crimson intensity that blinded him.
『WARNING: PLAYER KANG MIN IS ATTEMPTING TO REPUDIATE A "LIFETIME PATERNAL CONTRACT."』
『NOTICE: THE CONTRACT IS BOUND TO YOUR SOUL-THREAD.』
『VIOLATION DETECTED: REFUSAL OF DUTY!』
Then, the shadows in the corners of the room began to stretch.
They growed and became three-dimensional, coalescing into a silhouette so dark it seemed to be a hole in reality.
A presence began to leak into the room.
It was a cold, mindless hunger that made Min's level of years of climbing instincts scream in primal terror.
『ALERT: THE OUTER WORLD GOD [THE CONSUMER OF FATED LIVES] HAS TAKEN NOTICE OF THE CONTRACT BREACH.』
『IF THE DUTY IS NOT CARRIED OUT, YOUR NARRATIVE WILL BE CONSUMED. YOUR PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE WILL BE ERASED FROM THE LOGIC OF THE UNIVERSE.』
Min felt a phantom jaw closing around his very soul.
It wasn't just death...it was un-existence.
'-KUUKH!
If a thing of that magnitude descends...earth will be gone in an instant.'
He gasped for air, his heart stuttering.
"I... I get it! Shut up! I get it!"
The purple light faded.
The shadow in the corner retreated, though the chill remained.
Min slumped against the wall, sliding down until he hit the floor, his chest heaving.
He looked at the Star-Seed again.
It was back to its golden, rhythmic pulse.
-Thump-thump.
"I hate you."
Min whispered to the star-seed.
"I hate every single molecule of your being."
Suddenly, a new window appeared, floating gently above the egg.
This one wasn't red but a soft, informative gold.
[NURTURING GUIDE: STAR-SEED]
「Normally, Stars of the Constellation Stream feed upon 'Great Stories' and 'Fables' to achieve maturation. However, as this Seed contains the mortal blood of a Disaster-Level Player and the essence of a Calamity, its metabolism has mutated.」
[NURTURING REQUIREMENTS]
「To sustain the Seed's growth and prevent 'Regression of Form,' the Father must provide a daily infusion of pure Mana.」
「DAILY REQUIREMENT: 1,500 MANA POINTS (VARIABLE BASED ON GROWTH).」
「CURRENT STATUS: STARVING.」
Min stared at the number.
1,500 MP.
"Fifteen hundred?"
He choked out.
"That's... that's nearly half my current daily capacity.
If I give that away every morning, my regeneration won't catch up until noon.
I won't be able to train and most definitely my skill growth will hit a wall."
He felt a deep, gnawing frustration.
He had planned to use the next few days to grind his mana circuits back to their former glory...
...to push his stats until he was ready to solo past the 10th floor.
But now, he was being taxed in his very potential.
To get stronger, he needed mana.
But to keep the "Consumer" from eating him, he had to give that mana to a glass ball.
"I have to get stronger for myself... and for the egg."
He leaned his head back against the wall, closing his eyes.
He had always been a man who kept his distance.
In the Tower, proximity was a death sentence.
He had seen it a thousand times.
A party member gets close, they share secrets, they share a meal, and then a boss's claw swipes through the air and suddenly you're holding a piece of someone who used to be your friend.
By floor 49, he had stopped learning names.
By floor 100, he had stopped making eye contact.
"Distance is safety."
He whispered to the empty room.
"If I'm alone, nobody can use me.
If I'm alone, I don't have to watch anyone die..."
It was a coping mechanism he had forged in the fires of a hundred betrayals.
He had convinced himself that strength was synonymous with isolation.
If you were powerful enough to not need anyone, you were powerful enough to not care about anyone.
But this egg... was the ultimate violation of that principle.
It forced a connection and demanded care.
It was a life that depended entirely on him...not because it loved him...moreso because it needed him.
"Is this what parents feel?"
He wondered, a bitter smile touching his lips.
"That constant, low-level anxiety that something else's survival is more important than your own?
What a terrifying way to live."
He looked at the sphere.
'I made a rule for myself.
Don't get close to people.
Don't help them.
Don't let them rely on me.
It sounds bad when I say it like that.
It's cold and selfish.
Even before the Tower.
Before I became a climber.
I used to think getting close to people was normal.
That helping them was the right thing to do.
That if you were strong, you should protect.
That's what everyone says, right?
"If you can help, you should."
But what happens when you try… and it still ends badly?
What happens when you give your time, your strength, your heart… and in the end you're the only one left standing?
Do you blame yourself?
Do you blame the world?
Or do you just… stop trying?
I stopped trying.
It was easier.
If I don't get close, I won't feel it when they leave.
If I don't promise anything, I won't break it.
If I don't help, I won't have to watch them die and wonder if I could've done more.
Sometimes being strong just means you're more aware of how much you can lose and not that you're fearless.
When you're a son, love feels like responsibility.
When you're a friend, love feels like loyalty.
When you're the strongest person in the room, love feels like pressure.
Like everyone is looking at you.
And I hated that feeling.
So I stepped back.
I told myself I was better this way.
But now…'
What if he grew to care for it?
What if, despite the blood of the Calamity, he saw a reflection of himself in it?
And then... what if the Tower took it away?
What if the Constellations decided the experiment was over and shattered the glass?
"That's why I don't do this."
He said, his voice thick with hidden grief.
A chime from his phone broke the heavy atmosphere.
『NOTIFICATION: PRIVATE AUCTION SETTLEMENT COMPLETE.』
『ITEM [VESTIGE OF THE IRON LION SHIELD] SOLD.』
『PROCEEDS: 500,000 COINS.』
『TOTAL COINS IN POSSESSION: 638,000.』
The sheer number of zeroes was enough to momentarily lift the suffocating weight from his chest.
Over half a million coins.
In this era, that was a fortune.
It was enough to buy a building in the mid-sector, or a set of legendary-grade armor, or enough mana potions to offset the Star-Seed's drain for a year.
He stood up, his joints popping, and walked back to the table.
He reached out and placed a hand on the glass sphere.
He felt the mana begin to flow out of his palm...a steady, golden stream of energy being sucked into the heart of the star.
『NOTICE: NURTURING INITIATED.』
『STAR-SEED SATIETY: 10%.』
As the mana left him, he felt a strange, hollow sensation in his gut, but the pulsing of the star grew warmer, steadier.
It felt almost... grateful.
-Bzzz !Bzzz!
A message from his phone.
「TO: ALL LICENSED PORTERS / CONTRACTED INDIVIDUALS.」
「FROM: WHITE STARS LOGISTICS DIVISION.」
「SUBJECT: MANDATORY BRIEFING.」
「MESSAGE: ALL PERSONNEL ARE REQUIRED AT THE GUILD SUB-HQ BY 08:00 TOMORROW. DISTRIBUTION OF SUPPLIES AND ROLE ALLOCATION FOR THE '11TH FLOOR EXPEDITION' WILL COMMENCE. DO NOT BE LATE.」