Chapter 2. The First Day of Regression
It was exactly one month ago.
Lee Han-seong realized he had returned to the past from ten years in the future. At first, he thought it was a dream or a fleeting vision, but he quickly recognized the exact moment he was in.
“Hey, they said you had a twelve-star vessel, and after over a decade of being a lackey, what? Twelve one-star spirits? Isn’t that just a trash can? A trash can full of one-star garbage, huh?”
It was the unforgettable moment when Kim Jin-ho, whom he had considered a close friend, betrayed him.
On the day of their coming-of-age ceremony, right after the spirit contract, when it was revealed that all of Lee Han-seong’s contracted spirits were one-star, Kim Jin-ho’s attitude flipped in an instant, cutting ties with him.
Back then, flustered by the sudden change, he had stood there dumbfounded, listening to those harsh words. But now, whether this was a dream or not, he felt he had to speak up to satisfy his frustration.
“Jin-ho, that’s a bit harsh.”
“Harsh? You should be thanking me. I’m kindly helping you understand your place.”
“Understand my place… Heh.”
A bitter laugh escaped him at the sight of Kim Jin-ho dressing up his betrayal. The guy’s threats didn’t even faze him anymore.
Sure, Kim Jin-ho, with a four-star vessel and a four-star spirit contract, was in a better position than Lee Han-seong, who had a twelve-star vessel but was stuck with one-star spirits. For now, at least.
‘But that’s only true if I don’t awaken.’
Everything would change once he awakened.
The star vessel one was born with was just that—a vessel. A container capable of holding as many spirits as the number of empty stars it had. And the number of empty stars multiplied with each awakening.
For Kim Jin-ho, with a four-star vessel, it would take three awakenings to gain twelve empty stars. For Lee Han-seong, with a twelve-star vessel, a single awakening would grant him twelve new empty stars.
The difference in innate talent directly translated to the difference in potential limits.
The problem was that the larger the vessel, the greater the achievements required for awakening. With only one-star spirits, it was difficult to amass the feats needed to awaken a twelve-star vessel.
Kim Jin-ho’s attitude likely stemmed from calculating this.
But so what?
“Ha, what are you going to do if I awaken?”
“Come on, get a grip. How are you going to awaken without an awakening skill? If you had a six-star spirit, maybe there’d be a chance. But filling a twelve-star vessel? Man, wouldn’t it be easier to just give up?”
Lee Han-seong was confident he could awaken. Ten years from now, no matter what anyone said, he had succeeded in awakening.
“We’ll see who’s right in the end.”
He didn’t bother saying more, as the results would prove everything. Arguing further wouldn’t change Kim Jin-ho’s mind.
“Fine. Let’s see how far you get with your one-star trash.”
Kim Jin-ho, dismissing Lee Han-seong’s confidence as the desperate bravado of a loser, left with a mocking laugh. But beneath that sneer, there was a trace of unease he couldn’t hide—fear that Lee Han-seong might actually overcome the limitations of a one-star contractor and fully realize his potential.
***
After Kim Jin-ho left, Lee Han-seong waited to wake from what he thought was a dream. But no matter how long he waited, there was no sign of waking up.
‘What’s going on?’
“Alright, those who have completed their contracts, please come this way.”
Feeling something was off but following the association’s guide anyway, he moved along.
“Now, for the next month, you’ll undergo training at the training camp to learn how to handle your contracted spirits.”
Just like military training camps before the Great Cataclysm, after the Cataclysm, all adults—male and female—were isolated from society for a month after their spirit contracts for training. From synchronizing with spirits to draw out their power to taking the awakener qualification exam at the end of the training, they underwent rigorous education to survive as adults in a world filled with awakened beasts and otherworldly monsters.
Vroom.
He was transported by bus to a training camp nestled in a remote mountain valley.
“Trainees, you’ll be staying here.”
Only after being assigned a room in the dormitory did Lee Han-seong accept that his regression wasn’t a dream.
‘Did I really come back to the past?’
He tried to recall the moment just before his regression, but—
Throb—!
A headache hit, and only fragmented memories surfaced.
But one thing was certain.
‘I definitely… died.’
Ten years from now, a massive otherworldly rift opened, triggering a global war. In his final moments, Lee Han-seong faced an unavoidable death.
[…■■ Constellation seizes the Wheel of the Cycle Constellation and turns it backward.]
[The world’s time is rewound.]
His constellation had turned back time.
‘But what was the name of the constellation I contracted with…?’
The name of the constellation that had been with him for ten years was blotted out in his memory, as if covered in ink.
He couldn’t ask anyone else, either. The constellation he had contracted with was the thirteenth, not one of the twelve known to the world. As it had only him as its follower, he was the only one who knew its name.
‘Why? Why can’t I remember?’
If Lee Han-seong couldn’t recall the name, it meant no one in the world knew the thirteenth constellation’s name.
An inexplicable sense of profound loss surged within him.
He sifted through his pre-regression memories, searching for traces of the thirteenth constellation. It rarely responded, even when called, and offered only useless advice or encouragement when he was in danger—providing the bare minimum of help. That had made him resent it even more.
He had often complained before his regression, regretting his choice, thinking he could have received far more support if he had chosen one of the twelve mainstream constellations. A bitter smile crossed his face. In truth, he hadn’t even had the option to choose one of the twelve.
Before his spirit contract, as a candidate for apostle with a twelve-star vessel, he had occasionally received messages from the twelve constellations. But after all his contracted spirits turned out to be one-star, their interest vanished as if it had never existed.
The thirteenth constellation, which sought him out, was the driving force that allowed him to keep striving for awakening and his last shred of pride.
‘Honestly, it didn’t matter if it didn’t help.’
Just knowing there was someone—or something—watching over him gave him the will to keep going. He had believed that even with twelve one-star spirits, there had to be a way to grow stronger, and for ten years, he had explored every possibility.
In that process, he had discovered the existence of destiny awakening skills, which could only be activated by sacrificing one’s life. Thanks to the stigma 《Nine Lives》 bestowed by his constellation, which granted him nine life stacks, he had managed to survive the great war against the otherworld by using his destiny awakening skill.
In that sense, his constellation hadn’t been entirely unhelpful.
‘But even so, I couldn’t escape death.’
For a one-star contractor who hadn’t awakened, he had survived remarkably long.
The silver lining was that he had awakened just before his death.
Suddenly, Lee Han-seong’s eyes widened as he recalled the achievement he had accomplished upon awakening.
“Spirit promotion!”
It was a critical fact he couldn’t believe he had forgotten. Just before his death, he had discovered the method to promote spirits. If he had had more time, that knowledge could have turned the tide of the great war.
He also realized the sacrifice his constellation had made to create this situation.
‘Did it expend so much causality that its name was erased?’
Constellations required causality to intervene in the world. Blessing human achievements, granting humanity the power of spirits after the Great Cataclysm, and sponsoring their chosen followers—all of it was an investment to gather more causality.
The greater a constellation’s influence and following, the more causality it could amass beyond what it spent.
Naturally, the thirteenth constellation, unknown to the world and with only Lee Han-seong as its follower, was always short on causality.
Yet, it had bestowed a stigma like 《Nine Lives》. There was no way it had enough causality left to cause a regression.
But, as evident, the regression had already happened.
‘That means there was a sacrifice to make up for the lack of causality.’
A fall in rank.
The loss of its name.
“Oh…”
Unlike a fall in rank, the loss of a name was a grave issue. A name was the very subject of causality. A being without a name couldn’t gather causality.
Naturally, choosing a nameless constellation was also impossible…
—Nya.
[Unnamed Constellation gazes at you.]
“What?”
Startled by the sudden message from his constellation, Lee Han-seong looked around.
—Nya.
A black cat, lounging lazily on the bed assigned to him, meowed as if to say, “I’m here.”
The cat felt strangely familiar.
“Constellation?”
He sensed the aura of the thirteenth constellation from the cat.
As if to confirm it wasn’t a coincidence—
Wooong—
The channel with the thirteenth constellation, which had followed him through regression, was connecting to the cat.
He instinctively understood. The constellation that had protected him had fallen to the level of a mere animal as the price for turning back time.
He couldn’t bring himself to speak.
[You have chosen the Unnamed Constellation.]
[The existence of the Unnamed Constellation becomes slightly clearer.]
At the same time, Lee Han-seong realized that as long as his channel with the constellation remained, the thirteenth constellation would not vanish.
‘Then…’
If he, its sole follower, could raise his own rank, it might be possible for the constellation to reclaim its lost name and restore its rank.
He finally opened his tightly shut mouth.
“Just as you saved me in the future, this time, I’ll save you, Constellation.”
—Nyaaa.
In response to his resolve, the cat meowed, a question mark floating above its head.
He quietly approached the cat and took it into his arms.
The emptiness he had felt since his regression was beginning to fill.
It was the moment when the regressor and the fallen constellation reunited.
***
While Lee Han-seong was quietly smiling, touched by his reunion with his constellation, his assigned roommate arrived.
Click.
“Lee Han-seong?”
The man who entered the room recognized him.
“Jin Yu-seong.”
Lee Han-seong knew him too.
A promising candidate with a seven-star vessel—not as grand as his own twelve-star vessel, but still notable. Jin Yu-seong didn’t seem in high spirits, perhaps because he had contracted with a five-star spirit instead of the maximum seven-star.
But compared to Lee Han-seong, he must have felt he was in a far better position, as his expression brightened slightly upon seeing him.
“So you’re my roommate. You seem… in better spirits than I expected. I thought you’d be down about your contract results.”
As he spoke, Jin Yu-seong silently unpacked on the opposite side of the room.
The subtle smile lingering on Lee Han-seong’s face must have been unexpected.
“Yeah, I found something I thought I’d lost.”
Jin Yu-seong, not expecting a response, merely nodded.
Just then, the cat sitting on the bed leaped onto Lee Han-seong’s head.
—Nya.
He worried about how to explain the sudden appearance of the cat, but Jin Yu-seong showed no particular reaction, as if he neither saw nor heard it.
Come to think of it, the cat perched on his head felt almost weightless.
“Did you hear something like a cat meowing just now?”
“No, I didn’t. What cat?”
“Nothing, never mind if you didn’t hear it.”
As expected.
The cat form taken by his constellation wasn’t a physical entity.
It was a spiritual body visible only to Lee Han-seong.
Like a spirit.
‘Wait, could it be…?’
A spark of realization flashed in his mind.
‘Is it possible to synchronize with my constellation?’
Normally, synchronizing with a constellation was something only a twelve-star apostle could do. But his constellation had fallen to the level of a spirit—practically a beast.
There was a chance he could succeed in synchronizing using the same method as spirit synchronization.
If he succeeded, he could not only recover the stigma lost through regression but also strengthen the weakened channel with his constellation.
His heart raced with the urge to try it immediately.
‘Normally, spirit synchronization starts a week from now… but I can’t wait that long.’
That evening, keeping his posture straight to support the constellation on his head, Lee Han-seong endured through dinner and bedtime. Once he confirmed Jin Yu-seong was asleep, he slipped out of bed.
In the bathroom attached to the room, he sat cross-legged, naked.
He planned to attempt his first spirit synchronization that very night.
Normally, the first synchronization required an observer to prevent accidents, but Lee Han-seong had already completed synchronization on the day of his contract in his previous life.
That had led him to discover the concept of deep synchronization, though it hadn’t been without flaws.
‘In my previous life, because I contracted with spirits one at a time, triple synchronization was my limit.’
Since the synchronization rates of earlier-contracted spirits were slightly higher, there had been limits even after he realized multi-synchronization.
This time, he planned to attempt simultaneous first synchronization with all his spirits to surpass his previous limits.
—Nya.
The sleepy yawn of his constellation sounded like encouragement.
“Haa.”
With a deep breath, bolstered by his constellation’s support, Lee Han-seong entered his inner self.
Hwaaak.
The presence of his spirits sparkled like stars, welcoming him.