Chapter 48 – Shaking the Cage (3)

Ｒｅａｄ ｏｎ ＫａｔＲｅａｄ​ｉｎ​ｇＣ​ａ​ｆｅ

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[Is Reina really pissed off?]

ㄴ“We’ve only heard bits and pieces so far, right?”

ㄴ“She has every right to be. From Reina’s perspective, a newbie she invested in has gone off the rails and caused trouble.”

ㄴ“Shadis must feel pretty wronged. She was trying to help Reina in her own way, but she ended up getting tangled up with that kind of constellation.”

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The gallery users mistakenly thought I was angry at Shadis’ actions without understanding her predicament.

They assumed I didn’t know the truth about her entanglement with the constellations.

But they were wrong. I knew exactly who was at the root of this mess.

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ㄴ“If Reina meets Shadis, she’ll eventually learn the truth. Is there no way to get back at that constellation?”

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Just in case, I left a comment on one of the most popular posts about the situation.

If I stepped in personally, rescuing Shadis wouldn’t be too difficult, but I didn’t want to stop there.

I wanted to mess with that perverted constellation, the Whispering Serpent of Darkness, who had crossed the line by a mile.

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ㄴ“You think Reina would actually try to get revenge on a constellation?”

ㄴ“It’s impossible. Unless Shadis completely ignores them.”

ㄴ“There’s one way—Reina could become a constellation herself and then confront them in the community lol.”

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However, the responses to my comment weren’t very hopeful.

Since constellations had their own restrictions, challengers had almost no way to retaliate against malicious constellations.

The kind of satisfying revenge I wanted was realistically difficult.

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ㄴ“It’s not entirely impossible. If Shadis finds a new contracted constellation and continues climbing the tower with that new constellation as her primary, the existing constellation would be completely ignored and unable to form new contracts.”

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Then, someone offered a practical solution.

The user Unfading Ember suggested the best course of action we could take.

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ㄴ“If that happens, that bastard won’t be able to interfere with Tower 3445 anymore. For someone who enjoys toying with challengers and voyeurism, there’s nothing more frustrating than that. The massive point loss is just a bonus.”

ㄴ“So, all we need is to find a new contracted constellation?”

ㄴ“But is that easy? Shadis isn’t a talented challenger who couldn’t find a contracted constellation even after reaching the 40th floor.”

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“Tch…”

I bit my lip after reading the cold, hard truth.

Even though there were constellations swarming the community, none of them would step forward to become Shadis’ contracted constellation.

After all, they had to be of a certain caliber, and once they made a contract, they wanted to gain something, not lose it.

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ㄴ“So, there’s no way…”

ㄴ“You seem to really like Shadis.”

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He replied to my sighing comment.

His remark about me liking Shadis made me flinch.

To other constellations, I probably seemed like just another regular user, but his words struck a nerve.

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ㄴ“She’s cute. She works hard.”

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I scrambled to come up with a reason to justify my protectiveness over Shadis.

It felt awkward to say the kind of things gallery users often said to me, as if I were a constellation myself.

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ㄴ“There’s a way. If Reina shows just how much she values Shadis, someone willing to invest in her for Reina’s sake might appear.”

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He pointed me in the right direction once again.

I was momentarily speechless, staring at his final reply with wide eyes.

***

“Lady Reina? You…”

“I’m here on personal business.”

I shook my head at the driver, who was glancing at me nervously as I opened my eyes in the car, having been monitoring the community.

“Are you sure you want to go here?”

The driver muttered, glancing around.

The area was a bustling entertainment district in the 40th-floor residential zone, lit up with dazzling lights and teeming with people.

It looked like a massive casino straight out of an Earthly entertainment city.

‘Trying to act all high and mighty.’

I scoffed as I watched elegantly dressed people in gowns and suits laughing and entering the building.

The place was a high-end entertainment venue, catering to those with considerable wealth and power.

But beneath the surface, things far more “tower-like” were happening.

The underground colosseum, where people bet on gladiatorial fights, was one such example.

Challengers in the tower, who lived by risking their lives daily, were naturally driven by their desires.

For them, betting money or equipment on gladiators was nothing out of the ordinary.

Even top-ranked rankers were no exception. The more they earned, the more they spent on such entertainment.

“Just so you know, everything that happens here is legal. In fact, it’s one of the alliance’s major sources of income.”

“You think I’m going to cause trouble?”

“I’m just concerned since you’re going in person. You’ve always despised such places and avoided them. You might see some shocking things.”

Marc, sitting in the passenger seat, emphasized that everything here was legal.

While it might be shocking to newcomers, he wasn’t wrong. Underground fights, prostitution—it was all legal and legitimate business.

This was the tower, after all.

“Don’t worry. I plan to get Shadis out through legal means.”

“…I’m not sure how easy that will be.”

We got out of the car.

In the distance, I saw the facility manager hurrying toward us.

.

.

.

“I never expected the famous Moonlight Sword Radiance to visit us, hehe.”

The manager, with his jiggling belly, forced a smile and desperately tried to gauge my mood.

Though he was professional enough to hide any flaws in his hospitality, he couldn’t completely mask his confusion about why I was here.

“I’m not here to play, as you probably guessed.”

Unlike the other elegantly dressed patrons, I was wearing my usual shabby, oversized sweatshirt and the jeans I had just started wearing.

I smirked at the manager’s attitude and gestured toward the interior.

“We have some things to discuss.”

“…Very well. Let me take you to a private room.”

The manager seemed to already know about Shadis and had anticipated my arrival.

Running a business of this scale, he had to be well-informed.

“This way.”

They led us to a deep, quiet room within the facility.

The place was so quiet that the bustling crowd outside felt distant.

Sitting across the table, we skipped the small talk and got straight to the point.

“I’m here to take Shadis. She’s someone I care about. I can’t leave her in a place like this.”

“I see. But that’s not possible.”

And just like that, we clashed.

The manager openly opposed my request.

My eye twitched.

Since rising to my current position, no one had dared to openly contradict or oppose me.

I had always thought of myself as unaffected, but it seemed I had been influenced by the tower’s rules over the years.

“I’ll pay off Shadis’ debts. That should settle it, right?”

“I’m sorry, but the debts she owes aren’t just about money.”

While the amount might be astronomical for Shadis, it was nothing to me.

Knowing they couldn’t win a financial battle against me, they shifted tactics.

“Are you seriously trying to mess with me?”

I had planned to play along to some extent since this was a legitimate business under the alliance, but I wasn’t going to tolerate any nonsense.

I smirked, took off my sunglasses, and began to channel my power. The room was soon filled with the oppressive pressure of my Radiance.

“N-No, of course not! This is a misunderstanding!”

The manager, trembling and pressing his face against the table, waved his hands frantically.

“Don’t test me if you know better. Let’s find a reasonable compromise.”

“Alright… then let’s do this.”

As I withdrew my power, the manager, drenched in cold sweat, hurriedly proposed a compromise.

They probably never intended to keep Shadis forever. They just wanted to make a hefty profit.

“These scumbags dare…”

Marc, who had been silent until now, drew his sword and pointed it at them in an instant.

I had to stop him.

“But Master! Their intentions are too obvious! They’re trying to use you!”

“I know.”

Marc was furious at their proposal: they wanted me to fight in the arena once.

As he said, their intentions were clear.

From their perspective, they wanted to use me, an unexpected big fish, to create the greatest show ever.

‘It’s a decent pretext.’

However, my first thought upon hearing their proposal wasn’t anger or disbelief—it was that I could use this.

If I could show the gallery users just how much I valued Shadis, perhaps constellations willing to invest in her would appear.

That was the true salvation I wanted for Shadis and the path to revenge against that vile constellation.

“Why are you going this far? Do you really like that dark elf that much?”

Marc asked, his face full of confusion.

In a way, his question cut to the heart of the matter. I smiled bitterly.

“I do what I want. That’s why I became strong, and I’ll keep doing it.”

Whether it was chasing the protagonist Jung Chan-soo as a possessor or peeking into the gallery users after learning their true nature, I never forgot myself. I refused to be swayed by others.

That was my belief, living in a completely different body and world.

“And I owe Shadis, too.”

The snowball that started with Shadis had led to many things the gallery users enjoyed.

Most importantly, I still hadn’t repaid the favor I received from the gallery users on the 150th floor.

‘They’ve been singing about wanting a unique event. This should be enough.’

I planned to give them quite the spectacle as repayment.

Author Note

A/N (Author’s note):
Thank you for reading.

Translator Note

T/N (Translator’s note):
Prostitution is still legal in today’s standards, in fact, more legal than ever.

Ask Kat, for example, he has an OnlyFans account you know?

Get this novel to 100k supporters and I’ll leak his OnlyFans account!