A Regressor's Bucket List

The Gateway Zone was a necessary intermediate step as judged by The Order.

It was an unnatural space created in a dimensional rift, based on the judgment that if Plane Transcendents came directly to the Upper Plane, most would fail to adapt and die.

Simply put, it could be called a 'tutorial zone for improving survival rates'.

That is to say.

…That was its purpose, at least ‘nominally’.

[The Constellation, 'Dog-headed Judge', expresses interest in you…+★]

[The Constellation, 'Dog-headed Judge', remembers your unbelievable actions from the First Gate.]

[The Constellation, 'An Immortal More Human than Anyone', expresses interest in you…+★]

[The Constellation, 'An Immortal More Human than Anyone', asks about the origin of the familiar skill you used.]

[The Constellation, 'The Dancer Who Defeated the Plague Demon', at your…+★]

[98 out of 101 Constellations observing the Gateway Zone are watching you.]

[★: 98/101]

‘So many of them showed up, these guys.’

In truth, speaking from the perspective of someone who had already experienced this Gateway Zone once, its significance as a ‘tutorial zone’ was minimal.

Of course, it wasn't entirely meaningless, but just as the bottom-ranking delinquent in middle school can't become the top student in high school just by cramming some advanced studies over winter break, the same logic applied.

Given that surviving the War against Demons was far more difficult than becoming the top student, it was a fact that its meaning and influence weren't that great.

The more essential role of the Gateway Zone… was actually for the Constellations' 'contractor selection'.

‘Ninety-eight of them…….’

The War against Demons was fundamentally a war between the Demon King's Allied Forces and The Order's Allied Forces.

It wasn't a simple war between one faction and another.

The Olympus Cluster, the Pyramid Cluster, the Orc race, the Lizardman race, and so on.

It was a Great War fought by an alliance of numerous factions existing in the Upper Plane.

Therefore, winning a battle in one region didn't mean winning the war, and political strife was inevitable within the factions due to various conflicting interests.

This was especially true for war supplies and reinforcement troops, as the War against Demons was not a conflict that lasted only a year or two.

…Plane Transcendents were one such type of reinforcement.

Fresh young blood that The Order had directly transfused from the Lower-Dimensional Planes for the allied forces suffering from a shortage of troops due to the long war.

They were new troops, like welcome rain in a drought for the localized wars each faction was fighting.

Of course, from the Plane Transcendents' perspective, it was no different from being forcibly conscripted, so even The Guardian Cross Order couldn't just sell them off to any war-torn region they pleased.

They had to maintain a minimal ethical justification, and besides, an unwilling soldier was worse than no soldier at all.

Therefore, the general framework of The Order's 'Hero Development Project' was to foster Plane Transcendents under various forms of support, such as granting the Hero title and providing training, and then dispatching them to various regions as 'mercenaries' in exchange for paid requests.

This then raises a question.

If they were just mercenaries to be hired with money, why were the Constellations, who weren't some voyeuristic psychopaths, peering into the Gateway Zone?

The answer lay in the 'right of preemption'.

[The Constellation, 'Dog-headed Judge', demands you sign an Exclusive Contract, promising a skill to handle the thoughts of the dead.]

[The Constellation, 'An Immortal More Human than Anyone', demands you sign an Exclusive Contract, promising an outstanding regenerative ability.]

[The Constellation, 'The Dancer Who Defeated the Plague Demon', demands you sign an Exclusive Contract, promising the ability to handle plague demons.]

[The Constellation, 'Olympus's Ruffian', demands you sign an Exclusive Contract immediately if you don't want to be beaten to death…….]

“Now, now, Constellation-nims. I won't be signing any Exclusive Contracts in the Second Gate, so please calm down.”

An Exclusive Contract didn't refer to a slave contract that fundamentally blocked requests from other Constellations.

That would go against The Order's policies, and in principle, even if a Plane Transcendent belonging to The Order signed such a contract, it could be nullified by The Order's fair contract adjudication.

Rather, the Exclusive Contract mentioned here referred to a contract with a special clause for 'exclusive priority'.

To put it simply.

It set a limit on the number of times, and within that limit, the contractor was obligated to fulfill the contracting Constellation's request before any other.

All the Constellations gathered here were present to obtain that 'right of exclusive priority'.

To sign a contract in advance with a promising hero candidate.

Of course, one might ask what was so important about that, but humans are simple creatures and tend to fulfill requests more often from the Constellation that gave them their first one.

Having experienced the Gateway Zone for a long time, the Constellations knew all too well that the significance of being the 'first client' was not small.

Therefore, based on such inductive reasoning, it wasn't so strange for the Constellations to personally be here demanding Exclusive Contracts.

[A few Constellations groan at your arrogant remark.]

“My apologies, but for now, I will focus on passing the gate. As for the Exclusive Contract, I will decide after consulting with my Acolyte Priest at the Third Gate or later, so please wait a moment.”

[Some Constellations nod in agreement with your words.]

“Ah, and for personal reasons, I've also blocked the sponsorship function for now. It'll be unblocked in a little while, so please keep that in mind.”

[The Constellation, 'Olympus's Ruffian', looks dumbfounded and complains of the unfairness.]

[The Constellation, 'Olympus's Ruffian', suspects your ulterior motives for not blocking sponsorships sooner.]

If I hadn't blocked the sponsorship function, countless coins would probably be flying before my eyes right now.

The performance I showed in the First Gate was likely unparalleled compared to other Plane Transcendents, and I was a Plane Transcendent who had even been sponsored with a 'Trait' by one of the twelve Constellations of Olympus.

But I had no need to rush.

The money that was meant to come would find its way to me eventually.

For now, to successfully carry out my plan in the Second Gate, I needed to keep the sponsorship window closed for a while.

[★: 98/101]

“…Three of them.”

Of the 101 Constellations observing the Gateway Zone.

A total of 98 had marked their interest in me.

In other words, all but three Constellations were watching my every move.

…Of course, that was something to be happy about.

It meant that almost all the Constellations were interested in an Exclusive Contract with me, which would lead to a lot of sponsorships and connect to my 'value as a Hero' in the Upper Plane.

However.

However, I couldn't be satisfied with that.

I had no intention of signing an Exclusive Contract anyway, and what was important to me, who had to complete a bucket list, was not 'most of the attention' but 'all of the attention'.

It might seem a bit much, but the attention of the three uninterested Constellations was more important to me than the interest of the ninety-eight who already liked me.

[★List of Interested Constellations]

- Dog-headed Judge

- An Immortal More Human than Anyone

- Olympus's Ruffian

- The Boy with White Ivory

.

.

.

I checked the epithets of the Constellations who had registered their interest in me, trying to figure out who the remaining three were.

And soon enough, I realized that the epithet of one Constellation that absolutely should have been there was missing.

‘Guardian of the Rainbow Bridge.’

The Constellation from the Asgard Cluster, which needed reinforcements more desperately than any other cluster at the moment, was not there.

There was no need to even say who that epithet referred to.

The Bifrost, the rainbow bridge connecting the central continent where the War against Demons was taking place and Asgard, the land of the gods.

The right to open and close that rainbow bridge had never once been handed over to another.

The White God, ‘Heimdall’.

His epithet was not there.

It was within my expectations.

For the Asgard Cluster, which had been devastated to the point of ruin by Ragnarok, the urgent reinforcements they needed wouldn't be a frontline fighter like me.

On the contrary, from their perspective, they would need an intelligent-type character who could help them put together the various pieces needed for Asgard's recovery.

Of course, even so, the performance I showed in the First Gate was extraordinary, so he could have at least shown some interest… but Asgard's financial situation was not so stable as to make having multiple contractors a luxury.

He was probably being extremely cautious about even showing interest.

‘And the other one is…….’

This was a Constellation I knew all too well.

A Constellation whose epithet I could guess not even from my memories of the regression, but just from the historical knowledge learned in middle school.

‘Dangun Wanggeom.’

The first king of Gojoseon and the son of Hwanung, Dangun Wanggeom.

This one also had a context that made sense.

Unlike huge clusters like Olympus, he hadn't even formed a cluster and had no particular foundation.

Dangun Wanggeom himself had become a Constellation relatively recently, so he was acting cautiously and observing the atmosphere.

If I was right about this one too, he was likely still debating.

Whether to show interest with a 'might-as-well-go-for-it' attitude, or to look for another contractor since so many people were gathered around me.

Well… up to this point, it was within the expected range. Okay.

The problem was the last one.

‘…Who is it?’

Even though I had regressed, it was impossible to have memorized the epithets of all the Constellations who had observed the Gateway Zone before.

I had organized some of the more memorable epithets in my head, but that was only about 60-70% at best.

Since most of the Constellations from that time were gone by the time I regressed, that was my limit.

And the last Constellation was not one I remembered.

…It was highly likely to be a Constellation that wasn't included in the 70% I had organized beforehand, one I didn't know even before the regression.

In other words.

It was out of my hands.

It wasn't something I could figure out just by sitting and thinking.

Therefore, I.

[It is currently ‘Daytime’. The Cyclops personally guards its farm.]

[Time remaining until Night: 11:57:59]

[The ‘Cyclops's Vineyard’ switches between day and night every 12 hours.]

Decided to move according to my plan for now.