T/N: I changed the keyword in chapter 3 from “Leader” to “Guide” as it’s better-fitting. The original word could also mean “Someone who leads” but english is kinda finicky like that since “Leader” implies leading a group of people rather than one person which is what the text is calling for, so “Guide” is probably more appropriate.
Edited by An Zheee
The fortune teller’s shop was not that far. As soon as the fortune teller learned of Nataek’s true identity, he changed his tune.
“Assaulting a free man! The audacity! I could have you dragged to the Temple of Inanna against your will!”
“Assault? What are you talking about? I’ve never even hit you.”
The fortune teller angrily clenched his fists. “You grabbed me by the collar and then threw me over the wall!”
Nataek pushed the man by his shoulder and forced him down into a chair. Ignoring the man’s anger, Nataek was more focused on the purple aura lingering around the fortune teller’s chest.
“I only did that because you were trying to escape. I want to talk—actually, no, I want you to read my fortune. Can you do it?”
“I don’t read fortunes for slaves!” the fortune teller yelled.
“Ha…” Nataek sighed.
His heart ached whenever he heard such words. It was hard for someone who lived their entire life in a society without a caste system to entertain the direction this conversation was heading into. But what else could Nataek do? The fortune teller gave Nataek no choice but to stoop down to his level.
…As long as it wasn’t a request from a slave, huh.
Nataek took out the pouch he had hidden in his clothes. It was the pouch that contained Medeus’s seal inside. Nataek pulled a chair and sat opposite to the fortune teller, taking the seal out.
“My master was the one who ordered it, not me, but you still can’t do it? I’ll be sure to pass the message to him then.”
The fortune teller’s eyes widened. He carefully took the seal from Nataek, examining it closely.
“This is… the seal of the Ninurta family…” The fortune teller’s expression darkened.
Nataek leaned his head forward with his arms on the table. “So, I’ll be able to know my future now?.”
“What—What do you want to know about!?” The fortune teller crossed his arms, looking displeased.
Nataek began to organize his thoughts.
What should he ask first? The future of Uruk for Sununki’s end goal of unifying Mesopotamia…?
That information wouldn’t be much help when it came to returning Nataek back to reality. But the system wouldn’t specifically point out the fortune teller for no reason.
The purple aura was still emanating from the fortune teller’s chest. After some thought, Nataek decided to trust his gut instinct.
“What do you have in your chest? Take that out first.”
“Wh—What are you talking about!?”
The fortune teller was startled and guarded his own chest with his arms.
It was certain now. There was something there.
A brief moment of tension passed between the two. Then, Nataek suddenly reached out for the man’s chest.
“What are you doing?! Let go!”
The fortune teller struggled to hold onto what was under his clothes, but he couldn’t compete with Nataek’s incredible strength. With a sound of a rip, a flimsy piece of plastic resembling a credit card dropped to the ground. Nataek quickly picked it up off the ground.
On the front side, there was a familiar pattern–the symbol of Sununki. And on the back…
————————————–
‘Sumer’s Anunnaki’
Name: Gujam / Occupation: Fortune Teller
Guardian Deity: Nusku
Entry S/N: W420-S345-3221-921D
Exit PW: Invite a user who will reach the true ending
Hidden Skill: Use a warp gate to the real world by shouting “Open sesame!”
(User automatically warped back after 24 hours.
Total number of uses: 100
Remaining uses: 21/100)
————————————–
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Ca atf rjwf alwf, j rsrafw cbalolmjalbc qbqqfv eq.
<SYSTEM> You have found ‘The Water Spirit of Inanna Teresi’!
“Tbe…”
Ktf wjc, ktb kjr ogbhfc obg j wbwfca, revvfcis uba bea bo tlr rfja jcv pewqfv ab tlr offa. Rjajfx delmxis ugjyyfv atf wjc, ktb kjr agslcu ab frmjqf ys atf yjmx bo tlr tfjv. Qlat j atev, atf akb bo atfw ofii, yfmbwlcu ajcuifv abufatfg bc atf oibbg.
“Hey, you… you’re the bastard who gave me that CD.”
“Let’s talk about this! Let go and I’ll talk!”
“You damn bastard. What did you do to me?”
“I’ll tell you everything, I’ll tell you, so please just let go of me!”
Nataek let out a deep sigh and released his rough grip. The fortune teller staggered as he tried to stand up.
* * *
He knew it.
The limited edition DLC he received from the man. It was the cause of all the misfortune that Nataek had suffered until this point.
This man was looking for someone to fulfill his unique objective needed to unlock the exit password, the key to leave Sununki. Someone who could reach the true ending of Sununki.
So, that’s why he was so dedicated on writing strategies on a blog for such an unpopular game.
“No, I… I was just trying to save my own skin too…”
“Ha…” Nataek sighed.
The story sounded too ridiculous to be true, like the plot of a novel. Nataek wouldn’t have believed it if he wasn’t inside the game himself.
He tried to calm himself down, but he couldn’t quell the anger rising inside from him.
“So, you dragged me here like a water spirit?”
“…”
“If you already drag people here without their consent, then why are you still here?”
The man widened his eyes as if he was the one who was wronged. “You haven’t achieved the true ending yet!”
“You’re driving me insane. You should be thinking of helping me then, so why are you trying to run away?”
“I’ve worked hard to find people, so what am I supposed to expect from a guy that is stuck with a million setbacks as soon as he arrives! What can a slave hope to achieve here? No, there are so many jobs, so why do you have to come in as a slave…!”
The guy patted Nataek on the chest while sighing, as if he were deeply frustrated.
Judging from the fortune teller’s lament, he must’ve watched Nataek was first brought into Sununki. Upon seeing Nataek had become a slave from the very start, he likely abandoned Nataek right after.
“You pretended not to know me just because you thought I’d fail?”
“…”
The man kept his lips tightly sealed.
“You piece of shit!”
Nataek extended his arm to grab the man by the collar. The fortune teller hurriedly wrapped his hands around Nataek’s wrist.
“No, we’ll both be trapped here at this rate! I’ll just have to find another way! I wish you could be the one to free us, but the time period in which we are living in, there are too many restrictions on slaves! Shit… Who would’ve thought I’d draw the short straw!”
“So you threw me away and wanted to drag someone else to their death instead, you water spirit?”
“What else can I do? There’s not many chances for me to return back to the real world. I can’t just cling onto someone with no prospects. I was planning on finding someone else, and if they could find a way to reach the ending, then I’d tell you about it. Would I have left you here if I had a choice? No.”
The man’s refusal to take accountability filled Nataek’s head with anger. Nataek bit his lip before forcefully releasing his hold on the man with a shove.
His mind was reeling from all these revelations.
‘Exit PW: Invite a user who will reach the true ending’
Those words from the card kept coming to mind.
True ending…
In the game Sununki, Mesopotamia consisted of a total of six city-states. Now that the Inanna family has fallen, Lagash became a vassal state of Uruk, so… There were now five in total. These five cities had to be unified to form an empire. Preventing the Hittite invasion is the true ending of Sununki.
Nataek ran a hand through his hair.
“This is crazy… If we reach the true ending, is it possible to go back?”
“Yes, I’ll be able to go back!”
“Not you, I meant me. Will I be able to go back?”
“You’ll probably be able to go back too?” the man answered with less confidence. Nataek closed his eyes. The exit PW was different for each person?
“How come I don’t have that card?”
“Oh, you mean this?” The man casually took his card back from Nataek’s hand. “Check through your things. I found this card in the pocket of the cloak I was wearing when I first came here.”
“If I find it, will I be able to confirm my exit PW?”
“Most likely?”
“What do you mean ‘most likely’? Tell me for sure.”
“When I got here, both the ‘Guardian Deity’ and ‘Hidden Skill’ columns were empty. But when I completed the quests given to me by the system, they got filled one by one. There’s no way for me to know if yours will be empty or not in the same place as mine.”
Nataek wiped his forehead. Quests. He’d been following what the system had been telling him to do. Quests… Quests… The damn quests.
A system message window appeared again with a bright sound.
<SYSTEM> Find clues about the ‘Guide’ in the marketplace, where the rumor mill thrives.
‘Guide’ was definitely the keyword that was acquired after Medeus finished reading the clay tablet. Did this mean Nataek should ask the fortune teller about it? Nataek slammed his palm onto the table.
“Did you also obtain the ‘Guide’ keyword?”
“Guide? What’s that? I’ve never seen that keyword before.”
Nataek grabbed the fortune teller by the collar again.
“Think it through for a moment. The damn system is asking me to find out more about the guide,” Nataek said.
“No, how would I know anything about the ‘guide’ if you’re just now asking me about it!”
“When you hear the word ‘guide’, at least something should come to mind!”
“Ugh, come on. Let go of me, please! Fine, I’ll think about it!”
Only then did Nataek release his grip. Trying to straighten the wrinkles in his clothes, the fortune teller sighed.
“Guide… Guide… Hey, a guide–no, it can’t be someone giving directions to a place… Ah!” The fortune teller clapped his hands together as if struck by a realization.
“What? What is it?”
“Do you remember what was written on the CD? Your god will guide the way.”
“…”
Admittedly, Nataek was not meticulous enough to pay attention to such small details.
The fortune teller spoke, “Could the ‘Guide’ be referring to that? The guardian deity.”
“Guardian deity?”
The fortune teller snuck closer to Nataek, as if he was about to impart an important secret, and leaned into Nataek’s ear to whisper, “You know how there’s a guardian deity on your character card, right? I think this guardian deity might be giving hints on how to survive in this place. Whenever a problem arises or an incident breaks out, usually an object or person related to this guardian deity will act as a guide.”
“Then what about mine? How do I figure out who my guardian deity is?”
“Find your card first! If you can’t find it, then none of it will matter anyway.”
“Ha…” Nataek sighed.
So, in short, whether he was trying to find his way out of here or just trying to survive, the first thing he needed to do was to find that character card. Then, he could potentially find out who his guardian deity was.
Damn it… The situation was getting more and more complicated.
“It was said that the guide is the guardian deity…”
As Nataek was holding his chin, a system message window appeared in his field of vision.
<SYSTEM> You have obtained information about the ‘Guide’!
<SYSTEM> The quest [Whereabouts of the Guardian Deity] has begun.
Nataek reluctantly waved his hand at the sight of the system message window he’s come to strongly dislike. His eyes met with the fortune teller’s eyes. That dislike is nothing compared to his dislike for this guy, seeing how he was someone who threw Nataek into this world just to survive.
He felt his blood rush to the back of his head. When Nataek glared fiercely at the man, the fortune teller’s shoulders flinched.
“Don’t look at me like that…”
Nataek lowered his head, wiping his dry face. His gaze naturally landed on the card in the man’s hand.
…Wait, if I have that card, could I use the fortune teller’s hidden skill too?
Nataek said, “Let me see your card for a moment.”
He held out his hand. The other man began to slowly pull his body away.
“What about my card?”
“I’m not gonna take it, I just need it for a second.”
“…You’re not going to try anything, are you?”
“No, I won’t. I just wanted a closer look.”
The man contemplated Nataek’s words before reluctantly extending his hand out and offering the card. However—
“Just who do you think you’re fooling?!”
The fortune teller hid the card into his pocket and frantically made a run for the main street.
This crazy guy!
“Wait a minute!”
Though Nataek was a much faster runner, he kept stumbling over the junk that the fortune teller kept knocking over on the ground.
“Seriously, I’m going crazy! Just hold on!” Nataek quickly chased after the man.
“Don’t try to fool me! You think I don’t know?”
Nataek gritted his teeth and reached his hand out. His fingers were almost able to touch the fortune teller…
“Open sesame!” the fortune teller yelled.
The space in front of the man became distorted and he disappeared in an instant. That piece of shit!
Nataek, who lost his balance, fell to the ground of the main road unceremoniously with a dull thud.
Pain surged through his shoulder. A man was being crushed beneath him.
What the… Is God playing a cruel joke on him right now?
The man who bumped into Nataek let out a groan. Nataek quickly got up from the floor.
“So—I’m sorry. Are you alright?”
The man that had been underneath him said, “Agh, what is this!?”
“Oh no, master! Are you alright?” a nearby attendant asked.
The clothes of the man who collided into Nataek were stained with juice and were covered in clumps of pulp. It seemed they both knocked over the fruit stand during the collision.
“Who dares to insult me like this, huh?!”
Nataek quickly bowed down. It seemed that the man he bumped into was a noble. Really, not a single thing has been going well for him since he came here. “I’m so sorry.”
The aristocrat was able to get up with the help of his attendant. The guy screamed, “Sorry? What about ‘sorry’? Do you think saying sorry would spare your life when you had just begged me to kill you?”
For a brief moment, Nataek’s mind went blank. It was true that he was in the wrong, but wasn’t this too much? Bumping into a noble is apparently the equivalent of begging to be killed?
But Nataek quickly realized that this was a society that operated on a strict caste system. That man was an esteemed noble, and Nataek was just a slave at the bottom of the pyramid.
“This is unforgivable. I’ll have your throat slit right now!”
The noble looked around for something to use as a weapon. Confused, Nataek raised his head and saw a familiar face. More precisely, it was the face of the attendant that stood next to the aristocrat.
It was Inanna ‘Tartarzi’, the older brother of Inanna Teresi. He was the idiot who was brought in as a slave with Nataek when he first arrived in this civilization and had a hard time grasping his situation at first. The master that Tartarzi served was ‘Lugalzagesi‘, the first son of the Ninurta family.
These people… when they become entangled like this, things can get even more twisted.
“Teresi, you bastard, how dare you insult my master?!” Tartarzi furiously shouted. Only then did the first Ninurta master realize Nataek’s true identity, the man’s eyes widening and his body trembling.
“So, you are… a slave, worth less than even a dog, belonging to Medeus… working together… trying to fuck me over?”
Nataek’s mouth opened in disbelief.
Working together? I have no idea what Medeus has done, but this was the first time I’m dealing with you, and that’s only because I accidentally fell at the wrong place at the wrong time. There was no need to go as far as to accuse Nataek of trying to fuck him over.
10/10 TFTC
Why can’t he just mentally call out “Profile” or “Status” like in most stories? Maybe the System will summon his card straight to him?
Also that fortune teller is so damn sus.
The system here seems more strict than other stories it seems ^^
And yeahhhh lol the fortune teller is a bit of an eccentric character. He really said every man for themselves 💀
How many chapters do you release each week?
And those guys towards the end? I believe they need to be sent to Antarctica since they need to CHILL
😡
I’m hoping to rush to chapter 20 before college starts again in late August, and it’ll probably be one chapter a week when school starts
We need more chapters cuz I’m rooting for these boys. MC and ML must happen!
This story is so awesome. Thanks so much much for translating
Tnx for the translation!<3
Also need something like this (historical setting, but not asian) as a recommendation! Urgently! Waiting online! xD
He should beat up that bastard fortune teller
it’s this kind of crap that makes my blood boil!! i ~really~ hate it when villains don’t get their comeuppance argh ^^