SSS-Class Sui**de Hunter - Chapter 10

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 10. The Beginning of a Solo Journey (1)
1
What’s the most irritating thing about waking up in the morning?
Is it the alarm on your smartphone going off especially loud at the time you set it for last night?
Is it the machine oil from the night before caked into your hair, making everything sticky just lying there?
Or is it just the sheer fact that you have to work another day?
—Get up! Wake up now!
“Oh, please, just…….”
—From now until you actually get out of bed, I’ll sing you a song I used to love back in my hometown. By the way, I also mastered Sound Attack in my day. One verse from me, and thirty soldiers’ heads would pop clean off!
Wrong on all counts.
The worst situation of all is a ghost—some unenlightened specter—rattling on endlessly.
—Do you know what time it is and you’re still lying in bed?
“What time is it, exactly?”
I cracked open my eyes and checked my smartphone.
The lock screen displayed the time in elegant lettering: AM 4:01.
“It’s only four in the morning, you lunatic!”
—Ah, four in the morning is when even insects wake up and start wriggling about. Since you’re weaker than insects, you ought to wake up even earlier.
“You just can’t sleep, so you’re bored out of your mind!”
—I don’t follow.
Bae Hu-ryeong turned his head away slightly, looking a bit caught.
“I always wondered why Geom-seong wakes up at four in the morning to practice, thinking he was just diligent—but it’s because you’re so damn loud!”
—Fine, I woke you up because I was bored. Happy now? Besides, waking up early to train is a blessing in disguise. So go ahead and bow and thank me.
“I swear… I want to kill you…….”
—Ha ha. I’m already dead, so you can’t kill me. If you’re so mad, why don’t you die too? Oh, but you can’t die either, can you? You’re just like a zombie. From now on, your name isn’t Kim Gongja—it’s Kim Zombie.
“Damn it.”
I threw on some workout clothes and headed out. There was no way I could survive in a two-square-meter rented room with a ghost who wouldn’t shut up for a second.
For the sake of my mental health, I left the room and jogged beneath the still-dark early morning sky.
“Huff, huff…….”
—Kim Zombie, I’m telling you—you’ve got no talent except pure stubbornness.
Bae Hu-ryeong drifted through the air alongside me.
—I like teaching from the ground up, nice and thorough. But you? You don’t even have ground to stand on. The bottom of the bottom, you might say.
It was already the fourth day since I’d copied the Sword of the Constellation skill from Geom-seong.
In that time, I’d hunted Yu Su-ha one more time and worked hard to avoid running into Geom-seong. Right now I was training according to a schedule Bae Hu-ryeong had personally drawn up.
—Talent-wise, you’ve got what we call an abyss-level talent. Phew. So cool! I’m jealous!
“Huff… I’m trying to run… huff. Please stop……!”
—In short, you need special tutoring. And to get special tutoring, you need to cough up the tuition first.
Bae Hu-ryeong smirked.
—Time to go buy a lottery ticket, zombie.
2
There’s a guild called Sangyeon.
Short for Merchant Alliance. The guild master is the third-ranked hunter, colloquially known as “the Count.”
As I’ve mentioned before, the Count is the only one who can move goods in or out of the outside world. You could call him a walking corporation. Thanks to this absurdly overpowered skill, Sangyeon has monopolized the Tower’s entire economy.
What I mean is this:
“Excuse me.”
“Yes, customer. How may I help you?”
“I’m here to claim my lottery winnings.”
Sangyeon is the only place in Babylon, the city on the first floor of the Tower, that issues lottery tickets.
“Ah, you’ve won the Sangyeon Happiness Lottery! Congratulations!”
“Yeah, well.”
“My sincere congratulations!”
The clerk, wearing a cat-ear hat, bowed deeply at the waist. The sunflower-bright corporate smile was included free of charge.
—Hey, every time I see this, I wonder—why are they wearing cat-ear hats?
‘I hear the Sangyeon master loves cats.’
—No matter how much someone loves cats, you don’t go around putting cat ears on normal people! That guy’s definitely a pervert. I’d bet money on it.
‘Is that really what matters right now?’
Of course, the clerk in front of me also thought privately that the cat-ear hat was ridiculous. But the clerk was the subordinate of a subordinate. Whether it was cat ears or cockroach antennae, if the guild master said to wear it, you had no choice but to wear it.
Oh, and the clerk was male, by the way.
It was a unisex uniform. This…….
“Pardon me, but have you checked the date, customer? Lottery tickets purchased more than two years ago unfortunately cannot claim their prizes.”
“That’s fine. Mine’s from last week.”
“Lucky for me!”
It was a lottery ticket I’d bought right after Bae Hu-ryeong had possessed me. I needed to win the lottery at least once anyway, and besides, Bae Hu-ryeong had been harping on about it: “You need starting capital first!”
“Then we’ll proceed with identity verification. Oh, and which prize tier did you win?”
“First prize.”
“Pardon?”
The clerk reflexively asked me to repeat myself.
“First prize, that’s correct.”
…….
“Here, check the numbers yourself.”
Above the clerk’s head hung an electronic billboard. On the display labeled “Sangyeon Happiness Lottery Ticket—First Prize Payout,” numbers flickered like a casino slot machine, showing the accumulated jackpot rolled over from previous draws.
53,000 Gold Coins.
In the currency of my hometown, that was roughly 5.5 billion won.
-Hey, making money’s pretty easy, right?
In the sudden quiet around me, Bae Hu-ryeong’s humming voice drifted through.
The clerk spoke, her expression bewildered.
“…I’ve confirmed the numbers. Please wait just a moment, sir. I’ll fetch the person in charge right away.”
“Of course, take your time.”
The clerk scurried off in a hurry.
Inside the Sangyeon headquarters building. I could feel people whispering and stealing glances at me. They must’ve caught wind of the first prize announcement. Everyone’s eyes gleamed with envy.
-Zombie, you good? Aren’t you worried you’ll catch a blade in some dark alley over this?
“I’ve thought it through.”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“Secrets can’t stay hidden anyway.”
Every Hunter who won the lottery had their name recorded. Yu Su-ha—or Yeom Je, as he was also known—was the same. That’s how I’d learned he’d hit first prize twice in a row in the past.
‘If it’s going to come out anyway, it’s safer to just put it all out there.’
Even if I won the lottery, I’d be marked for assassination.
If that rumor spread, the reputation damage wouldn’t fall on me—it’d be Sangyeon that suffered, since they’re the ones constantly selling lottery tickets.
A moment later.
“Thank you for your patience, Kim Gongja. I’m Arthur Taylor, the person in charge.”
A man dressed far more smartly than the receptionist approached and bowed deeply. It was an exceptionally courteous greeting.
The only thing unchanged was the cat-ear hat he wore.
“My epithet is ‘Vault Keeper.’ I’d be grateful if you’d call me by that instead.”
“I’m Kim Gongja. That epithet suits your guild incredibly well.”
“Ha ha! I hear that often. Well then, shall we head upstairs together?”
The Vault Keeper smiled with genuine warmth.
Epithet or not, anyone ranked in the top 300 was a Hunter of a caliber I couldn’t hope to match—and here I was, still F-rank. Yet the Vault Keeper remained unfailingly courteous throughout.
-Well, you’re a customer worth a cool 53,000 Gold Coins, so of course he is.
The ghost had decided to intrude on my thoughts again.
-Zombie, I’ve been thinking about it, and you’ve never been treated decently in your life, so you cry with gratitude over nothing. A few days ago, I just said you had talent for dying, and suddenly you look like you’re about to tear up. It’s pathetic to watch.
‘Please, just shut up. Please.’
-That’s no way for a human to live, you fool. Learn from me. Convince yourself that everyone in the world exists to worship you.
No matter how desperate things get, I’ll never emulate Yu Su-ha or this ghost.
Come to think of it, Yu Su-ha and this ghost had remarkably similar epithets. Yeom Je. Geom Je. What if every epithet ending in Je was just psychotic madness?
“Um, Kim Gongja, sir. I’m terribly sorry. Is there something uncomfortable…?”
As the Vault Keeper was guiding me upstairs, he spoke up. His face showed worry that he’d done something wrong. I answered quickly, not wanting to look like a lunatic.
“No, not at all. I was just lost in thought for a moment.”
“Ah, I’m relieved.”
The Vault Keeper let out a breath of relief.
“Your complexion looked poor, and I was afraid I’d committed some rudeness without realizing it. Ha ha, now that you’ve reassured me, I can relax…”
What is this? Is this guy an angel or something?
-Tsk tsk. All too easy, far too easy.
I ignored the psychopath ghost’s grumbling.
We entered the VIP reception room. On the table were already stacked piles of Gold Coins—another clerk must have come ahead to prepare them.
The Vault Keeper smiled broadly.
“This is the full amount for you, Kim Gongja.”
“…That’s extraordinary.”
Over 50,000 Gold Coins!
When they caught the light all at once, the room blazed. My heart began to race just from looking at them. Whether it was deliberate showmanship or not, the effect was undeniably overwhelming.
“You’re welcome to take all these coins with you, or if you prefer, we can set up a vault here at Sangyeon where they can be stored safely. What would you like to do?”
“Hmm.”
I tried to regain my composure.
‘The allure of money really is something else.’
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted.
But my goal was always to stand at the very top—to become a hunter so accomplished that everyone would envy me. Money was merely the means to get there.
‘I need to be someone who wields money, not someone wielded by it, Kim Gongja.’
I steadied myself.
Slowly, I nodded.
“I’d like to deposit it in the Sangyeon vault.”
“Ah, a truly wise choice, sir!”
The vault keeper beamed.
“Personally, I always tell our lottery winners the same thing. I understand the desire to take it with you, but I strongly recommend using the Sangyeon vault. There are always people with ill intentions, you see…….”
“And.”
I opened my mouth.
“I’d like to purchase Honorary Member status with Sangyeon.”
“Pardon?”
“The cost for a Grade 2 Honorary position is ten thousand Gold Coins, correct?”
I approached the table and placed my hand on the pile of gold coins. Their gleam was mesmerizing—the color that captivates human hearts. But I already knew another golden hue, one far more seductive: the fire of my future.
My future.
For that future, I would invest any amount of gold.
“I’ll pay in full, right now.”
…….
The vault keeper studied my face for a moment.
“You haven’t joined any guild yet, have you, Kim Gongja?”
“That’s correct.”
A guild.
When a hunter joins a guild, it’s not merely for social purposes. The primary benefit is receiving the Protection that the guild provides.
Even with the Hunter Management Bureau and vigilante groups in place…….
‘In a moment of carelessness, you could be attacked.’
The fact that Yu Su-ha and Geom-seong killed me proved that.
A lawless wilderness. Compared to the developed nations outside, this place was savage beyond measure.
‘I can’t be foolish enough to follow Yu Su-ha’s path.’
Yu Su-ha lived alone in his own arrogance.
Even after winning the lottery repeatedly, he probably never paid Protection Fees to anyone. It was obvious. He must have just lived happily, convinced it was all his money.
‘That’s why he ended up being assassinated and poisoned later.’
Pathetically, at that.
There was no reason to needlessly make enemies of the great guilds.
“……I understand.”
The vault keeper pulled out a notebook and wrote something down.
“Anyone who pays the set fee can become an Honorary Member of our guild. I’ll have a staff member issue you the Grade 2 Honorary Member Certificate right away.”
“Oh, and one more thing.”
I listed the remaining matters I needed.
“I’m currently living in a cheap boarding house. If Sangyeon could recommend accommodations where I can stay for a while, I’d be very grateful. Of course, I’ll pay properly.”
…….
“Also, the newspapers will probably try to find out who the first-prize winner is. When that happens, even if you don’t reveal my real name, could you please make sure to mention to the reporters that I’m a Sangyeon Honorary Member?”
The vault keeper wrote down what I said in his notebook, then his expression went blank for just a moment.
“Y-you’re quite thorough, sir.”
“Well, you know how the world is these days. A person has to prepare for these things.”
“……You’re absolutely right.”
Behind the vault keeper, Bae Hu-ryeong clutched his stomach, chuckling to himself.
-Hey, look at that expression on his face. He thought you were an easy mark, and now you’ve caught him off guard. This is the good stuff. This is why I can never get tired of messing with elites.
‘Wait, wasn’t it you who was just criticizing me for being easy to read? What kind of double standard is this.’
-Did I? I don’t remember. If I can’t recall it, it probably didn’t happen.
Good heavens. I’ve never seen a character quite so rotten.
I absolutely will not become like that.
-Anyway, you’re doing well enough on your own.
Bae Hu-ryeong grinned.
-I was worried I’d have to babysit you and change your diapers, but looking at what you’re doing now, it seems like you’ll be fine.
‘If only he’d stop talking, he’d at least be bearable…….’
-You seem in a good mood too, don’t you, you bastard.
I was.
I grumbled inwardly, yet a smile tugged at my lips all the same.
‘Of course. The real adventure begins now.’
Four thousand deaths and four thousand days of Regression.
The privilege of Regression I’d squandered hunting down my revenge against Yu Su-ha.
Now it was time to claim it without hesitation.
SSS-Rank: The Hunter Who Must Die to Live (Serialized)
Author │ Shin Noah
Publisher │ Kim Joo-hyung
Publishing House │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyeok
Address │ Room 204, 288 Digital-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong, Daelyung Posttower 1st)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
ⓒ Shin Noah 2019
This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder, and its contents may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and author.
Violation of this may result in criminal and civil legal liability.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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