SSS-Class Sui**de Hunter - Chapter 22

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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 22. Welcome, Warriors! (1)
1
[00:00:00]
The clock in the sky pointed to zero.
“Zero!”
The Hunters erupted in cheers. Many tore off their hats and hurled them skyward. Thousands of hats shot up from the Plaza all at once, like countless dandelion seeds dancing on a spring breeze.
Before the hats even finished falling—
[Attention, everyone.]
A voice echoed from the heavens.
It was a proclamation meant for all.
[As of today, the Tutorial is concluded.]
The prologue had finally come to an end.
[Hear me once more, everyone.]
[As of today, the Tutorial is concluded.]
And at last, the curtain rose on the main stage.
“Uooooooh!”
The crowd roared with excitement. Heat, passion, fervor—when was the last time Hunters burned with such intensity? The old man who’d left the front lines to open a shop, the middle-aged Hunter who’d given up climbing and settled into the second-floor hunting grounds, the weary and the ambitious—all of them cheered now in the Plaza.
At least in this moment, they were all Hunters.
“Eleventh floor! Eleventh floor! Eleventh floor!”
“Open the eleventh floor now!”
“Hey, did you see the news just now? This is…”
As if answering their fervor—
Brilliance erupted!
The beams of light that formed the sky’s clock blazed outward. Intense as the sun itself. The Hunters squeezed their eyes shut, peeking through the gaps between their fingers at the heavens. I was no exception.
[Warriors. You who climb the Tower.]
[I congratulate you on overcoming the trials of Hell Inferno Mansion.]
A colossal figure hung in the sky. Not a human, perhaps—an angel or goddess might be the truer name. The goddess drifted in white robes, radiating sacred light.
It was as holy a sight as any painted in a temple.
“Ahhhhh…”
“So beautiful…”
Gasps of wonder rippled through the Plaza. Most of the Hunters had lost themselves to the vision. The goddess hanging above was that beautiful.
-Zombie, snap out of it. That’s not a goddess.
But the Backpupil Spirit remained cold.
The Sword Emperor, who had cleared the Tower to the ninety-ninth floor in another world, was not swayed by the spectacle before him.
-It’s just a system that explains the Quest to you. Nothing more.
“…Something like an NPC, then?”
-Right. Even if goddesses existed, that’s just recorded video. It plays automatically once you clear the tenth floor. Tsk tsk. How pitiful.
A question suddenly occurred to me.
“How did you know that?”
-Huh? Well, because…
The Backpupil Spirit was about to answer.
[Warriors! There exists a world that now cries out for your aid. That world is under siege by a terrible Demon King. From this moment, you will be summoned there as Warriors to undertake a sacred mission: the salvation of mankind. If you wish to accept this calling, simply say the word ‘transport’…]
Whoosh!
Before the voice could finish, someone leaped into the air.
“Ha!”
The Hunter landed lightly on a rooftop. Third story, fifth, seventh—in seconds he bounded across progressively taller buildings, until at last he planted himself atop the Plaza’s bell tower. And then the Hunter launched himself into the void.
The Sword Star.
Marcus Kallenberry.
“Hyah!”
The current Rank 1 Hunter’s Sword Strike tore through the sky. Where the blade passed, the goddess was split in two.
It was a beautiful, precise stroke.
The crowd gasped at the sudden turn of events.
“Wha—what…?”
But the moment was fleeting.
The goddess’s severed illusion reformed instantly. Just as a blade cutting water leaves no mark, the goddess recovered her pristine beauty and spoke anew.
[…If you wish to accept this calling, simply say the word ‘transport’. Warriors, when you do, you shall take your grand first steps onto the eleventh floor.]
The goddess still radiated her light.
But that light was no longer sacred.
A god that has once been torn is a god no longer.
“Hmm.”
The Sword Master alighted gracefully atop the bell tower roof. Like the day they’d first met in that tavern, the old man wore a black formal suit. He gazed upward with something like dissatisfaction, then his eyes slowly swept across the plaza far below the bell tower.
……
Silence descended upon the plaza.
Mm.
The Backpupil Spirit spoke.
-I used to be like that too. Look—that’s an NPC, isn’t it?
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
‘…Do you really have to confirm that to be satisfied?’
-Yeah. Honestly, I don’t get people who don’t check. When something massive like that appears, doesn’t your sword hand just itch to strike? That’s just how people are, isn’t it?
‘Good grief.’
Madmen, the pair of them. The saying about birds of a feather flocking together was never truer.
I sharpened my sight and hearing with Aura, watching the Sword Master carefully—making sure our eyes wouldn’t meet.
“Teleport.”
The Sword Master murmured quietly. A brilliant flash erupted—the exact same light the Goddess emitted—and engulfed the elderly swordsman. A moment later, he vanished without a trace, leaving only white bird droppings scattered across the Italian-style bell tower roof.
“Ahahaha!”
Laughter burst from the silence that had settled over the plaza. Hunters turned their heads.
The laughter came from the Manshin Guild Master—the Inquisitor. He laughed with radiant joy.
“Outmaneuvered again! Ah, what a glorious day this is!”
The Inquisitor removed his Priest Hat, bowing respectfully to all who watched.
“Then I shall see you all on the eleventh floor! Teleport!”
Pure white light engulfed the Inquisitor. The next instant he vanished from sight. Only after watching him disappear did the hunters belatedly understand.
Ah……
The Sword Master and the Inquisitor had reached the eleventh floor one step ahead of everyone else.
That was the breaking point.
“I—teleport!”
“Teleport!”
“Teleport!”
Countless hunters cried out in desperate haste. Brilliant flashes erupted—one after another—and the plaza was swallowed by blazing light. Each shout conjured a pillar of luminescence. The light rising from the plaza multiplied into thousands upon thousands of beams, illuminating the heavens themselves.
[Warriors. Those who ascend the tower.]
Yet through it all, the Goddess’s phantom spoke softly, as if reciting a verse.
[From the eleventh floor to the twentieth, you will face trials. Trials of faith.]
The Goddess clasped her hands to her chest.
As though offering a prayer to some distant place.
[…You will find your answers. And those answers you find shall reveal to you who you truly are. Thus shall you come to know yourselves…….]
But few were listening to the Goddess’s words. Everyone was too busy—desperate not to fall behind the others.
Even the handful who remained did nothing but raise cameras and smartphones to film her phantom.
“Such a shame.”
Someone had stepped up beside me, murmuring to themselves.
The vice-guildmaster of the Jayeong Guild. The Holy Knight.
“A shame, you say?”
“Think about it. Whoever, whatever being built this tower—they must have invested tremendous effort. This message was surely left for us. Yet no one pays it any mind.”
The Holy Knight’s expression grew melancholy.
“Normally, we should stand in greater awe, looking up in wonder. That such a tower exists, that we can use skills—it should all seem like a miracle. Yet in just ten floors, we’ve grown accustomed to everything.
“You’re surprisingly sentimental.”
“Well. I majored in music out in the world.”
The Holy Knight’s lips curved upward in a slight smile.
“Would a woman with a music degree be more attractive?”
“Ah… I’d imagine it’d be hard to make money that way.”
“Ouch, hitting me with the hard truth.”
We both laughed softly.
The Backpupil Spirit slipped between us.
-Zombie, be careful. This one’s fishy. Yeah?
‘Oh, what now.’
-No one approaches a pathetic wretch like you without ulterior motives. Are you handsome? Do you have good character? You’re trash through and through. Kyaah, got it! This person’s a con artist, pure black inside! One hundred percent!
This guy is really… no, forget it. Let’s just talk.
“Excuse me!”
Just then, people with cameras approached us.
They didn’t look like journalists—more like individuals who streamed content on the internet.
“Um, um—are you the Hunter Kim Gongja, sir?”
“Oh no.
The Holy Knight’s expression twisted into unmistakable annoyance.
“Seems the attention’s shifted to me instead. My apologies, Kim Gongja. I’ll head up to the eleventh floor on my own.”
“…Wait a moment. Did you approach me on purpose just to do this?”
Suspicion bloomed in my mind—the rational kind.
The Holy Knight’s face flushed, caught red-handed.
“Haha, I have a knack for reading people’s true intentions, you see.”
A knack for reading true intentions?
Was she claiming to have confidence in understanding a person’s character?
The Holy Knight scratched the back of her head like a mischievous child.
“I wanted to get a sense of what kind of person you are. Think of it as a gesture of interest.”
“So what kind of person do I seem to be?”
“Well, I’d say the answer lives in your own heart. Teleport!”
Unbelievable.
She was running away completely without shame.
In the end, the Holy Knight fed me to the journalists as bait and slipped away alone.
-Heh, see? I told you so, didn’t I? The great one’s intuition never fails!
‘Damn it, pipe down.’
The moment she vanished, the crowd surged toward me. Broadcasters and journalists engulfed me before I could blink.
“Hunter Kim Gongja! Just one statement, please!”
“Is it true you solo-cleared the tenth-floor boss? There’s rampant speculation that your simultaneous guild enrollment was a pre-orchestrated scenario cooked up by the major guilds!”
“There was an official announcement that your rank is Grade E. Many people are questioning this. Could you confirm whether the official statement is accurate……?”
“What’s your relationship with the Jayeong Guild’s Holy Knight? You two looked quite intimate—is there perhaps a deeper personal connection?”
“Hunter Kim Gongja!”
Wow.
‘Is this the famous barrage of requests that only successful hunters endure…?’
Now I understood why that Emperor bastard found journalists so tiresome.
I deliberated on my response, then settled on saying just one thing.
“I’ll clear the twentieth floor too.”
“Pardon?”
“Well then, thank you for your time. Teleport.”
Whoooosh!
White light erupted from beneath my feet.
“Wait, hold on! Hunter Kim Gongja!”
“No! Stop him!”
“Please, just a few more questions—”
My apologies.
I believe mystery is the greatest concept.
[Those who ascend the Tower.]
Just before the light swallowed me whole,
the Goddess’s voice rang out one final time across the Plaza.
[May fortune accompany you all.]
2
Crash!
The light enveloping me faded. My vision slowly returned.
The first thing to come into focus was… an expansive battlefield.
-Grrrraaagh!
-Shriek! Shriek!
Monsters.
Hideous creatures swarmed from beyond the horizon. Goblins, Orcs, Ogres—the same Monster species I’d seen in the Tutorial through the tenth floor now converged on me all at once, regardless of type.
It was a sheer tide of numbers, like an army of ants.
“Hold the line!”
“Im, impossible! There are too many of them!”
“Don’t retreat! If we break here, the Empire is finished!”
The defensive force holding them back was… merely a handful.
The civilization level seemed caught between ancient and medieval. Armored soldiers fought desperately to hold the Harbor. A Backwater Formation—with a deep river at their backs, human soldiers resisted with every ounce of their being.
“What is this?”
“What in the world is happening……?”
“Argh! Everyone, watch out for arrows! They’re flying everywhere!”
Hunters, suddenly summoned to the battlefield, looked around in bewilderment.
Their confusion was hardly surprising. Until now, they’d only hunted Monsters in [carefully prepared hunting grounds], and had never experienced a hair-trigger warzone like this.
But from the tenth floor onward, such scenes were commonplace.
‘The Tutorial is truly over.’
A battlefield where your head could fly off at any moment.
A war zone where you had to stake your life with each passing floor.
“Hail!”
Someone approached the Hunters who had been suddenly summoned and were still bewildered. Judging by the ornate armor, this was no mere foot soldier. The general exclaimed, his voice booming as he addressed us.
“Thank you! You have come to aid our empire, heroes!”
The Hunters stirred restlessly.
“Heroes? What’s he talking about?”
“Idiot, didn’t you hear what the angel said back in the Plaza? The Demon King is invading. We must be playing the role of heroes.”
“Those in the back can’t hear him!”
“Wait, is this real? Are those soldiers actual people, or are they NPCs……?”
“Quiet, everyone, please!”
A low murmur rippled through the crowd.
While the Hunters chattered among themselves, reinforcements continued to arrive in waves. People pushed against people, bodies tangled together. It was chaos incarnate.
“Heroes! Please, help us save the empire!”
Fortunately, a handful of us stronger Hunters knew how to enhance our sight and hearing with Aura. While the weaker ranks among us stood stupefied, a select few managed to catch what the general NPC was saying.
“This Harbor is the empire’s lifeline. For our capital to continue receiving supplies, we must defend it at all costs. Heroes from another world! I beseech you—stand with us and protect the Aikkim Empire!”
That was when a voice echoed in my mind.
[A Quest for Floor 11 has been assigned.]
Words materialized before my eyes.
+
[Supply Route Defense Battle]
Difficulty: F~A
Objective: Catastrophe has befallen the Aikkim Empire. The Demon King—a figure known only in legend—has finally risen with his army. The Demon King is cunning, malicious, and formidable. His first stratagem is to sever the empire’s supply lines.
Defend the Harbor!
This battle shall be the first step toward saving the empire.
※Note: Should you fail in combat, Floor 12 will not open.
+
There is truth to the saying that seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times.
“A Quest……?”
“See? The Demon King really has appeared.”
“And where is the Aikkim Empire?”
The Hunters who had moments before been thoroughly confused began slowly to grasp the situation. Some drew their weapons without a word; others formed teams with their companions.
And one Hunter unleashed a Sword Strike at the goblins.
“Indeed.”
The Sword Saint, standing at the front lines, sheathed his blade and muttered to himself.
Before him, blood misted in the air. Five or six Monsters lay sprawled on the ground like straw, their heads severed.
“……I don’t know all the details, but it seems we just need to crush them.”
And the Sword Saint charged into the fray.
The Hunters who had been hesitant let out a roar upon seeing him.
“Hyaaaah!”
“Yes! Follow the Sword Saint!”
“You filthy goblin bastards! I’ve crushed thousands of your necks over six years!”
Thousands of Hunters surged forward, weapons drawn, followed by thousands more. The defensive line, which had been pushed back relentlessly, suddenly swelled in strength.
And in that moment, the war transformed into a massacre.
“Okay.”
I stood at the rear, smiling.
Because I alone heard a voice that no other Hunter could hear.
[Welcome, Hunter Kim Gongja.]
[Your reward for clearing Floor 10 is being granted.]
A voice announcing my own unique privilege.
SSS-Rank: You Must Die to Live (Serialized)
Author │ Shin Noah
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyung
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyuk
Address │ 204, 288 Digital-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong, Daelung Post Tower 1st)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
ⓒ Shin Noah 2019
※This work is published by J-Play Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder, and the content may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and the 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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