SSS-Class Sui**de Hunter - Chapter 29

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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 29. Autumn Rain Is Bloodstained (2)
No one spoke.
In the silence, only voices that were not our own echoed out.
[The Guardian Goddess laments the foolishness of the Warriors.]
[The Demon King of Autumn Rain bursts into delighted laughter.]
It wasn’t just I who heard those voices. Everyone’s faces darkened.
Among them, Seonggisa forced herself to speak, struggling for each word.
“…Calm yourselves.”
After saying that, she fell silent for a long moment. How to continue? Her expression showed she was carefully considering each next word.
“Don’t panic. Yes, it’s possible that a Traitor possesses the skill to hide lies. Absurd as it sounds, there could even be a hidden split personality among us. Everyone carries some secret trump card, don’t they? It’s hardly impossible…….”
“Or.”
Thud.
Geomseong opened his mouth.
He regarded Seonggisa with a cold gaze.
“Or perhaps you’re simply a filthy Traitor yourself.”
“…….”
Alhyeonsil turned frigid.
Glances sharper than blades crossed between them. Just moments ago, Geomseong and the guild leaders had been clashing. The heat and sweat of that exchange hadn’t even cooled before conflict was kindling anew.
The Witch’s brow furrowed.
“Are you doubting us right now?”
“I am.”
Geomseong admitted it readily.
“Even if you’re not a Traitor, you could well have lied to us. You all—the guild leaders of the so-called Five Major Guilds—have always been intimate with one another. Crows flock with crows. Aren’t you simply protecting your own?”
“How can you…….”
“Of course!”
Seonggisa cried out. Her voice urgent. Both Geomseong and the Witch stopped their argument and turned to look at her. Seonggisa struggled to collect herself and pressed on.
“Of course, logically speaking, that’s possible. Yes. I could be a Traitor.”
“…….”
“But what matters is that we all maintain our composure and calm. It’s all right. We’ve broken through countless crises and hardships before now. Haven’t we? If we trust one another this time too, we can weather this…….”
“Ahahaha.”
Laughter spilled out.
“How naive you are, Deputy Commander. Or rather—how pure.”
It was Idan Simmunan.
“Trust. Yes, trust. Such a beautiful word! Yet building trust requires considerable time. It took us over a decade to be called the Five Major Guilds and cooperate with one another. Conversely, what I’m saying is…….”
Idan Simmunan straightened his Priest’s Hat precisely.
And brushed dust from his robes.
“Outside the Five Major Guilds, I find it difficult to trust anyone.”
“…….”
“And spending another decade building that trust with other Hunters would be far too inefficient. Yes, time is precious!”
“…Wait.”
Seonggisa’s urgency showed not just in her voice now, but in her expression. Nothing like the composure she’d shown when the festival was underway on the first level, when she’d asked me whether a woman from the music academy lacked charm.
“This isn’t the time to pursue efficiency. Idan Simmunan. Please…….”
“Sacred Ritual.”
Idan Simmunan brought his palms together quietly.
“Fleshly God.”
White light wrapped around his hands.
“Doksa, handle the tenth-ranked one.”
The light spread outward.
“I will slay the eighth and ninth-ranked myself.”
“Idan Simmunan! Stop!”
“Sacred Ritual, Send Spirit.”
Idan Simmunan and Doksa vanished. In the blink of an eye, Idan Simmunan had seized one Hunter from behind—the Hunter who’d been ranked eighth in clearing the previous stage. The Hunter turned instinctively to look back.
“…What?”
An extra, overshadowed by the looming presence of the great guild leaders, who’d remained silent until now. Though calling him an extra seemed unkind. He’d shown his mettle in the previous stage, and now stood here—a Hunter with far more promising prospects than I’d once possessed.
But that future would never come to pass.
“My sincere apologies!”
Idan Simmunan laughed with teeth bared. His hands empty, unarmed. Yet fine fingers carried a pure white Aura.
Crack!
“Ugh… ah……?”
Blood erupted upward.
The hunter’s body swayed.
He was not affiliated with one of the great guilds wielding power, nor did he stand alone in proud solitude like Geomseong with his martial prowess, nor had he forged alliances with other guild masters as I had done—he was simply a hunter who had graduated from the 11th Floor stage with somewhat above-average marks, and he died just like that.
He died simply.
[One Warrior has fallen.]
[He was not the Demon King’s servant.]
A voice echoed in my mind.
[The Guardian Goddess grieves.]
[The Demon King of Autumn Rain lets out a low, mocking laugh.]
It was a murder that unfolded in the blink of an eye.
“H-hick!”
A hunter who had cleared the previous stage ranked tenth screamed. Whether by fortune or misfortune, he did not need to scream for long.
Screech!
Doksa, transmitted by Idan Simmunan, swung his blade. One stroke. The hunter’s neck split clean open, and his head fell to the floor with a heavy thud.
[One Warrior has fallen.]
[He was not the Demon King’s servant.]
Blood pooled across the marble.
[The Guardian Goddess closes her lips.]
[The Demon King of Autumn Rain bursts into laughter.]
Shring!
The sound of a blade being drawn cut through the air. It was Geomseong.
“So you’ve finally revealed your true colors!”
The old man’s face twisted with rage.
“Loathsome wretches! Nothing has changed since the old days! Stop at once. If you do not stop, I shall…….”
“Sacred Ritual, Send Spirit.”
With a flash of light, Idan Simmunan vanished.
The hunter who had cleared the previous stage ranked ninth—the moment he witnessed the deaths of the eighth and tenth-ranked hunters, he fled. He fled without screaming, which spoke to some degree of a hunter’s caution. But just as he was about to slip through the main gate, Idan Simmunan reappeared directly in front of him.
“Ah,”
The hunter reached out.
“W-wait just a moment…….”
“Yes!”
Idan Simmunan smiled broadly.
“My apologies!”
The hunter’s head exploded.
He collapsed in the same posture as when he’d spoken the word “moment” and reached out his hand. Thud. The headless body fell lightly to the ground. As his skull burst, blood and tissue scattered in all directions.
[One Warrior has fallen.]
[He was not the Demon King’s servant.]
The voice faded quietly.
[The Guardian Goddess is silent.]
[The Demon King of Autumn Rain is clapping his hands.]
“Mm.”
Idan Simmunan withdrew a handkerchief from his coat.
His face was smeared bright red with the blood of the dead. With gentle movements, he wiped that face clean. After wiping his visage a few times, the handkerchief was already drenched in blood.
“All three turned out to be innocent!”
The space around him was silent.
“This situation has become troublesome. I was so certain that one of the three was the traitor! Ahhh, if all three are innocent, then the culprit must truly be among us. The trust painstakingly built over nearly a decade among the Five Major Guilds is on the verge of complete collapse!”
Idan Simmunan dropped the blood-stained handkerchief to the floor.
The handkerchief fell into a pool of blood and drifted like a paper boat.
“Please wait…….”
Seonggisa was trembling in her shoulders.
“I asked you to wait. I said it plainly……. Did I not beg you? I begged you to please calm yourself, yet here you are again, just as before……!”
“A strange thing to say. Deputy Director. I am calm right now.”
Idan Simmunan smiled thinly.
As if that were not enough, he drew out another handkerchief with his right hand.
“Thinking calmly, I concluded that those three had the highest probability of being the culprits. The judgment turned out to be wrong in the end. Still, I take satisfaction in having eliminated the most suspicious ones first. Ah, if the media had been watching, this would be terrible, but fortunately no one filmed a video…….”
That was the moment.
The handkerchief flew through the air.
The pristine white handkerchief, still bearing no blood, fluttered. Before it could strike the ground, something heavier fell first.
A right arm.
Idan Simmunan’s arm.
“Ah.”
It was fortunate, perhaps, that he lost only an arm.
If Doksa hadn’t blocked Geomseong’s strike, what would have fallen to the floor wouldn’t have been an arm—it would have been a head.
“Damn it…!”
Doksa spat curses while trading blows with Geomseong.
“Hey, you heretic! If you’re going to kill someone, give a signal first!”
“Yes.”
Idan Simmunan gazed downward, his brow furrowed. A handkerchief drifted down to land atop the severed right arm on the floor. The white cloth darkened crimson almost at once as it drank in the blood.
“This has moved beyond inconvenient into the truly grave. Mm. Without both hands, I cannot form the proper seals for Sacred Ritual. My apologies, everyone! I can no longer be of full assistance on my own!”
“Now, that’s, not the, problem…!”
Even from a distance, Doksa looked barely able to hold on. Geomseong’s attacks came not merely from his blade, but from every direction through his Aura. Like a downpour of blows, Doksa barely managed to parry them aside.
“Someone, damn it, help me! I’m dying! Really dying!”
“Kim Gongja!”
Seonggisa cried out.
“I am placing full authority in your hands! You may even take my life and death in yours!”
It was almost a scream.
“You alone have not been accused! Among us, any one of them could have a one percent chance of being the culprit, but you are the exception! You are one hundred percent certain not to be a traitor!”
“…….”
“So please, I beg you! Stop Geomseong!”
The clash of blades rang out sharply through Alhyeonsil. Somewhere along the way, the Witch and the Count had joined in, now battling Geomseong. Seonggisa alone stood helpless, shoulders slumped, staring at me.
I watched the fighting unfold before me for a moment.
‘This gentleman Geomseong.’
-Hm? What?
‘…Am I cursed to be loved by psychopaths?’
I’d expected chaos would erupt.
These Hunters already looked like they barely tolerated each other. If a traitor emerged from this group, I’d anticipated they wouldn’t hesitate to draw their blades. That’s why I’d refused the reward altogether.
But.
‘I never thought it would get this bad….’
I exhaled slowly.
“Ah, that’s a splendid notion. Not a bad idea at all!”
Idan Simmunan wedged himself between Seonggisa and me. He was methodically withdrawing a Potion and staunching his own bleeding—and remarkably, his face bore no trace of pain or distress whatsoever.
“In circumstances like these, majority rule is nothing but a hindrance. The Five Major Guilds system shall be suspended forthwith. It’s inefficient! Far better to concentrate power in someone who is absolutely not a traitor.”
“What you’re saying is….”
“Yes!”
Idan Simmunan grinned, raising his severed arm as he spoke.
“I too shall delegate all decisions to the Hunter Kim Gongja!”
“…….”
“Well. I was certain the culprit must be one of three, yet I was apparently wrong. There’s no helping past mistakes! Until we catch the traitor, I shall not trust my own judgment. Hunter Kim Gongja—I shall do exactly as you say!”
Bareurryeong muttered to himself.
-Yeah. So you really are cursed to be loved by psychopaths. This kind of lunatic is rare. When I climbed the Tower, there was maybe one.
It was truly a detestable fate.
‘So I’ve somehow ended up with full authority from the Deputy Commander of the Adventurer’s Guild and the Guildmaster of the Pantheon Guild….’
-Quite the promotion. Congratulations. You already knew it would come to this, didn’t you? That’s why you refused the reward? I’ve been quietly full of admiration for you ever since.
‘I knew chaos would come, but I never imagined it would be this bad. What about those three dead people? That was hardly their fault, was it? I suppose I’ll have to go back and fix things anyway eventually….’
I glanced sideways at Seonggisa.
Seonggisa stood quietly, face pressed into her hands.
“There’s something I’m curious about.”
“…Yes.”
Did she already know what I meant to ask? A sigh escaped from between her fingers.
“He’s always been that way.”
By “that way,” she was clearly referring to Idan Simmunan.
“When we first entered the Tower, there was tremendous chaos. Religious conflict was especially severe. People of different faiths, or even different sects within the same faith, kept dividing and fracturing, perpetually at odds. Then Idan Simmunan appeared and….”
“And what?”
“…He killed them all.”
Seonggisa sighed again.
“Anyone who started fights over religion—regardless of nationality or origin—he simply killed them all. Assassinated them without hesitation, as if it were the most natural thing. That’s simply the only method he’s ever known….”
“Wow.”
I had only known that religious groups who had been in conflict managed to come together with difficulty to establish the Pantheon Guild. That’s what the media had said. But behind closed doors, was it a thorough massacre instead…?
“Help, me! A little! Please!”
Doksa’s cry came from afar.
With each passing minute, his voice rose another octave.
“We’re done for! Damn it! This is really it! Today Doksa’s finished, you bastards!”
“Aha-ha.”
Idan Simmunan adjusted his hat with his one arm.
“I recognize that my poor judgment has caused this tempest from nothing, and I am deeply sorry, but Hunter Kim Gongja! If I receive full authority from you, wouldn’t you consider stopping Geomseong?”
“Sigh. You are… never mind.”
I shook my head.
“Let’s talk about you later. Thoroughly. Right now Doksa actually looks like he’s about to die, so let’s settle this first.”
“Yes! Please!”
I turned my back on Seonggisa and Idan Simmunan and walked forward.
‘Well, even if I control the Adventurer’s Guild and the Pantheon Guild for just a moment, it’s definitely profitable. They’re both major guilds, and…’
That’s how I convinced myself.
In one corner of Alhyeonsil, a fierce battle was raging—intricate and dazzling. Honestly, at my current level, it was all I could do to follow it with my eyes. Throwing myself into a fight like this would be suicide.
But I knew the one magic word that could stop Geomseong.
“Geomseong!”
No response.
“Geomseong! Didn’t you bow your head to me today? Since you’ve already bowed, won’t you hear me out? Stop fighting and let’s talk among ourselves first!”
Still no response.
Ah, there’s no helping it.
I took a deep breath. I strengthened my voice with my Aura and shouted.
“I’m going to ask your granddaughter for a date!”
He hesitated.
“If your granddaughter comes up the tower, yes—sure, let’s meet once. Whether we actually date or not is uncertain, but after all she’s your family, so she’d probably be appealing. So speaking as someone who might become your son-in-law, please stop the fighting!”
Geomseong turned to look at me without a word.
A long, quiet silence fell.
“…I have never forgiven these bastards.”
“Yes.”
“I’m not stopping the fight because I heard a young man’s words. It’s just that as we exchanged blades, I thought—these fools, I can kill them whenever I wish. If that’s the case, there’s no harm in finding the Traitor first, then slaughtering them all. Isn’t that so?”
Why are you asking me that?
Instead of objecting, I simply nodded along.
“Ah, you’re absolutely right. Do kill them—but perhaps a little later.”
“Mm.”
Geomseong slowly lowered his blade.
Across from us, Doksa gasped for breath.
“What…? What? D-did we survive? Is it over…?”
Nothing was over.
I’d only patched up the immediate fight.
“Everyone, please calm down for now.”
I looked at the Hunters and spoke.
“I don’t know who the Traitor is here. I might not even be able to find them. But that’s a secondary issue. We can get through this crisis without finding the Traitor at all.”
“…How is that possible?”
Seonggisa spoke.
“The fact that the Traitor chose the Demon King’s reward means they’re already targeting our lives. We don’t know when we’ll get stabbed in the back.”
“Look at this.”
I pointed at the marble floor.
Three corpses lay scattered there among blood and gore, but above all, there was text inscribed by Idan Simmunan.
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[Guardian Goddess]
Description: The goddess who protects the Aikkim Empire was moved by your devotion! She has decided to entrust you with an important position in the Empire.
You may become the Prime Minister of the Empire, the Commander-in-Chief, or the Captain of the Knights. When you choose your title, you inherit both the abilities and prestige of that position!
Warrior of the Goddess! Join forces with your fellow Warriors.
And destroy the Demon King’s Core located on the 20th Floor!
+
“The Demon King’s Core is on the 20th Floor, see?”
I looked each Hunter in the face.
“Don’t focus on finding and killing the Traitor. It’s a trap. Don’t fall for it. The Traitor might be trembling with fear right now, quaking inside. Maybe the system forced them to be the Traitor. Who knows?”
“…··.”
“Let’s all go after the Demon King first.”
The gathering fell silent.
“Once we eliminate the Demon King, the Demon King’s reward vanishes too. It’s simple. No matter how cruel the tower’s tests are, no matter how hard it tries to sow discord among us, the solution will always be straightforward.”
A voice echoed in my head.
[The Guardian Goddess’s eyes blazed.]
[The Demon King of Autumn Rain clicked his tongue.]
I spoke with conviction.
“Let’s ascend the tower.”
This was my answer.
“And we’ll shatter the Demon King’s Core on the 20th Floor.”
An answer thrown to the hunters, yes—but also an answer shown to the tower itself.
To that answer of mine came a voice in reply.
[Quest for the 12th Floor has been granted.]
SSS-Rank Hunter: Alive Only Through Death (Serial)
Author | Shin Noaa
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]
Homepage | www.jayplemedia.com
ⓒ Shin Noaa 2019
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder, and the contents may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the publisher 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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