SSS-Class Sui**de Hunter - Chapter 31

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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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Chapter 31. The Crimson Blade (1)
1
No one knew.
Why, precisely when, where—no one knew how it had appeared.
It required no understanding from others in order to exist.
—Wretched things.
Whenever it appeared, crimson rain fell.
—Things that do not see humans as human.
Where the rain fell, blood soon flowed.
—You were born as people, and yet you consume people. Do you call that the destiny of mankind? I call it the karma of beasts. What reason have I not to slaughter beasts today?
Nightmare Rain.
On the eleventh floor, when I deliberately allowed the General NPC to kill me. In that moment, I glimpsed the General’s trauma. In the nightmare, the General was screaming.
Not only the General, but countless humans besides.
—Retreat!
—The rain again…….
—Flee to where the rain does not fall!
The border kingdoms collapsed first.
The great power that had sheltered the smaller kingdoms fell next.
The smaller kingdoms that had endured by making the great power their wall crumbled silently. Each time a nation fell, humanity’s dominion grew narrower. Each time a royal line vanished, humanity’s history grew shorter.
But the rain kept falling.
—To where the rain does not fall…….
The rain fell.
—It is finished. This is the end.
The rain fell.
—Goddess, do not abandon us…….
And the rain fell.
Humanity’s dominion, which had narrowed bit by bit, was now but a handful of earth. Humanity’s history, which had grown shorter bit by bit, was now but a single page remaining.
The historians used their worn quills sparingly. The court officials accepted in silence their fate: to inscribe with their own hands the final sentence on the last page of the chronicle—”Thus mankind perished.”
Now only one empire remained upon the continent.
—Wretched things.
Master of nightmares.
King of all demons.
And so the last historians gave it a name.
—Be devoured by your own malice.
The Demon King.
2
Rain fell.
Light blazed forth.
Rain poured down to earth, and light soared up to heaven.
The light of the Holy Sword I had drawn pierced through the crimson clouds.
“Ah…….”
Where the light shone, the blood droplets ceased to fall.
Soldiers with faces caked in blood looked up at the sky.
The rain had stopped.
“Goddess…….”
Nothing more.
Only the crimson raindrops had ceased.
Not all rain had stopped.
The rain halted only where the Holy Sword’s light reached.
A small pause. A small light.
“The Goddess…….”
“The Divine One protects the Empire!”
And yet there are times when something small is enough.
For humans who had nothing left but smallness, it was enough.
To the people of the Empire, their dominion was but a handful of earth. History was only the last page that remained to be written. The kingdom’s common folk knew this. The soldiers and generals knew it. The minor functionaries and the great officials knew it.
Because they all knew, there was not a single NPC in the Throne Room.
For the Prime Minister had abandoned state affairs.
For the Supreme General had abandoned military command.
For the Imperial Guard no longer stood guard over the Emperor.
For the Order of Knights had forsaken their oath.
An empire abandoned by all.
And so, the Tower had chosen the Empire as its stage.
Just as orphaned children had been placed in some mansion on the tenth floor.
“Stand!”
The Black Dragon Lord cried out.
The soldiers rose one by one, their legs gathering strength. Some pushed themselves up with their hands against the City Wall. Some barely managed to stand, leaning on their spears. Some reached down to grasp a comrade’s hand and pull them upright.
“Stand!”
The witch commanded the soldiers to become the Empire’s final wall. Yes. They would become a wall. Just as a single cry rebounds off stone and echoes back, so too did the Black Dragon Lord’s voice flow through the soldiers of the Empire and reverberate.
“Stand!”
“The Prime Minister stands with us! He is here among us!”
“The Ancestor’s Sword protects us!”
And so the wall became a wall, the spear became a spear, and the soldier became a soldier.
“Stand, quickly now!”
“What shameful display is this before the Prime Minister!”
Adjutants moved through the ranks, striking soldiers on the back. The men snapped to attention. They straightened their helmets.
Bright crimson raindrops trickled from the helmet’s edge. But now the rain no longer obscured the soldiers’ vision. The Empire’s soldiers looked ahead.
“Phew…….”
The witch exhaled softly.
The black aura rising from her body gradually subsided. She had pushed herself harder than necessary with that aura. Transparent beads of sweat had formed on her forehead, mingling with the crimson raindrops.
“…Why?”
The witch turned to look at me.
“First time seeing a Ukrainian give a speech?”
“Ah…….”
“We have plenty of communists back home.”
The witch’s lips curved upward slightly.
Only later did I realize she had smiled.
“I don’t care for communists, but they do know how to make a speech. There’s something to learn from them.”
“Pardon?”
“…Never mind.”
The witch’s face went blank again. Her lips fell back to their neutral line. What was that about? I hadn’t understood what the Black Dragon Lord was getting at.
-No.
The Backhoe Spirit cut in smoothly.
-Looks like she’s just embarrassed because her dad joke didn’t land.
‘Wait. Was that a joke back there?’
-Who knows. That’s what the vibe suggests. But if you react like you just did… never mind. Forget it, Kim Gongja. Don’t ever join any organization and think you’ll fit in with your boss. Stick to being a Hunter like right now, understand? You’re made for it.
I had no idea what she was talking about.
But one thing was crystal clear.
“What’s the plan now, Kim Gongja?”
Thanks to the witch’s speech just now, the tide of battle had shifted, however slightly.
“First, we need to hold the line at the wall.”
“Yes.”
I fixed my gaze on the crimson horizon.
Countless monsters surrounded the Demon King. The witch’s S-rank skill was Instant Teleportation. But even if I could reach him through that technique, there was no guarantee I wouldn’t die the moment I arrived. Odds were I’d be surrounded and slaughtered by the horde in a heartbeat.
First, I needed to create a one-on-one situation with the Demon King.
“While the soldier NPCs hold the line, we need to draw Hunters here. Then we won’t lose ground. If the Demon King commits more monsters to breach the wall…….”
“Then what?”
“Then teleport me directly in front of him.”
The witch studied my face intently.
“A suicide mission, then.”
“Yes.”
“You’re prepared to die?”
It was a reasonable suspicion.
I was still only an E-rank Hunter. No matter how powerful the Demon King was, if he could behead someone as weak as an E-ranker without breaking a sweat, the continent would have fallen long ago.
Overwhelming odds. Completely outmatched.
No amount of description could fully capture how disadvantageous my position was.
But for me, death did not mean defeat.
“I intend to win.”
My death was a stepping stone toward victory.
“I have one last card to play. Trust me.”
“…….”
The witch exhaled.
“Right. As you said, if you’re a Hunter, everyone carries secrets. I’m hoping your blade is sharp enough to cut through that boss monster.”
Of course it would be.
—How amusing, playing tricks like this, goddess.
Then it came.
—A final thrash, hardly worth indulging. Light. What use is light to those who reap not tomorrow’s harvest? I pitied them, yet now I pity even you.
The Demon King’s voice cut across the battlefield.
—Then I too shall show light.
In an instant, a deafening roar split the air.
The witch and I did not lower our guard. We kept our eyes fixed on the Demon King’s movements. That was how we could discern what had made that sound.
It was a sword.
Slowly.
From the distant horizon, the Demon King slowly drew his blade. Time seemed to decelerate. From his sword flowed a different time than ours. So it seemed the blade meant only to cut through time itself.
Yet the Demon King’s sword did not cleave time—it split the sky.
As the heavens parted, the sword stroke had already become a single thread of crimson light.
The beam found the City Gate with terrible precision and pierced through it.
A massive explosion roared, and a whirlwind of dust came sweeping down.
The witch and I instinctively squeezed our eyes shut. In that darkness, everything was swallowed by dust, and beyond the veil of dust came screams—soldiers’ screams. The sound of something collapsing followed in its wake.
A moment passed.
“Ugh, cough…!”
When the whirlwind had subsided somewhat, we turned our gaze toward where the screams had come from. The dust stung our eyes with a sharp pain, yet shock overwhelmed the discomfort.
The witch coughed dryly before murmuring.
“…His power really is weakened, isn’t it?”
The City Gate of The Empire lay in ruins.
The Demon King sneered.
—Pitiful creatures.
Crimson rain poured down from the dust-choked sky.
Laughter mingled with the dust and drifted across the heavens, mingled with the rain and dripped to the earth.
From sky to ground, mockery echoed.
—Still you claim to be The Empire.
3
What fell was not merely the gate.
The crimson beam, having torn through the City Gate, stretched on far beyond. The street was pulverized. The buildings lining both sides of the Main Avenue were crushed to rubble. At last, the Imperial Palace rising majestically at the street’s end was engulfed by the ray.
Crack!
Part of the palace crumbled. Like a ship capsizing as it strikes an iceberg, the resplendent structure tilted. And then… it slowly sank downward.
From afar came the sound of The Empire’s palace being destroyed.
[One Hero has fallen.]
From near came a voice.
[He is not the Demon King’s servant.]
A voice announcing a death.
“…”
My ears rang numb.
The witch and I looked at each other for a moment.
“…That was where the Throne Room stood.”
The witch spoke first.
“The Sword Saint, the Heresy Inquisitor, and the Viper—they’re already gone from the Throne Room. Each one has been leading the Order of Knights or the Imperial Guard here. The Holy Paladin is too busy searching for the Emperor under your orders. That leaves…”
The Count.
“…He died first.”
The Count had not been a traitor.
“A rotten thing to do.”
The witch murmured quietly.
That was all.
When sending off a comrade’s death, the witch did not bid farewell with many words. Instead, she shook her head left and right several times. I wondered if it was her own way of letting go of a fallen ally.
“Black Dragon Lord. If the Count really has fallen in battle, then the world outside…”
“For now.”
The witch spoke at last.
“For now, let us focus on what lies before us.”
The second-strongest Hunter in the tower simply stared ahead.
Beyond the horizon—at her prey.
“No matter if it’s the Demon King, he cannot sustain such attacks indefinitely. Kim Gongja, defend the ruined gate with me.”
The red dots on the minimap shifted.
The monster horde had been advancing like ocean waves in a broad line. Now that changed. The red dots sharpened to a point, like an awl.
A breakthrough attempt?
“Yes.”
The awl’s point aimed at the City Gate.
The gap torn open by the red beam.
“I was thinking the same thing.”
I took the Black Dragon Lord’s hand.
She nodded.
“Teleport.”
We moved to the shattered City Gate.
—Screech-screech-screech!
—Cack-cack! Eeek-eek-eek!
—Groooowwwl!
Before we knew it, monsters were pouring in at close range. Arrows darkened the sky. Archers from the City Wall were firing, but their volleys were utterly insufficient against the crimson tide. Goblins, orcs, skeletons, every manner of beast shrieked and charged like animals possessed.
Barely two minutes remained before the first wave reached us.
—Zombie.
The Backhoe Spirit’s voice echoed.
—One minute is fine. Even thirty seconds would do.
Dozens, hundreds of creatures burst through the dust cloud.
Yet tens of thousands more advanced beyond them, kicking up dust in their wake.
—Hold the line alone.
There were no allies standing in front of me.
—To win this war, you must become hope for these people.
And so I stood at the front alone.
—Stand alone. Thirty seconds is enough. What matters is showing them that you—one person—can hold back these monsters. A man who survives thirty years isn’t called a hero. A hero is someone who gives those thirty crucial seconds to people who desperately need them. That is what a hero truly is.
I dropped the backpack to the ground.
—Become a hero.
I pulled out a glass bottle from the backpack.
The woman who would one day be called the Philosopher’s Stone Lord.
The glass bottle containing that alchemist’s Elixir.
—I will aid you.
One sip. Two sips. Three sips.
I poured every drop of the Elixir into my throat.
—I promised to teach you Sword Technique up to the twentieth floor, remember? It’s a bit early, but now comes your practical lesson.
Thump.
My heart beat once.
—Plant your back foot at an angle.
At one-second intervals, my heart began to thunder.
—Your front foot strikes the earth true and straight.
My heart quickened further.
—Now look forward.
I looked.
—Two goblins at the front. They’ve always had poor vision, but the dust has them squinting now. When they do, they default to swinging wide—hoping to hit something, anything. Strike them before their blades fall.
My heart accelerated.
And the one-second interval stretched longer in kind.
—Your Holy Sword only shines, true, but that makes it perfect for stealing sight. In battle, an absolute second doesn’t matter. Only a relative second matters. Use your blade to blind them—rob them of a single second, and make it yours.
And so my second beat faster than my heart.
—They come.
My blade would beat even that.
—Let’s go, partner.
The Backhoe Spirit stood beside me.
—Time to become a hero.
I swung my sword.
SSS-Rank: The Hunter Who Must Die to Live (Serialized)
Author │ Shin Noah
Publisher │ Kim Joo-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 Jay Plus Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder. The content may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and the author.
Violation of this notice 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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