SSS-Class Sui**de Hunter - Chapter 32

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

Episode 32. The Red Sword (2)
A spray of blood erupted into the air.
-Kiieeee!
The goblin shrieked, long and piercing.
Within my time, the cry never ceased.
-That makes one.
Blood hung suspended in the air—scarlet, the same color as the rain itself. While droplets of blood still drifted through empty space and raindrops had yet to fall, the world between them was nothing but red.
I repositioned my grip on the blade.
-Next, the one on the left.
And I swung.
-Kraaaah!
That makes two.
Before the first goblin had even finished dying, the second was bisected. One instant. Blood sprayed from both sides at once.
The creatures never even saw my blade before they screamed in tandem from either flank.
As one began to fall, another shrieked.
As that one fell, yet another joined the chorus.
-Aaaaaah!
-Ah, aaaaaah!
-Kiiiiii!
Before one monster’s cry could fade, another would start anew.
Thus the screams around me never ended.
A blade’s symphony.
My sword had become a conductor’s baton, orchestrating a chorus of dying shrieks.
-One second has passed.
Baehureung spoke.
-Don’t chop the blade in pieces when you swing, Gongja. Don’t separate each stroke—connect them. Strike with continuity.
I swung the sword.
-Cut from above to below. Just because your blade has dropped doesn’t mean your strike is finished. Think of it like music. When a note descends low, it does so only to rise again.
A scream rang out.
-Connect! If your blade goes down, continue the motion and cut upward. That way your strikes flow unbroken.
Another second passed.
-Swordsmanship is the mastery of time! An unskilled fighter can only control a single second. One swing, and he’s blind. He doesn’t know what comes next. A more practiced swordsman can command five seconds.
The enemy bled.
My body breathed.
-Don’t lose the moment!
Before the blood finished flowing.
Before the breath finished leaving.
-Don’t waste it! Cutting down one enemy isn’t the end. Nothing is finished. You must anticipate where your next stroke should fall! Ordinary people waste time, letting it slip through their fingers. But a swordsman cannot afford that luxury. Don’t throw away a single second. Live every second completely.
Between the enemy’s blood and my breath, the blade flowed.
-A swordsman is one who lives by the sword.
I swung.
-Did you think living one second was easy? Are you truly alive?
I swung.
-People aren’t truly alive when they let time slip away. They’re only truly alive when they dedicate time to something. You are a swordsman, Gongja. So you must live through the sword.
I swung again.
-Burn brighter!
A goblin’s claw raked my forearm, and blood burst forth. My vision swam. My heart thundered. Even through the searing agony, I swung and fixed my gaze ahead.
-Kiieeee!
-Grrr, grrr…….
-Krooooo!
Countless creatures.
Beyond the red dust cloud, monsters poured forth. Endless enemies. Endless malice. Beasts that wanted to gnaw through my flesh and drink my blood. They rushed toward me, cloaked in the red rain.
-Now ten seconds.
This is ten seconds.
Merely ten seconds to this point.
-Burn brighter, Gongja. Don’t let life drain away—burn it away.
I gripped the hilt with all the strength I had.
-Show them who you are.
And I roared.
Uoooooooo!
Where the City Gate had crumbled into nothing but a gap, in the heart of the battlefield, at the forefront of this war, my roar tore through the air. Soldiers stationed atop the City Wall flinched at the sound. Monsters charging through the dust cloud froze mid-stride.
—Yeah. Damn it, that’s the stuff.
Baehureung let out a delighted laugh.
—Now you’re actually shaking off that zombie face, you bastard!
I lunged forward.
—What the—?
I targeted the first goblin that stumbled, its feet rooted to the ground. A shriek tore from my blade, and before the creature could even react, I’d severed its head. The goblin’s jaw hung slack as its skull arced skyward.
I swung my sword.
—Ker, rrgh.
Next, an orc standing dazed to my side. A sharp sound sang out as I drove my blade down into its skull before it could even raise its club. Blood erupted in a fountain.
I swung my sword.
‘Just a bit more.’
A skeleton.
‘Just a bit more.’
Another goblin.
‘Just a little more.’
Countless orcs.
‘More! Just a little more!’
Against a horde of monsters.
‘Behold!’
I swung my sword.
‘Behold me!’
I am alive.
When I swing a sword, I am alive.
—Kroooooooooogh!
An ogre.
From the crimson dust cloud, the ogre emerged, wielding an enormous club.
Once. Twice. With each swing of the creature’s club, gale-force winds tore through the air. The dust that had settled thickly over the collapsed City Gate scattered and dispersed before the onslaught.
The ogre’s club swipe caught small goblins in its wake. One went flying, crashing hard against the City Wall with a sickening thud. As bone splintered, the goblin became nothing but pulp.
Yes. That creature knew no camaraderie. No kinship either, surely. No pity, no compassion, no mercy for anything.
Therefore, it was a beast.
A hideous beast.
—Uooooooogh!
The beast howled savagely.
Its fangs bared only toward me.
‘Come.’
And here stood one Hunter.
A hunter stalking prey.
‘I shall show you.’
Boom!
The ogre planted its foot.
The corner of the City Wall, which had precariously held firm until now, crumbled without mercy.
Boom!
The hideous beast possessed massive feet. With each step it took, the earth trembled. The barrier that had protected the Empire collapsed. Shaking the very ground, shattering the walls, the ogre charged toward me.
—Plant your feet on the earth.
And yet.
—Let your eyes see ahead.
The task at hand had not changed one whit.
—Cut your enemy down with your sword.
I threw myself at the monster.
Boom!
The massive beast planted its foot. I seized the moment. As the ogre raised its club to fling my body aside, I twisted my blade directly in front of its face.
White light.
The Holy Sword’s brilliance cut into the ogre’s eyes.
—Graaaaaaaagh!
Already the ogre had committed to its swing, club in full motion.
It was difficult for the creature to change the course of its attack.
‘Why.’line>
Now, when time has stretched endlessly into a single moment.

As I charged toward the ogre while dodging its club, a thought consumed me.
‘Why did I ever give an EX-Class Skill to that kind of bastard.’
Thoughts of the Flame Emperor Yu Suha.
Thoughts of this tower, which had granted him the Regression Skill…
‘I didn’t need him to be a great sage. If I’d just given the Skill to someone a bit more sensible. Someone a bit more sound of mind. There would’ve been no problem at all. So why. Why of all people did it have to be a psychopath like that.’
Whoooosh!
The ogre’s club whistled past the tip of my nose.
I’d been blinded just long enough by the Holy Sword’s radiance, and the attack had gone wide.
But that moment of blindness had bought me a narrow opening.
‘Could it be… that’s what it means?’
I moved.
‘That the tower can’t be conquered without Yu Suha? That to stand at its peak, you have to become someone like him?’
The ogre’s eyes widened as it watched me hurtle through the air.
The creature raised its club again.
But it was already too late.
‘Don’t make me laugh.’
I’ll prove it.
‘I’ll clear Floor 20 in the Flame Emperor’s stead.’
Not just the twentieth stage.
‘Floor 30 as well.’
The fortieth stage too.
‘Floor 50 as well.’
The sixtieth. The seventieth. The eightieth. The ninetieth.
Even the ninety-ninth stage itself.
‘All the way to Floor 100!’
Until I finally set foot at the summit.
‘I’ll show you.’
And so.
[Your existence becomes all the more vivid.]
I swung my blade.
[Hunter Kim Gongja’s level grows.]
The sword bit true, and the ogre’s throat opened.
A crimson spray erupted.
The creature’s hide was thick, but not as sharp as my blade. Its life force was strong, but duller than my aura.
Even in its final moments, the ogre thrashed its arm, unwilling to die quietly. But there was nothing surprising in that. I simply struck once more.
[Your Skill Slot expands.]
[Your Hunter rank is now D-Class.]
The ogre’s head fell.
Thud!
An instant later, its body collapsed.
[May fortune walk with you.]
Red dust drifted gradually to the ground.
-Kiirrr…….
-Kiii, ki! Kiiiii.
The monsters appeared. The horde that had been pouring through the ruined City Gate. Those creatures that had seemed endless now hesitated. They had seen the great beast fall, and fear had seized them.
Silence.
Nothing could be heard but the sound of falling rain. The Empire’s soldiers gazed down at me from the City Wall, while the Demon King’s creatures faltered in their step. The air hung still. There, in the space where eyes turned inward and feet drew back, I stood alone.
-Congratulations.
Baehureung let out a low chuckle.
-Thirty seconds.
Then someone passed at my side.
I knew who it was from their silhouette alone. Black formal suit. White hair. The Swordsman splashed through a puddle as he surged forward. The tower’s strongest Hunter drew his blade and swept it wide in a horizontal arc.
Shhhhhhwack!
Dozens of goblins lost their heads in a single stroke, and dozens of orcs lost their torsos. And so dozens of fountains of blood erupted at once into the sky.
One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.
Brief as it was, in that brief moment I saw it. The streams of blood rising to the sky burned more vividly than the rain falling from it.
“…….”
The Swordsman turned slowly to face me.
The spray of blood he had created hung behind him.
The old man opened his lips.
“…….”
I didn’t quite understand what he said.
My perception was still sluggish.
“Hmm.”
Had he noticed that my condition was far from ordinary?
The Swordsman smiled faintly.
This time, he infused his words with aura.
“…Magnificent.”
The old man gripped the hilt of his sword.
Rain fell.
The rainwater was red, and so the sword remained red even after the water had run its course.
“My name is Marcus Kallenberry, young man.”
I realized this was his way of showing respect.
“…….”
I fell silent.
The second time.
This was the second time I had heard a name directly from the world’s top-ranked Hunter.
The first time was when I was still wandering on Floor 1.
In some cramped alley, the Flame Emperor gripped my head and whispered.
My name is Yu Suha.
Farewell.
That day, I died.
Today I heard a name for the second time. A different name, and a different person.
Suddenly, I felt that I myself had changed.
And I realized that I could now do something I had failed to do that first time, something I had never dared to attempt.
“My name is Kim Gongja, sir.”
Today.
I spoke my name.
SSS-Class Must Die to Live Hunter (Serialized)
Author │ Shin Noah
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyeong
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyeok
Address │ 204, 288 Digital-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong, Daelung Post Tower 1st)
Email │ [email protected]
Homepage │ 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 the contents 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.

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