SSS-Class Sui**de Hunter - Chapter 36

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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 36. My Death (3)
5
The white light faded.
The moment I opened my eyes, I was already back in the heart of the Battlefield.
A scene quite familiar to me loomed into view.
-Shriek, shriek!
Monsters wailed with otherworldly cries.
Soldiers clashed against them, their blood spilling onto the ground.
Thousands upon thousands of monsters had rushed forward to seize the Harbor.
Stage 11. The so-called Supply Route Defense Battle.
The first battle to protect the Akim Empire was unfolding.
“Thank you! You’ve come to aid our empire, brave warriors!”
The general NPC who came to greet us looked no different from the last Playthrough. The same armor, the same expression, the same lines delivered in the same tone.
“Brave warriors! Please help us save the empire…….”
But only that far.
What remained the same from the previous Playthrough extended no further than that.
From the moment the Hunters responded to the general’s words, everything changed.
“Black Dragon, assemble!”
A single, ice-cold voice split the battlefield. The master of the Black Dragon. The Witch. Just as she had at that battle near the Castle Gate that only I now remembered, she called out with her Aura infused into her voice. Her words carried something that instinctively seized people’s attention.
“From this moment forward, the Black Dragon holds command of this war!”
The Witch surveyed the battlefield.
“Cheonmun! Jayeongdan! Break through the left flank! Mansinjeun and Sangyeon, take the right! We of the Black Dragon will smash through the center. If anyone has objections to these orders, save them for after the battle. If you have time to complain now, use it to kill one more orc!”
The world had changed.
“Uoooooh!”
The roar that erupted from the Hunters was evidence of that transformation.
The great guilds moved with perfect coordination. Perhaps because they’d shared information from me about Stage 11 being a group battle, there were no Hunters standing bewildered like they had in the last Playthrough.
“Listen up, you dogs! Any of you who die before me gets to die first!”
Even Viper’s Cheonmun moved with clarity.
“What in blazes did he just say… No, never mind. Everyone, back up Cheonmun! We can’t let those wild boars get isolated out there!”
The Holy Knight’s Jayeongdan moved in kind.
“Ahahah! Solo acting is an instant death sentence, everybody! Move strictly by teams!”
The Inquisitor’s Mansinjeun kept perfect discipline.
“Everyone’s brimming with spirit. Let’s take our time, be careful, and provide support.”
Even the Earl’s Sangyeon maintained order.
No guild showed weakness. Each played their part flawlessly, carving through the battlefield. Combat specialists took the front ranks, their blades flashing, while those skilled in support wove magic behind the lines. Like a mighty river in flood, the Hunters pushed back the tide of monsters again and again.
“Oh……!”
The general NPC gasped in awe. Perhaps moved by what he witnessed before his eyes.
“Surely the gods have not yet forsaken our empire! Behold! The warriors from beyond this world press forward relentlessly, driving back the monsters! Soldiers of the empire! How can we stand idle? All troops, follow me!”
The soldiers roared and surged forward in a mass.
I stepped aside and watched the sight unfold.
……
Yes.
All people truly need is a subtle suggestion.
The slightest change in me, moving just a touch more discreetly—and the landscape of this Stage transforms so utterly.
That was when Backlore Spirit spoke to me, low and quiet.
-Zombie, you doing okay?
‘Pardon? What do you mean?’
-This way, you’re not drawing as much attention.
Backlore Spirit’s brows were furrowed.
-I’ve never met anyone who likes standing out the way you do. You’re absolutely mad for people’s attention. This way, you’re getting less notice than the last Playthrough, aren’t you?
‘Well, I suppose so.’
I shrugged my shoulders.
‘But this doesn’t feel bad either.’
-Huh? You, growing after all?
‘Growth, nothing. It’s just that I still make sure to claim what I can, you know?’
Suddenly I felt eyes on the back of my neck.
When I turned around, an elderly swordsman was watching me silently.
It was the Sword Saint.
“Hm.”
I asked, a bit startled.
“What are you doing there… sir?”
“Watching you.”
The Sword Saint answered as though it were obvious.
“I told you before, didn’t I? After observing you for five days, I’ll decide whether to kill you or let you live. So I’m watching.”
“…Oh, um. You’re not seriously planning to watch me around the clock for five whole days, are you?”
“A strange question. Of course that’s what I intend.”
Good Lord.
What is this? Some kind of stalking?
“No, but sir, you need to hunt monsters too! The quest rewards are distributed based on the order of contribution to combat!”
“Hmm.”
The Sword Saint glanced away and then swung his blade lightly.
Slash!
An aura of blue light raked across the front in an instant. Nearly twenty goblins didn’t even manage a proper scream before their heads flew from their bodies. Blood fountained across the middle of the Battlefield.
The Sword Saint turned back to me unhurriedly.
“I’ll wield the sword from time to time, so don’t worry.”
“…….”
“Don’t mind me—just go about your business.”
Truly a man of the old guard.
The old man operated on a completely different level.
“Sigh, this is something.”
I shook my head and headed toward the Witch of the Black Dragon. Black Dragon guild members moved to block my path as I walked, but when they saw the Sword Saint following behind me, they hesitated. Eventually, the Witch herself noticed our approach and waved us through with a hand gesture.
“What’s the matter? Hunter Kim Gong-ja. And you’ve brought grandfather with you.”
The Witch narrowed her brow, her tone irritable.
“I’m busy commanding the guilds right now. My mind’s all over the place, you understand? I’d be grateful if you could wrap things up in thirty seconds or less.”
“I have no particular business, really.”
The old man spoke flatly.
“I merely followed this young man here.”
“What? That doesn’t… No, never mind. I don’t have time for this! I’m telling you, I can’t spare the attention right now. Please, if it’s not urgent, just go. Oh, there! Team four!”
Even as she rebuffed the Sword Saint, the Witch barked orders at her guild members.
“Stop being foolish and pushing forward stupidly. Hold your ground! If you don’t want a spear through your backside, stay put! Team twelve, what are you doing! You think we’re out here for a walk! Hunt properly!”
“S-sorry, Witch of the Black Dragon!”
“If you’ve got time to apologize, you’ve got time to swing your blade!”
She really did seem swamped.
I hurried to state my business.
“Witch of the Black Dragon, I have a Stage 10 Clear reward.”
“Of course you do. So what?”
“It’s a Minimap reward. I can see the entire Battlefield at a glance, as though looking at a minimap. Enemies and allies show up as dots. And naturally, I can see exactly where the enemy commander is.”
“…….”
At last, the Witch turned her gaze to me and looked directly at my face.
“Really?”
“Why would I lie? It’s true.”
“Then why didn’t you come to me sooner! What were you doing until now!”
She grabbed my right hand eagerly.
“Tell me! Where is the boss monster!”
This woman shows her true nature when her mind’s in chaos.
“Uh, over there.”
I pointed in the direction indicated on the Minimap.
“It’s hard to see because it’s surrounded by monsters, but it’s over in that direction…….”
“Repeat after me—I consent to the use of your skill! Hurry!”
“Oh, I consent to the Witch of the Black Dragon’s use of her skill.”
“Teleport!”
Whoosh!
The next instant, the Witch and I were suspended in midair. Or rather, we were falling. High above the middle of the Battlefield. Far below, the mass of monsters and human forces swarmed and clashed in chaos.
The Witch’s black hair streamed in the wind as she cried out.
“Where!”
“There!”
The wind was deafening, so I shouted as well.
“In the direction I’m pointing now…….”
“Teleport!”
Each time the Witch invoked Teleport in rapid succession, we drew closer to the boss monster’s location at tremendous speed.
I held the Witch a little closer in midair. Not that I had any particular intention. It was just that if I only gripped her right hand, she might slip and fall from the sky.
The Witch seemed to understand, and cooperated without protest. She still furrowed her brow as she shouted.
“You’re confident with a sword, aren’t you?”
“Confident enough to take down a boss here!”
“Then I’ll Teleport you right above the monster! One shot! You got it?”
“Yes!”
I understood perfectly well what she meant.
“Teleport!”
The moment the final Teleport ended, we plummeted directly above the boss monster.
Barely ten meters down.
A towering goblin king clutching an ornate Golden Staff was squawking orders at the surrounding monsters. In its own mind, it was commanding a legion.
“Kim Gong-ja!”
“Hyaaaaaaa!”
I wrapped my entire body in Aura and let out a battle cry. Perhaps it heard our voices. The goblin king cocked its head, glancing upward.
—Krkk?
The goblin king locked eyes with me.
But it was already too late.
Shhhhwaaack!
The blade drove precisely into the crown of the goblin king’s skull. Its body split clean in two.
Despite being a boss monster, the goblin king couldn’t even mount a resistance. It merely stared at me until the very end, as if aggrieved. Then again, it had died to me twice now, so it had every right to feel wronged.
—Krrk….
—Krr, rrr…?
Suddenly leaderless, the monsters stared blankly at me. Everything had happened so fast they couldn’t quite process it.
I gave them a wicked grin.
“What’s wrong?”
I casually trampled over the goblin king’s corpse.
“Want me to split you in half too?”
Only then did the monsters let out panicked shrieks.
—Kiiiii!
—Krrk! Krr!
Goblins and orcs and other small fry scattered in terror. One fled, then six, then six became thirty in an instant. Like falling dominoes, monsters began bolting in every direction.
“Yes!”
The Witch beside me clenched her small fist.
“Well done, Kim Gong-ja! Good heavens! We’re about to clear the Stage in less than an hour! I’d wager we’ve lost fewer than fifty Hunters! Maybe even under thirty… Ah! Nothing could be better than this!”
I’d never seen the Witch this excited before.
The reason she’d been expressionless last cycle—could it be that Hunters died in large numbers early on? And now she was happy because the casualties were so light?
‘She’s simpler than I thought.’
Someone who grows sad or glad depending on how many lives are lost.
I smiled.
“Now, now, don’t get too excited. Compose yourself.”
“People ought to be excited when they feel excited! Let me praise you once more. You truly did excellently, Kim Gong-ja! Since we began climbing the Tower, we’ve never cleared a Stage with so few casualties. I’m genuinely proud!”
The Witch laughed brightly.
Not the slight upturn of her lips from her speech on the rampart, but a genuine, full-faced smile.
“I suppose you could have monopolized the Clear Reward for yourself. But truly… I’m grateful the new hero is someone like you. That’s a relief, at least.”
……
“From now on, every media outlet and journalist in the Tower will be chasing after you, so be prepared!”
Pure goodwill.
‘Yes.’
The Witch extended her hand for a handshake.
‘That’s what it is.’
As I took her hand, I reflected.
‘Being admired by ordinary people—by countless people—is certainly pleasant. It feels good. Being revered as the best, envied, resented, treated as a hero. It all feels magnificent. But.’
But.
‘It doesn’t compare to being recognized by these people.’
People who have lived with true effort.
Even if they could never claim they achieved the best in life,
they could clearly say they did their very best.
The Sword Saint, who reached the apex with nothing but a single blade.
The Witch, who built the Tower—the greatest power in the world.
And countless others beyond them, people truly living with all their might.
‘I…’
I gripped the Witch’s hand tightly.
‘I want to live a life where people like this acknowledge me.’
But that’s not all.
‘I want to protect these people.’
From being toyed with by some Demon King.
Those who’ve lived so earnestly—I don’t want to mock them the way Yeom Je does, or demean them, or sneer at them coldly, or waste time on petty tricks. I simply want to acknowledge them… and be acknowledged by them.
No.
I want to be respected by them.
Even if it’s an impossible dream.
‘That’s how I want to live.’
In a world changed just a little.
I too wanted to change, just a little.
That was my deepest desire.
-Damn brat.
The Backlore Spirit muttered.
-It’s been worth watching you, after all.
Not long after, an announcement rang out: the 11th Floor had been cleared.
Enormous letters materialized in the sky.
+
[CLEAR CONTRIBUTION RANKINGS]
1st. Kim Gong-ja
2nd. Witch
3rd. Inquisitor
4th. Viper
5th. Holy Knight
6th. Earl
7th. Sword Saint
.
.
.
+
As the world had changed, so too had the Clear rankings shifted subtly.
The Sword Saint, who’d claimed second place in the previous cycle, had steadily slipped down to seventh.
Meanwhile, the Witch, who’d held sixth position before, had surged to second.
[The top-ranked clearers will enter the 12th Floor first.]
[Until the top-ranked clearers receive their rewards, the remaining clearers cannot enter the 12th Floor.]
[We remind everyone once more……]
And then it came at last.
The voice opening the 12th Floor of the Demon Realm.
“At this pace, we might breeze through to the 20th Floor.”
The Witch spoke with flushed cheeks.
“I’d estimated at least five thousand would fall… but this start is excellent. Very.”
No.
If left unchecked, the 12th Floor would exact a terrible price.
Above all, we’d lose the Earl, the owner of Sangyeon—a figure essential for external trade. Once the channel for commerce with the outside closes, the Tower’s economy collapses in an instant. Chaos would descend. Not five thousand casualties, but fifty thousand, perhaps even half a million—the losses could spiral beyond measure.
‘So.’
Therefore.
‘I’ll carry this.’
A brilliant light enveloped us.
6
When I opened my eyes again, I was there.
The Empire’s Audience Chamber.
The marble floor, still white—not yet stained with blood as it had been in the last cycle.
“Oh?”
“Hmm.”
Hunters materialized one by one. Their expressions as they looked at me were varied: some grinned widely as if to say ‘I didn’t expect you here first,’ while others bristled, thinking ‘So you’re taking first again this time.’
Just as it had been in the previous cycle.
“Hunter Kim Gong-ja! That was extraordinary!”
The Inquisitor came trotting over to offer praise, just as before.
“Cooperating with the Black Dragon faction like that! Aha. Your knowledge of the boss monster’s location—surely that was a reward from the previous stage? It must be…….”
“Wait, please.”
But unlike the last playthrough, the Inquisitor could not continue heaping praise upon me. I raised my hand to cut him short. The Inquisitor tilted his head in confusion.
“Yes?”
“There’s something I need to tell you all first.”
The hunters turned their attention toward me.
The Witch wore a faintly flushed expression. The Viper’s brow furrowed in apathetic dismissal. The Holy Knight’s face remained unmoved. The Earl fanned himself with his fan.
The other hunters each regarded me with their own expressions…….
‘And the Sword Saint?’
I checked the old man’s movements first.
“…….”
The Sword Saint stood alone in the corner of the Audience Chamber. Silent. Even as our eyes met, he gave no particular reaction. He merely stood with arms crossed, watching me with an unblinking gaze.
‘It worked!’
This was entirely different from the last playthrough, when he’d drawn his blade without hesitation.
‘It actually worked!’
The terrible clash that had erupted in the early part of the twelfth floor—it would not happen now.
I had erased it.
I had succeeded in halting the hostility, if only for a moment.
Feeling my heart thunder in my chest, I spoke.
“You remember what I told you yesterday, don’t you?”
“Yesterday?”
“A request.”
I answered the Inquisitor’s question.
“I said that whenever I made a request, I’d ask you to hear me out just once. That’s what I told you.”
“Ah, yes! Of course I remember!”
“I’m calling in that request now.”
I looked at each of the hunters in turn.
The guild leaders’ ears perked up at the word “request.”
“For the next five days. Just five days—I need you all to stay here and do nothing.”
“…….”
“Because then.”
I drew a deep breath.
And I spoke.
“I will clear the twentieth floor within those five days.”
SSS-Rank: A Hunter Must Die to Live (Ongoing)
Author │ Shin Noa
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 Noa 2019
※This work is published by J-Plus Media Co., Ltd. pursuant to contract with the copyright holder, and its contents may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the publisher and author.
Violation of this prohibition 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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