SSS-Class Sui**de Hunter - Chapter 37

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

Episode 37. The Hero’s Alternative Name (1)
1
The previous round.
It was when the tutorial of the Tower had concluded early.
—Warriors, hear me.
—Those who climb the Tower.
The Hunters chanted the countdown powerfully in the plaza. And into that plaza descended the Goddess. She intoned solemnly, like a priest offering prayer.
—From the eleventh floor to the twentieth floor.
—You shall face a trial.
—A trial of faith.
The Hunters paid no heed to the Goddess’s words.
A new era. A new stage.
Excited that the stage they had waited for so long was finally opening, they rushed up to the eleventh floor without delay—some even tested whether the Goddess bled when cut by a blade.
—You shall find answers.
But.
—The answers you find shall reveal to you who you truly are.
I did not do as they did.
I remained to the end and listened.
—And thus shall you come to know yourselves.
Looking back on it now.
Even then, we received a Revelation.
Of what would unfold from the twelfth floor onward.
—Those who climb the Tower.
What we needed to concern ourselves with was not what Reward we would receive. What we needed to consider was not whom to suspect. The Tower merely hinted that only the answer we discovered mattered.
—May fortune attend you.
The Goddess simply continued to offer her prayer in silence.
Now, the moment I arrived at the twelfth floor again.
I nodded, my heart still colored by that vision from before.
And I spoke.
“I will Clear up to the twentieth floor within five days.”
The answer I had decided upon.
2
The surroundings fell silent.
The first to break the silence was the master of the Black Dragon.
“Wait a moment. Five days…?”
The witch’s face was bewildered.
“Did I mishear you? I thought you just said you’d Clear up to the twentieth floor in five days. If you’re joking, it’s not very amusing—drop it.”
“No, you heard correctly. And it’s not a joke.”
……
The witch’s lips pressed closed.
The silence that had settled over the Hall of Manifestation spread into murmurs. The Hunters’ expressions shifted. Some gazed in disbelief, others with skepticism, still others uncertain how to react……
‘This reaction is only natural.’
I bore the gaze of every Hunter calmly.
By any reasonable standard, it was an utterly absurd declaration.
“…That’s impossible, Kim Gongja.”
After a moment, the witch spoke.
“You know it yourself. It took us years just to Clear up to the tenth floor. Of course, now that we’ve conquered the eleventh floor in less than an hour, you might be riding high with confidence… but it’s excessive. Far too much confidence. Haven’t you gotten a bit carried away?”
“Black Dragon Master.”
I lowered my head.
“I ask this of you.”
……
“I conquered the tenth floor, yes. But I didn’t do it for all of you. I Cleared it because I wanted to succeed myself. Yet the Rewards and achievements I earned from conquering the tenth floor—I shared them with you all.”
The information that group combat would break out.
The Minimap revealing the location of the Boss Monsters.
I shared that information, and because of it, the Guilds minimized their losses.
“…It wasn’t only I who gained. We all benefited.”
And so I can speak with certainty.
“I have the right to ask this of you.”
……
“It’s not that I’m asking you to wait until I Clear the twentieth floor. Five days. Whether I succeed or fail in conquering the twentieth floor—regardless of the outcome, I’m simply asking that you wait just five days. This is my request.”
Silence settled over the Hall of Manifestation.
It was not a silence that felt disadvantageous to me.
Perhaps that was precisely why.
[Welcome, Hunter Kim Gongja.]
[You have cleared the 11th floor in first place.]
[You receive the reward for clearing the 11th floor.]
The reason the notification sounded far more quickly than last time was simple.
Previously, the reward only came after the Sword Saint finished all his sword work—it took considerable time. This time was different. The moment I opened my mouth, the matter of rewards surfaced urgently.
‘I see.’
As if desperately trying to grab my attention and fix my gaze.
[The Goddess offers you a reward.]
[The Autumn Rain Demon King offers you a reward.]
Notifications chimed one after another.
I accepted none of them.
Only a quiet smirk played across my thoughts.
‘Growing impatient now that we’re not fighting, Demon King?’
Soon the Goddess’s offerings and the Demon King’s offerings streamed forth in a cascade. A glance—that’s all I granted them, not a shred of genuine interest or curiosity beyond it.
[The Autumn Rain Demon King urges you to select a reward.]
A voice echoed in my mind.
[The Autumn Rain Demon King hints that you may forgo a reward entirely.]
Again and again.
Persistently.
My resolve did not waver.
Solid as stone, unchanging.
I gave neither the Goddess’s roles nor the Demon King’s offerings a second look.
I simply ignored them.
[The Autumn Rain Demon King is perplexed.]
[The Autumn Rain Demon King does not understand your intent.]
It doesn’t matter. Don’t rush.
Keep lingering on the line. I’ll come find you myself.
“Mm…….”
Silence continued to fill the Hall of Manifestation. The Inquisitor looked around the room, then let out a sharp laugh—as if deciding he would be the first to speak.
“The matter is simple! Hunter Kim Gongja shared the strategy information for the 11th floor with us. In exchange, he asked us to grant him one favor, and we agreed to do so provided the favor was not impossible!”
The Inquisitor smiled broadly.
“For five days, everyone waits here without doing anything. Considering the media will cause an uproar for all five days, it’s not exactly a trivial favor—but far from impossible! Therefore, I approve!”
“It is certainly not an impossible favor, but…….”
“A promise is a promise! Black Dragon Master!”
The Black Dragon Master’s expression darkened.
She parted her lips several times before finally letting out a sigh.
“Fine. A promise is a promise.”
Essentially her consent to my request.
The remaining Hunters agreed with my favor in turn. The Black Dragon Master and the Inquisitor—the most refined Hunter in this place and the most eccentric one—both consented together. The other Hunters, those not Guild leaders, were swept along by the atmosphere and pledged five days of silence.
“I myself made no such promise.”
Unless you excluded the Hunter with the highest level of curmudgeonly rigidity here.
“The only promise this man has made is to observe the youth for the next five days. I have no obligation to grant any other favors.”
“…….”
“If you depart to clear the 20th floor, I will simply follow your trail as my promise demands.”
“Right.”
I nodded.
“Yes, that’s fine with me.”
From now on, I would face the Demon King alone.
I had confidence I could win by myself—but with the Sword Saint at my back, it was as though I’d gained a thousand more allies. There was no need to refuse him if he insisted on coming.
I turned my gaze across the Hall of Manifestation.
“Thank you for honoring my request, everyone.”
Then I slowly turned and made for the door.
“I will see you all again in five days.”
Creak—
I opened the great doors of the Hall of Manifestation and stepped forward.
Beyond the threshold lay the sprawling Palace. Walking through it, I passed walls stacked upon walls, and beyond those walls, the capital city of the Aikkim Empire opened before me.
A sight I had already passed through once before.
—Huh?
But something was different.
—What’s this? All the NPCs are frozen?
Baehureung walked alongside me, glancing this way and that at the surroundings.
Baehureung was right.
The knight NPC guarding the Palace, the street vendor selling fruit at Market Street, the bored-looking patrol guards making their rounds—every NPC from the Palace to the city stood motionless, suspended in time.
‘It’s because the Quest hasn’t started yet.’
It was as if someone had pressed pause.
I walked across the frozen street, my footsteps echoing in the silence.
Behind me at a distance, the Sword Saint followed.
—Quest?
‘Yes. Nobody’s chosen a Role yet.’
Right now the Empire had no Prime Minister, no Knight Commander.
These were positions that should have existed—pillars of any kingdom.
The Quests from the 12th to the 20th floor were meant for Hunters to fill these roles instead.
‘On the 11th floor, we received the Quest immediately upon entering. That’s probably the correct order. But on the 12th floor, didn’t we hesitate for quite some time? Why did it take so long just to receive a Quest?’
Only after choosing a Role did the Quest finally open.
In other words.
‘If we don’t select a Role, the Quest doesn’t begin. The Demon King’s Army never invades, and the Empire’s forces never fight back.’
That’s why the NPCs are frozen.
And they’ll stay frozen.
‘Unless we choose a Role.’
A sort of trigger.
The very act of upper-rank clearers choosing a Role is what sets the Quest in motion.
‘But here’s the thing, Sword Saint.’
I crossed the street. With pedestrians standing frozen in various poses, I wove between them in a winding path to slip through—like walking through a maze.
Even as I navigated that maze of human bodies, notifications kept chiming in my head.
[The Autumn Rain Demon King urges you to select a Reward.]
I ignored it.
[The Autumn Rain Demon King advises that if you will not choose a Reward, you should abandon this entirely. In that case, the right to select a Reward will pass to the next clearer.]
I kept walking, ignoring it.
[The Autumn Rain Demon King urges your decision!]
Finally, I stepped past the City Gate.
Beyond the Empire’s city walls, a vast Plain stretched out before me.
‘What if, say, the Demon King dies in this state? What do you think would happen?’
—What?
I could see it clearly.
The Minimap revealed through the Blessing of the Battlefield.
On the translucent map, there was unmistakably one red dot glimmering.
At this moment, before any monsters had even been summoned, that red dot could mean only one thing.
‘If the Boss Monster dies before the Quest even starts, what happens then?’
The Demon King.
‘Simple. Nobody gets to choose the Demon King’s Reward.’
—……
‘Obviously no Traitor can emerge either. It’s just… we’d be disqualified before we even got to scheme.’
I cut across the Plain, walking in a straight line toward that red dot. Before long I’d drawn close enough to see it clearly—just a few more steps and I’d reach the Boss Monster’s location.
[The Autumn Rain Demon King rages at you!]
Now it had grasped my intention.
Only now did I hear a different voice in my head.
[The Autumn Rain Demon King manifests!]
The sky before my eyes rippled with black. A void like a black hole split open, and from its depths leaked something viscous and foul.
One drop. One stream. One clot.
The fluid gathered and gradually took shape, and from that form a voice oozed out.
—How dare you.
The Demon King was furious.
—Follow the proper order, Hero of the Goddess. To come here without making any choice is insolence. Only those who inherit the crown of the Empire have the right to receive my blade.
“What nonsense is that.”
I gripped my sword hilt firmly.
“I made my choice perfectly fine.”
—What……
“Look. This is the best choice there is.”
A moment before the Quest begins.
The Empire’s city, not yet invaded by the Demon King’s Army.
And so, a world where no human has died.
“Demon King, I will kill you before the Quest starts. Then not a single Hunter will die, and not a single citizen of the Empire will fall. Of course, no traitors will ever emerge.”
—…….
“Do you understand? A Happy Ending with no sacrifice at all.”
I smiled to myself.
“I’ve always been a bit particular about Bad Endings, you know. Is it just my nature? I honestly prefer a Happy Ending when I can. Since you’re being such a nuisance and ruining my chance at one, I’m sorry, but would you mind dying for me?”
—How dare you…….
The Demon King’s form writhed.
—How dare you think you alone can stop me! Without the Empire’s aid!
“That’s right.”
I drew my blade.
I aimed its point directly at the dark form before me.
“Who needs aid?”
An endless plain.
In the heart of frozen time and a stilled world.
My sword became a single hand of a clock, pointing at its target.
I opened my mouth.
“A Hero fights alone.”
The Eternal Five Days had begun.
SSS-Rank Hunter: Must Die to Live (Serialized)
Author | Shin No-ah
Publisher | Kim Ju-hyung
Publishing House | 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 No-ah 2019
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder and may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and 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
—————