SSS-Class Sui**de Hunter - Chapter 38

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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 38. The Warrior’s Epithet (2)
3
On a day when rain fell, it opened its eyes.
It had no name. It had no form. It would have been more fitting to call it a shadow. On a day when rain fell, some shadow opened its eyes, and the moment it did, it beheld the first creature to be reflected in its sight.
—Croak.
It did not know what this creature was. There was much it did not know. Only the sound… the sound of rain. From all around, the sound of croaking grew thick and pervasive.
The rainwater carried a sweet fragrance.
Like a serpent—though it did not yet know what a serpent was—it crawled toward the creature before it by pure instinct. Slither. Slither. The creature was unaware of what approached. Unaware, it gazed upward at the rainwater and cried out.
The creature, too, shed a sweet fragrance.
It opened its mouth. In an instant. The creature that had chirped so prettily was, in that single moment, swallowed whole into its jaws. Croak! Because it had no teeth, the creature’s body did not tear. It simply dissolved. Fallen into the stomach, pooling in the digestive tract, it melted slowly away.
Rain fell.
When the creature pooled in its stomach had fully dissolved into a pulpy mess, it realized that hind legs had grown from its body. Front legs had grown as well. What the legs stepped upon was earth, and what they could not step upon was sky. Rain joined sky and earth together. The world grew a little clearer.
Ah.
The sensation of raindrops falling upon smooth, green skin and shattering into fragments. Touch. A premonition of life.
—Croak.
It opened its mouth and let out a cry of joy.
—Croak.
Rain fell.
It wanted to live a little longer.
4
The first time was a single strike.
Shaaaang!
My eyes could not even properly track the attack. And this despite having drunk the Time-Dilation Elixir. I had stretched one second into an eternity, yet the Demon King’s strike was faster than my stretched second.
[You are dead.]
[Regressing 24 hours.]
One day.
I marked my palm with a black marker, drawing a single stroke. So that one day, far in the future, I would not forget how many days had passed. Like a convict exiled to some prison, leaving numbered evidence of freedom lost.
—Zombie.
Yeah.
—The bastard’s swordsmanship itself isn’t anything special.
This is a prison. The Prison of Time.
—It’s more like he’s just swinging with ridiculous amounts of force. Of course, that alone is terrifying. Mostly, if you’re strong enough, you can smash through anything. But……
“But if I know the direction of the attack, I can dodge it, right?”
—That’s it.
What if I proceeded through the quest in an ordinary manner?
In the previous cycle, on that battlefield that rushed like a torrential current, how many soldiers had truly died?
Every time a single soldier falls, at least twenty years of remaining life vanishes. A human being who could have lived twenty more years dies in vain.
If ten die, two hundred years are gone.
If a hundred die, two thousand years.
I chose no role, grasped at no purpose, merely to procure that much time.
I stood before the Demon King with but a single sword in hand.
So then, this one body.
[You are dead.]
[Regressing 24 hours.]
I steeled myself for eternal exile.
—But the problem is, even knowing the direction, do you have the skill to dodge it? Weakling! You corpse of a zombie!
“Oh, be quiet, would you?”
—Hehehehe.
[You are dead.]
[Regressing 24 hours.]
Returning to one day, I repeated that same day again.
More than merely repeating, I reviewed the battles that had passed.
I studied them.
—Your use of Aura is still clumsy. That’s your problem. Just concentrate the Aura in your legs to evade, and you’re done.
“But when I try to move while focusing on my legs, my stance collapses.”
—That’s why you need to let Aura flow through your thighs, waist, and shoulders too. In balance.
“I know, but easier said than done……”
[You are dead.]
[Regressing 24 hours.]
—If you can’t do it, then die.
“Damn it.”
Another day passed.
And another.
“How dare you.”
How many times now had I faced the Demon King’s wrathful voice?
“You must observe proper order, Warrior of the Goddess. To arrive here without making any choice—such impudence. Only one who inherits the imperial crown may….”
“Right, let’s go another round then.”
“What?”
Tired of this back-and-forth, I drank the Time-Dilation Elixir without further words. Within the slowing seconds, I rushed at the Demon King and swung my blade. Clang! My strike was effortlessly blocked by his sword.
“You….”
“The Warrior slays the Demon King.”
[You have died.]
“The Demon King slays the Warrior.”
[You have died.]
“What more needs to be said?”
……
“Come, Demon King.”
[You have died.]
“I am the Sword of the Empire.”
“Good!”
[You have died.]
“Then prove it before me!”
[You have died.]
“Show me your proof!”
“Very well.”
[You have died.]
“I shall demonstrate it.”
[Regressing 24 hours.]
This world had stopped.
In the stopped world, only my blade could measure time.
My sword was the sole second hand.
For this world to flow one second forward, my blade had first to move one stroke further.
I was merely a blade that lived for one second.
Yet this world drew breath once more, balanced upon that single second of mine.
As a river must flow drop by drop before its waters can overflow and inundate even the sky’s foundations,
So too must I live through seconds, even if I wished to live forever.
I lived my life.
“Well done, Kim Gongja!”
One day.
“Unbelievable! We’re about to clear the Stage in less than an hour!”
Then another.
“Probably fewer than forty Hunters died!”
And at some point,
“Maybe even fewer than that… oh, nothing could be better than this!”
The Black Witch’s words began to change, little by little.
Floor 11 Stage.
Taking the Black Dragon’s hand and transferring together to smash the Boss Monster—a ritual Quest that had to be endured to repeat the day. After dying and living through days facing the Demon King, Floor 11 itself was gradually transforming.
Bit by bit.
“Well done, Kim Gongja! Unbelievable! We’re about to clear the Stage in less than fifty minutes! And your suggestion to reinforce the right flank by having that Tomundeu—the shield soldier—cooperate was perfect! Probably fewer than thirty Hunters died!”
Yet unmistakably.
“Less than forty minutes! Maybe fewer than twenty Hunters died!”
Faster, bit by bit.
More efficient.
More lethal.
Each day I repeated, the Black Witch’s face grew brighter. Her voice warmed. Compared to the Witch a year ago, who spoke of fifty deaths, the Witch yesterday—laughing that maybe fewer than twenty died—seemed somehow happier.
“Ah….”
I died that day.
“It’s impossible… well done, Kim Gongja! You only said to heal that knight, Jeshuar, and have him face the Golem alongside you, but ah, perhaps… fewer than ten even died…. Is this possible. It was possible. In a battlefield like this, yes. It was possible….”
I lived that day.
“You.”
One day, the Demon King asked me a question.
—Why do you smile like that?
“Like what?”
—I asked why you were smiling.
I smiled.
“Because I’m happy.”
My heart quickened.
“I smile because I’m happy.”
The Demon King drew his sword.
—Can one who is about to die know happiness?
“You don’t understand. No one ever will.”
—How arrogant, Warrior of the Goddess.
“Perhaps I’m simply humble.”
I swung my blade.
—What a pity.
His sword found my flesh.
[You have died.]
[Regressing 24 hours.]
But I did not surrender.
There was no reason to.
My blade is faster today than it was yesterday.
Tomorrow it will be faster still.
Because I live.
Because I am alive.
“…….”
That day arrived without warning.
The Black Witch took my hand. A firm grip. She didn’t know it, but my palm bore countless marks—a hundred of them, etched in black ink. To me, they were like wrinkles with no other story to tell.
Wrinkles that marked how many days I had spent imprisoned in the Prison of Time.
“Just now…….”
Her voice trembled.
“Just now I checked. Kim Gongja. Not a single—”
The hand she held in mine was shaking too.
“Not a single one. No one died.”
The trembling became a sob.
“I checked everywhere—even the Pantheon. No bodies……. There are idiots with arrows in their forearms, morons who got careless, but… but still, not one death.”
Black Dragon.
The guild that has reigned supreme since the day the tower opened to this world.
The Ranking 2 Hunter who commands Black Dragon—the Black Witch has challenged Floor 10 dozens of times. Each time she failed. The Ranking 2 Hunter was defeated, yet still she brought every hunter on those expeditions home alive.
That was the kind of person she was.
“Thank you…….”
She rested her face against mine.
“Really, thank you…….”
The Black Witch was crying.
And laughing at the same time.
I wanted to live a little longer.
Yes.
Time flows.
It flows within my heart.
—How dare you!
So long as my heart beats, I will swing my blade.
—How dare you think you alone can stand against me! Without even the Empire’s aid!
“So be it.”
A vast plain.
At the center of frozen time and a world suspended in stillness.
With a heart that does not stop and a blade that will not freeze, I faced my enemy.
“That’s what warriors do anyway. Fight alone.”
—Fool!
The Demon King’s wrath erupted.
It had no name. It had no form. Better to call it a shadow. The shadow raised a greatsword the color of blood high above its head. The blade sang through the fouled air and came crashing down upon me.
I dodged.
—You bastard…!
The next strike too.
And the one after that.
—My shadow is your malice!
That was when the change came.
The Demon King swung his crimson Greatsword. That fourth blow—the one that had held back my new second for nearly a year—shattered with the sharp crack of breaking glass. The blade that had been bearing down shattered into fragments of light and fell back.
“Sorry, Kim Gongja.”
Someone had alighted softly beside me.
Long black hair fluttered and swayed lightly in the air.
“I was trying to stay put in the Audience Chamber like you asked, but I was getting so restless I thought I’d go mad.”
The master of the Black Dragon.
The Black Witch smiled, her lips curling upward.
“A bit longer and I’d have died of boredom, so I thought, why did he ask us for help if he’s going to have all the fun, and I followed along… Hmm. Playing a little game all by yourself, are you?”
“A hero’s game.”
“Enjoying it?”
I laughed too.
“It’s absolutely thrilling.”
“Well, you’ve found yourself quite the beast worth hunting.”
Five Mirrors rose into the air.
“Can’t let you have all the fun. I’m joining in.”
“Really? I’ve already got this wrapped up. Since when do you steal someone else’s kill?”
“Don’t you know? Stealing another’s prey is the most delicious thing in the world.”
“Can’t argue with that.”
Laughter echoed across the desolate Plain.
—These wretches….
The Demon King snarled.
Perhaps that’s what makes a Demon King—an existence that cannot laugh along.
“My apologies, friend.”
I swung my blade.
“I was planning to take you on alone, but thinking about it… the real way for a hero to triumph is with overwhelming numbers against the Demon King. That’s how legends are written, isn’t it? A time-honored tradition worth respecting.”
—You dare cloud the heavens with such cheap tricks!
Squelch.
The filthy ichor that covered the Demon King’s body roiled and churned.
—I shall cross blades no longer!
The ichor poured forth to the earth.
Whether the fluid flowing from within the Demon King’s body was infinite or not, it rushed and streamed across the ground, in moments staining the entire Plain black.
It was as though an enormous shadow had been cast upon the land.
—Hundred Ghosts, answer to my call.
Squelch. Thrash.
The shadow roiled up and frothed at the mouth.
—Kir-kir-rkk!
—Keh-ek, kiii!
Each bubble in that writhing shadow was a monster. Black ichor took form and substance.
Some foam became goblins, others orcs.
A single orc shook its head, flinging off the ichor. As the foam ran clear, thousands of monsters stood arrayed across the Plain, surrounding us.
—Kroooooo!
The beasts roared savagely.
“This is…”
The Black Witch looked about and furrowed her brow.
“This isn’t something the three of us can manage. Sword Saint! What are you standing there gawping for? Help instead of just watching.”
“I was planning to observe a bit longer. Less than thirty seconds have passed since the young man and that ichor began their duel. Who could have foreseen it summoning monsters like this?”
The Sword Saint, who had watched over me for thirty-plus weeks, drew his blade as he spoke.
“Makes sense. I was thinking I could hold out for a minute myself before calling for aid.”
I answered with a laugh, having endured the weight of his gaze for more than thirty weeks.
“Men, really… Never mind. Kim Gongja, take my hand. We’re getting out of here. Sword Saint! Come quick. Don’t you see the sheer number of them?”
The Black Witch extended her hand toward me with an impatient flourish.
“No, thank you.”
But I did not take that hand.
The Black Witch’s eyes narrowed in puzzlement.
Instead of answering her unspoken question.
I intoned the words in a low whisper.
“Hundred Ghosts Summoning.”
A pause.
The Demon King froze, caught off guard.
-You. What did you just—
But before the Demon King could finish, a voice reached me first.
[Skill activated.]
A voice that bore witness to what I was.
The Plain inverted itself.
SSS-Rank Hunter: Must Die to Live (Serial)
Author │ Shin Noah
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]
Website │ 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. No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without the express permission of the publisher and author.
Violation of this restriction may result in criminal and civil 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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