SSS-Class Sui**de Hunter - Chapter 60

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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 60. An Expedition Devoid of Dreams and Hope (2)
2
The Hunters murmured among themselves.
“Wait, what? So all four slots are filled now?”
“But who exactly is that woman?”
“Right? I understand the Pharmacist King, but….”
The Sword Saint’s eyes betrayed discomfort.
“Ah, the young lady from before.”
“Eek…!”
The Pharmacist darted behind me.
Back when the Sword Saint had mistaken me for a murderer of the highest order, she had stood with the Holy Paladin to block his path. The Sword Saint’s killing intent had been so overwhelming then that the timid Pharmacist’s memories of that encounter came rushing back the moment she laid eyes on him.
The Sword Saint seemed to recall that time too, clearing his throat awkwardly.
“Ahem. There’s no need to be so frightened. This man and Sa Wang have already settled their differences.”
“Is, is that so…?”
“It is. But then again….”
The Sword Saint looked at me with a troubled expression.
“Sa Wang, the place we’re about to venture toward is extraordinarily perilous. Did not the Constellation speak of it himself? That death within the Apocalypse is real death. Is it wise to bring that young lady to such a dangerous place?”
“Yes.”
I nodded with confidence.
“She is the finest Pharmacist I know.”
Arguably, the finest Pharmacist currently alive.
-Ugh….
Even the Sword Saint’s inner voice had acknowledged it.
Despite using identical materials, when compared to the shop he’d originally intended to introduce—that of the Pharmacist King standing here—she’d produced fifteen times the quantity and an even higher potency of medicine.
-That fellow can make medicine well enough, but he’s not the best. Now that this young lady is here….
‘Yes.’
Yet the Sword Saint’s expression turned subtle.
“The finest Pharmacist you know, you say….”
I opened his Character Window and read his thoughts.
「Hmm. The recommendation of an extraordinary youth must carry some extraordinary merit, but the world has larger pools than one knows…. Ah yes, the Sword Saint. You speak truth again for the first time in ages. Even a great golden carp dwelling in a creek becomes smaller than the smallest koi once it reaches a river. Yes, I ought to deflate these two youngsters’ connection to the Pharmacist King while I have the chance.」
Wow.
Perhaps because we’d built some rapport over time, and because the Sword Saint had made commitments before me, he didn’t voice it directly—and I could sense the goodwill beneath it all—but still. That old-timer temperament persists, truly.
The other Sword Saint bound to him wore the same look, similarly underestimating the Pharmacist at a glance, just as his counterpart had once done.
And yet there was someone present who displayed that old-timer temperament openly, without a shred of good intent.
“Bah! The finest you know, no less!”
It was the Pharmacist King.
“This is what happens with youngsters! Ha ha, truly. They stumble over a pebble and strut about as though they’ve conquered a mountain. It’s laughable, and it reminds me of myself in my younger days—which I find most distasteful. Tsk tsk.”
Oh ho.
“Pharmacist King, you must understand. Sa Wang is a remarkable individual. His life experience is simply a bit—”
“That’s exactly it! Experience is the most crucial thing, isn’t it! And yet he parades around as though he knows everything without it. This is ridiculous. I’m embarrassed for him. When I was in my twenties and made a billion dollars in Silicon Valley, it was exactly like this. The exact same rotting mindset! Except he doesn’t even know it himself.”
“Come now, temper yourself a bit….”
“Ha ha, quite. I’ve been tempering my temper all along, haven’t I? I’ve held back from saying anything to this youngster’s complaints only because of you, Marcus—because of your face. And now what? He wants to drag along some girl he picked up who knows where, like some trophy. Like a young tech billionaire parading around with a trophy wife.”
“Sa Wang isn’t the type of person to—”
“Isn’t he! Listen here! Look me in the eye and tell me truly! Isn’t he?”
Extraordinary….
What was extraordinary was that such a person existed who could make the great Sword Saint falter. Apparently, in the world of old-timers, a greater old-timer devours the lesser—the food chain of curmudgeons.
Faced with this newly discovered ecological mystery, I found my jaw dropping.
Perhaps because of this, it wasn’t I who answered the ultimate old-timer back.
“I, I don’t mind being called a youngster, but….”
The Pharmacist clutched my collar tightly, her voice trembling.
“Sa, Sa Wang is absolutely not a youngster! He’s an extraordinary person! How, how could he have a rotting mindset like that….”
“Ha ha, look there, Marcus. The way she defends him, just like defending her own husband. This is what youth is. Alas. In my younger days, I thought all such things were virtue, too….”
“Her, her own husband….”
The Pharmacist’s mouth hung open. The absurdity had exceeded her mind’s processing speed.
The Holy Paladin stepped forward to defend her.
“Enough. This Pharmacist is undoubtedly skilled. We came to know her through Sa Wang’s introduction, and the Jakyeongdan itself has received countless excellent medicines from her.”
The Pharmacist King snorted.
“For an organization like the Jakyeongdan, I suppose that’s possible.”
“…Pardon?”
“I’m speaking plainly. With your organization’s budget, would you ever have set foot in my pharmacy? Not knowing the sky, you mistake the ceiling for height. And you don’t even know that ceiling is nothing but a box lid. That shameless demeanor is exactly like me in my younger days, which is why I find it so… tsk tsk.”
The Holy Paladin bit down hard on his lip.
Though the Jakyeongdan was spoken of as one of the Five Great Guilds, it perpetually struggled with funding—a raw nerve she had just touched with cruel precision.
The Pharmacist King waved his hand dismissively, as if shooing away vermin.
“Bah, what’s the point of talking about it? Let’s drop it, drop it. Listening to me whine and hearing you all groan about it—we’re all just exhausted, aren’t we?”
He had a point.
A fair one, too.
‘This old Sword Saint.’
—Heh.
‘It’s enough hearing his nonsense, wouldn’t you say?’
—More than enough. Why are you deliberately embarrassing yourself like this?
I glanced around the Library’s perimeter.
‘It’s not embarrassment.’
As I’d mentioned before, this scene was being streamed live to every Hunter gathered in Babylon Square.
In other words, whether it was a debut or a retirement, this moment was perfectly—perhaps ideally—timed for both.
I turned to the Pharmacist King and spoke.
“Would you care for a match?”
If the Sword Saint’s eyes had conveyed bewilderment, the Pharmacist King’s immediately blazed with fury.
“Ha! Look at that, Marcus. When logic fails, this creature goes straight for the blade—what a rotten sight! It reminds me of my boxing championship days back in my forties.”
“No, I’m not proposing we fight each other.”
I drew medicinal materials from my pouch.
“I’ll provide the materials. The two of you can each craft a medicine from them. Then we compare the finished products—won’t that settle things definitively?”
“Wha—!”
The Pharmacist jumped to her feet.
“Sa Wang! That old fool may have insulted you terribly, and yes, I’m furious about it, but—but he’s someone known as the Pharmacist King, isn’t he? All the Hunters recognize him as a celebrity, and here I am, barely a week since earning my title, and—eek!”
The Pharmacist flinched.
I had placed both hands firmly on her shoulders.
“Pharmacist.”
“Y-yes, yes!”
With my glasses between us, I met her gaze and spoke.
“I believe in you.”
“…Sa Wang.”
“So believe in yourself.”
……
The Pharmacist drew a deep breath. Behind her lenses, her trembling eyes regained their light.
She clenched both fists tightly and nodded with newfound resolve.
“Yes, Sa Wang! I’ll do my best! No—”
She immediately shook her head and corrected herself.
“I’ll win!”
The Pharmacist King watched us both with an expression of utter contempt.
“Tch.”
He shook his head slowly.
“There are always people like that, aren’t there? Those who must taste the sauce to know whether it’s ketchup or blood. Just like me at three years old. Pfft……”
“Strong words. Getting nervous?”
“Oh, young fool. Steel yourself to watch that girl cry her eyes out. I show no mercy to upstarts like her.”
Pharmacist King versus Pharmacist.
A historic clash had begun.
3
When the match started, the Hunters’ reaction was cynical.
“Obviously the Pharmacist King will win.”
“That old man’s pharmacy is so expensive his bookings are backed up nearly a month.”
“What’s the connection between them anyway? Sa Wang’s pushing it pretty hard if you ask me.”
“Sa Wang and Pharmacist King—even if they share the title, experience tells a different story.”
Entirely predictable reactions.
“Those betting on the Pharmacist King over here! Those betting on the Pharmacist over here!”
Meanwhile, the Count seized the opportunity without hesitation, rolling out a betting pool.
Two bookmark maids—apparently coerced at some point—stood dutifully with collection boxes.
“Sa Wang, you sure about this? The betting odds are running 1.08 to 47 right now.”
The Black Dragon Lord approached and whispered to me.
“That works nicely. Just put enough on the Pharmacist to cover a little spending money, but not so much the odds collapse too badly.”
“…Sa Wang, you’re the one who said this is all being streamed live.”
The witch’s expression was grave beyond measure.
“If that Pharmacist you recommended gets utterly destroyed, if that happens…….”
“It’ll all be broadcast live to Babylon and the entire world. No, the internet’s probably already in an uproar right now.”
I wondered what I would have written in the comments back then, in my old life.
Would I have left comments like how I wanted to become the Pharmacist King too, or something along those lines?
Lost in such idle thoughts, the witch pressed her palm against her forehead.
“Sa Wang, if that happens, you’ll take damage to your reputation too. Are you really sure about this?”
“I do feel a bit sorry toward that old Pharmacist King fellow.”
Though, to be perfectly honest, I don’t feel sorry at all.
If he was going to speak carelessly, he should bear the consequences too, shouldn’t he?
Isn’t that the true spirit of respecting hierarchy?
The witch looked back and forth between me and the Pharmacist with an ambiguous expression. Just as I was wondering what she was thinking and considered opening her Character Window to check, it happened.
“It’s done, you brat!”
The Pharmacist King.
He held aloft the potion he had created and announced it with finality.
“Bow your heads before my magnificent creation!”
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[Special Grade Recovery Potion]
Rarity Grade: Special Grade
Crafter: Pharmacist King
Description: It tastes a bit bitter going down, but once you drink it, it should be able to heal even fairly fatal wounds. Of course, since it’s a Recovery Potion, you’ll need to account for aftereffects and rest somewhere safe afterward. In any case, the skill required to produce such a potion is truly impressive!
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A chorus of amazement swept through the Library.
“It’s a Special Grade Recovery Potion!”
“Unbelievable. A Special Grade Recovery Potion pulled off just like that. Truly worthy of the Pharmacist King. The King never dies, I tell you.”
“Pharmacist King! Is there any chance you’d sell that to me!”
“No cutting in line! Pharmacist King! I have the highest priority on the reservation list! I’ll buy it!”
The Pharmacist King thrust his chin upward, his gaze alternating between me and the Pharmacist. His expression seemed to say: Now do you understand that you’ve both touched the tiger’s whiskers, and that you’ll both pay dearly for it?
That was when it happened.
“Ah… I’ve finished mine too…….”
The Pharmacist held up the potion she had created.
+
[Soma Strawberry]
Rarity Grade: Semi-Mythic
Crafter: Pharmacist
Description: Wait, it tastes like strawberry! There’s no strawberry in it at all—so why does it taste like strawberry? And what is this efficacy! As long as storage conditions are maintained, this could even reattach severed body parts without aftereffects! What exactly did you create!
+
Silence blanketed the Library.
SSS-Rank: The Hunter Who Must Die to Live (Ongoing Serialization)
Author │ Shin Noa
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, Daeloong Post Tower 1st Building)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
ⓒ Shin Noa 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 the permission of the company and author.
Violation of this may result in civil and criminal 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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