SSS-Class Sui**de Hunter - Chapter 69

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

Episode 69. A World Where the Constellations Are Dead (1)
1
On a winter’s day.
So Baek-hyang crossed the Snowy Plain following her mother.
The sky hung low and heavy. Snow poured down in thick curtains. Within the swirling storm, a person was barely more than a shadow.
Even her mother’s back was faint, ghost-like.
So Baek-hyang raised her voice.
Mother!
Fear gripped her suddenly. The roar of the wind was too loud. Her own cry was swallowed by it, barely carrying at all.
Mother!
Her mother’s shadow remained distant.
So Baek-hyang felt urgency rising in her chest.
To catch up, she had to walk faster. But the faster she walked, the more breath abandoned her. The faster she went, the smaller her voice became. What should she do?
Ah……
Should she stop calling out and walk quicker instead? Or should she stop walking altogether and cry out with all her might?
The young Celestial Demon did not know.
And in that not-knowing, the shadow grew a little more distant.
Mother!
At last, So Baek-hyang stopped.
Mother!
With her feet still, her voice did gain some strength. Until now, she realized, she had been robbing her voice of air by spending it all on walking. Surely now her mother would turn and look back at her, and the shadow would become clear again by that same measure.
But what was this?
The shadow moved further away.
It receded even as she cried out.
Soon her mother’s silhouette was buried in the snow squall, indistinguishable from the plain itself.
……
Had her mother abandoned her?
Had she intended this to be a natural parting, using the crossing as a pretext?
Or had her mother simply lost her in the white?
So Baek-hyang did not know.
Could not know.
2
[You have died.]
When I opened my eyes after a moment of darkness,
I found myself in an endless, lightless void.
[Through death, the skill condition is met.]
[Randomly copying So Baek-hyang’s skill.]
My hell.
[Forming Skill Card.]
Cards materialized before my eyes.
But for now, they weren’t what mattered to me.
I took a breath and spoke to Backhoe Spirit.
‘Did you memorize the Research Documents?’
Backhoe Spirit scratched the back of his head. ‘More or less.’

The research documents that Medicine Master and Medicine King had desperately compiled and written down—those were crucial. But while the Celestial Demon had been consumed by demonic possession and running amok, I hadn’t been able to calmly memorize their contents.
I continued, ‘Between what you’ve memorized and what I have, we should be able to piece most of it together. We need to get back before we forget, but……’
‘Okay. Let’s pick the skill first then.’
Backhoe Spirit moved through the air and recited the backs of the cards for me. The Celestial Demon’s skills were numerous, but one in particular caught our attention.

+
[Demonic Heavenly Divine Art]
Rank: A+
Effect: The Demonic Sect. They despise the laws of heaven. They curse them. Yet they did not stop at mere hatred and curses—they founded a sect, and finally crystallized a doctrine. The Demonic Heavenly Divine Art is a martial discipline that embodies the very essence of that teaching.
One who awakens the Demonic Heavenly Divine Art can rend the heavens and crush mountains! However, one must deeply understand the hatred and curses woven into every form of this art.
The more one despises and curses the world, the more heaven will pale. Thus, one who grasps the ultimate truth of the Demonic Heavenly Divine Art—such a being is the Celestial Demon who shall overturn the heavens themselves.
※However, channeling this art makes it difficult to maintain one’s sense of self.
+
The Demonic Heavenly Divine Art.
The name was ostentatious beyond measure, yet I found I could not mock it.
‘…Is this the martial art we saw earlier?’
Because it was truly that formidable.
From a distance, merely swinging a sword, and the Medicine King’s head fell. Viper couldn’t endure even three exchanges before she died. Even I, who had grown reasonably tempered through fighting the Demon King of Autumn Rain, couldn’t follow the sword path the Celestial Demon unfolded with my eyes.
Truly, the finest technique under heaven.
—Tsk. A typical demonic art.
The Backhoe Spirit’s brow furrowed.
—In the end, whether martial art or truth, it all comes down to how one contends with the world.
‘Contend with the world?’
—Indeed. If one seeks to embrace the world generously, that is ordinarily the Orthodox path. If one seeks to claw at the world, that becomes the Demonic Sect. So Orthodox martial artists forge their bodies as vessels to receive the world, while the Demonic Sect dogs forge themselves as nails to tear it…….
Hmm, said the Backhoe Spirit, folding his arms.
—I’ll give you the simplest example. An overhead downward cut—what some schools call the Tiger Stance Strike, as if a tiger were charging. That’s what they name it.
Whoosh!
The Backhoe Spirit took his stance and swept his arms wide.
‘……!’
For just an instant, I flinched. I truly felt the momentum of a fierce beast charging.
He was strong.
His manner of speech and appearance were so pitiful that I sometimes forgot, but the Backhoe Spirit before me was the Sword Master. A warrior who had nearly conquered the tower wielding a single blade.
—Well, in truth whether tiger or ox or anything else matters little. The founder of a martial school achieves some enlightenment, and from that the forms vary infinitely. In any case, the key is to imitate a tiger or an ox, even imperfectly.
To imitate. To mimic.
And thus to make something of the world one’s own.
What the Backhoe Spirit meant by “embracing the world” was precisely this.
—But demonic arts are different.
The Backhoe Spirit took his stance again.
The same posture as before when he swept his arms.
—The Demonic Sect teaches forms thus:
He stomped his foot with a sharp breath.
—Recall the moment a bandit’s blade pierced your belly. The rage.
Empty space itself split asunder.
Faced with that, I found myself stepping backward without thought.
His face.
That was precisely why.
A boundless cold fury hung upon his impassive expression.
As if he had become an entirely different person.
—Recall the moment your younger sister was dragged before the County Magistrate. Remember your own weakness, helpless to act. You stood vacant all night before the magistrate’s office, yet at dawn she returned merely as a cold corpse. Picture her face in your heart.
The Backhoe Spirit began his sword dance.
Though he held no blade, somehow I could see his sword. It was as black as the space where we stood.
—Relive the moment you buried your sister’s body alone. Was it winter? Had the earth frozen hard, resisting the spade? Did you scrape that unyielding ground with your fingertips? Did your nails break? Did blood flow from the broken nails?
‘…….’
—Did you lay your sister’s corpse in a grave you could barely excavate? Did you bury her feet first? Did you heap that cold earth upon her body? Her face left uncovered to the end—with your own hands, did you scatter the soil grain by grain, handful by handful?
I couldn’t breathe.
As the Backhoe Spirit’s sword dance continued, the infinite space seemed to narrow by the span of a hand with each motion. My head grew faintly dizzy. What should have been mere gestures and arm movements—the resentment that poured from the Backhoe Spirit thrummed in the air.
—Feel the texture of those grains of earth. Grip the sword with the hands that clawed the ground. Sweep the blade with the gesture that scattered soil upon your sister. Lament your impotence. Curse the cruelty of the world.
I moaned, murmuring:
‘Nails that claw the world…….’
—Yes.
The Backhoe Spirit withdrew his arms.
At last my breath came free.
—A heart method for channeling inner power, you might say? Simply put, it is the way to stir and drive the mind. Whether a martial artist or a Hunter, victory comes down to how well one commands inner power or aura.
The Backhoe Spirit shrugged as if it were nothing.
—In plain terms, it’s a battle of momentum. Demonic arts just have thicker momentum.
‘…….’
—Anyway, there’s no need for you, a zombie, to learn it.
I gazed quietly at the silver Skill Card.
—No, there’s no need to learn any other martial art whatsoever. Who am I? Am I not the Sword Master? The finest martial artist in this universe, that’s who. You likely don’t understand, but you’re already slowly mastering my supreme technique! The Demonic Heavenly Divine Art or whatever—compared to this body’s art, it’s nothing but garbage…….
‘I want to learn it.’
—…What?
The Backhoe Spirit blinked.
‘I’ll learn it. This one. The Demonic Heavenly Divine Art.’
—Uh… uh, uh… uh, uh, uh…….
Blink. Blink.
It took Backhoe Spirit roughly three seconds to find his voice again.
—Why?
‘Because I want to learn, sir.’
—Compared to my martial art, this is pathetic garbage, I’m telling you!
Backhoe Spirit began to flail about.
—Don’t tell me you, zombie, got seduced by that sword dance that the Celestial Demon performed earlier? Christ. I’m losing it. That was just her pouring her True Qi into a momentary transcendence between life and death! It’s an illusion—a True Qi high! Listen here, zombie. A martial artist must never get drunk on True Qi!
I let out a soft laugh.
‘Are you upset because I’m trying to learn from someone other than you, sir?’
—What the—?
‘Don’t worry. Of course your martial art is the strongest in the universe. Would I really try to learn the Demonic Heavenly Divine Art if I didn’t know that?’
—Mm…….
Backhoe Spirit sniffed loudly.
It seemed my gentle flattery had satisfied his pride after all. This spirit really is easy to handle, I have to say.
—Right. I am the strongest. …But then why are you trying to learn the Demonic Sect’s divine art?
‘To perfectly clear this Stage, sir.’
In other words, to bring a proper ending to this world.
‘Say a cure is made. Even then, we’d only save the Celestial Demon and the Martial Alliance Leader—two people. As for the other humans, they’ve been dead for over two years now. They won’t simply come back to life just because we treat them, will they?’
—Hmm.
Backhoe Spirit’s brow furrowed.
—You’re right about that.
‘Then how does the ending play out? In this reborn new world, the Martial Alliance Leader and the Celestial Demon become Adam and Eve? Sir, does that look like a good ending to you?’
—…….
Backhoe Spirit’s face twisted into a grimace.
He was probably picturing the Celestial Demon and the Martial Alliance Leader as a married couple in his mind.
—No, that’s… that’s not right. I can’t even imagine the two of them as some lovey-dovey couple. It makes me uncomfortable…….
‘Right?’
I gazed at the space before me.
[Please select a Skill Card.]
Whoosh! Shwiiick!
Cards scattered chaotically through the air. But I had already marked one for myself. My eyes never left the silver card.
‘Making the cure is merely the first condition necessary for creating a good ending. What a truly satisfying conclusion really comes down to is whether the characters in the work can actually be satisfied…….’
I reached out and snatched the card.
‘I want to give the Celestial Demon and the Martial Alliance Leader an ending that’s perfectly satisfying.’
[Selection complete.]
[Skill copying in progress.]
Of course, it didn’t end there.
[Currently your Hunter Rank is D-Rank.]
[A penalty will occur due to the Skill.]
The nightmare the Celestial Demon possessed.
The resentment pooled in her heart.
Another hell I would have to cross.
[The trauma of the enemy who killed you will be recreated.]
[Penalty severity: Moderate.]
Yet this was not the first hell I would traverse, and it would not be the last.
[The Path of Hungry Ghosts.]
I would have the chance to speak calmly of the landscape of that hell I crossed.
3
After returning to one day before.
I committed suicide eight more times.
So that we could return to the ‘first day’ we fell into the apocalypse.
“…It’s freezing!”
Just like the last loop, Viper cried out in shock. Medicine Master and Medicine King instinctively wrapped their arms around themselves. A terrible cold descended upon our group.
Howwwwl!
A blizzard roared past with a mournful wail. Achoo! Medicine Master was already beginning to cough.
“W-what’s with this cold? Wasn’t this supposed to be the Martial World?”
“Eek. What is this, the Siberian steppe…….”
A snowy plain stretched before us.
For me, a sight I’d grown accustomed to over the past ten days.
But the others panicked and fumbled about, and I silently took Medicine Master’s hand.
“Ah.”
The Medicine Master bowed carefully.
“Th-thank you. Sa Wang.”
……
A memory, not long past, flashed across my mind.
「I’m still trusting you.」
The Medicine Master’s upper body scattered across the Snowy Plain. And the snow turned a vivid red. My heart twisted slightly.
I spoke quietly, betraying nothing.
“It’s only natural. The Heavenly Martial Sect leader should look after the Medicine King.”
“Of course!”
“And just now, I glimpsed a human silhouette back there.”
Unlike the previous loop, this time I led the group forward. Before long, the blizzard subsided, and before us stretched not a forest of human silhouettes—but a forest of corpses.
Viper looked bewildered.
“…What are these things? Why are all the humans frozen?”
“They look like zombies.”
I examined one of the corpses’ faces.
“Huh? Zombies?”
“Yes, look here.”
I pointed to the zombie’s mouth—specifically, its teeth.
“There are bits of flesh caked between the teeth. Perhaps people here don’t have the habit of brushing after meals, but even so, this is excessive. It suggests something was torn apart like an animal would tear it…….”
……
The Medicine Master’s expression changed at my words.
With a far more serious gaze, she examined the corpse’s mouth. After a moment, her face went pale.
“…It’s true. The DNA of this corpse’s owner doesn’t match the flesh in its mouth. They’re completely different people.”
“Could it be… they ate human flesh?”
The Medicine King looked queasy.
“Well, people in the old days ate human flesh too. Not zombies, but…….”
“The dates of death don’t add up.”
The Medicine Master adjusted her glasses.
“This corpse died approximately three years ago. But the owner of the flesh died two years ago. It would be impossible for a corpse to move and live for a full year without that. It’s difficult to imagine, but… yes, I suspect, as Sa Wang said, that something like a zombie—a creature that shouldn’t exist—is what we’re dealing with.”
“I-I absolutely hate the kind of monsters that show up in horror movies! Do something about it!”
“A-ah, sir. Even if you tell me that…….”
The Medicine Master’s face twisted with difficulty.
‘Okay.’
Things were progressing far faster than in the previous loop.
Even if the zombies began to move as they had before, we wouldn’t be thrown into panic this time. Whether you anticipate what’s coming or not—that alone changes how people react entirely.
More than anything.
Hm.
My mind held the research results from the past several days.
“Medicine Master, Medicine King.”
“Yes?”
“Mm?”
“I have an unusual Skill. I can’t tell you what it is, but according to my Skill’s analysis…….”
I explained the research findings step by step.
My memory wasn’t perfect. I couldn’t have memorized those Research Documents in a single pass. But when I died to the Celestial Demon and went back twenty-four hours, I had time to carefully commit the Research Documents to memory once more.
The Backhoe Spirit even helped me memorize them.
Mmmm……
After hearing my explanation, the Medicine Master fell silent in thought.
“…That’s remarkable. It’s a perfect research method. There’s not a single flaw. It’s as if I did it myself… but the terminology is completely different from mine. No, it’s truly, truly amazing. Sa Wang, you possess a tremendous Skill, don’t you……?”
The Medicine Master looked at me with wonder in her eyes.
In my position, it was as if the Medicine Master were praising herself.
So that’s it. She sees herself as ‘truly, truly amazing.’ In this bleak world, isn’t it possible that such confidence is what’s truly remarkable? At least, that’s how I see it.
“Well, it’s good that we’ve shortened the research time, isn’t it?”
The Medicine King took it in stride.
“In any case, I’d like to stay far away from those zombies. Mm. If there were somewhere warm to rest, that would be nice…….”
Then.
“…Uahahaha!”
Laughter echoed through the air.
In the previous loop, I couldn’t tell who was laughing. But not this time. The Martial Alliance Leader—the elder patriarch of the Nam-goong Clan—was the one who’d burst into laughter.
“The Demonic Sect’s reign ends today!”
Ha.
And then.
“Even a stray dog passing by would laugh.”
The Celestial Demon’s voice reached me as well, of course.
“…….”
I held my breath and moved toward the direction of her voice. Crunch. Snow crystals crunched beneath my shoe. The closer her voice drew, the sharper a memory became in my mind—a moment when the Celestial Demon had once confessed her heart to me.
「I am afraid.」
“As long as I remain intact, the Demonic Sect’s reign over the world endures.”
「The world is a terrifying thing indeed.」
“Bu Wol-seon. It is you who shall bid farewell to the Orthodox Martial World.”
「Where is Nam-goong Un! Summon the Patriarch of the Nam-goong Clan! Bring me the Martial Alliance Leader!」
The strongest under heaven.
The most powerful being in this world.
And precisely because of that, a woman who survived to the final moment.
A martial master who, in the saddest sense, realized Supreme Under Heaven; Solitary Supremacy.
“Huh.”
That martial master still wore a smile.
Still flashing that confident laugh, standing in the heart of the Snowy Plain, facing this world alone.
Like a single dot marked upon a blank page.
“Your tongue is quite long indeed, old fool. My blood servants received my orders to venture outside for a time; they have merely stepped out. Hmm?”
I simply.
Hoped that single dot would connect into a line.
“Who are you……?”
The Celestial Demon’s eyes widened. She watched in disbelief as I walked toward her. It made sense. From her perspective, I was the first living person she had encountered in years.
“What, what now. Am I seeing things? As if a living person were moving…….”
“Celestial Demon.”
I arrived before the woman.
And slowly knelt down.
The cold snow beneath me settled gently under my weight.
“Eh?”
“From distant lands beyond the world, I heard of your magnificence and traced my way here. Since ancient times, I have long cherished the name of the strongest martial master of past and present.”
I did not know how much time it would take from this moment onward.
But I steeled myself and called out to the Celestial Demon.
“Please accept me as your disciple!”
“…….”
The Celestial Demon’s mouth fell open as if she had seen a ghost.
SSS-Rank Hunter: Must Die to Live (serialized)
Author | Sin No-ah
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, Daelungpostower 1st Building)
Email | [email protected]
Homepage | www.jayplemedia.com
ⓒ Sin No-ah 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 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
—————