SSS-Class Sui**de Hunter - Chapter 86

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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 86. The Reader’s Heart (2)
Chills ran down my spine. Favorability at ninety-five.
And when favorability reached ninety-five, I saw exactly what happened to a person.
“Gongja! Before I beheld you, I was nothing but a blind beggar!”
The Librarian seized my feet, kneading them frantically as she cried out.
“Until I heard your words and voice, I was deaf!”
She lunged at my little toenails with nail clippers, her eyes blazing with fervor.
“You are my light! You are my music!”
The intensity in her gaze was terrifying.
“Since your name is Gongja, I shall joyfully convert to Confucianism! I shall become a scholar devoted to you alone! Ah, to have a friend arriving from afar—is this not a joy! From this day forth, I am a Confucian scholar serving Master Gongja!”
“Stop. Please. Stop.”
What kind of deranged scholar covets another person’s toenails?
I wanted to ask that very question, but then I saw the Librarian’s eyes and understood. There was something dangerous in that gaze—the kind of eyes that would blithely ignore whatever I said. Her breathing had already grown ragged.
“If you keep doing this, I won’t enter the Apocalyptic Record again!”
“……….”
She froze. The Librarian stopped mid-motion, still holding my foot—and the truly horrifying part was that her hands continued kneading even as her body went rigid. Was she insane?
The Librarian fell into contemplation, like a scholar deep in thought.
“Indeed. A valid threat.”
For a moment, I felt relieved that my words had landed.
“But such a thing is impossible given Master Gongja’s character.”
What?
Character analysis?
“Because you know this, Master Gongja—there must be others in different Apocalyptic Records who wither away unjustly, just as the Celestial Demon did. And given your nature, you could not bear to leave them without aid.”
The Librarian smiled.
“Do not underestimate a true devotee. I know Master Gongja better than you know yourself! I can describe in two pages which hand you used when you ate that Bigu Pill on the first day of the Celestial Demon Records, and what expression was on your face……”
Was she truly mad? Yes. She was absolutely mad.
“Now then, Master Gongja. Graciously surrender what must be surrendered! The fact that I have not already put you to sleep with sleeping incense speaks volumes for my conscience.”
“Your conscience certainly astonishes me.”
“Master Gongja, you cannot understand. You have never known what it means to be the object of someone’s affection. Alas, what a bitter fate! A life in which one has never once felt that flutter of the heart—how bleak it is! And such a heart must be so cold! Yet I, your Librarian, must make the effort to understand our bright Gongja……”
“Before I tell you [I hate you], step back.”
Thud.
This time, the Librarian truly stopped.
“Five paces back from me. Now. Or I really will say it.”
“……….”
The Librarian obediently shuffled backward with quick steps.
“And speak to me in your normal tone. This is unsettling. Honestly. And please return my hair and nails.”
“I cannot do such a thing! Such—such an unreasonable demand!”
Her old speech pattern had returned.
The Librarian hugged the silk pouches tightly to her chest, her face crumpling.
“Take my head instead! No, wait—hold on. Master Gongja. That was merely a figure of speech. Please stop making that expression as if you’re actually considering whether to cut off my head……. You’re truly wounding me……”
Like a deflated hamster, the Librarian murmured on.
At last, I managed to calm her down.
After burning the silk pouches filled with those unsettling things (a dreadful shriek echoed out), the Librarian and I finally began to have something resembling a proper conversation.
“Extraordinary.”
The Librarian spoke first, critiquing the newly completed Celestial Demon Records.
“Your devotion to the Celestial Demon was truly admirable! Simply by becoming his disciple, you were able to reach the [ending]. But you did not stop there! The final confrontation with the Demon King… the ultimate martial contest……. Ah, I feel as though I’ve tasted the sweetest chocolate shaved ice.”
“So the Jianghu of the Celestial Demon Records is now incorporated into the twenty-second floor?”
“Indeed.”
The Librarian smiled brightly.
“Other Hunters may now freely access the twenty-second floor. They can study the martial arts manuals stored in the Heavenly Martial Hall and acquire skills as well. All of this is your achievement, Gongja.”
“……….”
I rested my chin in my palm.
“There’s something I’ve been curious about while in the Apocalyptic Record. I’d like to ask you, if I may……”
“Ask whatever you wish! I shall answer nearly anything!”
“Stop casually trying to remove my shoes. Why is the Celestial Demon Records an Apocalyptic Record?”
The Librarian tilted her head. My question seemed unfamiliar to her.
“Why? Hmm. Is there some separate reason why the Celestial Demon Records should be an Apocalyptic Record?”
“I think so.”
I put my shoes back on.
“Do you prefer happy endings, or do you favor tragic ones?”
“Either way, there is no clear victor.”
The Librarian answered without hesitation.
“An ending is the harbor where a life arrives at last. Life can be joyful, or it can be arduous! Readers naturally wish for happiness, but I—I want to embrace even their sorrows and failures as proper conclusions.”
“So even a bad ending is a legitimate ending, then.”
“Indeed, a self-evident truth.”
“That’s precisely why I’m puzzled.”
I caught the Librarian’s wrist as he turned to leave, and snatched the scissors from his hand. The Librarian hopped and bounded, trying to reclaim them, but couldn’t reach high enough.
“Even without my intervention, the Celestial Demon Records reached a proper ending. A bad one, perhaps, but an ending nonetheless.”
……
“You fought to the very end alongside the Murim Alliance Leader. You did your utmost. Even if the Murim Alliance Leader died first and you descended into madness because of it—that too is an ending you arrived at.”
I looked directly into the Librarian’s eyes.
“Why is the Celestial Demon Records classified as an Apocalyptic Record? Why does the death of the Murim Alliance Leader and your madness—your final choice—not count as an ending?”
In truth, this very question had gnawed at me since I read the fairy tale called “Us and Our Scapegoat.” Separate from whether I could accept it or not, that world appeared to have simply met its end according to natural law.
The Constellation fell silent.
Only the breathing of unconscious Hunters drifted quietly through the library. Breath in, breath out… as their chests rose and fell, the Librarian’s face remained expressionless.
“For some reason, I wanted to see a happy ending. Is that not reason enough?”
“If you dislike how the story ended, you could simply rewrite it yourself.”
……
“You’re powerful, are you not? To a Hunter like me, you seem omniscient. Yet instead of rewriting the Apocalyptic Record yourself, you sent us.”
In other words, this Constellation is a reader.
A reader who abhors intervening in stories and merely accepts them as they are. One who refuses to ever assume the position of author—refuses even when capable.
A reader who never intervenes of his own accord.
In short: the Corner Librarian.
“Let me analyze your character, shall I? Someone as meticulous as you would never classify something as an Apocalyptic Record simply because it ended strangely. The Celestial Demon Records, the others—there must be some other reason why Apocalyptic Records are classified as such.”
“…Indeed, you do not let things pass lightly.”
The Librarian smiled bitterly.
“Come with me.”
The Librarian took my hand. With his other hand, he picked up a book.
The title was the Celestial Demon Records.
“…I shall show you the truth of the Apocalyptic Record.”
The Constellation opened the book.
And light consumed my vision.
3
When I opened my eyes, we stood in a world of snow.
Yet there was no need to walk across it. The Librarian still held my hand firmly, and flew through the winter sky with long sleeves billowing like the wings of a wild goose.
“If.”
We crossed the snowy plain.
“If the Zombie Virus had arisen naturally within the Celestial Demon Records as an indigenous plague—had it truly been so—then I would never have classified this place as an Apocalyptic Record, just as you said.”
We crossed the snow-capped mountains.
“That means…”
“The Zombie Virus did not originate here. It is an epidemic that came from the outside world—transmitted from beyond. As though a new continent had been invaded by external forces.”
The Librarian exhaled a plume of white breath.
“There. Do you see it?”
Before us rose a towering peak.
The Spiritual Peak of this world.
At its summit, where it touched the ceiling of heaven, something vast loomed.
[Sparkle senses an ominous presence.]
The Holy Sword at my side trembled violently.
Noticing this, the Librarian spoke.
“Ah. Your blade feels it too, does it? There is nothing strange in that. Your sword was itself once a complete Constellation. People quickly recognize those whose fate resembles their own.”
“A similar fate, you say…”
“Have you ever witnessed a Constellation fall from heaven?”
Falling from heaven. The Demon King of autumn rain. Hunger incarnate.
“Yes, I have.”
“Then have you ever seen the corpse a fallen Constellation leaves behind?”
……
“I thought not.”
The Librarian smiled sadly.
“It is quite a rare sight. Take this opportunity to observe it carefully.”
It was a dragon.
It was the corpse of a dragon.
At the peak of the mountain, a dragon lay dead.
Skin that had once been smooth as silk was charred black. The horns attached to the dragon’s head crumbled like coal. The Wish-Granting Orb, shattered into two pieces, lay buried in the snow.
And.
[Sparkle senses the presence of her sister.]
A single blade was driven straight through its chest.
[Sparkle tells you that it is the Sword of Compassion, the second sister-blade of the Holy Sword!]
From the blade flowed a murky, blackened energy.
In its essential nature, it could be called an aura. Yet it was no ordinary aura. It resembled something that had surrounded the Demon King of Autumn Rain—no, far more turbid than that. The writhing murky energy enveloped the dragon and blanketed the summit of the Snow Mountain. Whenever white snow fell upon the peak, the murky energy infected it, staining it black.
—It hurts…….
Eyes black as pitch.
—I resent this…….
From the eyes of the Yellow Dragon, bereft of all light, came a whimper.
—It hurts. It aches…….
—The pain is unbearable.
—I resent this. I ache. I burn. It hurts…….
I found myself speechless.
“…Didn’t you say it was dead? But it’s still alive right now, isn’t it?”
“It is already dead. What you see and hear there is merely the resentment of a corpse. When an existence reaches the rank of a constellation, even death cannot grant it peace.”
The two of us landed upon the snow peak.
The Yellow Dragon lay nearby, releasing an endless moan.
The Librarian gazed upon some constellation’s final hour with eyes full of sorrow.
“What your party has called the Zombie Virus—that plague is in truth a curse.”
“A curse…….”
“Indeed. A curse left behind by the death of this Gangho Murim’s constellation, the Yellow Dragon dwelling in the Great Lake. A resentment that cannot die even in death. Already perished, yet still bound to flesh, forced to endure the agony of a corpse. When Jianghu warriors became infected by such a curse, they became Gangshi.”
I looked up at the dragon’s corpse.
—It hurts…….
The host of the plague. The source of the curse.
The very disease that destroyed this world began in that corpse.
In the end, my master’s death too was caused by the dragon’s curse.
“…If the constellation didn’t drive the blade through its own chest, then someone killed it.”
“By all reason, it must be so.”
“Who is the killer?”
“You have already guessed at the true culprit.”
I ground my teeth together.
“Repenta Aikim.”
“Indeed.”
The Librarian nodded.
“His epithet is the Star of Slaying Heaven. He is one who wanders beyond the boundaries of worlds, slaying constellations.”
A constellation, Sparkle had once told me, refers to an existence that represents a given world.
“And a world that has lost its constellation is like a fortress that has lost its walls. The likelihood of facing such brazen ruin grows all the higher.”
Apocalyptic Record.
A world whose representative has perished, its inhabitants vanished entirely.
“Why does he kill perfectly intact constellations? If he founded the Aikim Empire, he ought to rule his own realm in peace—why does he ruin innocent worlds?”
“I cannot answer that, I’m afraid.”
The Librarian studied my face intently.
“I am merely a reader. You have called me omniscient, yet it is not true. If anything, I am omniscient yet powerless. I may perceive the truth of worlds, but I do not intervene in them.”
Speaking with self-deprecation, the Librarian suddenly pointed to my waist.
“But you are different.”
To the sword I carried at my side.
“You can intervene—and you are intervening. Whether by will or accident, you mend one by one the things he has broken.”
“…….”
“Once might be called chance. Twice is fate. By the third time, it becomes destiny. You have saved the empire he abandoned, gathered the constellation he shattered, and now you have arrived at a world he destroyed.”
The Librarian spoke on.
“The means by which the Yellow Dragon dwelling in the Great Lake was slain are vile and cruel. An ordinary person could not even touch that blade. But you can. You, Gongja, have woven accident and fate together into a single necessity.”
I gazed once more at the corpse of the Yellow Dragon.
Muttering within my heart.
‘Sparkle.’
The Holy Sword trembled faintly.
[Yes, warrior, Sparkle answers.]
‘How do I take in your sisters?’
[Sparkle explains: I need to draw her out and let her touch the sister swords.]
‘Understood.’
I unsheathed my blade.
The winter air split asunder.
I brought my sword down upon the blade embedded in Yellow Dragon’s chest.
[The Goddess of Protection absorbs her fragment.]
In an instant, my sword was engulfed in light.
SSS-rank: The Hunter Who Dies to Live (Serialized)
Author │ Shin No-ah
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 No-ah 2019
※This work is published by J-Plus Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder. No part of this work may be used in any form or by any means without the permission of the publisher and author.
Violation of this provision 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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