SSS-Class Revival Hunter - Chapter 2

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ SSS-Class Revival Hunter ◈

Chapter 2: However, You will Die! (1)

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Skills.

A word that has made countless hunters weep.

The condition for awakening a skill differs for each person.

-I whacked a scarecrow in the training ground 10,000 times. Then, it just appeared on its own?
-One day, suddenly, I heard the voice of a god!
-Magic? When I entered the tower, it just happened.

There were hunters who had both integrity and perseverance but lacked the talent, struggling at the bottom. On the other hand, there were those with terrible personalities who lived off their natural talent.

A prime example was the Rank 1 Flame Emperor.

If life were a game, the Flame Emperor's would probably be a smash hit where skill was everything. Whatever he wanted, he could obtain through his own ability.

My life... was just a run-of-the-mill shitty game ruled by luck.

"Uwaaaaack!"

How long had I been wandering aimlessly after leaving the bar?

In a deserted alleyway, I finally threw up everything.

"If I was going to have no luck, fuck... I might as well have had none at all."

When is the biggest moment of despair in gaming?

Anyone who has played a mobile game with paid pulls would know.

It's not when you keep spinning the gacha and don't get a 5-star... It's when you do get a 5-star, but it's the worst one possible. Like a 5-star that's worse than a 3-star.

And my 5-star was even worse than a 1-star.

[I Want to Become Just Like You]

Rank: S+

Effect: Automatically activated when killed by an enemy. You copy one of the skills of the enemy that killed you and make it yours. You may not copy from an opponent you’ve already copied from. The copied skill is selected randomly.

*However, you will die!

"Sob. Damn it..."

Right. My life was indeed a game of lousy luck.

Normally, a Hunter had to report an awakened skill to the Hunter Association. But I did not report mine. I felt too bitter and humiliated, and I was too embarrassed to show anyone that this was my skill.

- "Hello, Hunter. How did you awaken your skill?"

- "I was jealous of the Rank 1."

- "Pardon?"

- "I was so envious and jealous that I thought I would go insane, and then a skill appeared as if the Tower were saying, 'Here, take this.' Apparently, my jealousy is uglier than anyone else's in history. Haha."

How could I say something like that!

In the end, I just got drunk and staggered in a secluded alley.

'...Where is this?'

But even that, I couldn't do well. Before I knew it, I had wandered into a completely unfamiliar alley. I had no recollection of where it was or how I ended up there.

Could I end up sleeping on the alley floor like this?

'Ah. How pitiful.'

Just as I swallowed my tears.

From the other end of the alley, a faint scream reached my ears.

"......Please, agh! Why all of a sudden......!"

The drowsiness instantly vanished. It was too vivid to be a hallucination induced by rice wine. I didn't know who it was, but it was a real scream of someone whose life was in danger.

'What's that?'

I silenced my footsteps. Instinctively, I even held my breath. One step. Another step. I quietly walked towards the alley where the scream came from. The closer I got, the clearer the voice became.

This was…

"Fl-Flame Emperor. Why are you doing this to me all of a sudden..."

"...It's useless. Anyway, no one's around here..."

This was the second stupid thing I did today.

The first mistake was... obviously, drinking enough to break my mental fuse. I had never been blackout drunk in my entire life. But today was an exception. Angered that the only skill I finally awakened was an S-rank trash, I guzzled down rice wine like water.

The second mistake was not running away as soon as I heard the scream.

"I had already poisoned the cup you drank from."

"Poison? What are you talking about, Flame Emperor?"

"Oh, nice acting. If someone saw you, they'd think you really didn't know."

At the dead end of the alley.

In a place so dark that there wasn't even a street lamp, there was a man and a woman. Perhaps it's strange to simply say 'there was'. The man was threatening the woman, and the woman was being threatened by the man.

"Basilisk’s gastric juice. Originally, it was the poison you put in my drink. Wow. If it weren't for my skill, I would've been in real trouble. Why that look? Your face's gone pale, Saintess."

"Could it be... Perfect Poison Immunity...? No, it can't be. You don't have such a skill."

"I don't."

The man's laughter echoed softly.

"But I do have a skill a little better than Perfect Poison Immunity."

And then, I recognized the man. No matter how dark the alley was, I couldn't fail to recognize the man's back... the swaying ponytail tied back. I had seen the exact same back on TV just last night.

'It's really the Flame Emperor!'

The Rank 1 hunter. The hero of this era. An idol revered by all. And thus, the target of envy and jealousy by many... especially mine.

Moreover.

'That woman is the Saintess!'

I covered my mouth to keep even the sound of my breathing from escaping. The Saintess. The Hunter ranked ninth in the world by the Association, and the subject of recent rumors that she was dating the Flame Emperor. The peerless beauty I had only seen in online videos and photographs was standing there.

"But the joke's over now. You've crossed me, now you must pay the price."

She was not merely standing there. She was being threatened.

"Wait, please, Flame Emperor. There's some misunderstanding... I only wanted to team up with you to conquer the tower!"

"I thought so too, but apparently not."

"Wait! Think about it. If you and I team up, clearing Floor 40 is a given, and we might even clear Floor 50 within a year! Yes! Humanity has never conquered it, but the two of us could!"

"I thought that too, but apparently not."

I was shocked.

'Those two. They're not... dating?'

The internet was abuzz with their relationship. TV shows covered the romance of the two heroes. Yet, the scene unfolding before my eyes lacked any trace of romance. It was hard to call it a lovers' quarrel, even as a joke.

Killing intent.

I only saw someone trying to kill and someone trying not to be killed.

"Let's talk, please! We can clear up the misunderstanding through conversation."

"Talk? Ah, talk. Sure. Let's be gentlemanly."

Flame Emperor - Yoo Soo-Ha - grabbed Saintess - Isabelle's - throat.

"Kuk...!?"

"But I set the rules for the conversation."

The Saintess thrashed with a choking gasp. Was she suffocating? The harder she struggled, the more my own breath caught as I watched in secret. Good God. Something that should never happen was unfolding right before my eyes.

"I'll ask the questions. You just answer. Ah, you don't need to speak. If my question is correct, nod your head; if it's wrong, shake it. That's all."

"Hic, Huk...! Cough..."

"If you cooperate sincerely with our conversation, I'll let you live. I'll even throw in the antidote. But if you disregard my gentlemanly consideration even once... Well, I don't need to explain the rest, do I? I heard you went to Oxford. Put that clever brain to work."

Saintess, a renowned healer, desperately hit the arm of Flame Emperor holding her throat. Thud! Thud! But nothing changed. It was impossible for her to overpower Flame Emperor with brute force.

"Actually, there's only one thing I'm curious about."

"Uh, Cough. Huhuh..."

"Who ordered you to kill me? Just answer that. Did the Black Dragon Witch put you up to it?"

The Saintess flinched and stopped struggling.

"Think carefully before answering. I may not have Perfect Poison Immunity, but I do have a skill for detecting lies. If I catch you lying, I'll burn you to the bone."

"......"

The Saintess seemed to hesitate for a moment. In the pitch-dark alley, her face wasn't visible, but her silence was palpable. Under the Flame Emperor's watch, she slowly nodded.

"I knew it."

A faint laugh echoed.

"Farewell, Saintess Isabelle."

Flames erupted.

The fire engulfed the dead-end alley. From Flame Emperor's grasp to Saintess's neck, then her entire body. Engulfed in flames, Saintess began to thrash. A desperate struggle for life. But no matter how much she writhed, Flame Emperor remained unmoved.

He just watched the burning Saintess expressionlessly.

"Hmm."

Even amidst the blazing flames, Flame Emperor was calm, never letting go of Saintess's neck until the end. Saintess flailed her arms, scratched and clawed at Flame Emperor's wrist, and finally reached towards the night sky... but soon, she stopped.

She went limp.

She moved no more.

'Insane...!'

She died right before my eyes. A hero of humanity.

Perhaps it's odd to simply say 'died'. No, Saintess didn't just die. She was murdered. By Flame Emperor, who was equally revered as a hero of humanity.

'A madman.'

The Saintess had already become a lump of charcoal, yet the flames did not stop. The Flame Emperor himself did not stop. He burned her until all her flesh and bones melted away, his face expressionless from beginning to end.

'He's out of his mind.'

I stepped back.

'I need to run away.'

And then, I committed my third and last mistake of the day.

Crack-.

It was a small sound, nothing more than a piece of glass being stepped on. Perhaps it was a shard from a soju bottle someone had broken, or perhaps the wind had blown it there from somewhere else... I did not know. I did not even need to know.

What I really needed to understand was something else.

I had just made a foolish mistake.

"...Hoo."

And the Flame Emperor was not the kind of hunter who would miss another person's mistake.

"I thought I got rid of all the rats nearby, but there was one left over?"

"Ugh!"

As soon as our eyes met, I ran.

I ran without looking back. Those eyes were the eyes of a murderer. Not someone who had killed one or two people, but dozens, or perhaps even more. That devil was now trying to kill me.

"Ha, you little bastard. Cute."

It was the moment the Flame Emperor scoffed. Suddenly, I felt a burning sensation around my ankle, and the next moment, I was rolling on the ground. I couldn't understand why I fell at first.

Not until I saw my feet on the ground.

"Hi, Ik...!?"

My feet were severed. Both my right and left feet, shoes and all.

The logo of a famous brand on the side of my sneakers was particularly white.

"Please, spare me! Please!"

"Why did you run? Scared the shit out of me."

The Flame Emperor bent down. He had picked up my feet. He toyed with them, tossing and catching like a baseball. Thump. Thump.

"Hey. Did you see?"

"I-I didn't see anything!"

The Flame Emperor approached.

"What didn't you see?"

"I don't know anything! Uh, please. I really don't know anything..."

"What don't you know?"

"Please... Flame Emperor, please... spare me. I won't say anything. I won't talk anywhere..."

I felt his presence over my head.

The Flame Emperor was looking down at me, kneeling.

"Wow. So you did see that I'm the Flame Emperor, and you know who I am. That's enough to know everything."

"Please..."

"Hey, are you making me feel slighted? Why play dumb when you know?"

Flame Emperor fiddled with my severed feet.

"Tell me. Who sent you? Black Dragon again?"

"I... really don't know anything..."

"You were watching me and the Saintess from there, quietly like a rat? Oh, you're quite credible. I'd have believed you if I were a little more of a fool."

The Flame Emperor smiled slyly.

"But I'm not a sucker, you fucking bastard."

Flames arose before my eyes. Whoosh! The fire from the Flame Emperor's hand burned my feet. Completely gone. The famous brand's logo, the shoes I wore for a long time, and the feet that were part of my body for even longer.

All vanished.

"Next is your head. Answer correctly."

My mind went blank.

This devil... he's insane.

A madman. A psychopath who kills even innocent people. A bastard who thinks he's always right, and only his opinion matters.

How could a person, ranked number 1, do this?

Had people... had I regarded someone like this as a hero, even for a moment? Had we praised him for being honest and refreshingly blunt? This madman?

"Lies..."

"What?"

"Lie Detection Skill... You have the Lie Detection Skill."

I desperately continued.

"You told the Saintess that you could tell when she lied. That's why you told her to answer carefully."