WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ SSS-Class Revival Hunter ◈

Chapter 250: Reversal (2)

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I had become an object of envy.

"......."

No, this isn't simply an emotion that can be expressed as 'envy.'

Jealousy. Yes. Jealousy comes closest to describing that bubbling brew of gu poison.

'It's not the first time.'

Yes, it's not the first time.

Hunters I didn't know. Those who couldn't leave the first floor, waiting day after day, wondering when their skills would awaken.

To countless others, [King of Death Kim Gong-Ja] is already an object of jealousy.

'I knew that.'

I quite enjoyed the overwhelming attention like a tidal wave, the articles praising me, voices seeking autographs, the whispers pointing at me on the streets.

'But……'

Yes, but.

'Even you.'

I slowly looked at Viper.

'Even someone of your stature is jealous of me.'

Who is Viper?

The kind of casual conversations and jokes we exchanged now would have been [impossible] to the me of the past, to the point of shock.

'My idols in my heart.'

To me, who was a fan of the top hunters, they were no different from idols.

Even though the idol group's leader, Flame Emperor Yoo Soo-Ha, retired due to unfortunate events and was preparing to become a trainee again, Viper was still one of my idols.

And there he was, boiling with aura in all directions, crying out in jealousy of me.

"Ah,"

Facing that heart directly in front of me.

"Ahahaha, Ahahahaha!"

I couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Ahahahaha, ah, ahahahaha!"

A plain under the moonlight.

The vegetation had crumbled away into sandy desert, and fine waves of sand undulated this way and that in the wind. Tens of millions of roses rolled through the desert's valleys and over its hills.

And then, it rained.

The rain of autumn.

Red rain poured from all sides. It was a downpour. The sand desert soaked in water, the lines of the valleys glistening. The rose petals, drenched in raindrops, became much fresher.

And so, the world, the sand desert, came to life with the sound of falling rain and flowing water, and the golden petals embroidered the surface, creating the illusion that something sacred was sleeping there.

An oasis created in the middle of the desert.

When the scenery around us became an oasis, I finally stopped laughing.

"Ahaha...ha, ha…… ahaha."

Viper glared at me.

"You laughed?"

With my face wet from the rain, I nodded.

"Yes. I feel like I've laughed all I will for the year right here."

"You brat!"

Swoosh!

Viper, making use of his lightning-fast specialty, tried to decapitate me in one go.

But it was in vain. Where he stepped to take his stance, there were grains of sand from Kim Yul. In the air he passed through to fly at me, there were petals from Silvia.

Above all, no matter what stance he took, he was already soaked in Ester's rain.

"I'm sorry, Celestial Martial Clan Master."

As if I had anticipated exactly how and where he would attack, I countered Viper's strike.

“Because I was strong, I could properly care for my master? Because I was strong, I could raise the children to be strong? That's true. It is true, but... I think you're mistaken about something, Celestial Martial Clan Master.”

“A misunderstanding…?”

“I wasn’t strong from the beginning.”

I grabbed a short spear rolling on the ground. Then, gathering and compressing aura, I shot the glowing red spear.

Towards Viper.

"Kuk...!"

Viper desperately rolled to avoid my attack. Shashashak! The sharp spear tore through petals and deeply burrowed into the desert sand.

Raindrops dripped from the handle of the spear, falling drop by drop.

Viper stood up, bleeding. He hadn’t completely avoided the spear I fired, and his body was already a mess.

“Damn...! What are you saying!”

“Exactly what I said, I wasn’t strong from the beginning.”

I created three aura spears. A few petals, grains of sand, drops of rain gathered and quickly focused into the form of deep red spears. The three spears circled in the air, waiting for my command.

“Even being able to pull off a feat like this.”

I lightly gestured, sending the spears towards Viper.

“Kuheeeeuuk!?”

Blood splattered.

“Really, it’s surprisingly recent. Without the support of Ester, Silvia, Kim Yul, and my vassals, I couldn’t waste aura like this.”

Viper successfully avoided two of the three spears. But that was my intention.

The last aura spear, hitting Viper’s shoulder, penetrated his flesh. He screamed and fell.

“It wasn’t because I was strong from the beginning that I defeated the Demon King of Autumn Rain. It wasn’t because I was strong from the beginning that I could reassure and comfort my master, definitely not.”

When I heard Viper’s words, I remembered when I first met my master.

So, I laughed.

Back then, I practically begged to be acknowledged as an outer disciple by my master.

My master said, [Let’s see if you qualify to be a direct disciple], and took me somewhere, where a pit swarming with martial arts zombies was dug.

The so-called hunger training of Divine Art of the Demonic Heaven. A training course for realizing the Sword of Starving Death.

-What are you hesitating for? Fall into hell already.

As I was being battered by the zombies, my master said.

-Remember the longest time you’ve ever starved.

-The longest was about three to four days...

-What? Three to four days?

My master's reaction to my answer was incredulous.

-Oh dear. Oh. Tsk tsk tsk. We’re not on the same page.

-Okay, it’s my fault! I had some expectations, but as expected, you’re just all talk.

And then my master… left me behind.

My master abandoned me in the pit as I flailed and struggled, then left without so much as a glance.

-Heavenly Demon! Heavenly Demon!? Please wait! Come on, going hungry isn't some great accomplishment! How can it make sense that I can't learn the martial art just because of that!? Huh!? You fu...

Before I could get from 'fu' to 'ck,' a martial arts zombie ate me.

"Ahahaha….”

It was the memory of that time that made me burst into laughter.

My master, so cold and noble.

It was so hard to offer even a single flower to you.

And now someone is so jealous, so envious that I brought you laughter, that he is struggling with all his might to defeat me. What am I to do about this?

My master must have also received a lot of jealousy and envy during her lifetime. I wonder how you would have acted then. It’s a bit regrettable that I can’t ask you these questions now, and I can’t hear your voice.

"Celestial Martial Clan Master... It wasn’t because I was strong from the beginning that I achieved everything."

"......."

“It was simply that I was allowed a little more time than others.”

Viper was panting heavily, looking up at me.

Of course, he didn't understand my words.

‘So different from me.’

Ah, I understood Viper's heart.

I could understand it completely, without any falsehood or misunderstanding.

Not only because I had once been in a position where I envied others.

‘Because I heard it.’

Since the moment Viper swung his sword at me and cried out.

Images of Viper from a time when I had never met him, and of the Heretic Inquisitor before meeting me, flickered through my mind like mirages.

Not just their appearances but even their voices.

-I know you are trying to ‘fix’ me.

-Why?

-You cannot take responsibility for me.

I looked at Viper.

He was still looking up at me. Under his dark, swarming eyes, his thick lips were tightly shut.

But…

-We could be friends and colleagues.

-Isn't that enough?

Even now, I could hear the voices clustered in Viper's heart.

It wasn’t the awakening of a new skill. My skill list was still filled only with footsteps proving my life. It wasn’t a sudden inspiration to read people's inner thoughts, it was simply.

‘The remnants left by the Tower Master.’

The aftermath of being killed by the Tower Master and witnessing her trauma.

Jaa Soo-Jeong, the master of this tower, embraces every misfortune and misery suffered by all living beings. The god witnesses and remembers every moment when they become unhappy. The [traumas] of tens of millions, hundreds of millions, no, an uncountable number of people are transplanted into the Tower Master.

As much as they suffer, the Tower Master suffers too.

When they scream, the Tower Master screams along.

Thus, the trauma of all people becomes the Tower Master's trauma.

‘The moment I saw the Tower Master's trauma... Did I also start to see the trauma of everyone dwelling in this tower?’

An overwhelming amount of memories, almost impossible for one person to bear.

Therefore, I usually don’t remember, can’t recall, and live on having forgotten.

‘But when Viper cries out with his past hatred like now...'

It [starts to become audible] to me.

‘Just like when I see the trauma of those who killed me.’

The scenes the Tower Master had witnessed, the wounds she had taken into her own heart.

Whether it was truly something that happened in the [past] of this world, or something Jaa Soo-Jeong intervened in and created, or perhaps something that will occur in some [future], I wasn’t sure.

The Semi-Divine Eye.

I had opened my eyes to it.

“……Ha.”

I let out a hollow laugh again.

This is the world the Tower Master sees.

Just by encountering people, occasionally, I could hear their screams and cries; it made me sad, wondering for whom such a life is meant.

"What have you been laughing at!"

I shook my head to clear my thoughts.

Then, I looked down at the human before me.

"Celestial Martial Clan Master... Do you want to beat me?”

Viper hesitated at the sudden question.

I continued without concern.

“Fair and square. Just you and me, one-on-one, without anything else, just to beat me up?”

Viper hissed through clenched teeth.

“Then,”

Blood gushed from Viper's mouth.

“Then what will you do…!”

I didn’t avoid his blood.

Since Viper was lying down and I was looking down at him, a few drops of blood from his mouth splattered on my cheek.

“I'll give you a chance.”

Like I didn’t wipe away the rain, I didn’t wipe off the blood either.

“Again, I wasn't strong from the beginning. Time. I needed a lot of time. During that time, the children I mingled with, the children I took in, became my family.”

I grabbed the aura spear lodged in his shoulder and pulled it out. Cough! Viper's body convulsed once more, and blood burst out.

“And there is a way to buy a lot of time for the Celestial Martial Clan Master.”

I slowly opened my lips.

“200 years, 6 months and 21 days.”

“......?”

“That’s the time the Heretic Inquisitor endured alone on the 31st floor.”

Silence.

For a brief moment, it seemed Viper didn’t understand what I said. But slowly, his eyes widened. Drip. Raindrops from the sky flowed down my hair onto Viper's body. Drip, a few drops fell before Viper finally spoke.

“You mean, that is… so...”

“Yes."

I nodded.

“Whether it takes two hundred years or three hundred, endure the passage of time alone on this stage as the Heretic Inquisitor did. Train and cultivate yourself for centuries. Draw people to your side.”

"......."

“And then challenge me again, Celestial Martial Clan Master.”

Centuries.

A closed-door training trapped by time, not space.

That was the method I suggested to Viper.

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