SSS-Class Revival Hunter - Chapter 3

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ SSS-Class Revival Hunter ◈

Chapter 3: However, You will Die! (2)

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"Excuse me?"

"It was a bluff. Bluffing. Don't you know?"

The Flame Emperor chuckled.

"I don't have a skill to detect lies. It was just a bluff to test the Saintess. Wow, both the Saintess and you. You're really naive. Do you believe everything I say?"

"That... then."

My lips trembled. I was in shock.

"Did you kill the Saintess without any real certainty?"

The Rank 9 hero. The Saintess. Unlike the psychopath before me, she was a Hunter of upright character who donated most of what she earned to orphanages. Had he killed the person who earned the title Saintess merely because she seemed a little suspicious?

'If that's the case...'

This bastard was not a record-breaking Hunter. He was a record-breaking psychopath.

"Hey. How can you say such harsh things? Of course, I was certain. The Saintess really tried to kill me. If I didn't kill her first, she would have poisoned me tomorrow."

The Flame Emperor spat on the ground.

"Damn it! Thinking about it now pisses me off."

"How did you know...?"

"I know everything."

He replied as if it were obvious.

"I just know. I have a way of knowing everything. You don't need to know what that way is."

"......"

I was at a loss for words.

Not just because the Flame Emperor was outrageously confident. There was some kind of certainty in his eyes. A certainty that he had a reason to kill the Saintess. At least, that's how it seemed to me.

"Well, since you brought up lie detection, you really do seem innocent."

"Come to think of it, it's my first time seeing your face. I remembered the faces of the rats who had been lying in wait around here. Eighteen altogether. As if those fucking bastards had planned it, there were exactly eighteen of them... Hmm. Anyway, yes. There wasn't a meek-looking guy like you among them."

The Flame Emperor stroked my head. Stroke. He was smiling.

Had he finally believed I was innocent?

"Ah..."

"Th-thank y...!"

"But you know I'm the Flame Emperor. And you saw the Saintess die by my hand."

He patted my head.

"So I need you to die."

His hand slowed as he patted.

"My name is Yoo Soo-Ha. Farewell."

That was the moment. My head felt hot. No, it was my brain that was hot. At first, it felt like my scalp was touching a frying pan. But soon, my brain began to burn intensely. Sizzling.

My skull boiled like an oil drum.

"...Uk, ... ...!?"

I couldn't speak. Couldn't even scream. True pain silences human screams.

'To die at the hands of this madman...'

'To die like this. Me.'

Kim Gong-Ja.

The orphanage director had named him Kim Gong-Ja in the hope that he would become as great as Confucius. Instead, he had lived nothing like Confucius and now died a miserable dog's death that was nothing like Confucius either.

I was sad.

'Ah.'

If life were a game, it was a failed game.

Simply put, it was a failed life.

A life destroyed and lost.

[You have died.]

I hated it.

[The condition for your skill has been fulfilled by your death.]

Why should I die like this?

No, why did I have to live like this?

I felt wronged. Angry. Everything was unjust. I could have lived a little better. I had the right to live better. Just a mistake. Today, I made three mistakes. Died because of a mistake. Lived a life of mistakes. Born a mistake.

Was my very birth a mistake?

[Randomly copying Hunter ‘Yoo Soo-Ha’s’ skills.]

[Creating a skill card.]

I heard nothing. Saw nothing.

But a faint cluster of light shimmered. It was as if fireflies hovered before my eyes. Some were bronze. Some were silver. And one more... was golden.

It was fast.

The golden firefly fluttered swiftly. Too quick to catch. There were many bronze fireflies. Easy to catch. Silver ones were numerous too. But there was only one firefly flickering in the color of the sun, golden.

[Please select a skill card.]

I reached out for the one and only golden light.

[Selection complete.]

Caught it.

[Copying skill.]

And then I died.

ㆍ

Activating skill.

Name, I Want to Become Just Like You.

Rank, S+.

Rule one.

Automatically activated when killed by an enemy.

Rule two.

Copy one skill from the enemy that killed you, making it yours.

Rule three.

You cannot copy from an opponent you've already copied from.

Rule four.

Which skill to copy is randomly determined.

However, you will die.

ㆍ

Do you know what hell looks like?

Let me tell you.

Firstly, there was no hellfire. Not even a normal fire. There was a gas range, but it lacked the power to create hellfire. Ah. Surprisingly, there was also a small fridge in hell. A narrow bed... And a second-hand TV.

"Uh."

In other words, it looked exactly like my studio apartment.

No, it was my studio apartment.

No matter how I looked at it, this was not hell. It was my own three-and-a-half-pyeong studio, appealing largely because of its straightforwardly cheap rent.

"Uh, huh... uh?"

I ran my hand through my hair. It was intact. Just to be sure, I checked my reflection in the smartphone screen. A face like an unfinished sculpture of Apollo. In other words, moderately handsome and moderately unattractive.

There were no burn marks anywhere.

"What's going on? What happened?"

Really, what had happened?

'Did Flame Emperor - Yoo Soo-Ha - heal me and leave me here?'

It was a ridiculous thought.

But... I couldn't think of any other explanation for my current situation. Maybe Flame Emperor was nicer than I thought. Despite being insane, maybe he wasn't a complete psychopath and pretended to kill me but actually spared my life.

- Breaking news.

Did he also leave the TV on?

-The Black Dragon Guild has once again returned empty-handed, despite their confidence in conquering the 40th floor of the Tower.

But no.

The Flame Emperor was not in my three-and-a-half-pyeong studio. Nor had he merely stepped out for a moment after leaving the television on.

Instead.

-Number one in the Hunter rankings!

-Flame Emperor has once again soloed the boss!

Instead, Flame Emperor was on the TV screen, frowning.

-Good day to you, Flame Emperor!

-Ah. Yes. Good day...

-Today you've set another record by soloing a boss monster. You're the only one to have done so, Flame Emperor. Could we hear your thoughts on this?

The corner of the broadcast screen read 'LIVE' in big letters.

I blankly stared at the old TV.

-I'd prefer it if you stopped using that damn nickname.

-Excuse me?

-Flame Emperor. Why call me by such a shitty nickname when I have a perfectly good name?

Yoo Soo-Ha.

The world's Rank 1 hunter. The hero of this era. The hero I had envied was there. Perhaps it's inappropriate to simply say 'he was there.'

He had killed me, and I had died by his hand.

"This makes no sense."

As I said this aloud, my hand was already checking my smartphone. I checked the date. It was yesterday's date.

My hands trembled.

I browsed internet communities.

-Yeah, the Flame Emperor is being a Flame Retard again!

Here too.

-Can't he watch his words in front of a global audience?

There too.

-Flame Emperor's got a girlfriend! He's dating the Saintess!

This site too. That community too. Social media too.

Everything was the same. The same posts I had read yesterday were being uploaded live. Even though I had seen them yesterday, others were reacting as if they were new.

"Ha..."

Yet, there was one change.

-I want to become like the Flame Emperor.

My comment was missing.

Of course. Normally at this time yesterday, I would have been actively commenting, but now I was just staring blankly.

I had really returned to yesterday.

"...Skill card. Open."

Whoosh!

A golden card flared up before my eyes.

[I Want to Become Just Like You (S+)]

The skill I had memorized after checking several times since yesterday. An S-rank skill, but one I could never use. The skill whose use meant my death, the worst skill ever.

But that wasn't all.

"My goodness."

Two.

There were two flames burning before me.

[I Want to Become Just Like You (S+)]

[Returner’s Winding Clock (EX)]

Two golden cards floated in front of me.

'How?'

My heart raced.

Returner’s Winding Clock. A skill I had never seen before. It wasn't there when I checked yesterday, nor before the Flame Emperor killed me. There was only a useless skill I couldn't use, not a skill with that name... especially not a golden one.

'How did this happen?'

I didn't know.

How this skill became mine, how it came to be. I didn't understand yet.

But…

'It's mine.'

I knew this card was mine.

'Mine.'

And perhaps a card that could change my life.

I reached out and grasped the card.

Flipped it.

[Returner’s Winding Clock]

Rank: EX

Effect: Activates automatically when you die. You regress to twenty-four hours before the moment of your death. Your memories and stats are preserved even after the regression.

*However, the higher your Hunter rank, the stronger the penalty.

*Skill copied from Yoo Soo-Ha

Regression.

If I die, I go back 24 hours.

"Ah..."

My head trembled as if struck by lightning. My heart pounded.

I realized.

"This is, the Flame Emperor's secret..."

How the Flame Emperor became the world's Rank 1.

How he soloed the invincible boss of the 10th floor of the Tower.

And lastly, why he was so sure that 'the Saintess would kill him.'

I finally understood.

- "The Saintess really tried to kill me."

- "If I didn't kill her first, she would have poisoned me tomorrow."

The Flame Emperor had said.

- "I know everything."

- "I just know. I have a way of knowing everything. You don't need to know what that way is."

- "You don't need to know how."

He had actually died at the hands of the Saintess.

Just as he had said, she poisoned him to death. Because he died, he regressed twenty-four hours. Then he returned and took revenge on the Saintess, gnashing his teeth all the while.

For revenge.

'And he killed me too.'

I clenched my fist.

'Me, when I hadn't done anything wrong! Just because I annoyed him!'

He cut off my feet. Burned my head. Killed me. Played with me like a bug.

The cheap TV was still broadcasting the interview.

-Lastly, could you please say a few words to our viewers?

-Sigh. What should I say?

Flame Emperor scratched the back of his head in response to the journalist's question.

Yesterday, I saw a hero in him. Now, I saw a psychopath. It didn't matter that he was the world's Rank 1. It didn't matter that he was hailed as a hero by many. He was my enemy.

Flame Emperor glared directly into the camera.

-If you're destined to succeed, you'll succeed.

I glared back at him.

-But even if you succeed, don't get cocky with me.

I gripped the golden card tightly. The same card that man had. The skill I had copied from Flame Emperor. He was Rank 1, and I wasn't even ranked, but at this moment, we were on the same starting line.

-You'll die.

Now it was my turn for revenge.

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