SSS-Class Revival Hunter - Chapter 327

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

◈ SSS-Class Revival Hunter ◈

Chapter 327: The God and The King (3)

──────

The hellish time had stopped.

"......This can't be."

In an artificially constructed colosseum, surrounded by layers of sedimentary rock, [Ruin-Harvesting Cow] Mutia shouted, her golden wheat-like hair disheveled.

"There's no way this can be happening!"

Mutia took a step forward. The hammer swung, igniting fury.

It exploded.

[The Ruin-Harvesting Cow manifests its power.]

[A Music Box Just for You manifests its power.]

That explosion was blocked by the fox.

"But, upon closer thought, it wasn't like this couldn't happen."

"This can't be happening!"

"Indeed, upon closer thought, it was not as though this could not possibly have happened after all."

The fox narrated in a theatrical tone.

Mutia gritted her teeth.

"I am the Ruin-Harvesting Cow! That is my alias, and my true name is [The Eye of the Typhoon Raging over the Vast Blue Sea]! No matter how many streams of time pass through all creation, I alone remain like the eye of the typhoon, an absolute temporal coordinate unmoved by any flow!"

"Absolute temporal coordinate, what is that? In Mister's world, there's someone called Einstein, wouldn't it be better to argue with him? Instead of doing this here......"

"King of Death! I know how insignificant you are!"

Mutia glared at me with fierce eyes.

As the power vanished, the blood-red gleam in Mutia's eyes subsided, and they returned to gold.

"I know your past!"

From those pupils wafted the scent of a blazing sun.

"Young child! You were nothing but a nobody. A shabby one-room apartment! A cramped bed! Portraits of idols hanging from the walls like laundry! Because you had nothing, did you not decorate the emptiness with idols that made it look as though [something was there]?"

"......"

"You were a ruin! Because you had never accomplished anything, you were a ruin in the truest sense. Before you received the name King of Death, you would have lacked nothing as one of my followers! You were the very sort of person best suited to wish for regression!"

Is that so.

Mutia, the Constellation of time and regression, knows all about what kind of human I was before I entered the 4000 days of nirvana, all of my history.

'Of course, that's only natural.'

I accepted her omniscience.

'If she didn't know my past, the [what if] world that unfolded just now wouldn't have existed.'

Mutia cornered me by manifesting her power.

She brought me, who had aged without gaining anything.

In that process, various hypotheses were made possible by her power.

『If you had not met the Sword Saint.』

『If you had not met the Sword Emperor.』

『If you had not met the Flame Emperor.』

It could be the Sword Saint. Just knowing me, hypothesizing [if you had not met the Sword Saint] is possible.

But the Sword Emperor.

And especially, the Flame Emperor.

'Unless she knew my entire past, it wouldn't even be possible as a hypothesis.'

Then, how did this become possible?

How does [The Ruin-Harvesting Cow] know about my regressed history?

'Hamusutra was a Constellation that dealt with stories. It read the [story] of a human named me and found out about my regression. But how about Mutia? Because she herself is a god dealing with time and regression?'

As my mind rapidly touched upon guesses and moved through deductions, Mutia, with her face still full of rage, shouted.

"But what if your life, too, was ruined by another regressor from the beginning!"

It was a statement that inevitably shattered my train of thought.

"Excuse me?"

"Don't play dumb. You must have thought about it."

Mutia spread her arms.

"Why is my luck so bad?"

The words I had uttered.

"Why can't I learn even a single skill?"

Many people had uttered these words.

"Why can't I encounter even a single fortunate opportunity or a genuine chance?"

I took a breath.

And exhaled.

"If I said I had never thought that way, it would be a lie. Yes, I thought about it a lot. I didn’t just think that, but also had a lot of resentment, and when the day was filled with resentment, the night was soaked in alcohol."

"You have arrived here just by acquiring one skill."

Mutia said.

"Through astonishing will, inexhaustible spirit, and unceasing passion, you poured your heart into everything you encountered and finally arrived at my feet. Did you never find it strange? Did you never suspect that someone with no remarkable talent carving a path this far was simply too miraculous?"

"That is......"

"You would say it was [thanks to meeting good people]."

Mutia smiled.

That smile was as brilliant as molten gold, and just as thick and clinging.

"But no!"

At that moment.

I realized this was the [final scheme] she had prepared.

After breaking the ground and creating a colosseum where escape was impossible, attacking with two hundred apostles, pouring her power to age me, and still, if I hadn't fallen then.

As if to say, withstand this too, she had prepared this final blow.

-...It feels like you shouldn't listen to this.

Guardian Spirit murmured.

-I'm not sure what secret she intends to reveal, but I have a bad feeling. Whenever a Constellation harbors poison, it always leads to some pointless disaster.

'No, it's okay.'

I looked straight at Mutia.

'I will listen.'

I have delved into the secrets of countless people so far.

It was after I had prepared myself to take responsibility, and even though I had indeed shouldered it, how could that not have been a form of violence?

'If it's a secret related to me, I want to hear it even more.'

My secret alone cannot be sacred.

Therefore, as a hunter who possesses [Returner's Winding Clock], I boldly asked.

"What do you mean it's not?"

"You could have originally succeeded!"

What does that mean?

Not understanding, I asked again.

"I don't understand, Mutia. What do you mean I could have originally succeeded?"

"Foolish child! The reason you didn't encounter fortunes on the 1st floor and didn't grasp opportunities on the 2nd floor isn't because there were no fortunes or opportunities there."

Mutia's laughter grew louder.

Like the laughter of some ancient king cursed to turn everything he touched into gold, the laughter that the Golden Constellation unleashed was bizarre and, furthermore, desolate.

"You know of the tower! The tower up to the 10th floor is a refuge for those who have fled the world, a comfortable island, a land of opportunities. How could there have been not a single fortune for you to encounter!"

"......"

"Was the tower you looked up to such a heartless entity?!"

Thump.

[The Ruin-Harvesting Cow manifests its power.]

From beneath the ground of the colosseum, where there was only sedimentary rock, the pillars of a temple rose with a boom, a thud!

They weren't intact pillars.

They were remnants of an abandoned temple.

Eroded by wind and rain, like the teeth of an old person whose gums have partly receded, white pillars were implanted all over hell.

『If you had not met the Flame Emperor.』

Between the pillars of the temple, a scene like a screen faintly shimmered.

The first power to manifest was a hypothesis I had already heard.

『If the Flame Emperor had not met 'The Princess Who Strolls Through Mirages'.』

That was a completely new hypothesis.

Above all, the subject was not me but the Flame Emperor.

『If the Flame Emperor had not obtained 'Returner's Winding Clock'.』

And then.

『If the Flame Emperor had not regressed through 'Returner's Winding Clock'.』

A world unfolded before my eyes.

『The Flame Emperor, having obtained the 'Returner's Winding Clock', regresses and buys a Sang-Ryun lottery ticket.』

Through the gaps between the pillars, a scene where I and the Flame Emperor brushed past each other was visible.

『As a result, you arrive at the Sang-Ryun lottery ticket vendor one step later than in the 'original world', and the ticket that was supposed to win 4th place turns into a dud.』

A minor misfortune.

The me beyond the pillars sighed lightly and headed to the hunting grounds.

『Challenging with poor equipment, you sustain injuries that last a day longer than in the original world.』

It didn't stop there.

『By the time you had healed your injuries, the chest there was already empty.』

It wasn't taken by the Flame Emperor.

Because to the Flame Emperor, who had the ability to regress at will, that chest was too trivial to care about.

But to me, who was poor and weak, that equipment would have been a significant help.

『You fail to acquire a skill card.』

Like a grain of sand thrown into well-functioning gears, my life gradually changed due to the regressor known as the Flame Emperor.

『Your efforts repeatedly end in failure.』

It could be described as a downfall.

『Your life arrives at its destination.』

Until it finally brought me to that cramped room.

『But, if the Flame Emperor had not regressed through the 'Returner's Winding Clock'.』

What unfolded next was a world without that slight dissonance.

A completely different world.

『Your efforts are properly rewarded.』

A world with fruition.

『You acquire quite a good skill and reap the fruits of your efforts.』

There, I seemed to have gained 'the ability to converse with all monsters'.

『You are recognized by people.』

Thanks to the skill, the people of the tower finally realize that among the monsters roaming from the 2nd to the 9th floors, there are intelligent beings capable of conversation, and that they have built a grand civilization city underground to avoid humans.

『You pioneer a path.』

A fact completely unknown to us even now.

Beneath the fifth floor, demihumans had secretly built a city and were living there.

『You prevent several tragedies.』

As the only person able to speak with the demihumans. As humanity's representative. As an envoy. As a mediator.

『You gain friends,』

After much trouble preventing incidents, the Black Dragon Master playfully taps me on the shoulder. The Black Dragon Master, with a sly grin, asks me if I'm up for a drink at a nice place she knows.

『And allies.』

Although my combat skills are far inferior to those of my current self.

Undoubtedly, a fulfilling life surrounded by people who recognize me, living together with those I cherish, was laid out in the crevices of the ruins' temple pillars.

"Young child."

Mutia said.

"This is your original."

"......"

"The path you were originally supposed to walk, the destiny that was originally given to you."

My heart pounded.

"All of it, the Flame Emperor bastard took it all! He monopolized it! He hogged it!"

"......"

"The strokes of fortune meant for you passed by in vain, and the opportunities you should have possessed slipped through your fingers!"

......

"In that world, in the 'original' world. In the original. In the mainstream path, you had no reason to endure 4000 times of agony. You could have just lived a satisfying life, honing your inherently diligent nature."

Is that so?

"Do you understand, young child? It wasn't that you were unlucky."

Had I too been living a life distorted by Yoo Soo-Ha?

"You had your luck stolen by someone else!"

A resounding roar echoed through the hell's cavern.

"I'll send you back."

Mutia.

"To the real life you were supposed to live."

This was certainly a venomous gambit.

But…

"The life you are living now is false. An illusion. This time, I will let you walk wholly through your own time, with no regressor interfering in your timeline. I will let you live your true life. Abandon your Constellation and join my retinue…"

"You're too late."

"What?"

By the time Mutia questioned me, my Demonic Heavens were already in motion. Whoosh! The blade I drew split hell horizontally.

With a soft scrape, the temple pillars shifted apart where my Aura had passed. Then they collapsed. Like white radishes sliced cleanly through, the pillars raised by Mutia's power were bisected with absurd ease.

"Far too late."

"What are you doing, you wretch…!"

"If you wanted to play word games about [false lives] and [true lives], you should have come to me before I met Raviel, tried to tempt me before I met my master, and tried to persuade me before I saw the Black Dragon Master's smile."

I glared at the blazing gold and said.

"The Tower Master said I had not lived the best possible life. Now you say I have not lived an authentic life."

I spoke towards the gold beyond.

"Whether a life is false or true is not determined by mere chronological order. Ruin-Harvesting Cow, there are people I have influenced and people who have influenced me. When that becomes love, friendship, and a helping hand, when there are people who walk beside me, that is my true life."

I held the sword expressionlessly.

"I am 'us'. There are people who made me 'us'. And 'we' exist only in this world."

"......"

"Our true world is only here."

The Ruin-Harvesting Cow.

"Now."

Mutia.

Power, regression.

"I've heard all the music your Constellation brings forth."

Scheme 1.

Shatter the ground and trap.

Destruction.

Scheme 2.

Drive into an artificial colosseum where escape is impossible.

Destruction.

Scheme 3.

Mobilize two hundred Apostles for a coordinated attack.

Destruction.

Scheme 4.

Use the power of the Constellation to age the King of Death.

Destruction.

Scheme 5.

Show him the original timeline and tempt him into joining her retinue.

Destruction.

The Constellation had pursued at least two objectives with every move and brought five schemes at once to break me, the Sword Emperor's successor. Now she had nothing left but the hammer barring my way.

"First."

"......"

"I'll take your pride."

A single flash was visible.

Mutia clearly adjusted her grip on the hammer and swung it, perhaps trying to meet my attack head-on.

But after an instant had passed, the result revealed to the world was brutal.

Thud.

A long horn.

Of the two long horns rising from Mutia's forehead, the right one tumbled helplessly away and was swallowed by the blowing sand.

"Ah......."

And then.

[The Ruin-Harvesting Cow’s existence becomes faint.]