SSS-Class Revival Hunter - Chapter 350

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

◈ SSS-Class Revival Hunter ◈

Chapter 350: The White Ending (1)

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Although I grandly declared that it was time to ascend to another heaven, the 73rd and 74th floors were actually rather uneventful.

Literally, as soon as I set foot on the stage, I was deemed 'passed.'

"Ah, come on. I was just thoroughly defeated by you not long ago, and now I'm supposed to judge you? Just go on up already."

The examiner of the 73rd floor was Liǎofàn, the Celestial Martial Clan Master, Viper.

Viper was summoned by the [Staff of Time Immemorial] and tasked with the role of being my judge. With a grimace, he waved his hand dismissively.

"A loser has a loser's proper conduct to observe. Since we fought a life-or-death duel and my head remained attached, the way of the world is for me to praise the winner as much as possible and keep him happy! You do not even need a passing mark from me."

Thus, the 73rd floor was cleared in about 2 seconds.

Ah, for reference, the 73rd floor was a place called the Heaven of Martial Arts. If everything in the Heaven of Gold revolved around trade, all matters here were settled through duels.

A kind of Valhalla. A resting place for souls who wished to swing their blades even after death. Perhaps this was the heaven where hard-core martial fanatics like the Sword Emperor went when they died in the Tower.

[The judge you've chosen has given you a passing mark!]

[You have gained the recognition of your judge!]

Thank you for the swift clearance.

"Doesn't it bother you that you'll lose the memory of being here?"

"Huh? How many memories do people forget in a lifetime? It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter."

Viper coolly departed, as if he truly had no regrets. Unlike the Countess, who hesitated to the very end, valuing her memories dearly, Viper's personality was starkly different.

Well, if I ever feel like fighting a strong opponent, I can always come back to the 73rd floor. Duels have been plentiful so far, so there's no immediate regret.

As for the next stage, the 74th floor...

"Ahaha! A heaven, you say! What an intriguing concept for a place!"

You could guess who it was just by the laughter; it was Bambolina, the Heretic Inquisitor. Upon hearing the whole story from the [Staff of Time Immemorial], Bambolina laughed heartily.

"However, if the stage clear condition solely depends on my approval, there's no need to waste time. Master, please proceed without delay!"

Even after meeting me and changing in many ways, the Heretic Inquisitor still valued efficiency. The Inquisitor had no interest in [the stage's hidden secrets] or [a quest progression that would genuinely impress him]. He was the sort to smile brightly and ask, "Wonderful! So what benefit does it offer?"

The Heretic Inquisitor was more interested in practical aspects.

"It is remarkable that you subdued several more Constellations while I had not seen you! Perhaps we should change your alias from King of Death to Star Hunter?"

The Heretic Inquisitor's eyes sparkled like the morning star.

"Participating in the auction as [Goddess of Protection] is also commendable. What do you think, Master? Why not bestow one of the stages Hwiya owns to Hamusutra? Then the Constellations we can utilize in our tower would include [Goddess of Protection], [The Eyes Dwelling in the Labyrinth], [The Ruin-Harvesting Cow], [The Muscle Pig Dreaming of Parricide], [The Holed-Up Head Librarian], and so on. It would be a formidable force!"

"Uh... no, that's a bit difficult."

I thought to myself how Uburka's Constellation name was dreadful and replied.

"I want Hamusutra to experience a human life, for at least several decades. Hamusutra's return as [The Holed-Up Head Librarian] would certainly be an enormous help, but it would do nothing for Hamusutra's growth. It would be different if Hamusutra personally wanted it."

"Hmm... Indeed. If that's Master's wish, then there's no helping it..."

Sensing how firm my resolve was, the Heretic Inquisitor did not press any harder and merely smacked his lips in disappointment.

Fundamentally, the Heretic Inquisitor obeyed my wishes absolutely. To give an extreme example, if I ordered the Inquisitor to become a Constellation, the answer would probably be, "Understood! Please wait just thirty years!"

The 74th floor, where the Heretic Inquisitor served as the judge, was the Heaven of Laws.

Unlike the Heaven of Martial Arts, where disputes were resolved through duels, this place was a bit more complex.

According to the information leaked by Hisimet Cretsu, the laws of the Heaven of Laws were as follows:

[Heaven of Laws]

Floor: 74th

Constellation: 'The Unconstitutional Judge'

Difficulty: C~A+

Description (Lv.1): A world where everything is governed by laws. Every resident of this world can create a world law comparable to physical laws, but only once in their lifetime.

Here, everyone has the power to legislate once in their lifetime.

Someone might establish a law that 'fighting among each other is forever prohibited.' And then, it would indeed be prohibited! However, if someone else declares, 'I nullify the law that prohibits fighting among each other,' that law would be immediately invalidated.

Once invalidated, it's over! You can't legislate twice in a lifetime, so you must carefully consider how to use your one-time power.

Not just any law can be established. There are a few exceptions that are not allowed.

To give three examples of impossible laws:

-No tyrants allowed! Laws that negate others' legislative rights are not recognized. (e.g., 'Only I can create laws in this world.')

-No clever Aladdins allowed! Laws that indefinitely increase your one-time legislative power are also forbidden. (e.g., 'I can legislate 100 times.')

-No greedy ones allowed! It's allowed to invalidate another's law, but you cannot nullify more than two laws at once. (e.g., 'I remove all laws established so far.')

Excluding these exceptions, you can wish for anything!

Of course, that's only if others recognize your law. There's always someone who might use their once-in-a-lifetime authority just because they dislike you.

Test the waters carefully!

...Just reading the information made me realize what a tricky heaven this was.

'How on earth do I clear this when I can't even see a clear path?'

What kind of absurd laws might be lurking?

For example, there was bound to be a law such as [The use of Aura is prohibited]. Far more people could not use Aura than could. I would be hopelessly outnumbered. That meant I would lose my greatest weapon from the outset.

And that's not all. There's a high probability that a law like [The use of skills is prohibited] has been established.

It might not seem like it since I’m surrounded by monstrous hunters, but acquiring even a single skill is a rare event. Most people don't have skills.

Would people really tolerate the use of skills? Of course not. Even if they did, there'd at least be a law like [Skills cannot be used to harm others].

'It's best not to stay in such dangerous places for too long!'

As the saying goes, the wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger.

My name was Gong-Ja, so I was a gentleman among gentlemen, and I should have no qualms about watching my step. Uh. What kind of bullshit was that? Anyway, it meant I obediently accepted the Heretic Inquisitor's passing stamp.

[The judge you've chosen has given you a passing mark!]

[You have gained the recognition of your judge!]

The Heretic Inquisitor vanished with a "Good luck! Ahaha!" leaving his laughter to echo in his absence. Following Viper, another lightning-fast clearance was achieved.

At this point, you might grasp the strategy I employed in the 70th-floor region.

Stay if interested. Deepen the exploration if necessary. But if there's no need, gladly skip.

Unless something particularly extraordinary happened, I intended to skip the 75th floor as well. So, it's easy to guess that something out of the ordinary did happen on the 75th floor.

Let me introduce the Hunter summoned as the judge of the 75th floor.

"Wh-where is this? Why was I suddenly summoned? Eek... Wh-who are you!? Even if you kidnap me now, the operation of the Ministry of Alchemy is already out of my hands! I am only responsible for developing medicines and have nothing to do with sales or distribution! I would be satisfied simply to keep my shop on the twentieth floor... Why will the world not accommodate even my small wish!?"

The hunter clutched her head as soon as she was summoned, as though this were not the first time something like this had happened.

It might seem like an overreaction, but it was justified.

The Countess, the other guild masters, and I all acknowledged this hunter's talent. Though the Apothecary did not wield a blade on the front lines, she had contributed as much as anyone to climbing the Tower and were still contributing at that very moment. Above all, the Apothecary had played an enormous role in clearing [The Veritable Records of the Heavenly Demon].

"...Huh? Kim Gong-Ja?"

The Apothecary belatedly realized my presence and stared blankly.

"Where have I been brought to...?"

I gave the Apothecary a broad smile.

"Welcome. This is the entrance to the afterlife."

The Apothecary's face turned pale.

Why? It's not exactly a lie, is it?

My single little joke came back at me with a fierce backlash.

The Apothecary had not even considered the possibility that I was lying and nearly fainted upon hearing that this was the gate to the afterlife. Naturally, once she recovered and belatedly grasped the situation, she became as coldly furious with me as ice water.

Why say 'coldly' furious and not 'blazingly' furious? Well, because the Apothecary's anger went something like this:

"From now on, I will cease the supply of special potions to you."

"I apologize!"

The Apothecary looked down at me through her frosted glasses.

"I will remove the strawberry flavor from the potions provided specifically to you. How about mugwort flavor? Interested in spinach? Frog eye? Mosquito wing? Or shall I replicate the taste of nasal mucus on the fourth day of a flu?"

"Th-That fantasy flavor from the world's most famous fantasy novel!"

E/D note: Harry potter

"Sigh..."

The Apothecary shook her head.

I was being treated exactly like a mischievous little kid from next door. Considering I had reached the point of wanting to try a snot potion at least once, it was not an entirely inaccurate way to treat me.

Anything can be an experience. To put it fancily, it's an ex-perience. Ex-perience. Doesn't it sound a bit like a magic spell?

"Anyway, I understand what I need to do. It's quite surprising that there are heavens, multiple ones at that, in the tower..."

"Then again, I suppose the Tower has always been a surprising place," the Apothecary murmured softly.

Then the Apothecary voiced something none of the people summoned as judges had said, but which any of them might well have wondered.

"Kim Gong-Ja, will we be sent to one of these places when we die?"

"......."

"Will we be sent here, our memories cleared, forgetting our pasts like previous lives, scattered among the nine heavens based on our personalities and desires?"

I was momentarily at a loss for words.

The Apothecary's tone carried not so much a fear of death but a deeper sorrow at the thought of being scattered from the current world. Forgetfulness and farewells. After all, death is merely a combination of those two words.

"Ugh."

The Apothecary sank into thought, then shook her head from side to side.

"It's useless to think about such things. Alright, Kim Gong-Ja. Go ahead and ascend the stage without worry. If it seems dangerous, I'll immediately grant you a pass to return."

"......Okay. I'll be off then."

"Yes, take care. I won't say be careful because if you're still breathing, even if you're on the brink of death, I can save you... Just make sure your neck remains intact."

A small smile crept up on me. This person really knows my character well now.

After all, I had known the Apothecary for quite some time. The Apothecary was one of the people I had tried to befriend as soon as I returned. Without me, she would have struggled for a long time before eventually succeeding, and without the sensory amplification potion the Apothecary prepared for me, I would have struggled to awaken my Aura. We were comrades who had shared in each other's success.

"Yep. I'll do my best."

I waved at the Apothecary and headed straight for the next floor.

The ground beneath me wobbled and swallowed me whole.

[You have entered the 75th stage.]

[You have set foot in a place you ordinarily cannot enter.]

I opened my eyes.

"......?"

And immediately upon opening my eyes, I noticed something odd.

In fact, it was something I couldn't help but notice.

"Huh?"

The entire world was black and white.

There was no color in the scene before me. Only achromatic colors, and even then, only black and white, arranged in stark lines.

If it were just the lack of colors, I wouldn't have been surprised. Haven't I encountered all sorts of bizarre landscapes before?

The problem was that the world was flat.

"Uh? ……Huh?"

And it was quite flat.

To put it bluntly, a [2D plane] was spread out before me.

I blinked. For some reason, the objects didn't appear in 3D. As I continued to blink, my brain slowly began to adapt to this new dimension, perceiving the world as if it were a side-scrolling RPG game screen.

In short, my field of view was confined to a third-person perspective.

"What… what is this?"

I instinctively moved my foot.

Squirm.

Then, something in the middle of the screen squirmed.

As 'that thing' in the middle moved, the screen also shifted along with it.

My view of this world was confined to a rectangle. But whenever "that thing" moved, the view moved with it and revealed new scenery. Even there, however, the mountains were represented by △△△ and the clouds by ○○○, as if a child had drawn them on sketch paper.

And 'that thing' placed in the middle of the screen, if described from top to bottom, had...

At the top, there was a ('-').

Below that, a horizontal line ㅡ was drawn. At both ends of the line were tridents, making it look like ∋ㅡ∈ when drawn.

Then, for a while, there was a vertical line. The line split into two at the bottom, firmly standing on the ground of this side-scrolling world.

Astonishingly, when I moved my foot, the lower part of 'that thing' moved. When I moved my arm, the tridents moved.

Could it be?

Testing a hunch, I moved my mouth slightly.

('д')

Immediately, 'that thing's' expression changed.

"......"

We often come to unavoidable conclusions in life. In my case, at this moment, the harsh truth was all there was to it.

"…Is… is this me?"