Episode 6. Hero Hunt. (3)
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“Ugh, wow, wow…!”
Awakening with the threat of death just around the corner.
For a long time, in the hunter industry, there was a common belief that it was a ‘way to awaken skills.’ To face the risk of death.
Maybe it wasn’t just a myth but a real thing. At least it was more believable than awakening a skill because jealousy was as ugly as ever.
Therefore, I did not let down my guard.
Without letting down my guard, I swung my sword straight.
“Hi…!”
So that even one psychopath in front of us does not awaken.
“Ugh… Big…”
die.
“right···.”
What I was most angry about. There was something else that made me more angry than the pain and injustice that this psychopath had burned me without any reason.
‘I said my name.’
Before returning to the past.
Before grabbing my head and burning it to a crisp, the Flame Emperor smiled and said this.
-But you know that I am the Flame Emperor. She also saw that the saint was killed by me.
-Then you should give it to me.
-My name is Yusu. bye.
It was all like something a crazy person would say. But just one part. There was something really strange about it. I was so angry and disgusted by it that I couldn’t bear it.
Just the last word.
‘He said his name.’
Why did he suddenly reveal his name while killing me?
Is it possible that I don’t know what the Flame Emperor’s name is?
no. It wasn’t like that.
‘I was just trying to be cool.’
Salt Emperor.
That guy… was cool with the topic of a murderer.
Just as warriors reveal each other’s names while engaging in a sacred duel. The Flame Emperor must have been thinking this when he killed me.
-I still kill while honestly revealing who I am.
-So at least I am confident.
dare.
“Something like you…”
How dare a psychopath like you.
“You, you, would do something like that!”
A person who just happened to kill a witness who was walking down the street. He was the one who started the fire and then came back and shamelessly pretended that he had done nothing wrong. Well, he is a person who doesn’t even look like a human, and he doesn’t even look like a human. He is a beast. A devil worse than a beast.
You act stylish as if you are noble.
“Don’t be funny!”
puck!
My knife pierced Yoo Su-ha’s neck.
“······.”
Yu Su-ha had already said nothing. There was no screaming. He didn’t even moan. His hunting ground is deserted because no one comes and goes. I rested my head on nameless weeds and looked up at the sky with my wandering, unfocused eyes.
He is dead.
“Ha, wow… ha···.”
Perhaps it would be inappropriate to simply say ‘dead’. Because he was not an ordinary hunter, and he even did not die an ordinary death.
A man who would one day become a flame emperor. A legend who would have reached #1 in the world rankings. The person who single-handedly broke through the 10th floor of the tower, which no one had been able to clear for years.
He died to me.
“Whoa.”
I sighed.
“I’m finally coming to my senses…”
I was about to say, “You’re coming back,” but I stopped. Did he come running after smelling blood? A wolf. Big wolves were wandering around.
-Grrr…
They weren’t just ordinary wolves. The black fur had a pattern on it, like a human tattoo. It was a monster called the so-called prairie wolf, and the more complicated the pattern, the stronger it was.
These guys in front of me had simple patterns, but they weren’t an opponent that an F-rank hunter like me could use courageous skills against.
“······.”
First, I brought back the wallet that had been stolen by Yoo Soo-ha.
Cautiously, I took a step back.
“Do you want to eat this guy?”
He said, pointing to the corpse.
“I don’t need it. “Take it.”
And then took a step back.
-Growl.
The wolves approached the corpse. Squeak! The beast’s teeth tore apart the corpse’s coat. When one wolf bitten, other wolves flocked in as well. Squeak, crackle… The body was no longer visible, hidden by the huge size of the wolves.
“Eat well, everyone.”
I retreated quickly.
‘Are we finished?’
He buried the clothes that had Yu Soo-ha’s blood on them. Deep into a previously dug hole. I washed my entire body with water from plastic water bottles. Even as I took the new clothes out of my backpack and put them on, I still didn’t feel it.
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‘Is it really over?’
If your new clothes are too clean, you might be suspicious. I rolled on the bare ground on purpose. When I felt a little dirty, I went back to Babylon, the city on the first floor of the tower. A vigilante was standing guard. The vigilante glanced at me… but then he turned his head away, yawning.
‘ah.’
No one knew.
‘It’s over.’
Even when I went into a bar and ordered a beer. Even when I emptied one glass and ordered another, no one paid any attention to me. No one knew what I had done.
Old news only plays on the tavern’s television.
-The 10th floor strategy team was frustrated again today.
-The 2nd to 7th ranked players in the world came together and tried to break through the 10th floor together…
-Meanwhile, the voices of criticism against the world’s No. 1 player, Sword Saint, are getting stronger day by day. It’s because of the Sword Saint’s attitude of not participating in the strategy team even though he is ranked 1st…
No matter how long I waited, breaking news such as ‘Hunter missing from the hunting ground area on the second floor of the tower’ did not appear.
If it was natural, it was natural. It happened every day that a novice hunter lost his life. Just as no one cared about me, no one cared about the nameless Hunter’s disappearance.
in other words.
‘finished!’
Yes.
I succeeded in hunting the monster.
5.
“Big.”
I held my empty glass high.
“Here’s another draft beer!”
“You drink a lot. “I guess the hunting went well today?”
“Yeah, that worked. “It went really well!”
Even though my heart was relieved, I could never feel this relieved.
Two or three hours to fill my relaxed heart with beer. It wasn’t until the sunset outside the bar that I slowly began to think about reality.
‘What should I do now?’
There was a lot to do.
‘You could win the lottery. You can sell methods to target the upper class that no one knows about for money. Wow, my life has unfolded. ‘Life unfolds!’
I looked up my ability window.
An ability window that only illuminates the hunter himself.
+
Name: Gongja Kim
Rank: F grade
Skill (2/4)
1. I want to be like you (S+): Passive
2. Returner’s Clockwork (EX): Passive
3. None
4. None
+
“Kyaa. “There is no need for snacks.”
My skillset was the most delicious snack in the world. There is one S-class skill. There is one EX level skill that you have never heard of. When it comes to meals, it’s like adding caviar to steak.
‘If you want it to be better than this, you’re a thief. cancer.’
But it was only for a moment that a happy smile appeared on my face.
“…But you don’t have any combat skills.”
ah.
Is the human mind really like this?
My shortcomings slowly became apparent.
“No matter how much money you make, a hunter must be a hunter… “If you have money and no power, you will get robbed someday anyway…”
The society inside the tower was more brutal than the outside world.
To put it nicely, it means strong self-respect. To put it simply, it’s a diet of jungle.
It wouldn’t matter if I could just run away to the outside world like this…
‘Once you step into the tower, you can never leave.’
That was the law.
No S-class hunter with the ability to move through space was able to move outside the tower. It’s just impossible.
In Babylon, there is only one human who can interact with the outside world. The leader of the merchant guild. He was just a hunter with the so-called ‘Earl’ nickname.
‘Sangryeonju can only export and bring in goods, but he cannot go out into the outside world himself…’
Literally, it may have been up to you when you came in, but not when you left.
Only those who came prepared to abandon the outside world finally became hunters.
Only those who have abandoned everything: property, relationships, status, and nationality.
Maybe even humanity.
“okay.”
Of course, so did I.
“Whether I become porridge or rice, I have to succeed at the top.”
I mumbled under the influence of alcohol. success. I really wanted to succeed like crazy.
Why did I regard the Flame Emperor as a hero in the first place? Because you fell in love with the damn personality? Did that guy have any personality? The reason was much simpler.
Emperor Yan was envious of his dazzling achievements and success.
“Let’s succeed, Gongja Kim. okay. What can a person who has died 4090 times not do? Let’s make sure to succeed…”
at that time.
-Jallang.
A bell rang at the front door of the tavern.
6.
At first I didn’t care who came in.
How great would a hunter who comes to drink in the early evening be so great?
But other drunkards started whispering instead of me.
“Hey, that person over there…”
“what? “Does it seem real?”
“Why in a place like this…”
Soon the bar became strangely quiet. Everyone held their breath. At this point, I also became interested and couldn’t help but turn my head.
There stood an old man dressed in a black suit.
“hmm.”
Dress neatly as if you were going to work right away.
He wore a bright red tie without a pattern. If you just look at it, you’ll think, ‘Huh? ‘When did I return to the outside world?’ He looked like an ordinary office worker, to the point where you might be mistaken.
However, he wore sneakers and not just shoes. Red sneakers.
‘and. ‘What kind of fashion sense is that?’
It was very unbalanced.
But it wasn’t just the clothes that were strange.
“milk.”
“yes?”
“Please give me warm milk mixed with a little vodka and sugar. “It would be better if there was honey instead of sugar.”
The bar owner also looked puzzled by the absurd order.
“uh···. customer. “I’m not a bartender…”
“I will pay properly. “Don’t worry.”
The bar owner nodded hesitantly. The other people were still whispering, peeking at the old man in his suit. He seemed to be a fairly famous person.
‘Who is it?’
I quietly narrowed my eyebrows.
‘weird? All the famous hunters know their faces.’
I’m not bragging, but I’m sure no one envies top hunters as much as I do. It was natural for the Flame Emperor, and he was able to name all the world rankings from 2nd to 100th. Because they were all objects of my jealousy.
Still… strangely, the old man in that strange suit seemed unfamiliar.
‘I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere before. Where did you see it? where?’
It occurred to me only after some time had passed.
‘ah!’
It’s none other than my own room.
Scraps of newspapers were stuck to the wall.
Among them, there was a picture of that old man on just one article.
「Geomseong, missing for 22 days. “Is the worst chaos in the hunter industry coming?”
‘It’s a sword saint!’
It was like that. The most famous person before Yu Su-ha became famous as the Flame Emperor.
It was a hunter who was active so long ago that I completely forgot about it. Anyway, it was difficult for me to instantly recognize a hunter who was active more than 10 years ago.
I don’t know what the circumstances were, but he was also someone who would soon go missing.
‘ah. yes···. ‘It was 11 years ago now.’
Once again, I felt like I had truly returned to the past.
‘For people of this era, that old man, not the Flame Emperor, must be the strongest in the world…’
It was amazing.
Even though I knew it was rude, I kept stealing glances at the side of Sword Saint’s face. What should I say about this? Would you say it feels like seeing a great person who died a long time ago right before your eyes? Anyway, it was strange.
‘Yah. That old man probably also has S-class skills, right?’
I grinned and sipped my beer.
‘Not strange skills like mine, but really proper combat skills…’
It was that moment.
“uh?”
Without realizing it, my hand stopped.
suddenly. Suddenly, I remembered the S-class skills I had.
+
[I want to be like you]
Rank: S+
Effect: Activates automatically when killed by an enemy. Copy one of the skills of the enemy that killed you and make it yours. You cannot copy a partner that has already been copied once. Which skills to copy is randomly determined.
※But, you die!
+
‘wait for a sec.’
It feels like a thunderbolt strikes my head and it brightens me up.
The same feeling that came over me when I thought of how to kill the Flame Emperor came over my whole body.
[I want to be like you]. It’s a great skill. If you want, you can die to any hunter and copy their skills. However, having to die is a huge disadvantage.
however.
‘I… I’m not dying anymore, right?’
Because I gained another skill.
+
[Returner’s Wind-Up Clock]
Rank: EX
Effect: Activates automatically when you die. Returns to 24 hours prior to the moment of death. Even if you regress, your memories and abilities are preserved.
※However, the higher the hunter rank, the stronger the penalty.
※This is a skill copied from Hunter Yoo Su-ha.
+
‘then.’
An eerie electric current rose from my back.
‘Could it be possible to just copy everything? What if I just pick a random hunter and kill him?’
A very obvious fact. However, due to the tension and pressure of having to kill the Flame Emperor, I finally woke up to a fact that I had not realized until now.
‘···The swordsman who is ranked #1 in this era?’
gulp. I swallowed the remaining beer in my mouth.
The Flame Emperor, who would become number one in the rankings in the future, had a morale ability called regression skill. Then, the Sword Saint before he disappeared somewhere. What abilities does the hunter who dominates this era have?
Wouldn’t he have a skill as great as that of the Flame Emperor?
‘If only I could copy it…’
I looked at the back of the old man.
‘Amazing, Great.’
I guess.
Looks like my hunt isn’t over yet.
etc,
