"Kuk…uk…ugh!"
People always believed that there was a higher chance of awakening while in a life and death situation. In fact such a myth had been passed down in the hunter industry since its inception.
But maybe it wasn't a myth, maybe it was real. Even I had awakened a skill simply for having an excessive amount of jealousy.
Therefore I remained vigilant and shook my knife.
"Hik!"
I wouldn't give this psychopath a chance.
"Kuk!"
He would die.
"Uh…"
But what angered me the most, rather than the fact that this psychopath burned me to death so casually, it was something which caused anger to burn in me more intensely than even the pain and the desperation.
'He told me his name.'
Before returning me to the past, before holding onto my head and lighting it on fire. The Flame Emperor told me something with a smile.
'But you know who I am, and you saw me kill the Saintess so you have to die. My name is Yoo Soo-ha. Goodbye.'
The thing that crazy guy had said last. One weird part that I just couldn't stand. It was extremely disgusting.
'He told me his name.'
Why did he tell me his name before he killed me. Did he think that I didn't know what the name of the Flame Emperor was?
'He must've thought it was cool.'
The Flame Emperor.
That bastard probably thought that the scene looked cool. As if in a sacred duel where the warriors learned their opponents name. This is what the Flame Emperor must have thought as he killed me.
'Whoever I kill, I do it in fairness. So at least I'm not being too imposing.'
How dare-.
"Like that-."
How dare a psychopath like you.
"Think something like that."
A man who killed a witness just because he stumbled across the scene. A person who pretended to be blameless as he came back to inspect the fire he created. A person like that could no longer be called human. He was a beast. A devil, even worse than a beast. Who acted cool as if it made him more noble.
"Don't mess with me!"
Puk!
My knife stabbed into Yoo Soo-ha's neck again.
"…"
There was no sound. No scream, no moan. The hunting ground was hidden, far away from where anyone would be active.
I looked up to the sky, but my eyes weren't in focus and my body was swaying like a weed in the breeze.
He was dead.
"Haha…"
Maybe it wasn't appropriate to say 'dead'. Yoo Soo-ha was more than just an ordinary hunter, and it wasn't simply that he was dead.
The man who would've become the Flame Emperor someday. A legend who had reached the top of the world's rankings. The one who managed to single-handedly defeat 10 floors in the tower that no one had been able to reach even after trying for years. He was killed by me.
"Hooo…"
I sighed.
"Now I can be a little sane again."
As I turned to head back, I heard something arrive, probably drawn by the smell of blood.
A pack of wolves were crouched among the trees.
Great…
These weren't ordinary wolves. They were engraved by what appeared to be tattoos which could be seen even through their thick hair. These were Meadow Wolves and the more complex the patterns on their bodies, the stronger they were.
Though these Meadow Wolves only had the simplest patterns on their bodies, an F-class hunter like me couldn't possibly fight them.
"…"
First I carefully retrieved the wallet that was stolen by Yoo Soo-ha and stepped back.
"You guys want to eat this guy right?"
I pointed at the body.
"I don't need it. You can have it."
I took another step back.
'Come on.'
The wolves cautiously approached the body.
Crack!
One of the wolves took a bite, and that seemed to be a signal for the rest of them.
Crack! Crack!
Soon the body couldn't be seen as it was completely covered by wolves.
"Eat well."
I hurried away.
'Is it over now?'
I buried the clothes that had been splattered with Yoo Soo-ha's blood in a deep pit I'd prepared before the fight. As I washed my whole body with water from a plastic bottle and changed into a new set of clothes from my backpack, it still hadn't sunk in yet.
'Is it really over?'
If my clothes were too clean, people might be suspicious of me. So I deliberately rolled on the ground for a bit before heading back to Babylon, the city on the first floor of the tower.
As I walked up to the gates, a guard watched me closely for a moment before yawning and turning away.
'Ah.'
No one had realised.
'It's over.'
Even when I went to a bar and ordered a beer. Even when I emptied the beer and ordered another one, no one cared about me. No one knew what I'd done.
Old news played on the tavern's television.
-Today, the strategy which was guaranteed to clear the 10th floor failed.
-Hunters ranked 2nd and 7th in the world intend to challenge and defeat the 10th floor together…
-Voices of protest against the world's number one hunter continually grow stronger. This is due to the fact that the Sword Saint still refuses to work with anyone else.
No matter how long I waited, there was no breaking news like, 'A hunter has disappeared on the second Floor of the tower.' But I should've expected that.
Novice hunters lost their lives every day. No one really cared about the disappearance of a lone novice, no one cared about me.
In other words.
'It's over!'
"Hey."
I lifted my empty glass high.
"Pour another draft for me!"
"You sure are drinking a lot. Was your hunt good today?"
"Yeah it was good. Very good!"
Even as I said this, my heart wasn't settled.
I took two or three hours calming my heart with beer.
It wasn't until sunset that I gradually began to accept the reality.
'What should I do now?'
There was a lot to do.
'I could win the lottery. I would get the money and no one would suspect a thing. Hey, my life is about to get better!'
I opened my status window which could only be viewed by myself.
[Name: Kim Gongja]
Rank: F-Class
Skills (2/4) :
I want to Become Just Like You (S+) : Passive
Returner's Clockwork Watch (EX) : Passive
None
None
"Kya. Now I'm not even hungry anymore."
My status window was like the most delicious meal in the world. One S+ class skill and an EX class skill that I'd never even heard about. When it came to meals, this was like having caviar on top of my steak.
'If there is someone with better skills than this then they are truly broken.'
But I couldn't stop the warm smile from spreading across my face.
'…But I have no combat skill.'
Ah…
Why was the human mind like this? The thing I didn't have was the thing that I noticed the most.
"No matter how easy it is to make money, a hunter must be a hunter… even with all the money in the world, without power then it would eventually be robbed."
The society in the tower was much more bloody than the outside world. To put it nicely, the strong ate well, and the weak were the meat. It didn't matter even if you wanted to escape the tower and live lavishly in the outside world.
'Those who stepped foot in the tower could never leave.'
Those were the rules. Not even a hunter with an S class teleportation ability could go out of the tower. It was simply impossible.
Only one being in all of Babylon could interact with the outside world. The Guildmaster of the Shanglian Guild. The only hunter with the title 'Count.'
'Even then, they could only send and receive things from the outside world, they couldn't directly leave.'
Anyone could enter, but no one could exit.
This meant that those who had entered had abandoned their wealth, their relationships, their nationality, their identity. Maybe…even their humanity.
"Indeed."
Of course, I was one of those people.
"Eat or be eaten, that was the law in the tower."
The alcohol made me a little drunk and I couldn't help but mutter. I wanted to succeed so badly it drove me crazy. There was a reason why I idolized the Flame Emperor so much. Was it because of his personality? Did that guy even have something that could be called a personality?
No, the reason was much simpler. I was envious of his success. His achievements had been dazzling, awe-inspiring.
"Let's succeed Kim Gong-ja. Okay? What can't a man who died 4090 times do? It's time to be successful…"
Then.
Jallang!
The bell on the tavern's front door rang.
I didn't care who came in at first. After all, how amazing could a hunter who came to such a place to have a drink be.
But the people in the tavern began to chatter.
"Hey, that guy over there…"
"What? Really?"
"Why was he in a place like this?"
The bar became strangely quiet as if everyone was afraid to breathe.
At this point it would be odd if I didn't get curious. So, I turned my head to look. Standing there was an old man dressed in an expensive looking black suit.
"Um."
The man was dressed as if he had just come back from work. He wore a white shirt and a patternless red tie. If one saw this man, one couldn't help but think,
'When did I return to the outside world.'
The man looked like any common office worker, but there was one thing that stood out. On his feet were bright red sneakers.
Not shoes. Sneakers.
'Wow, what kind of fashion sense is that?'
The difference was striking. But it wasn't just his clothes that were weird.
"Milk?"
"Yes."
"Please add vodka and sugar to a glass of warm milk. Actually, it would be better if you used honey instead of sugar."
The owner of the tavern was embarrassed by the strange orders.
"Uh…customer. I'm not a bartender…"
"I will pay the necessary amount. Don't worry."
The owner of the bar nodded hesitantly. The other customers were mumbling quietly, all of them still looking at the old man.
It seemed that this man was quite famous.
'Who is this?'
My eyes narrowed slightly.
'Strange, I can't seem to remember someone like this.'
While I wasn't proud of it, there was probably no other human who envied the top ranking hunters as much as I do. So naturally, I was able to say every name from the 100th to the 2nd in the rankings. All because of my jealousy.
Even then, this old man in this suit, was someone unfamiliar to me.
'I think I saw him somewhere before. Where did I see him? Where?'
It came to me after thinking for a long time.
'Ah!'
I remembered in my room. Among the fragments that were attached to the wall. There was a picture of this very old man.
[22 days since the Sword Saint's disappearance. Will the Hunter Association face its worst crisis?]
'It's the Sword Saint!'
I remembered. This was the most famous person before Yoo Soo-ha became known as the Flame Emperor.
I'd forgotten because he was a hunter who'd disappeared long ago. It was hard to remember those hunters who'd been active more than 10 years ago.
I didn't know what to think, looking at someone who I knew would disappear.
'Ah right…now it's years in the past.'
I finally, truly felt that I'd returned to the past.
'This man would soon become the strongest in the world…even the Flame Emperor had to look up to him.'
It was an amazing feeling. Even though I knew it was just an excuse, I kept staring at the Sword Saint. What should I do? It was strange to see such a great man in front of me, even if he'd died long ago. Either way, it was pretty strange.
'Hey. Doesn't this senior have S ranked skills?'
A thought ran through my head as I drank my beer.
'Not strange skills like mine either, but actual combat skills…'
It was at that moment.
'Uh?'
My hand had moved without me realising it. Suddenly, my S rank skill appeared in front of me.
[I Want to Become Just Like You.]
Rank: S+
Effect:
→Activates automatically upon death.
→After being killed by an enemy, copy one of their skills and make it your own.
→Skills cannot be copied from targets who have killed you before.
→The copied skill is randomly selected.
→However, you die!
'Wait a minute.'
The feeling was like being struck by a lightning bolt. The same sensation I felt when I finally figured out a way to kill the Flame Emperor filled my body.
[I Want to Become Just Like You.]
This skill was amazing. With it, you could copy any skill from any hunter. The only drawback however, was that you had to die first.
However.
'I don't stay dead.'
Because I had another skill.
[Returner's Clockwork Watch.]
Rank: EX
Effects:
→ Activates automatically upon death.
→ Return 24 hours prior to death.
→ Memories and abilities are preserved even after returning.
→ However the higher the rank of the hunter, the larger the penalty.
→ Skill copied from Hunter Yoo Soo-ha.
'Then.'
A chill went down my spine.
'Can I just copy anything? A hunter who picks up things by dying?'
The pressure of having to kill Yoo Soo-ha had caused this fact to evade me all this while but I'd finally realized. (TL: It took him long enough, I was wondering when he was gonna run into the old man's sword)
'The Sword Saint , the world's strongest in the present era.'
Gulp.
I swallowed the mouthful of beer I'd forgotten in my mouth.
The Flame Emperor who had also been considered the strongest in his era, had such a game-breaking regression skill. So this Sword Saint, who towered over the world in the time before his disappearance. What kind of skill would this great person have?
Wouldn't it be just as good as Yoo Soo-ha's skill?
'If I could copy it…'
I stared intently at the old man's back.
'Jackpot.'
Maybe…
My hunt had not ended yet.