Ah… I want to be successful like the Fire Emperor… I wish I could thrive in life so that other people would envy me instead. When I’m successful, I’ll be able to teach those people a lesson for looking down on me. After that, I’ll forgive them and pat them on the shoulders and telling them to be kind to others from now on. I want people to think I’m a big-hearted man…
Yes, I was jealous of the hero on the screen.
「Mr. Fire Emperor.」
「For god’s sake. Didn’t I tell you to call me by my real name, not “Fire Emperor”? I thought you media jackals’ brains went rotten because of your tabloid shit, but I guess they rotted your ears, too?」
「I-I’m sorry. But before we finish the interview, can you say something to our viewers out there?」
The Fire Emperor scratched the back of his head in annoyance. 「 Phew. What am I supposed to say?」
「Many aspiring Hunters look up to you and try to follow in your footsteps, Mr. Fire Emperor. You entered the Tower in your early twenties, but you Awakened right away! Less than a month after your Awakening, you killed a boss monster! You’re writing legends as Yoo Soo-Ha the Fire Emperor! So can you give all the aspiring Hunters out there one piece of advice?」
「I’m sure that if they can succeed with just one piece of advice from me, then they never needed it to begin with.」 The Fire Emperor chuckled dryly.
「Still, can you give them one?」
「Ha… you people from the media are seriously… Tsk. Fine, but I’ll make it short.」 The Fire Emperor scratched the back of his head irately, his black ponytail swaying from side to side. He glared straight into the camera. 「Those who are destined to succeed will be successful no matter what. But don’t get cocky with me even if you do. I’ll crush you.」
「Pardon?」
「That’s it. I have nothing else to say, so don’t follow me.」 The Fire Emperor just stood up from his seat and walked away from the camera, unceremoniously ending the interview.
「Mr. Fire Emperor! Mr. Fire Emperor! What is that supposed to mean?!」the anchor shouted after him, bewildered.
The anchor was completely ignored.
I blankly stared at the Fire Emperor’s back and let out a sigh. I was angry. The anchor was the one who was insulted, but for some reason, it felt like the Fire Emperor had disrespected me. It made me furious.
“Only if I had one decent Skill…” I trailed off.
The reality was, I was just a lowly Class F Hunter, and my life was far from successful. My interview wouldn’t go viral in real-time, and no one cared about my private life. The last thing that was going to happen in my life was me becoming rich and successful with my own abilities…
“I want to win in life… I wish I had a Class S Skill… Arghhh… I just want to be successful even if I don’t get to be rich. How cool would it be to have the Fire Emperor’s Skills…?”
If anyone saw me right now, they would think I was crazy for voicing my wildest fantasies aloud—but again, the only reason I could do it was that I was living alone in my studio. I relieved my stress by talking to myself when no one was around. I knew it was absolutely pathetic, but who cared? It was better than going outside and screaming into people’s ears. No one was listening anyway.
“...Huh?”
It looked like I was wrong. A golden light appeared in front of me as if someone had heard me.
“C-can it be…?”
The only time I saw this kind of light was in videos online; it signified the moment a Hunter Awakened a Skill. I had pressed the play button thousands of times every morning after I woke up, letting my jealousy consume me.
“It’s golden!”
The golden light indicated that the Skill was Class S or higher! My heart pounded so hard that it hurt. Before long, the golden light pool coalesced.
[It would be extremely difficult to find something as ugly as your jealousy!]
[The Tower, appalled by your ugly jealousy, has decided to get you a Skill and be done with it!]
Huh? The voice is a little different from what I heard about…
It was said that when a Hunter received a Skill, they usually heard a majestic voice lavishing them with praise. It varied from “The Tower is touched by your resolve,” or “The Tower has rewarded your upright yet challenging cultivation,” or “The Tower compliments your accomplishments.”
But the voice I heard just now was telling me that my ugly jealousy was what made the Tower toss me a Skill. It was like the Tower was throwing a coin to a beggar, hoping to get rid of him.
N-no. It doesn’t matter. I got a Class S Skill.
I had an uneasy premonition, but I ignored it. I had been waiting for this moment forever, so I shouldn’t jinx it.
[Creating a Skill Card.]
The golden light flashed and turned into a card of the same color. I grabbed the card with shaking hands.
I Want To Be Like You
Class: S+
Effects: It will automatically activate after an enemy kills you. You will be able to copy and turn one of their Skills into yours. The Skill you copy will be chosen at random, but you can’t copy your enemies’ Skills more than once.
※ However, you will die!
“Whoaa! W-wh-whoa… Huh?” My voice died out. I blinked. “Huhhh?”
At first, I thought I misread something, so I slowly reread the description on the card from top to bottom. However, it really said that I was going to die after using this Class S Skill, so the only thing I could do was stare blankly at it.
A breeze entered through my window, fluttering the newspaper and magazine clips that covered my walls.
“What the fuck! How am I supposed to use this Skill!”
After a long silence, my scream rattled my studio. No one in history had ever gotten a shittier Skill than the one I got today.
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1. The raw is 추하다, 염제야. This is a Korean meme. People are embarrassed to reveal their real identities and defend themselves, so they pretend to be a third party. But they often get caught, so Koreans jokingly say this when an advocate defends someone in a rather awkward way. ☜
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