Skills, which made many Hunters fall on their knees in despair, were acquired on a myriad of occasions.
“I hit training dummies ten thousand times and automatically got one.”
“I heard God’s voice one day!”
“You want to know how I used that magic spell just now? I don’t know. I’ve been able to do it since I entered the Tower.”
Some Hunters couldn’t escape poverty due to their lack of gifts, even though they were kind-hearted and tenacious. On the other hand, there were Hunters who made a decent living despite their ill temper. A prime example of the latter would be the Fire Emperor, the number one Hunter in the official ranking.
If people’s lives were games, the Fire Emperor’s would earn the Game of the Year award. He would be able to get anything he wanted in his game. Meanwhile, my life was… just a second-rate gacha.
Most people would think that the moment of greatest despair during gacha was if they never got Five Star items or characters, no matter how many times they tried. However, anyone who paid money to get more gacha pulls would know better… True despair was when they acquired the most useless Five-Star items or characters out there.
My Five-Star Skill was worse than most One-Star gacha pulls.
I Want To Be Like You
Class: S+
Effect: 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!
“Ha. Shit…”
Yes, my life was a second-rate gacha. Once Hunters acquired a Skill, they were supposed to visit the Hunter Management Bureau and report it, but I didn’t. My Skill wasn’t even fair, so I didn’t want to embarass myself too.
“Hello, Mr. Hunter. How did you acquire your Skill?”
“It was because I envy the world’s Rank 1 Hunter.”
“Sorry?”
“I yelled that I was going to go crazy because I envy him so much, and the Tower tossed me a Skill Card. Haha. You know, the Tower also told me that they never saw something as ugly as my jealousy.”
I couldn’t tell them that! Instead, I ended up drinking like there was no tomorrow and left the pub, wandering and staggering for who knew how long. I wound up in a deserted alley and couldn’t hold it any longer and vomited.
“ Blarghhhhhh! ” I wiped my mouth. “If I was going to be unlucky… I shouldn’t have been lucky at all. “
...But where am I?
I wasn’t even good at finding the right place to vomit. Where was I? I had never been to this alley. How did I end up here? I remembered nothing. Would I have to sleep on the ground tonight?
Ah, I want to cry. I held back my tears.
“—go! Ah! Why would you suddenly do this…!”
Just then, I heard a faint scream from further inside the alley. My head cleared up right away. The scream was too vivid for me to have hallucinated because of the makgeolli I had. Although I wasn’t sure who it was, they were definitely screaming because their life was in danger.
What’s going on? I carefully picked my way down the alley and took shallow breaths to be as stealthy as possible.
One step after another, I made my way toward the source of the scream. The voice became clearer as I approached.
“M-Mr. Fire Emperor, why are you doing—”
“...It’s useless. No one is around….”
And that was my second stupid mistake for the day. I should have run as soon as I heard the scream. Of course… my first mistake was to drink until I pickled my brain, but that was because I had never gotten drunk in my entire life before today. Infuriated by the fact that I had a Class S shit, I had gulped down makgeolli as if it were water.
“I poisoned your glass.”
“Po-poison? I already told you, I don’t understand what you are talking about, Mr. Fire Emperor.”
“Wow, you’re a great actress. If anyone saw you right now, they would buy it instantly.”
A couple was standing deep in a dead-end alley without a single street light shining on them. Perhaps “standing” was an understatement, because the man was threatening the woman.
“I used Basilisk Acid. It’s the same poison you used in my glass before.” The man leaned closer to the woman. “ I gotta hand it to you. I would have been in real trouble if it wasn’t for my Skill. Hmm? What’s wrong? You look pale now, Miss Saintess.”
“ Impervious Body …? N-no way. You don’t have that Skill.”
“I don’t.” The man’s laughter quietly echoed down the alley. “But I happen to have a slightly better Skill than Impervious Body .”
That was when I recognized the man. Even though the alley was pitch dark, there was no way I wouldn’t remember his ponytail after seeing him walking away in the TV interview last night.
It’s really the Fire Emperor!
He was the officially recognized number one Hunter in the ranking compiled by the Hunter Management Bureau, the star of this era, and the idol of everyone. That was why everyone was envious of him, especially me.
…And she’s the Saintess!
I covered my mouth so they wouldn’t hear me breathing.
The Saintess was a Rank 9 Hunter and was currently rumored to be dating the Fire Emperor. I had only seen her beauty from videos and photos online. Yet here she was, being threatened.
“But I’ve had enough of this game. You have to pay the price for messing with me.”
“H-hold on, Mr. Fire Emperor. You’re misunderstanding something— The only thing I want to do is clear the Tower together!”
“That’s what I thought, but I was wrong.”
“Please stop and think about it! If you and I work together, we can not only clear the fortieth floor, we can clear the fiftieth floor within a year! Yes! No human has ever managed to clear the fiftieth floor, but we can!”
“I thought so too, but we probably won’t,” the Fire Emperor scoffed.
My jaw dropped to the ground. They… aren’t dating each other?
Two heroes in love—that was what people on the internet and the media said about them, but there was nothing romantic about this. In fact, a lover’s quarrel was the last word I would use right now.
The Fire Emperor’s voice dripped with murder. In my eyes, this conversation was between people who were about to kill and be killed.
“Let’s talk it out, please! I’m sure we can sort out this misunderstanding.”
“Talk? Ah, yes. I like talking. It’s what gentlemen do.” The Fire Emperor grabbed the Saintess by the neck.