SSS-Class Hunter is Going to Rest - Chapter 120



Only Noblemtl

Episode 120: The EXS-Class Hunter Goes to Rest
2024.06.27.

[Humanity has won. At the end of the battle, there was the contribution of EXS-Class Hunter Daphne. However, after the final battle that resulted in numerous casualties, the citizens are suffering from severe PTSD… … Even after two weeks since the incident, they are still not returning to their daily lives smoothly… … .]

[Hunters who lost their jobs overnight are protesting day after day. The biggest reason is that the system itself has disappeared, and so have all the assets they have accumulated so far… … There has been a lot of friction between the government and civic groups regarding the compensation system. There are also cases of citizens who are former Hunters who are not adapting to the current situation and turning into criminals… … .]

‘Shut up.’

[There is news that the life or death of the Hunter who saved humanity, Daphne, is still unknown. She suffered cardiac arrest during two surgeries and eventually fell into a brain-dead state. She is currently on life support… … .]

[The prayer line of people praying for Daphne’s return continues day after day… … .]

[Four weeks have passed since the disappearance of the Hunter System. The era before the First Wave has returned. How are the citizens adjusting to a life without dungeons or waves? On the scene… … .]

‘… … It’s really noisy.’

[With the disappearance of the culture of using Hunter names… … .]

[This is the Hunter ward inside the Gate Stability Department of the Crisis Management Support Division. Countless wreaths, bouquets, and letters are piled high at the entrance where entry by the general public is restricted. Will Daphne, the EXS-rank Hunter who returned our ‘normal life’, return to us… … .]

‘Who turns on the news like this every day? I don’t even want to listen to it.’

That was the moment when Suzy let out a deep sigh as she thought that.

“… … I think her pupils moved just now?”

“Peace, I saw it too! Didn’t your fingers move either?”

“I think she’s regaining consciousness.”

“Team Leader!”

“Team Leader!”

“Daphne!”

Suzy groaned.

Her head was already hurting and her body was heavy and heavy. She couldn’t understand why her teammates were making such a fuss.

“Quiet… … Quiet.”

She opened her mouth, but her throat felt strangely burning.

Suzy frowned and forced her heavy eyelids open.

The uncomfortably strong light passed over her eyes as if examining them, so her vision returned a little late.

Her teammates were looking down at her.

That wasn’t anything special.

After all, they were a group she’d been with more often than her family.

They all had black hair and didn’t have any special equipment, so it was a little… … no, it was just very awkward.

Suzy blinked slowly and suddenly her eyes fell on the hair flowing down her arms.

It was all white.

The custom hair was purple, and it was originally black.

“… … This is all… … .”

“I think you’ve really woken up now. I was really… … so worried… … sob… … .”

After hearing Suzy’s bewildered muttering, the black-haired Saint buried his head in her chest and burst into tears.

The face of the Hunter ward manager was revealed belatedly.

He looked Suzy over, met her eyes, and smiled.

“I believed you would wake up.”

“Wake up… … .”

“You used too much energy, so your hair temporarily turned gray. The new hair will be black, so don’t worry too much. I’m glad you woke up.”

Suzy couldn’t even turn her head, so she rolled her eyes around. She

saw Peace, whose eyes were bright red, and the children who were hiding behind him. And Elaine’s relieved face, who had stepped aside.

“Are you really awake?”

That was the moment Yeonju ran into the room with that cry.

All the memories came back at once.

The Messiah’s self-destruction.

The invitation.

And seeing the message window that said she survived with the “Dance of Death”.

Suzy gasped for breath as if the pain she had experienced at the last moment was coming back to her.

Fortunately, that eerie feeling disappeared before long.

Suzy slowly opened her mouth and asked.

“… … So are we safe now?”

Elaine smiled softly.

“Thanks to Daphne.”

But his face did not look happy as he said that.

Sorry, gratitude, and relief from everything being over.

Suzy read all the emotions on Elaine’s face and squeezed her eyes shut.

“How long was I lying down?”

“It’s been over a month. Do you know how worried I was? The doctors kept telling me to prepare myself mentally and scared me.”

When she heard Aunt Yeonju’s voice, it finally hit her.

It was really over.

The next floor, the next floor, and the next boss monster.

The life she had lived like that.

It was all over now.

She opened her eyes again and looked around, and the flowers and letters that filled the room came into view.

She could easily tell that they weren’t sent by just one or two people. The entire huge hospital room with a living room was decorated with flower baskets.

And even though she had been lying down for a month, not a single flower had withered.

Suji felt her vision blur.

She didn’t want to cry in front of so many people, but she couldn’t hold it in because she had been sleeping for so long and her energy was exhausted.

Tears burst out before she could even cover her face with her hands.

The burden of having to carry everything on my shoulders and run, the regret of the fleeting moment of meeting my mother’s stored memories, the sense of accomplishment from overturning a bet that seemed absolutely impossible to win.

All the emotions were mixed together and swept over me.

* * *

One winter day, three months after the Messiah’s disappearance.

Suzy was standing on a hill in front of the Hunter Ward, looking down at the Han River as the cold snow fell heavily.

“Are you here again?”

She knew who was speaking to her without even turning her head.

Instead of looking back, Suzy looked up.

The trees in the distance were bare and bare. The snow that had fallen on them looked quite warm.

“I have to look at it like this to feel it.”

“It’s cold.”

“I’m feeling better now, so what?”

“But it’s still a long way from discharge.”

“… … What’s the point of being discharged? If I were to go, no one would stop me.”

The moment Suzy answered like that, the wind blew hard and hit her face.

Elaine tied up her messy white hair and wrapped a blanket around her shoulders. Then he stood next to Suzy and looked at the Han River.

The view of the Han River without the tower was terribly awkward.

There was no Messiah, no tower, nothing.

Now.

Others would have gotten used to this view, but Suzy still felt strange.

Maybe it was because she had only lived in a world where the Hunter System existed since birth.

Suzy grabbed the blanket and straightened it, looking at the white hair Elaine had tied up.

Contrary to what the doctor had said, black hair did not grow easily.

However, Suzy really liked the mature white hair she had acquired at the age of 20. It seemed that only the white hair told her that not all of her past was a dream.

She exhaled deeply into the cold air.

“How are you? People?”

“Haven’t you decided not to care about people’s reactions anymore?”

“The Hunter System suddenly disappeared. I was wondering how everyone was doing.”

Elaine shook her head.

“Some people will like it. Some will hate it. Anyway, what’s the point of surviving? I don’t think anyone has the right to complain. I… … I’m just satisfied that Daphne won’t be put back into that horrible trap.”

Only then did Suzy turn her head and look up at him standing next to her.

Elaine’s profile, sparkling with the sunset in her eyes, was beautiful.

Even when she could apply the Hunter’s appearance, he didn’t bother to do any other customization. It was just his familiar face.

It had been a long time since she had been surrounded by people who had visited her in the hospital.

When she realized that fact belatedly, her heart beat a little faster.

However, Suzy asked without showing any emotion.

“What about Elaine? Don’t you feel regretful?”

“What do you mean?”

“But Elaine… … was quite talented, in the Hunter system. Don’t you feel like you’ve lost everything you’ve worked for in an instant?”

Elaine shook her head slowly but firmly.

“You can live without that. “ Can’t someone as vicious as me do something else?”

Suzy smiled slightly at the straightforward answer.

“Elaine really doesn’t seem to have any regrets.”

“Even though everything else is gone, I still have money left. That alone should be enough to live off of for the rest of my life.”

Suzy raised her eyebrows.

All the money in the Hunter System was gone. Unless you own multiple properties like Suzy, people who were Hunters said that the future was bleak.

So it was strange that Elaine was talking as if she had free time.

“Why did Elaine have money left?”

“I invested it as soon as I got money. Since I knew the future would change, it was easy to buy stocks.”

Suzy’s eyes widened in shock. She

thought of Elaine confessing that she turned back time by writing “Deviation.” She acted as if she had no regrets about life, as if she could die at any moment.

But she had prepared for the future more thoroughly than anyone else.

“Did you expect the Hunter System to disappear?”

He shook his head firmly.

Then, as if he was hesitating for a long time, he stood silently in the heavy snowfall, then slowly pulled Suzy’s hand and held it in his own.

“… … Elaine?”

Elaine spread her palm over her body as if to block her eyes, then met her gaze.

“You have a lot of money, how about that?”

“… … Yes?”

“I’m not a hunter anymore, so I’m going to meet a rich man like this in my spare time.”

Suzy burst out laughing at the unexpected words.

Suzy laughed out loud for a while at the confession that came out of nowhere, but Elaine stubbornly met her gaze as if she wasn’t hurt at all. Only

after Suzy stopped laughing did she realize that Elaine’s hand holding hers was very cold.

Perhaps it wasn’t because of the snow that was falling on them, but because of the tension.

It was strange to see a beautiful man looking at her tensely while being hit by the white snow. His beauty was so beautiful

that it was almost pitiful, and her heart kept trembling.

My savior who came to save me from time.

How could

I turn down someone like that? However, he was so cute that Suzy couldn’t help but tease him a little.

“I don’t think I’ll have enough time to play games, watch movies, and read comics… … I wonder if I’ll have time for that.”

“… … Daphne.”

At his desperate muttering, Soo-ji stood up and wrapped her arms around his neck.

The blanket fell to the floor with a thud, but neither of them cared.

“Can I ask you your real name?”

“Soo-ho… … Seo Soo-ho.”

“We really found out too late. Your name.”

“… … That’s right.”

“From now on, call me Soo-ji.”

As she whispered that, she lightly pressed her lips to his.

When she closed her eyes, the secret of the invitation that sparkled in a dark corner of her vision was buried as her own.

〈End〉