SSS-Class Revival Hunter-Chapter 371: Home Sweet Home (1)

It had been over three months since I came back to Babylon. During that time, I had spent time with Raviel, established new diplomatic relations with the underground civilization, sent Kim Pollock in high school, spent more time with Raviel, and caught up on a lot of backlog. It had been a good and worthwhile time.

On the hundredth day, I suddenly looked up. “I need to climb the Tower again.”

There was a moment of silence. I was lying on the couch reading a magazine, which contained my interview.

“What is Kim Gong-Ja’s definition of Hunter?”

“One hundred answers to everything you need to know about the Hunter industry!”

Such silly subtitles. Who even read this?

“That’s sudden. Why?” the Black Witch asked after the initial shock wore off.

Anastasha was sitting in the armchair opposite mine, reading the same magazine as I was. Funnilly enough, she was the cover model of this magazine. The picture on the cover seemed to have used everything in human civilization to embody the concept of nobility.

At this very moment, Anastasha was lounging like a typical older sister on a Sunday evening, chewing on a dried squid leg. She was even wearing a Korean high school gym uniform[1] that I had no idea where she had gotten it from. It made me want to ask if Ukrainian schools also had maroon gym uniforms or if Ukrainians also had dried squid legs as snacks.

Still, everything about Anastasha was perfect right now—her posture, her facial expressions, even the chewing sounds she made as she ate the dried squid leg. It was the perfect portrayal of a jobless Korean person. Everything was so natural that I had no choice but to accept it as it was.

“No, I feel like I’m going to rot if I stay here any longer. I think my head is going to mold because of all the dampness inside,” I grumbled.

One by one, my friends looked up. This was the shared living room of our lodging. In the evening, after work, we all gathered here without making appointments. The Countess, the Viper, and the Inquisitor all looked up at the same time in perfect harmony.

“Dampness? Mold? I don’t know what you’re talking about. Rao Fan, do you understand what he’s trying to say?”

“I don’t know. It’s not the first time he speaks nonsense.”

“Oh, Miss Sylvia, I’ll have another half a plate of potato fries, please!”

My friends wore yellow, navy blue, and blue gym uniforms respectively. I wasn’t sure when Korean gym clothes had become the dress code for this shared lodging. From what I could remember, I was the first one to walk around here in a black gym uniform.

When Anastasha first saw me, she’d said, “Wow, that looks so comfortable. Where did you get it?”

I felt like the tragedy had started to unfold the day after we had that conversation. For the sake of my mental health, It would be better to bury this memory.

“Yes, that’s it! That’s it!” I scrambled to my feet and pointed at the Inquisitor.

Sylvia happened to deliver the fries with a sullen face, and the Inquisitor was cheerfully picking up a fry from the plate. He blinked. There was ketchup around the corners of his mouth.

“Hmm?”

“Don’t hmm me, Bambolina! You’re eating potato fries with your bare hands in a gym uniform with ketchup on your lips!”

“Hahaha, Master. The standard way to eat fries is with your hands. I’d like to believe that you’re not one of those people who use a fork or chopsticks just to avoid getting salt on your fingers!”

“Well, if I have to choose, I’d choose chopsticks...”

“My god.”

“I can’t believe it.”

“Are you crazy?”

“I’m so disappointed in you, Kim Gong-Ja.”

The Inquisitor, the Countess, the Viper, and the Black Witch all looked at me as if I were trash.

At that moment, the Paladin walked through the living room with a towel around her neck. She lowered her head and dried her hair as she walked by.

“For your information, I prefer plastic gloves.”

We watched her walk around for a while. She looked like she was about to go for a jog and get some water from a mountain’s spring.

I belatedly came to my senses. “No, that’s not the point! You guys! You’ve become rotten potato fries! All of you! You all used to be on edge, like the edge of a sword! Why are you now acting like soggy, old potato fries!”

“That’s a rude thing to say.”

“If you’re going to say that, at least take off your three-stripe slippers[2]!” I shouted.

“Eh?” Anastasha looked at her feet. “They’re comfortable.”

Yes, she was sitting in the armchair, wearing those three-stripe slippers. It wasn’t just her. Everyone in the room wore the same type of slippers. Fashion criminals that mixed school gym uniforms and three-stripe slippers could only be found in Korea before, but this fashion crime had spread among the Tower’s people in power.

Was this also because of me? Did they see me walking around like this comfortably and start copying me? My god, no one wanted to spread Korean culture like this.

“If I stay with you guys any longer, I’m going to lose my mind! Get to work! Go! Your subordinates must be dying from overwork right now, so why are you slacking off?” I yelled.

“Well, we aren’t our subordinates.”

“Exactly. We work when we’re supposed to, and we leave the rest to our subordinates. Isn’t that what we pay them to do?”

“It’s important to relieve stress sometimes, Master!”

These guys were a lost cause... Their heads were already infected with mitochondrianitrovectortetraizinfluenzabacteria. There was no hope for them.

I shook my head. “Forget it. I’m climbing the Tower.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, I’m serious. I’m going to climb because if I stay here with you guys, I’ll go crazy or lose interest in clearing the Tower floors and turn into another soggy potato fry! I’m going to climb!”

My friends stared at me.

“Umm, well... Do as you want.”

“The urgent matters have been taken care of, so you can do as you wish.”

“Everything will work out in your favor, Master!”

“Wow, these fries are fucking delicious! Hey, Gong-Ja’s Head Steward! What kind of oil did you fry these in? Can you give me the recipe so I can cook these for my people?”

It seemed that absolutely no one cared about what I was saying. Just as I began to wonder if these people really were my friends and comrades who trusted each other with their lives, the Paladin returned to the living room. She looked us over with an electric toothbrush in hand. “I believe slippers are better with socks than bare feet.”

With that, she stretched and left the living room. Everyone fell silent and watched the Paladin walk away. The Countess then took off one of her slippers and threw it at the Paladin’s back.

“I’m really going... I’m serious. I’m going for real,” I said.

There was no answer. When the Countess and the Paladin began to wrestle, surprisingly, no one paid attention to me. I trudged on to the next floor, feeling like the neglected child in a family.

[Teleporting you to the eightieth floor.]

“That’s how I ended up here. Yeaaah, after all, a Hunter has to climb the Tower. No, I’m a Constellation now—or should I say, a Constellation Hunter? Either way, someone has to climb this Tower. The air is already different on the eightieth floor, isn’t it?”

“You...” The Primordial Staff looked at me in disbelief. “I’m sorry. Has anyone ever called you an idiot before?”

She was harsh.

***

The manager who greeted me on the eightieth floor was the Primordial Staff. The mage sullenly looked at me with eyes like timeless silver swords.

“Well, I was starting to wonder when you would resume climbing the Tower again. I thought you may not come back at all, but you’re just in time.”

“Yeah, I finished my business on the first floor... Huh?”

I suddenly noticed something different about the Primordial Staff. Her eyes, face, or clothes hadn’t changed. However, the very long staff, her symbol that was as thick as her pinky, was now broken.

“What happened to your staff? Did you fight someone?”

The Primordial Staff laughed dryly. “Fight someone? You really don't know? I fought you and lost, Scream Sky. Ever since you took control of the underworld, I’ve been a broken staff.”

“But you’re still in control of the heaven floors.”

“Yes... for now... for now.” The mage sighed. “If you fail to reach the hundredth floor or give up halfway, I’ll become a complete Pillar again. If you conquer the hundredth floor, then my fate is sealed for good. As much as it frustrates me, I’m now serving you like a superior, not guiding you.”

“I see. Could you get me some yulmu tea[3] from the vending machine right now?”

“... Fine, I understand why you would try to give me work as soon as I say I’m serving you. It’s hard, but I can understand. Still, why does it have to be yulmu tea from a vending machine?”

“Think about it, Lady Mage.”

She gestured at me. “Go on.”

“Imagine if your boss told you to buy a cup of yulmu tea from the vending machine. Just that. Now, picture the moment. You put the money in the vending machine, push the button, and wait. How would you feel?”

“I think I’d feel like how I’m feeling right now.”

“What? You know the feeling already? Well then, what are you waiting for? Go and buy it.”

She growled. “You little shit...”

After three minutes, I slurped down the yulmu tea that the Primordial had brought from the vending machine. The taste of chaos lingered in my mouth. The yulmu powder and sugar loved each other so much that I couldn’t tell which was which.

“Mmm, so this is what nostalgia tastes like. My orphanage director told me about it before. Gourmet Orphanage Director. Maybe this could be a spin-off series.”

“You really aren’t going to die peacefully later...”

I couldn’t die anyway.

She continued to grumble. “Do you like the yulmu tea for which I had to break all sorts of rules to deliver?”

“Yes, it tastes sweet.”

“Then drink up and listen. From the seventy-first to the eightieth floors, it was all about establishing you as a Constellation, and you passed these floors better than any other. You’re now going to build your own kingdom from the eighty-first to the ninetieth floors.”

I tilted my head, straw in my mouth. “My own kingdom?”

“Yes, it’s called a holy ground. Though many people also call it a dragon kingdom.”

With a flick of her broken staff, the mage touched the air. A pure white cube appeared with a familiar landscape smudged across the surface.

“This is the Great Library of All Life,” I said.

“Yes, the Great Library of All Life used to be the holy ground of the Indoor Librarian, Hamustra.”

Now that I had an example, I had an idea what she was asking me to build.

“Mutia, the Ruin-Harvesting Cow, had her holy ground in a nearly buried temple in the desert. The Labyrinth-Dwelling Eye, that Hishimit Kritz you’re using as a bracelet, their holy ground is a doll showroom. Even Hunters who didn’t get to become Constellations are allowed to have their own space after clearing the ninetieth floor.”

I took the straw out of my mouth. “So, the bottom line is that I’m going to have a home of my own from now on.”

“Yes, a palace only for you.”

The Primordial Staff tapped the floor with her staff. White light enveloped me.

[Teleporting you to the eighty-first floor.]

1. Gym Uniform Image. ☜

2. Slipper Image It’s a very common type of slippers in Korea. It’s very easy to get a pair, and it’s considered very comfortable. It’s mostly worn by students at school. ☜

3. A tea made of roasted Job’s tears, mixed with nuts. It has a savory and milky taste. ☜