Chapter 171 – Sungjin’s Dream (3)

“Roaar~”

An immense hairy yeti charged at the past Sungjin who swung his sword in retaliation. Sungjin watched over his new past self with his arms crossed. The way this Sungjin wielded his blade or reacted to enemy attacks was not particularly different from his past self or the current him.

However, the weapon was different. He was wielding a sword that gave off a silver aura instead of the scarlet Blood Vengeance, or the blue-tinged glow of Moon Specter.

‘Is it… made of silver?’

Seeing that a few swings of the sword had effortlessly cut the yeti’s arm into slices, which were as thick as logs, it was easy to guess that the sword was at minimum a legendary tier weapon. In the midst of battle, one of the team members shouted,

“Shit! There’s Ice Trolls behind us.”

Just as his past self turned around, a pack of trolls holding massive clubs appeared.

“There’s too many…”

The hunters were surrounded by the trolls. Sungjin’s past self looked around the area, then held up his sheath as he shouted,

“Divine Protection of the Tiger Chieftain.”

The pair of tigers engraved on the sheath came out as spirits and paced around Sungjin. Finally, the fight began. The past Sungjin was the focus of the troll pack’s attacks, but each time, the tiger spirits would swing their paws and protect him.

“Roar!”

The dreaming Sungjin thought,

‘That skill… I’ve never even seen anyone else use that before…’

Though it seemed as if Sungjin’s party had fallen into a critical situation, the fight was easier than expected.

“Ring of Fire”

This discrepancy between the expected outcome and reality was due to the efficiency of his past self and Edward’s magic. After the fight was over, his past self swung his sword downwards through the air to remove the blood before sheathing it, like he had always done. When the dreaming Sungjin saw this, he thought,

‘… Even the habits are the same… It’s definitely me, but… Just how did this happen?’

Sungjin thought to himself that he wanted to see his second meeting with Edward. The moment he finished the thought, the scene changed.

“Ohh, Sungjin, you’re still alive.”

“Edward, you too… It’s nice to see you again.”

The dreaming Sungjin looked around the area. The area seemed to be the Great Plains of Barrastan.

‘Again… It’s different.’

According to his memories, the place that he had met Edward was not here, but at a later chapter. Edward asked his past self,

“So, how have you been? From when we met until now?”

“Well… The monsters were more or less do-able… But I nearly died the last chapter to a troll.”

“Ahh… Trolls…”

His past self shook his head as he said,

“Just what’s up with these retarded rules? To make us have to divide contribution amongst the comrades that we had fought together with. It’s not just a few hunters that are dying because of these trolls.”

“Indeed… But we can’t do anything about it. Since it’s like this, we can only do our best.”

The past Sungjin was still wearing the sword engraved with tigers. It was here that Sungjin came to a conclusion.

‘This… It’s definitely a past that I don’t remember… Then this means…’

Sungjin then thought to himself that he wanted to see Edward’s death. Soon, the scene changed. Edward was standing in a dark and gloomy prison. The moment Sungjin saw this, he thought,

‘This is… Chapter 18… Ser’corist Prison…’

According to what Sungjin remembered, Edward did not die here. He then looked around the area. There were five people, but one of them had a bluish body. When Sungjin saw this, he muttered,

‘… Ghost.’

A ghost was a type of substitute that appeared when there was an empty spot when dividing the hunters into teams of five. For example, if there were 24 hunters remaining, four of the parties would be fine, but there would be one party that had only four people.

It was then that a ‘ghost’ with a human appearance would appear and fill up that empty spot. Sungjin did not know if it was because his own luck was good, but he had never been in a party with one. However, according to others who had partied with a ‘ghost’, it was impossible to communicate with one and its abilities were slightly below that of the hunters.

According to their words, the ‘ghost’ was a hunter from the past that the Operator had ‘summoned’, but even they did not know exactly what that meant.

In any case, for there to be a ‘ghost’ in this party meant that Edward’s death was completely different from the death that Sungjin remembered. The man at the very front turned his head as he said,

“Is everyone mentally prepared?”

However, he was someone familiar. The man was Illich from the final ten hunters.

‘Illich…’

In response to his words, a black man holding a spear hesitated before saying,

‘Hey, do we really have to do this? We’re the final four people. If we fail, then all of humanity will suffer. Let’s leave alone the Hidden Boss and finish the raid.”

It was the first time that Sungjin had ever seen this man’s face yet it was he who had identified himself as one of ‘the final 4’. Sungjin thought,

‘Then that means… As I thought… This raid… Is an event that occurred after my death.’

Edward said in response,

“Actually, that’s the reason why we have to kill the Hidden Boss. The reason that we could only make it this far is because we weren’t strong enough.”

Illich also spoke up.

“Yeah. What he said is right. In any case, if we can’t even clear this, then we can’t clear the next chapter. Let’s give it a try.”

The last remaining individual was an Asian man who was dual wielding two swords like himself. However, the man was bald and instead had a beard. This was also someone that Sungjin saw for the first time. The man stroked his beard as he said,

“Yeah, whether we die this way or the other… Let’s at least give it a try.”

The man holding the spear was still afraid, but the other three had made up their minds to give it a try. The ‘ghost’ had no say in this matter. Finally, Illich pulled down the lever.

‘ChiChiChiChiChiChiChi’

Soon, along with the clatter of chains, the iron door in front of them began to open.

‘ChiChing!’

After a while, the sound of the chains stopped, and a groan filled with both fury and agony could be heard from the inside.

“Grooooooooar”

The four hunters nervously searched their surroundings as they entered the prison. The moment they entered, the door shut noisily.

‘Clang!’

And simultaneously the Operator’s voice could be heard.

[Warning! Hidden Boss]
[‘100 man murderer’ Aizen has appeared!]

There was an immense giant inside the prison. Sungjin shivered as he looked at the Hidden Boss.

‘Aizen… It was incredibly tough for me as well. I don’t know about now, though…’

Aizen was a giant prisoner whose height reached 2.5 meters. Both of his hands were tied to a bastard sword that was as tall as he was by an iron chain. It made you wonder how he could possibly eat. Illich held up his shield and went to the front as he said,

“Lets first get a feel for…”

However, even before he finished speaking, the prisoner yelled loudly and swung his sword.

“Grooooooooooooooooarrrrr!!!!”

Illich blocked the oncoming bastard sword with his shield, but his shield was crumpled and Illich was flung far away by that one strike.

‘That’s not something you can block. You have to avoid it…’

Sungjin noisily gave advice, but then he stopped. What he had requested was the scene of Edward’s death. The dream would show it to him.

Sure enough, the four hunters could only last a few seconds against the 100-man murderer Aizen and ultimately faced annihilation. Aizen attacked the hunters by spinning around like a windmill as he held his bastard sword.

Sometimes swinging high, sometimes swinging low. Inside the narrow prison, that flying bastard sword became terror itself. The swordsman and the spearman, as well as Illich, the tanker himself, could not deal with the bastard sword and could only retreat backwards. Edward, who was far away from it all, could chant short spells, but he could not use his specialty attack spells because he was too busy saving the retreating hunters.

“Heal!”

“Heal!”

“Heeal!”

In the end, the party could not do much and the hunters began to be picked off one by one. Starting with the archer ghost that disappeared after being hit by the sword, the spearman and the swordsman soon followed as they were both sent flying at the same time by the bastard sword. While Edward was debating on who to save, Illich charged towards Aizen in despair.

“Aahhhhhh!”

Unfortunately, Illich was turned into a pile of flesh by the chains that held up the bastard sword. Now, the only one remaining was just Edward. Aizen swung his bastard sword towards Edward, who shone for a moment.

“Blink”

He was able to escape from that position, but his luck wasn’t so good; the location where he appeared just happened to be where Aizen’s bastard sword was finishing its swing. Without any further ado, Edward was split in half.

“Gah…”

Edward could not even let out a cry of pain. He swung his arm a few times towards the ceiling and then died just like that. Soon, he could hear the Operator’s voice.

[You have died.]
[You were humanity’s very last remaining Player.]
[Benefit awarded to the last player to die is “Restart”]

At the same time, a single line of text appeared before his eyes.


Restart – Redo the hunt from the very beginning, but with current memory.


Edward then looked around his surroundings with wide eyes. A white square room. It was a familiar place for him. He screamed,

“What?!”

However, without even the time for him to say more, the Operator said,

[A hunt will soon begin. Prepare for combat.]

As he saw this, the dreaming Sungjin thought,

‘As expected… Edward really did regress once.’

At that moment, the Operator’s voice could suddenly be heard,

[The Chosen One has requested your teleportation.]

Sungjin woke up to the jarring voice of the Operator.

[Will you accept the request for teleportation?]

Together with the Operator’s question, came Serin’s voice,

“Oppa, what about today’s breakfast? Are we not eating together?”

Sungjin turned his head. Serin’s face could be seen above the Cube.

“Ah… Yeah…”

“Wait, Oppa, did you sleep in?”

“Yeah… What time is it right now?”

“What do you mean what time. It’s time for the morning briefing.”

“Ahh… I see. Just wait a moment. I’ll summon everyone soon.”

“Okay.”

Sungjin got up from his bed and hurriedly washed his face and changed his clothes, before walking down to the first floor of Ninety Nine Nights. He then took out the Sceptre of the Warlord and summoned the other hunters.

“Good morning.”

“Good morning.”

The hunters greeted each other. Franz said with an energetic voice,

“What should I eat today… Does anyone have a recommendation? Something that Dalupin is good at making.”

To which Baltren responded,

“Have you tried his cereal? This guy’s cereal is strangely delicious.”

“Ahh, then should I try that?”

Nada also joined the discussion.

“Should I try it as well?”

As the rowdy conversation went back and forth, Sungjin thought about the dream that he had been dreaming until just a moment ago.

‘Edward was someone who had restarted even before I did. Then I… Why did he…’

 


Important Announcement please read:

Hello readers of MHK. It is Christmas Eve (or day) and we would like to thank you for all your love and interest in the project thus far.

This is going to come as a surprise, and hopefully a good one.
MHK is going on hiatus!

But wait, why? Aren’t there more chapters remaining in the project?

Well, Gamja didn’t like the ending, so he asked for an alternative ending. The author had been so pleased with our work and quality that he agreed to write OTL exclusive (English exclusive) version of the ending, with more chapters.
So the version we will get is exclusive and the conclusive version of MHK. Not even readers in Korea will have read it. (Gamja will be the first person to see).
So please be patient with us as we wait for the new and improved (and longer) ending! (The author said it’ll take about a month or so)
We will resume as soon as the author sends us the new manuscript.

Gamja is doing a Christmas stream in 30 min from now (8 pm PST) will be playing league and conduct Q&A with viewers so if you have anything you would like to ask you can head there and do so.

https://www.twitch.tv/gamjalvl1

With love,
Your Oppa team

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56 thoughts on “Chapter 171 – Sungjin’s Dream (3)”

    1. Yes!!!!!!!!!!! thank you! thank you! The ending of the original was pretty anti-climatic and rushed and you can even say had some loose ends. This is great news! Happy Holidays!

  1. Can we get both ending?
    While the real ending might be a bad one, it make me curious knowing there’s an ending that I don’t know..
    Sorry for being selfish

  2. I think what happened was that Edward knew somehow (probably through the gem or whatever) that they wouldn’t clear the mission, so he chose to sabotage his teammates and give Sungjin, who he thought had the most potential, the chance to start over and save humanity.

    1. I think it’s more like he wanted to reset then and there for himself ,not sungjin, but didn’t account for his 1s invulnerability resulting in accidentally leaving sungjin as the last hunter alive.

    2. I doubt it was to give Kim a chance. it was probably him attempting to wipe the group so he’s last alive to allow himself a 3rd chance, however he did not know Kim had the 1 second immunity when health hit 1

    3. This whole “save humanity” is obviously a lie. There is no risk at all, based on what happened, people aren’t even captured or whatever, everything does not even happen in reality but virtual simulation. After all come on, they play with time too much. What’s this thing about saving humanity when, there is no scenario where humanity can be actually lost, since every time they fail, it resets.

  3. Maybe sungjin kill someone he thinks have potential to clear and everything starts over with a new protagonist with open ended final chapter.

  4. I think Edward restarted serveral times. By being the last person die you can restart and edward keep on restarting because he cant end the game. He tried to kill them that time so that he will be the last man standing and so he can restart that’s why he backstab sunjin, for the restart.

    1. wouldn’t you want a bunch of different people to be the last ones remaining? that way you get a wide variety of people who actually knows what’s going on. because they will all have the memory of going on until the end once.

  5. for me edward re run twice and the last run he guessed that they cant do it so he killed everyone hoping for a reset again but ofcourse he did not know the skill of the sword of the mc has..
    well the author change the ending for english readers .maybe the mc died and few left in the last raid.

  6. Thank you for the chapter. It’s been fun reading MHK. I’ve stuck to it ever since chapter 70 and I never got disappointed.

    If you’re looking for another Web novel to translate, why not try Reincarnator?

    It seems like nobody is picking it up and it’s been dead for almost half a year.

  7. will we be told the original ending though? as a summary or something? just for curiosity purposes lol… no seriously… I’ll die inside if i don’t know the original ending…
    Also… thank you so much for the exclusive author!!!

  8. Much thanks to the author can’t believe we are getting an exclusive ending
    And also thanks to the translation team for all the work.

    Now all I’m wondering is how many restarts ed has gone through. He’s one greedy troll if he has done this more than 5 times tbh and I think he has done alot since he has gotten to the point of going rogue just to make sure he was the last one standing what a douche bag.

  9. Holy damn!! An exclusive ending version just for us?!! This is the only time im actually happy the a project is going on haitus! I have never seen something like this before and I would like to thank both the translator and author for this. Merry Christmas (and new year since its going on haitus, cant say it later)

  10. Would knowing the original ending spoil the new extended one? If yes, then I’ll avoid it. If no, then I’d like to know it!

  11. thanks for the chapter, and I agree with the other readers
    we want to know what happens in the original ending
    if possible, it would be good if the author’s two endings went up

  12. seeing as he knew nothing about the sword even though it was before he met Edward, it might have been from a troll, and that troll just so happened to be killed in the reset on Edwards 3rd time before the mc killed him(the one the mc restarted in, in my opinion)or the mc died in the 2nd reset before he met Edward with the blood sword, anyway Edwards reset caused the mc not to have the sword he used in the first reset, Edward probably knowing they were going to be defeated, maybe in despair and greed trolled to be the last to survive but it just so happened that the mcs sword had changed in this one and he didn’t know the ability of 1 second invincibility which let to his troll failure on the 3rd, giving the mc the restart, With his 2nd restart probably not due to trolling but having his memory and just purely being stronger then everyone else that he survived last. This being based on the first run they mentioned the hidden bosses not being beaten was probably a cause for failure, so i’m guessing he tried all hidden bosses in the 2nd and found out about darker then black after the 10th round hidden boss continuing on he was the last to die, probably not understand much of darker then black, this 3rd round he probably explored darker then black more and understood more, some of which he let sip to the mc, probably being able to do what the mc is doing now if it was him in the 4th run, im guessing it was only the 4th overall as well as they didn’t make it far in the dream and even didn’t have a complete party not to mention someone being stronger then the rest from getting higher contribute and hidden bosses that the last person should always be able to do, as being able to be the last proved they were strong as one of the last humans left, just their memory and experience puts them ahead of the rest, not to mention talent as they had been one of the last to survive.

  13. some reason i feel there is going to be one more reset for the 5 and he will bring the eye of true back in time inside his own private cube , feel like it will be the last chance as well, or it wouldn’t be the cube saying stuff like giving them a chance at surviving but directly giving them a survival as it will just constantly restart still they survive, it could also be a pretext to make them try harder and then they get graded by their races talent or something.

  14. Holy crap.

    Thank you to the author, and also the TL team – because clearly this is the sort of trust that no author would give freely and easily.

    1. ikr? it’s amazing, and I honestly can’t wait for the next one. This whole series has been one hell of a ride.

  15. I feel like Edward used that star gem to know the future (like the dragon said I think? since he is researching something) and knew that they will die and maybe he would be the last one standing and reset again. Maybe he got tired of it so he trolled and let himself get killed so that he will pass the burden to someone else or maybe he has faith in Sungjin to change what he had not done.

    1. And also he told Sungjin about Darker than Black even though it was the last raid (meaning it will be useless) so maybe he planned all of this for Sungjin to reset and know almost all the secrets.

  16. Thanks for hard work. It was really good story and with good ending it will be one of the best.

    P. S. Think about translating reincarnator, it’s the best among ramaining ones!

  17. Wow, just when I wanted to catch up. It goes into hiatus.

    As always good work Gamja, Rin and Oppa!

    I guess the ending will be on February or March.

    Perfect time for school to end.

  18. WOOOOOO!!! Let’s pressure the author into making Edward being a self serving asshole and kill him in the end, we can do it guys!!! And let’s kill Serin aswell just because we can 😉

  19. I think it doesn’t matter how many times edward reset as it hard to know. he can 100 or more because every reset its only edward that know, but it different story if change player for reset as new reseter will only have last life memories. As posible is edward always fail and in the end he found potential in our mc. And about the gem i think the dragon already give a clue of how predicting future, if posible seing the past it then also posible predicting future, and he got that 2 item coresponding to that ability. In this chapter there ia a clue of the gem ability but still not sure. The puzle should be completed if the gem true ability is related to seing future. And hope our mc smart enough to think the answer.

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