Chapter 1: Legendary Jealousy

Chapter 1: Legendary Jealousy

「Breaking news! The Black Dragon Guild confidently declared that they’d clear the Tower’s fortieth floor and show everyone the skill of one of the best guilds in the world. Unfortunately, Black Dragons ended up coming back without any achievements once again. Yet the Fire Emperor, the number one ranked Hunter, has singlehandedly taken down another boss monster!」

I blankly watched the television, envious of the man on the screen. I was so jealous of him that I felt like I was going to go nuts.

「Hello, Mr. Fire Emperor!」

「Ah, yeah. Hi... 」 The man on the screen frowned slightly.

Somehow, even his furrowed brow looked cool.

「You set a new record once again! And I must say, you’re the only Hunter who’s made this many feats on your own. How do you feel about it?」

「First of all, I want you to stop calling me that shitty name.」

「I’m sorry?」

「I’m talking about you people calling me “Fire Emperor”. I have a name, you know. What’s with that bullshit nickname? I’d honestly prefer Fucker to that cringe-ass name. I swear I’m going to hunt down the bastard who came up with that someday and bury him alive.」

「U-umm...」 The anchor stammered perplexedly, but he couldn’t say anything to the man. After all, the man was the star of this era and his exploits were the stuff of legends.

In contrast, I was an extra who didn’t even have a name for myself.

“Ah...” I muttered. “I really envy him.”

How good would it feel to be able to say anything I wanted, even on television? I picked up my smartphone and got on an online community about Hunters, wondering how people would react to the Fire Emperor’s interview. As expected, the online communities were already engaged in a fiery dispute as they watched the interview.

—Guys, the Fire Emperor is talking shit again!

—The fire emperor is fire-emperoring again lol

—Would it kill him to watch his words? The whole world is watching this interview

└not like it’s his first time doing this

└^This. TBH it’s the media’s fault. Everyone knows what kind of a person he is.

└True dat... The anchor is doing it on purpose to boost their ratings

└lmao the Fucker’s fanatics are here too gross

└I want to become like the Fire Emperor.

The online communities couldn’t have been more clearly divided.

—Mr. Fire Emperor, I hope you will improve your character and become a Hunter who can represent Korea with both your exemplary personality and skills. As a fellow Korean, I shamed whenever a translated version of your interview goes viral on the internet...

└It’s “I am ashamed,” not “I shamed.” Why don’t you worry about your grammar skills in your mother tongue before you worry about foreigners? Besides, nationality doesn’t matter in the Tower.

└Yet you’re fine with your master swearing in Korean. Don’t embarrass yourself here, Fire Emperor.[1]

└I’m just pointing out their grammar, so why are you insulting me? Get a life.

└Hmph. You’re the one that needs to get a life.

└I want to become like Fire Emperor.

It was chaos. In fact, every online community that was even slightly related to Hunters went crazy.

—WTF?! The Fucker has a girlfriend now! He’s dating the Saintess!

└The Saintess? Seriously?

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 has ever gotten a shittier Skill than the one I got today.

1. The raw is ???, ???. 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. ☜