SSS-Class Revival Hunter-Chapter 352: The White End (3)

I tilted my head. “A madman?”

Resident F: Y-yes, that’s right. If you keep going that way, you’ll reach a very dangerous man. Don’t go near him! Of course, with you mumbling to yourself in the middle of the busy street and talking to thin air, you look nothing short of a madman yourself.

This little stick figure...

Resident F: Still, the man living there is a lot crazier than you and very dangerous. He’ll slay anyone who comes near him!

“Oh.”

Resident F: We call him the Mad Swordsman. After he settled there, no one has gone past that point, and we’ve heard nothing from beyond ever since...

Got it. This world spread in only two directions, left and right. If a crazy person appeared and blocked the path, traffic was cut off from that day on.

“Is there no way to bypass him?” I asked.

Resident F: No. It’s been years, perhaps over a century since the madman came. During those years, the madman destroyed all the bypasses. Even if we try to make a new one, he destroys it as soon as he sees it, so there’s nothing we can do.

He sounded like a real lunatic. The residents could go around his domain by digging tunnels or building sky bridges, but the Mad Swordsman obliterated those paths, too.

“Is this Mad Swordsman really that strong?”

Resident F: Didn’t I tell you? Even after so many years, we haven’t been able to beat him. Many who fought him died. Now, no one dares to challenge him anymore. Because of him, the trade between the eastern and the western regions has fully stopped! ╯︿╰

The resident looked gloomy. The other residents who had been listening to our chat, about seven or eight of them, all wore the same expression.

╯︿╰

╯︿╰

╯︿╰

╯︿╰

Everyone stared at me like that. It was a bit scary...

Resident F: I don’t know how far you plan to go, but it’d be best if you go back now. (; ¯Д¯) That area is basically off-limits. Take a day to rest, then go back.

I agreed and spent the night at their home. After they asked me a few more questions to make sure I wasn’t dangerous, it seemed they decided that I was safe and treated me with courtesy as a guest.

“I think that if I take down the Mad Swordsman, we can leave,” I told the Guardian as I lay down on the bed the residents gave. “Clearing the floor can be done sooner or later, but that madman needs to be dealt with. Who knows when another Hunter will climb all the way back up to the seventy-fifth floor? If I ignore this and leave, it might be decades before someone else arrives.”

Idiot: Does it matter? It’s your choice. (;¬_¬)

The Guardian seemed nonchalant, but he was honest by nature. Without honesty, he wouldn’t be himself. It wasn’t like he could lie in this world anyway. His face looked like he was hiding something, so it was impossible to miss it.

“What is it?” You’re being shady.”

Idiot: I... Hmm. That fighter is said to be the strongest in the world, and although I don’t recall anything about this, I definitely cleared the seventy-fifth floor.

“Definitely.”

Idiot: That’s why it’s bothering me. There’s no doubt in my mind that I would have slit the throat of the world’s strongest fighter last time I was here, so how is he still alive?

“Huh...”

It was a valid point, but I didn’t have an explanation to offer. I just said, “He may have shown up after you cleared this floor. What’s weird about that?”

Idiot: Do you think so?

The Guardian looked uneasy, but he couldn’t refute me. It was the most plausible possibility. The two of us stopped thinking about it, and I had a good night’s sleep.

The next day, we went to the place where the madman was said to be lurking.

Resident F: I told you! You shouldn’t go there, young man!

Even if I was an outsider that they had welcomed, spending the night without causing issues seemed to have made a big difference. The residents were far more amicable than the day before and tried even harder to stop me.

Resident E: I knew something was wrong when that young man began to murmur to himself. He’s gone mad! (оﾟдﾟо);;

Resident D: You’re right. There are two forms of madness: one that harms others, and one that harms only oneself. That person suffers from the latter. Tsk, tsk. (•᷄⌓•᷅)

Resident C: Maybe he came here to find a place to die. The person he loved left him, but he didn’t have the courage to kill himself. That’s why he came to this town, because he seeks someone to kill him. Aaah, yes, that’s it! ( ˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅)

The citizens sent me off with many different looks. When I left town, I saw a sign.

—-Danger! No Entry.

Without hesitating, I jumped over it. Unlike the town, which had been kept neat by human hands, the path grew ever more barren with each step I took. On the other side of the road sat the Mad Swordsman, the one who had struck fear in the residents.

Madman: (=_=)

The swordsman was expressionless. On top of that, it was hard to tell if his eyes were open or closed. However, when I stepped on some weeds with my right foot, resulting in a crunching sound effect, a speech balloon appeared above the warrior’s head.

Madman: It’s been a while since I had a guest.

The land of this world was generally shown as ━━━. Though there were patches of thickets and shrubs, it was still mainly ━. For some reason, the area near where the swordsman sat was shown as ┻┻┻┻. At first, I thought they were tall weeds or reed beds taller than weeds. Sadly, both of my assumptions were wrong.

They were swords stuck in the ground.

Madman: Are you a challenger? If you simply got lost and ended up here by mistake, I’ll show you mercy. Go back. But if you’re a fighter who came here to test me, I’ll gladly take you on that offer. No, I’m being silly. I listened closely to the sound of your footsteps as you came near. All of your steps were unbelievably steady and regular. Given your level, I can hardly believe that you made a wrong turn and ended up here.

The swordsman got up.

Madman: Are you a Hunter?

I blinked. “Are you a Hunter, too? Did you get stuck on this floor while climbing the Tower?”

Madman: No, I am not one of your kind. I am a local, born and raised in this world, but that is also a silly statement. According to your people’s claims, I wasn’t born in this world but died in another one. This world happens to be the afterlife.

Schwing.

The swordsman took one of the many swords embedded in the ground and unsheathed it. From the looks of it, all the nearby swords were his.

Madman: But I do have a history with a certain Hunter. (=_=)

As he drew out the sword, the swordsman kept a blank look. Perhaps he was just indifferent to everything around him. It was hard to judge his level since all I could see were mere sticks in this world.

“History?”

Madman: The Sword Emperor. I fought the Sword Emperor and lost. Now I wait for the day he comes back.

***

His tale was short.

Madman: According to the Sword Emperor, I was born in the same world as him and died there. I believe that means I was once a Hunter, too, though I can’t recall any of it. Still, that is what the Sword Emperor said, so it has to be true. The Sword Emperor believed with certainty that I was a swordsman who had lived in the same world as him. That means the Sword Emperor and I were acquainted.

“Did the Sword Emperor tell you what your name was when you were alive?” I asked.

Madman: He did.

When he recited the name he couldn’t personally recall, I turned my head and looked at the Guardian.

“Is he right?”

Idiot: Yeah, he is. Each time that speech balloon appears, so does his name, and I know that name. He’s probably telling the truth.

Madman: Finding out that this is my afterlife was surprising, but there’s no need to be surprised by something that anyone would find shocking. I fought the Sword Emperor in a duel and lost. However, he said that he had no reason to kill an already deceased compatriot and spared me. That was truly insulting. Even if he knew me in a past life, I have no memory of that. Was he telling me to live on as a loser even after my death? If so, I asked him for a rematch later.

The Guardian had accepted the rematch request with little thought, saying that he would come back and fight again after he cleared the hundredth floor.

Madman: Time passed.

The Guardian forgot about it. It was inevitable when, under the law of the Tower, all events involving the Pillars were erased from memories. Unlike me, the Guardian had no means to protect his memories from getting erased. Back then, the Primordial Staff wasn’t kind enough to let him remember anything. The moment he reached the eightieth floor, his memories containing everything from the seventieth to the seventy-ninth floors had been altered.

Madman: Well, I believe the Sword Emperor is dead. Or maybe he can’t find me again. The world is quite large. In case he can’t find me, I’ve settled down here, threatening anyone who comes near. Thanks to that, my notoriety has only grown stronger. It has spread all over the world, so he should be able to find me.

I sighed. In the end, the cause of all this harm was the Guardian, who had rashly made a promise he couldn’t keep.

“You’re such a nuisance, Mister...”

Idiot: No, no, hold on. I don’t know about the rest, but I feel really wronged this time. I really don’t remember anything.

“That’s precisely the problem.”

Idiot: Ugh...

Even on the fiftieth floor, many issues had been left unsolved because he couldn’t beat the hundredth floor. I was now climbing the Tower and cleaning the mess the Guardian left behind, though I didn’t mean to.

Madman: You seem to know the Sword Emperor well.

“Well, yes. It’s hard to explain in detail, but you can sort of think of me as the Sword Emperor’s student. It’s unlikely that the Sword Emperor will return to fight you.”

Despite the new information, the swordsman was still indifferent.

Madman: Is that so? (=_=) Then I’ll have to take you down instead of the Sword Emperor.

“Ah... Is that how it’s going to be?”

Madman: Of course. If I give up now, that means I wasted all my time. Had I only heard the news that the Sword Emperor is dead, all of my wasted time would simply turn into a tale that will haunt me for the rest of my life, but it’s different since his student is here. To you, it may look like I’m unloading my anger on you for an unjust reason, but I want to ease my disappointment by beating you. I guess I am actually unloading my anger on you. Yes, I’ll take you down and vent my rage on you.

“You’re honest.”

Madman: Is that so? I’m not sure. I don’t know the opposite concept of honesty.

I guessed it didn’t matter that he asked for a duel since I came here to defeat him anyway. I was cleaning up the Guardian’s mess, so this duel had a meaning.

Madman: Then let’s settle this fair and square.

[Thump!]

The swordsman stomped on the ground, causing a large sound effect to pop up, and lunged toward me as I drew my holy sword. As the warrior swung his sword wide, seeking an opening, I...

Huh?

It was then that I saw the fatal flaw of this world.

Wait, what?

I stretched my sense of time with my aura. With time slowed down around me, I watched the swordsman raise his sword high. Usually, I would have also raised my sword to block the attack. That was the standard move, but the problem was...

W-which direction is that man swinging his sword?

I was used to fighting in three-dimensional space, but the swordsman’s two-dimensional sword moves were new.

Upper right? Lower left? No, is it just coming straight ahead? Should I raise my sword just above my head to block? Wait a minute. How am I supposed to deflect a strike from the side? Is it possible to dodge to the side? We’re in a flat world!

I changed my stance multiple times. I tried blocking from the upper right, then I tried to stop the possible incoming attacks from the upper left.

However, the sticks used to describe this world were crude. I had no clue what stance I was using or what I should do to fully block my opponent’s attack. I didn’t even know which direction my opponent was attacking from!

Therefore, I could only gawk in shock.

(;;⊙д⊙）!?!?

Madman: Brace yourself.

Not caring about my fumbling, the swordsman charged ahead with clear intentions.

“Wait! H-hold on! Wait a moment! Something’s wrong here—”

Swoosh!

The stick figure swordsman swung his sword as soon as he closed in on me. I was faced with two choices. Should I block from the top or the bottom?