SSS급 죽어야 사는 헌터(SSS-Class Revival Hunter)

Description / Comments

The world is invaded as a tower and various people are enticed to conquer to the tower for fame and riches, with the current highest level being a solo player nicknamed “Flame Emperor” who does whatever he wants and is in general a douche. That’s not our protag though, our protag is a complete loser without any skills who desperately wants to be a cool dude like the “Flame Emperor” yet will never be him. However his jealousy is so intense that eventually the tower pities him by granting him a skill, an s-class skill to boot, however it’s an absolute trash tier skill: If you are killed by someone you will get one of their skills, but you cannot copy any other skills from that person ever again. What’s the point of getting a skill if you have to die for it?

The beginning of this work is a pathetic kind of revenge where the protag simply kills himself over and over again until he is far enough back in time that his “enemy” is weak enough to be finished off by him. It’s important to the work thematically but it’s not particularly satisfying to read and is easily the lowest part of the entire work. However most of the arcs after it are actually incredibly good, with each arc managing to be better than the previous.

The martial arts (murim) world in particular is where the work really starts to come into its own and become something worth recommending, and it only manages to improve with each arc after that. I am particularly fond of the “Villainess/Romance” arc which manages to nail a very complex yet passionate and messy josei romance in what is simply a “battle shounen” before that. I was already impressed enough with the murim arc as it was only for the work to blow me away even more directly afterwards. And it continues doing it with the arc after that.

Admittedly there are a few sections of the work where the protag’s powers and other people’s knowledge of his powers seem to open up various plotholes, but that could simply be the adaptation skipping over certain elements for brevity’s sake.