This mahwa is action-fantasy so I'm expecting the stereotypical uber-OP or hardworking underdog kind of main characters, but then we meet our MC and the thing he does is:
And immeditely I'm intrigued, because quite honestly he seemed pathetic. I wondered how they were gonna turn him around.
For some background info: our MC, Gong-ya, is an average person living in a world where a mysterious tower filled with monsters sprung up out of nowhere. People inside the tower are in general from the lower classes, looking for treasure and opportunities by challenging the many levels of the tower. Our MC is jealous of the current #1 player, who is wealthy and irreverent, and wants to be like him so much that the system rewards him for (lol)
with the skill to randomly receive a skill from his murderer.
Soon after that, while he's drowning his sorrows in alcohol from receiving this seemingly useless skill, the MC overhears the #1 murdering another player, and is subsequently killed himself just for being nearby. Fortunately for him, he receives the #1's skill to revive 24hrs prior to dying (though it comes with a cost). Realizing how twisted he is, how many people have probably died in much the same way, and that the #1 is unkillable with such a skill, the MC exploits his newly acquired skill to go back 11 years into the past (via ~4050 suicides) and murder the #1 before he gained any of his skills.
I think what I love about our MC most is how utterly human he is. He is petty, and sassy, and a little bit pathetic, and he wants recognition and power and money, but he is also the goddamned KINDEST human being you'll ever see. Instead of swearing vengeance and powering up gradually to "destroy" the #1, he decides to turn back the clock to before the #1 received his revival skill, in order to both avenge himself and prevent the murders of the thousands that had previously been killed by him. He learns that the power he had so coveted often comes from psychopathic behavior, and becomes determined to never be like that himself.
And he's so empathetic to others, often in little ways that go unseen and unrewarded, yet he soldiers on, dying again and again and again, reliving the trauma of his killers every time and somehow becoming MORE empathetic every time.
He is not overpowered, and he has to earn every victory inch by bloody inch through pain and effort and death, while simultaneously living through so much trauma that he struggles to maintain his ego intact. He doesn't just depend solely on his skills, he's also incredibly freaking clever, finding the best way to use his strengths and those of people around him every time. With every revival he gains just a smidgen more information, just a bit more of the battle moves and strategies of his opponents, sometimes gaining just a few seconds of progress. And wonderfully, instead of growing colder and more jaded he BECOMES KINDER STILL, determined to avoid the most bad endings for the greatest amount of people he can,and I just ahfjhsjgdhsgdshgsh I love him SO MUCH
I also love how, very frequently, we start out in a setting that seems comedic, ridiculous or stupid, but we're later given an explanation that sheds devastating light on the situation.
For example, at some point the MC arrives in a doomed, dying "martial arts" world plagued by a zombie apocalypse, where the only two surviving people are members of opposing factions that refuse to stop fighting even though their world is completely collapsed around them.
Turns out that both of those people were already bitten, and were holding off the infection through their ki temporarily. And as martial artists, they were terrified of dying a meaningless death, rotting away on the floor, unmoving, alone, and forgotten.
Even though they had been using almost all of their strength holding back the infection
Even though all they could manage to do was bite and pull hair and slap
They fought, and hoped the other could manage to strike a killing blow, and they could go out in a "blaze of glory", fighting their life-long rival
And yet they never could bring themselves to go all out, because they knew - if one of them was the victor, the other was doomed to die rotting alone.
So our wonderful, amazing MC finds this out and not only becomes the disciple of one of the survivors so they can live on in their teachings (despite having to die hundreds of times over in order to master the pain-based martial arts of his new teacher), but also collects the findings of his alchemist every time until they manage to create a cure within the time limit, AND brings back more disciples, AND gets his master a duel of sorts with the only martial artist on her level before she passes in his arms.
And it's beautiful, and heartbreaking, and I loved it I LOVED IT SO SO MUCH YOU DONT UNDERSTAND
The manhwa is called "SSS class suicide hunter" and EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ IT I SWEAR YOU GUYS ITS SO GOOD YOU WONT REGRET IT
Holy shit this looks magnificent