The S-Classes That I Raised

Chapter 551: Manhattan Auction House (2)

└ Yujin, that □□□□□□!! Damn, this chat□□□ it’s so frustrating!!

└ Aaaaargh Yujin□□□□□□!!! □□□□!!!

└ Wow, the Commissioner is really merciless lol

└ Ugh this is so frustrating, Yujin!!! □□□□□□!!!!!!

└ I lost. I give up.

└ Filtering□□□□!!!

…Seeing that heated reaction, it seemed like someone I knew. Look at how fast the chat’s flying up. It was hard to read anything unless I froze it. With this level of reaction, it’s got to be Seong Hyunjae? Or surprisingly Yerim, maybe. That chilly attitude from earlier felt like Yuhyun too. He’s a good little brother to me but… hmm. Should I test the chat’s reaction?

“From now on I’ll call out names one by one─”

[If you demand excessive information, the chat window will be closed for a certain amount of time.]

A warning message popped up. Petty.

“They say no. It’s not like I have no idea at all, though.”

I’m almost sure we know each other, so next time we run into each other I should talk to them properly. But what kind of rules does the Commissioner role have that they’re arresting cops? I’m curious. Is it some corrupted Commissioner concept?

Before people could crowd in, I slipped out of the shop through the open back door. Then I put on the uniform jacket I’d picked up. It’s a bit big. My disguised appearance is in the low one–eighties, so it should look roughly right to people here. I also clipped the handcuffs to my waist.

└ Yujin still makes sure to grab clothes and cuffs lol, such a prepared thief

└ So this is what it means to live without the law…

“Everyone, dungeons are originally extralegal zones. They’ve got their own special laws!”

Of course, crimes between Hunters inside a dungeon are illegal. Illegal, but if there’s no evidence, well… There are plenty of guys who ignore the law outside, why would it be different inside? I muttered as I moved into a sparsely populated alley.

“I’ve got something to check. The screen’ll be pixelated anyway, so I’ll turn the video off for a moment.”

Participant cops turned into dolls when they died instantly. Then what about people who aren’t participants? I didn’t even need to drag anyone over; a man who’d already slunk into the back alley glared at me. Like he was doing something illegal, he threatened me, telling me to get lost.

“You– mmph!”

I quickly slipped behind him, covered his mouth with one hand, and thrust the dagger in my other hand into his neck. The only ones a thief can’t kill are participants. The man in my grasp twitched for a moment and then—

Sssrrk

simply scattered like smoke. There was no blood either.

└ What, what did you do???

└ Turn the video back on ;;;;;;;;;;;;

“Thanks for waiting~”

I turned the video back on and held up the dagger. You have to explain this stuff clearly in advance or people will look at you funny.

“Everyone here who isn’t a participant is fake. Obviously. It’s probably a very realistic illusion. I attacked just to check, and they simply vanished. I turned the video off for a bit in case it turned into something too graphic.”

I pointed to the empty floor, saying that the owner of the voice we’d heard just now had been standing there. No matter what you said, they looked just like real people, so if I hurt them, the viewers could feel a sense of repulsion. That’s why I kept emphasizing that they were definitely illusions. I didn’t even say I killed him, I just glossed it over as an attack.

“We don’t have much time left. Plus, I’m curious about the police abilities too…”

I stuck my head out of the alley to check my surroundings. Plenty of cars, but more importantly… yeah, a bicycle. I strode confidently toward an oncoming bike.

“Call the police station!!”

“…What?! Wait!”

I shoved the cyclist off by force and hopped on in their place. Everyone here seemed to be non–awakened. If this were reality, someone would’ve already yelled, ‘It’s a Hunter!’ earlier. Thanks to that, I easily commandeered the bike and took off.

“Good viewers, whether you’re adults or kids, do not imitate this~”

└ How many times is this already lololol Chief Han’s our navigation, just keep going straight like this!

└ Yujin, at least eat something first

└ Fr, it’s almost lunchtime in New York but it’s past midnight in Korea!

└ I’ll stay up all night and run with you today, Yujin ;;;;;;;;

└ Yujin, the burger place two blocks ahead on the left is good

└ Agree, there’s also a great dessert shop around here!!

“Go to bed early, early! People need a good night’s sleep.”

└ It’s the weekend, it’s fine

“Then please keep the viewer ratings up!”

There must be foreigners too, but Koreans are probably still the majority. You can tell just from how many people worry about my meals. Since there’s a combined channel, people will usually watch that and then drop into an individual stream if they’re interested.

└ Over there, there! Rockefeller Center Station!

I quickly scanned around—oh, there’s an ice cream truck—and tossed the bike aside. Soon the police would pinpoint my location and show up. Sure enough, several people in police uniforms came running this way. I was ready to use Stealth once if I got caught, and I’d already turned Grace on at S–rank.

“They already ran off.”

I spoke so that to the surrounding witnesses it sounded like I’d chased the culprit here on the bike. I’m a cop. My heart beat a little faster. Would they recognize me? One of the officers scratched the back of his head.

“They can’t have gone far, but it’s a waste to use skills this early. Someone–”

“Ah, I’ll use mine!”

I quickly raised my hand. Then answered.

“Nothing, just as expected. Do they have a teleport skill or something?”

└ Chief Han is so shameless lololol

└ The police shouldn’t cuff Yujin, they should put a muzzle on him first

└ Yujin’s mouth going off is real? lol Only his mouth is S–rank

A cop with an unfamiliar face who looked Asian folded his arms. As expected, they were all faces I’d never seen, so it would be hard to distinguish local cops from participants. I had to avoid the police no matter what.

“Maybe it’s Hunter Park Yerim. She could’ve passed without hunting.”

“Then she’ll be tricky to catch.”

Knowing Yerim, there’s no way she’d have just walked past monsters, but letting them misunderstand is fine. I put on a serious expression along with them.

“They only used a skill once. How many uses do you all have left?”

“I still have three. Isn’t this too disadvantageous? We can’t even take off these obvious uniforms.”

So the police uniform is mandatory, huh. It seemed they could search for thieves around them three times, and the range wasn’t that big. So getting caught earlier was just bad luck. Or maybe I made it too obvious it was my first time here? I had been broadcasting near the station where my location got revealed, muttering to myself and looking around. Suspicious, yeah.

“When it’s time for the auction invitations, I’ll use mine once, so come then. I’m not giving up my spot, though.”

“Thank you. I’ll look around a bit and head into the station at the right time.”

‘Then, keep up the good work~’ I said as I left. When I checked the time, there were about five minutes left.

└ I checked those cops’ personal streams and their chats are going crazy lololol

└ They’re covered in filtering lolololol

└ Man, don’t we have any popcorn? This is so fun

└ I was so scared he’d get caught lololol

└ Police□□□□ here, coming from their personal stream 😀

└ I went around all the channels and Hunters from our country are the best

“As you saw, as soon as time’s up the police are going to spam their search skills.”

I said quietly, barely moving my lips.

“Looks like I have to burn one Stealth. If I use it, it should at least cancel out their skills.”

Even better if Stealth has priority. A clueless thief or two might get caught here. With three minutes left, I went into the subway station. Just then, a message window popped up.

[Shown only to asset–holders and thieves.]

[Invitation issuance in 3 minutes.]

[For 10 minutes, you can receive auction invitations from the subway ticket machines.]

Subway ticket machines wouldn’t look suspicious. I quietly used Stealth in a corner.

[Stealth duration 10 minutes]

That’s short. Soon it was time for the invitations to be issued, and—

Bang!

“Over there!”

Maybe a thief had been tracked, because the police rushed off in a clamor.

└ Which unlucky thief is that

└ It’s □□□□□

“A terror attack?!”

“What the!”

Amid the panicking people, I pretended to panic too while watching the ticket machines. Three people calmly issued themselves cards in the chaos. There were probably multiple entrances here too. So some would’ve gone through other entrances, and others would be waiting like me. The thief would have used Stealth, so they were likely an asset–holder. I memorized the faces of the three for now.

From outside the station came something like an explosion, and car alarms started going off one after another. What a mess. Taking advantage of the machines being empty, I quickly issued my own card, the invitation.

[Show your invitation to the black car in front of Fox News and get in.]

[Police cannot enter the auction house.]

So I’d get to the auction house comfortably. Where even is Fox News? I asked in the chat and immediately got directions. Thanks as always. Under a yellow–and–blue parasol on the street, someone was selling hot dogs. Looked good. But isn’t this basically product placement? Is that why the setting is New York? That bastard Chatterbox must be pocketing ad money.

I showed my invitation and got into the car. No one else was inside, so it seemed everyone had different pickup spots and vehicles. After we drove for a while, the car stopped in front of a building.

[Thieves cannot enter through the front entrance.]

Well, of course. First I hid myself behind a different building nearby.

“The auction house is going to be crawling with asset–holders and thieves. As I mentioned before, I’m just an employee with no special charm for asset–holders. So! I’ll steal a slave first~”

└ Chief Han, just don’t get hurt and do everything;;;;;;;;

└ Yujin, seriously, make a streaming account, this noona will sponsor you

└ Do you know you’re on the real–time search rankings as □□□□□□□□ right now? lololol

└ Yujn ah ??□□□□□□□□??!!!!!!!!!!!!

└ This is annoying, why’s the filtering working so well?

Yeah, seriously, tone it down, Chatterbox.

“I’ll take off the police uniform for a bit and put it into this pouch our Myungwoo lent me! Now, let’s see. Ta–da! These look like ordinary sunglasses, but they slightly blur people’s perception. Of course, they’re made by Yu Myungwoo!”

└ Seriously, is there anything Yu Myungwoo can’t make? Feels like he can make everything except the wedding rings he’ll put on with me

“There are a bunch of limitations though. That’s a secret!”

The perception–dulling effect didn’t last long. Since it had to work on S–class Hunters too, it couldn’t last. Myungwoo had racked his brain trying to make me all kinds of things for this event, but the problem was that most of my opponents were S–class Hunters.

Even so, the reason I pulled out the sunglasses was—

‘I can use my Stealth skill without revealing it.’

I could say, ‘People can’t quite perceive me properly, right? It’s all the sunglasses’ effect~.’ And it was true that they did have that effect. Of course, if I abused them I’d get caught, so I had to save them for when I really needed them.

Next up, rrrumble.

└ …Isn’t that a bomb?

└ Dddd, is that even allowed?

└ Han Yujin’s seriously going to end up in jail at this rate…

“They’re ordinary bombs, ordinary bombs. Remote–controlled.”

└ The ‘ordinary’ part is the problem!!!

“Mr. Secretary of Defense of the United States, I absolutely do not intend to use these outside! Honestly, compared to the S–class Hunters who hang around with me, these are just toys. You’d have to set up a bunch to barely bring down a single building. It’s nothing. By default, even S–class weapons are allowed as long as you don’t take them out of your inventory.”

That was how international law worked, for starters. It was illegal to take weapons of mass destruction abroad without declaring them. However, if you didn’t take them out of your inventory, you could skip the declaration. The moment they came out of the inventory, it became smuggling.

On top of that, dungeons didn’t belong to any country. Hunter law, which applied inside dungeons, had nothing about smuggling. In other words, it wasn’t illegal! Because this was inside a dungeon.

“Even if I set off a few bombs, none of the participants will get hurt. Except me. If I let my guard down, I’ll die. In other words!”

I beamed.

“Anyone who’s fine after the bombs go off is a participant.”

└ Chief Song!!!! He’s right here111111

└ Yujin, keep filming even when you’re back in Korea, it’s crazy fun

└ Chief Song Taewon’s going to have the Mariana Trench between his brows

“…Chief Song, I apologize in advance. But it really isn’t illegal.”

It isn’t, but I’ll get shaken down hard when I go back to Korea. The bombs were a gift from Shishio. …I’m such a dutiful son. I put the bombs back into the pouch and put on the sunglasses.

“Then I’ll head in~”

The plan was simple. First, find the slave, grab them and run if possible, then blow the place. If that seemed too hard, I’d blow it up first and use the chaos to smuggle them out. First I had to meet the participant who was the slave and see if they were cooperative. What were the win conditions for slaves?

There were several guards posted, but thanks to my Stealth skill I slipped past easily. I moved along, hiding bombs here and there. Sensitive S–class Hunters might find it suspicious, so I avoided places with too many people as much as possible.

“The slaves are probably in the basement, right? Stairs… Huh? That person over there looks like an asset–holder. They’re dressed in a full suit.”

└ Here he goes again

└ Recruiting party members to go shut Han Yujin’s mouth. (1/999)

└ Yujin, tell us about your first love My first love is Yerim, for one

“…Excuse me, how old are you? If you’re over twenty, let’s have a talk.”

As for my first love. I suddenly felt a bit sad. Dating… will I ever have the chance?

I quietly went down to the basement. On the way, I heard loud noises a few times. Sounded like a thief had gotten caught trying to sneak in. There were no participant cops, and asset–holders couldn’t attack first, so it’d be a waste for them to use Stealth.

Security was fairly tight, but I reached a basement storage–like area more easily than expected. Dozens of safes, auction items, and at the very back, in a cage–like prison—

└ □□□□□□□□□□□□□□□!!!!!

└ I’m losing it □□□□□□□□□□ lol

└ Buying slave / pre–bid

└ Chief Han, read the vertical acrostic!!!!!!!!!!!

└ Everything’s censored lololol

└ Why’s the filtering like this? Working too hard for no reason

└ Ah seriously □□□□□□□□□□!!

A pair of twin siblings who looked like they were in their late teens, twenty at most, were locked up. Both of their eyes were covered, so I couldn’t see their faces clearly, but, uh, they were total strangers. Who on earth were those fragile–looking people…

“Uh, they’re originally high–rank Hunters… That’s how they must look to you viewers, but to my eyes they look really delicate.”

The chat exploded. No, I know they don’t usually look like that too!