The S-Classes That I Raised

Chapter 555: Doing Their Own Thing (1)

└ Is this really a room where chat isn’t filtered? Peace put on the police chief uniform [email protected]!!!! He’s too cute, I’m crying… Ah, that felt so good to say

└ Cute but terrifying lololololol

└ What the, give me back the Seong Hyunjae I know

└ Even if we tell all the Hunters that Seong Hyunjae is a slave now that the filter is gone, they’ll probably just be like, “Yeah right, that’s like saying an unawakened civilian cleared an S–rank dungeon alone with just a piece of straw,” and ignore it

└ Only this room isn’t filtered so I’m here to vent… Han Yujin, get a grip, the Sesung Guild Leader is right in front of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

└ The Outlaws are about to arrive in Manhattan

└ Let’s all work hard in life. Like Chief Song who became a Di○ney princess at thirty–four…

└ Our Noah is currently combing the area around the auction house

└ The police chief is no joke… yikes yikes yikes yikes, another one just got eliminated, at this rate it’s gonna end in a police chief victory

The slave had a lot of restrictions on his actions, but not on the chat window. Since information wasn’t blocked, he could grasp all the participants’ movements even while just sitting still. However, the slave was allowed to speak out loud only once.

– Gyeol can talk once too.

Hangyeol glared at Seong Hyunjae, eyes narrowed.

– If we coax Dad, we can stop it.

“Of course you could.”

Seong Hyunjae said, turning off his own voice. One of the slave’s victory conditions: the master personally frees the slave. Since he knew all the information, it was a condition he could easily fulfill with some sly persuasion. But if Seong Hyunjae tried to deceive Han Yujin, Hangyeol would immediately expose the truth.

Another victory condition: wipe out all the asset–holders. That too could be achieved just by tossing in seeds of discord at the right time. That is, if there weren’t a fairy–dragon who would blurt out the truth.

For Seong Hyunjae, manipulating people with words when he had ample information was an easy task. If he were alone, he would already have begun to move. His gaze shifted toward the small dragon glaring at him.

“My conscience is bigger than I thought.”

– What nonsense are you spouting now? Anyway, don’t get in Dad’s way!

Hangyeol growled and Seong Hyunjae patted his teammate’s head. Seong Hyunjae’s fingers got chomped on.

[The auction has ended.]

The message window popped up not long after the bomb went off. It seemed they were treating the situation where the auction couldn’t proceed any further as the auction having ended. Next came a notification that the Outlaw had begun destroying Manhattan.

“I guess if the Outlaw destroys the city past a certain point, it ends in an Outlaw victory, right? It’s probably Hunter Liette and Hunter Kang Soyeong’s team, isn’t it.”

Liette really suits that role. A giant black dragon sweeping through New York─ I’m pretty sure I’ve seen something like that somewhere. A movie, maybe. It’s a classic monster–movie cliché.

└ Outlaw □□□□□□!!

└ Is the filter on this room not overheating lolol At this level the censor box should’ve been ripped open already lololol

└ The police chief □□□□□□□□ just now went □□□□! Ah damn □□□!! That one was definitely a curse word

Judging by the reactions, it didn’t seem to be Liette’s team. Then could it be that the police chief is on Liette’s team? They did smash up the whole valley, but thanks to that their score was the highest, so maybe the police chief got assigned to them first. If Liette was excluded, then the Outlaw would be… Ms. Hyunah? Or maybe Yoo Hyun had melted everything down. Because of his skill’s nature, Seong Hyunjae’s power would soak into the ground and spread out except for a concentrated portion, so he was less likely. If there was a water source in the valley, it could also have been Yerim.

In any case, the countdown had begun.

“We’d better move quickly. The other thieves will soon start roaming around to look for the slaves.”

└ Yujin… I came from Chief Song Taewon’s channel… Chief Song was sighing…

“Oh dear, Chief Song, I’m sorry~ Yerim, please take care of Chief Song for me!”

└ If relic beads form in Chief Song’s body, he’ll become a Song–sari minnow.

…I let out a laugh without meaning to. Chief Song, I’ll do better from now on. I really used to be a diligent, moral model citizen, you know. Scanning my surroundings, I headed down. The twins were quietly waiting in the back alley. As soon as I stood in front of them, the message window popped up again.

[Transport the slave to Governors Island.]

[Thieves cannot use their movement skills

When using transportation, at least three transfers are required.]

“Wow, so this basically means we have to get spotted at least three times.”

Of all places, it had to be Governors again. Without movement skills and without using transportation, it meant we’d have to swim across. And for free at that, with two kids in tow.

“The difficulty’s way too high. This is basically telling you to go for a solo victory if you’re confident you can beat off every cop and every thief that comes at you. But the strongest Hunters are the police chief, the Outlaw, or other cops!”

If Liette were a thief, it’d be over the moment she scooped up the slave and took off running. That’s probably why the thief role was given to the relatively weaker Hunters who hadn’t directly hunted monsters.

└ “The strongest Hunter” lololololol

└ !!Yujin! You slave □□□□□□

└ Dear filter manager.. if you’re Korean, please shake a carrot for us

With the chat going wild again, I sneaked a look at the twins. Surely they weren’t Yoo Hyun, Seong Hyunjae, Liette, or Chief Song. Surprisingly, they didn’t seem like support–types or A–ranks either. If they were, there wouldn’t be this much screaming in the chat.

“Um, do we happen to know each other?”

One of the twins made a heart with their hands.

…Yerim?

The other one looked a bit disgruntled, kind of like Chief Song. But I couldn’t imagine Chief Song tapping Yerim’s arm like that.

‘Are they making solemn advice and admonitions sound like grumbling to hide who they are?’

Hmm, no idea. Still, one thing was clear: they weren’t complete strangers. Still wearing the police uniform, I held a hand out to the twins.

“The slave will have separate victory conditions, but if you cooperate and I win, I’ll give you extra gold coins. As you know, I’ve got plenty of gold coins.”

So when I asked for their help, the twins both tried to grab my hand at the same time. So yeah, they definitely weren’t Chief Song.

“All right, this way─ ah, but first, one moment.”

I tapped the building wall with the butt of my dagger until it crumbled into powder. Then I dusted the twins’ faces, hair, and clothes with it. After moving with the twins down the alley and over one block, I looked around. A shop run by a couple who looked kind–hearted caught my eye.

“This is all acting, everyone. Our poor kids!”

I stretched my arms out as if to shield the kids and crossed the street with a pained expression.

└ Ah, when Han Yujin is being sweet like this, seriously lololololol Yujin, go smash as many walls as you want later…

└ Yujin aaagh everyone but you is a high–rank Hunter lololol Even Mr. Slave is high–rank, you know

└ If I become a slave too, can I get a sweet escort from Chief Han? Though my current job rank is kind of similar already…

└ That’s hilariously sad lolol Yujin, I’m basically a slave too, still stuck at the office, sob sob

No way, they’re not in Korea, right. What time even is it over there.

“Hello.”

Greeting them, I stepped into the shop.

“These two were victims of the explosion earlier. They can’t speak, so it’ll be hard to find their guardians right away. Could I ask you to look after them for a little while? Someone from the authorities should be here soon.”

If they looked like teenagers to my eyes, they’d probably seem even younger to Americans. The shop owner readily nodded.

“It wasn’t a terrorist attack, was it?”

“No. It seems to have been a gas explosion.”

I asked them to keep a close eye on the kids so they wouldn’t wander off in shock, then left the shop. Since the twins hadn’t even tried to leave the auction house area and were obediently following me, they likely had been turned into non–awakened, so regular people should be able to hold onto them. Besides, neither thieves nor cops would think to search the locals in this neighborhood.

To make contact with the asset–holders, I took off the police uniform and headed back toward the auction house.

“If too many people bunch up, I won’t be able to handle it, so I’ll set off a few more bombs to scatter the participants.”

└ If Yujin took an MBTI test, his result would be BOMB, haha~

└ □□□! □□!

Suddenly the chat window filled up with squares. I tossed the bomb I’d pulled out upward and rolled along the floor.

Boom!

The bomb went off and smoke billowed out. This time it was meant to draw attention, a sort of smoke bomb. As I sprang to my feet and was about to dash into the spreading haze, my arm—

“Mr. Yujin!”

—was grabbed by someone. It was a woman’s voice.

“Who─”

“Me!”

Unable to give a proper answer, the Hunter holding me sounded frustrated. Red hair, looking quite a lot like Kang Soyeong… No way.

“Does this thing really change your gender too?!”

└ lolololololololol

└ Right now it’s □□□□□□□□□ right? With □□□

Approached from above, meaning they had some kind of flight skill. They called me “Mr. Yujin,” and sounded friendly toward me. It wasn’t Yoo Hyun, Yerim, Peace, or Gyeol, so the only one left was Noah. Noah… smiled at me. Uh, I was still a guy, right?

“I knew it was you, Mr. Yujin.”

“Mr. Noah?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

It seemed the restrictions were lifted once you were sure of the other person’s identity.

“Right after the building blew up, I started looking for you. I had a feeling you’d be the one doing it.”

Anyone who knew me would probably catch on. Though you could pull off something similar with skills. I hadn’t expected to run into him this easily, but then again, it was hard to slip past Mr. Noah’s eyes.

“You’re a thief, right?”

I asked, just in case. If Noah were a cop, he’d be one of the most advantaged participants in this game. Flight, stealth, even preemptive debuff attacks. What thief could possibly escape that? But since he was here, he had to be either a thief or an asset–holder.

Noah nodded and continued.

“I’m on a team with a cop.”

“Huh? Cops and thieves can be on the same team? You can bribe them, sure, but the victory conditions…”

No way.

“…Asset–holder?”

“Yes. One of the cop’s conditions allows for a simultaneous win with an asset–holder. In that case, the asset–holder can…”

“Hire both cops and thieves and still win, is what you’re saying.”

In other words, they could peacefully share a joint victory. Aside from the police chief, the Outlaw, and the slave.

“Ms. Hyunah must be the cop, then. Who’s the asset–holder?”

“We’re in the middle of making contact. A thief other than me.”

A thief other than Mr. Noah. It was someone I knew, and their team had probably been obvious enough. They were likely also a cop–and–thief duo. One person hunting monsters, the other supporting.

“…Ms. Soyeong? And Liette is the cop.”

“Exactly!”

Noah answered with relief. The chat window was in a similar mood.

└ Moon Hyunah & Liette are cops! Kang Soyeong & Noah are thieves!!!!!!!!!!!

└ Director Han, hurry up and get the slave too!!!!!!!

“You should move with us too, Mr. Yujin. Right now─ Ms. Soyeong?”

Noah pulled out his walkie–talkie. From it came Kang Soyeong’s voice… or it should have been, but it was a man’s voice.

[The asset–holders are trying to gather up right now! Hello, Director Han!]

“Hello. The asset–holders?”

[Listen to this!]

With a bit of static, another man’s voice came faintly through.

[As I just explained, one of the asset–holder’s victory conditions is to collect one hundred gold coins. If ten asset–holders join hands, that can be achieved immediately.]

One hundred gold coins? In other words, asset–holders started the game with ten gold coins each.

[Of course, that would be an individual victory, but in the case of the hundred–coin victory, all one hundred coins are turned into real gold. Meaning that even if the other nine asset–holders don’t win, they can divide the gold according to their contract.]

Now, wait a second. So he was basically saying they’d let one person win and then split the gold afterwards?

[For asset–holders, who cannot initiate attacks, to protect a slave, they absolutely need the cooperation of cops and thieves. But everyone, is there really any need to share the gold with cops and thieves? Remember that the main reward up to now has been gold coins. We already have the victory reward in our hands.]

[I’m kind of getting persuaded too.]

Kang Soyeong muttered. Who was that asset–holder, anyway. It was definitely a good way to end things quickly. They could divide the gold as promised and smoothly decide who’d take the individual win—if everything went as agreed.

[We’ll choose the individual winner fairly by drawing lots─]

“Stop him, Ms. Soyeong!”

[What? I’m only A–rank! If they counterattack, I’ll die.]

“Mr. Noah!”

Noah scooped me up and took off. We’d been close by, so the collapsed auction house quickly came into view below. An asset–holder in a white suit stood atop the rubble. That had to be him. The asset–holders around him seemed to number just over ten. Enough to end the game right away.

By now most of the thieves would have scattered to search for slaves. There were no cops either. In other words, it was the perfect time for asset–holders, who couldn’t initiate attacks, to gather and win together. We couldn’t let that happen.

“Oops, my hand slipped! It’d be really unfair if they call this a preemptive strike.”

From the air, I dropped a whole bunch of bombs.

Boom, boom!

The rest of the already–collapsed building was swept away in the blasts. Hot, round plumes of smoke rose one after another, and huge clouds of dust surged like crashing waves.

“Who is it this time!”

“Did they rob a military base?!”

Amid the disgruntled shouts, Kang Soyeong muttered,

[I think the peaceful joint victory just sailed away?]

No kidding. I’d overturned the board for now, but would the asset–holders really be willing to cooperate after this? On top of that, by role, the thieves were weaker than the asset–holders. Even if we blocked them temporarily, once they’d learned the method that favored them, they’d ignore the thieves. The one bit of good news was that…

“Officer Moon Hyunah~”

On our side, we had both a cop and a slave. I took the walkie–talkie from Noah.

“We’ve secured a slave. Interested?”

[Knew it was you, big bro. We’ve got a bunch of cops gathered here.]

“Huh? They’re gathered?”

[It’s a command of death. None of the cops who went out under orders are coming back. They got ordered to go alone so we can’t go together, and I think we’re already down by half.]

Ah… the police chief. S–rank Hunters were never great at cooperating, but this time they really were all doing their own thing. What a complete mess, seriously.