The S-Classes That I Raised

Chapter 738: Welcome to the Land of Dreams! (1)

“Park Hayul?”

“Yes. So, um, I…”

Mari yanked me closer and whispered in my ear. Her stats hadn’t dropped, apparently—she was surprisingly strong. She seemed able to use a translation item too. Maybe she was a case like Gyeol.

“This is Park Hayul’s dream.”

“…What?”

According to Mari, Park Hayul was somehow connected to Crescent Moon. He had powerful mental abilities, and Mari herself was a dream of his that had taken form in reality. But once Mari stepped out of the dream and into the real world, the real Park Hayul had become the dream instead, turning into the center of this world.

In other words—

‘…Park Hayul is a Transcendent seed?’

That seed of ruin Crescent Moon planted? The future Transcendent destined to swallow our world was Park Hayul? Him? Seriously?

‘You shouldn’t judge people too easily… and sure, even ordinary people can do amazing things…’

But still, still! I could picture Park Hayul’s face, smiling with that blank, sunny look of his. Then again, being a Transcendent didn’t necessarily mean someone was impressive. There had been weird perverts among them too. Even so… Park Hayul? Although, thinking back, the effects of his mental skill had been absurdly strong. His face probably gave it a bonus too, but still… Park Hayul? Really? It was kind of ridiculous for me to react like this when I was the one who’d taken down Transcendents with F-rank stats, but even so—seriously?

‘My god… Park Hayul is my last hope.’

Everything went dark for a second. I supposed I should at least be grateful he liked me. Even if that affection had gone so far off the rails it was starting to look a little insane.

“So, Park Hayul is…”

“He should be somewhere near the French Alps. That’s where he was last, or so I heard. And that’s what it feels like to me too.”

“Thank you for telling me. Ah—and I’m glad you’re safe, Mari.”

The revelation had hit me so hard I’d forgotten to ask how she was doing. When I asked whether Samir was okay too, Mari smiled and nodded.

“He’s still hospitalized because of a mana circuit issue, and he can’t even use potions, but the Saintess said he’ll recover if he gets plenty of rest. My mother sent a flower basket to the hospital, and I was on my way to Korea to find a way to contact Han Yujin. Oh—and London’s back to normal!”

So when London reverted to its original state, it sounded like the Saintess’s side had been trying to contact our group, since we were obviously involved. Then Mari escaped the dream world and joined them, and not long after that Ms. Hyunah showed up too, so they had all ended up gathering in Korea.

By the time Mari finished explaining, familiar faces had filled the rooftop.

“There were a few disturbances from the evacuated Hunters, but nothing serious.”

“I’m sorry for being away so long.”

“No, not at all!”

Chief Song had been getting a report from a Hunter sent over from the Achates Defense Bureau. We both bowed our heads at the same time—him apologizing for dumping work on everyone, me feeling guilty for making him. Off to the side, I spotted Kim Seonghan and Hunters from Yerim’s team.

“I’m the team leader! I went to the U.S. thinking I’d be right back!”

“Seriously! I never imagined our team leader would be out of commission this long. Blue’s been doing a lot of the heavy lifting in the meantime.”

Yerim’s team had been clearing dungeons with Blue while Yerim was gone. Among the Haeyeon guild members, her teammates seemed to mesh with Blue the best.

“As scheduled, HR Manager Seok Gimyeong is moving forward with the American branch, but the interviews for high-ranking Hunters that were set for the end of the month have been postponed. Since high-ranking guild members need to be personally evaluated by the Guild Leader, and they’ve also asked that Director Han Yujin attend if possible.”

“High-rankers get dispatched to Dodam a lot, so they’ll want my brother’s opinion too. And there are probably plenty of Hunters who want into Haeyeon because of its connection to the Breeding Facility.”

Kim Seonghan nodded and said that since the Chatterbox party, more and more Hunters had been expressing interest in joining the guild. Apparently a significant number of them were from overseas. If Seok Gimyeong got the American branch up and running, that one would probably end up being mostly foreign Hunters.

“Everyone thought it was weird that the Guild Leader caught a cold, so they were too nervous to visit and—your ear! Aaaah!”

Kang Soyeong let out a scream the second she noticed Seong Hyunjae’s missing ear. The others around us caught on a beat later and looked equally rattled.

“I’ve seen him break a finger fighting Chief Song, but this is the first time I’ve seen something actually get bitten off! Oh my god!”

He did get hurt pretty often, come to think of it. I’d shot him in the head myself once. Seong Hyunjae coughed for effect. Kang Soyeong jerked a huge step backward like she’d seen a ghost.

“I didn’t want to see this even in a dream!”

“Hunter Kang Soyeong. Report.”

“Ah, yes! Even though the Guild Leader’s been gone the whole time, there haven’t been any major issues yet. There is talk about a successor, though.”

Through a weird twist of fate, Seong Hyunjae really had abandoned the guild for an extended stretch. In reality, he’d stayed in our world longer than anyone else—but he’d also turned tiny. More importantly, what was that about a successor? Did she mean Soyeong?

“Han Gyeol, I assume.”

“Yes, most likely. He’s already a special awakened case with unusual abilities, and his connections—including Dodam and the Saintess—”

“Our Gyeol is not joining Sesung!”

What was he even saying? Seong Hyunjae slowly tilted his head and looked at me.

“The Sesung Guild.”

“I know, but—”

“Even rumors alone would be enough to cement Han Gyeol’s position.”

“Well…”

Honestly, Sesung would be a huge advantage for Gyeol. Sure, I could protect a kid just fine on my own, but there was no such thing as too much money or power. And who knew—maybe Gyeol would want to take over the Sesung Guild someday. Seong Hyunjae’s personal fortune alone had to be astronomical. I vaguely remembered him mentioning some of his investments had done very well too.

“Anyway, it’s up to Gyeol to decide, so please don’t turn gossip into anything more concrete. Ms. Soyeong, I’m asking you too.”

“Don’t worry! But you really should think about making it legal. Then you could openly bleed our Guild Leader dry. Start with child support. Since he’s an awakened special case who can use full dragon transformation, the legal team says once you tack on a few extras, it could be pretty profitable—”

No, seriously, how far had she looked into this? When Seong Hyunjae put on a guilty act and started apologizing for being a negligent parent over the child support talk, I cut him off flatly and told him I had plenty of money myself.

All the while, explosions kept going off around the Breeding Facility. Monster corpses piled up like mountains, only to vanish like melting snow.

“Director Han!”

Shishio came toward me with both arms spread wide. Kyunghoon-hyung was behind him. Dangerous—well, maybe not, since this was just a dream. Shishio strode over, smiling, and then—

“Hello.”

—gave me a polite greeting. Ah… so he’d learned Korean.

“How is your health, Director Han?”

“I’m fine. You were still in Korea?”

“Hi. I am well.”

Apparently he still didn’t actually understand what was being said. He beamed at me while fumbling through honorific speech, and absurdly enough, it was a little cute. Maybe that was the title side effect. Or maybe I’d just grown too attached.

“It’s terrifying.”

Kyunghoon-hyung looked up at the sky as he spoke.

A sky packed with monsters, overshadowed by an enormous moon. For someone not used to the unreality of dungeons, it was the kind of sight that could chill you to the bone.

“What brings you all the way out here?”

“Of course I had to come. Dodam can’t be the only one left out.”

There was unmistakable reproach in both his gaze and his voice when he looked at me.

“Director Han Yujin of the Breeding Facility.”

“Ah, right. Of course.”

Kyunghoon-hyung really had picked up a few things from Seok Gimyeong. The Breeding Facility in Dodam was the world’s only institution specializing in Monster Mounts, and as its director, I deserved treatment befitting that status—that was the general vibe. It wasn’t exactly wrong, but… it also seemed like Seok Gimyeong had been enthusiastically fanning the flames from the sidelines. Kyunghoon-hyung let out a deep sigh and looked at me with open pity.

“I still don’t understand why the director has to be the one running around in person.”

“Haha… yeah.”

“There’s already more than enough work waiting for you inside the Breeding Facility. There’s no need for you to go outside at all, especially when you already have over a year’s worth of visit requests piled up.”

That really sounded like he wanted to lock me up in the facility. Though, to be fair, I had been running around way too much.

“This is lonely. Little Jin, how about you come keep me comp—”

Hwang Rim tried to sidle up to me whining about being all alone, and Yuhyun immediately slammed the sheath of his sword into the man’s jaw. Hwang Rim clutched his face and looked at me with tears in his eyes, but I ignored him.

“Director Han, what now?”

Moon Hyunah asked as she stared up at the pale surface of the moon.

The monsters would keep coming. Rather than staying here and holding out—

“We head for the Alps.”

It would be better to try and make contact with Park Hayul. If he still had his sense of self, maybe we could persuade him and stop Crescent Moon.

“We’re real, not dream constructs, so traveling by helicopter is risky. But going by land would take too long.”

“As long as a plane can take off safely, monsters won’t be able to keep up. Let’s head for the airport. I think we can pull in more reinforcements there.”

Moon Hyunah turned to Mari as she said it. Mari gave a big nod.

“It won’t be as vivid as when Gyeol or I help directly, but as long as they can lucid dream, it’ll work. Even ordinary dreamers who can’t consciously perceive us can still help Han Yujin’s group!”

“Just like Director Han relayed through Gyeol.”

I had already received help from people who were dreaming.

And in our world, there were plenty of people capable of dreaming.

“Then let’s head to the airport. Clear the lower floors and get the rope ladders over here!”

At Moon Hyunah’s shout, rope ladders for the helicopters were lowered against the Breeding Facility wall. Kim Seonghan and Shishio moved toward the edge first. Kang Soyeong lightly hopped up onto the ledge too, conjuring a gun and firing at the monsters.

“You can’t die in a dream, so cold-ridden Guild Leader, you can enjoy my protection~.”

“Our Soyeong’s all grown up.”

“Let’s go, Director.”

“Uh, Team Leader Seo, wouldn’t it be better if you headed back first?”

“I may not have dungeon raid experience, but I did serve in the military.”

There was a rifle in Kyunghoon-hyung’s hands—a very familiar one. Even the way he climbed down the rope ladder ahead of us was quicker than I’d expected. Peace was lowered with ropes, and the rest of us made it safely off the rooftop. The helicopters took back to the air and joined the fighter jets in intercepting the monsters.

“This way! We’ve prepared military trucks!”

“Chief, please stand back!”

“Now it’s our turn to protect you. Don’t worry—it’s a dream!”

The Hunters from the Achates Defense Bureau were shouting with suspicious enthusiasm. Chief Song looked a little conflicted, but he still let them protect him. We climbed into the back of a roofless truck so we could bail out quickly in an emergency. Hunters carrying shields took up positions around us, and armored vehicles surrounded the truck.

As we set out for the airport along the road, thick moonlight followed us.

– Kyarrr!

A monster poked its head straight out of the moonlight pouring down above us. Peace, sitting beside me, lunged and bit its head off in one snap before hurling the body out of the truck.

“They’re jumping right out of the moonlight! Stay sharp!”

We definitely had the edge in firepower.

But the monsters were literally endless.

A swarm of them suddenly focused on one of the helicopters. Then it went down with a thunderous crash, bursting into flames. The same thing was happening on the ground.

“…This is insane.”

One of the Hunters muttered under his breath as he stared at the road, black with monsters. There were so many that even the armored vehicles couldn’t push forward properly.

Then—

Boom!

A truck came barreling in and plowed straight into the monsters. A second later, we heard motorcycles too.

“They’re real!”

“Ugh, gross!”

Screeeech— A motorcycle slammed into a monster and skidded across the road. The rider rolled off, came up gripping a huge axe, and started hacking wildly. And it wasn’t just one or two people.

More were appearing by the second.

“Yerim’s over there! Yerim!”

“Whoa, Park Yerim! Hey!”

At the sound of girls shouting her name, Yerim jumped to her feet in shock.

“What the heck! Why are you guys here!”

“I’ve always been good at lucid dreaming! I’ve killed tons of monsters in dreams!”

Sure enough, one of Yerim’s friends was holding something that looked like a bazooka. Yerim looked dumbfounded, but pleased. Soon voices calling for Yerim were joined by voices shouting for the Guild Leader. Familiar faces from Haeyeon came flooding in from every direction.

The same thing was happening back at the Breeding Facility building.

“Are they the same as real monsters? And what is that thing in the sky? I need to document this!”

That was Seok Hayan’s excited voice. Haeyeon guild members began attacking the monsters while calling out their ranks, regardless of whether they were awakened or not.

“Traffic jam!”

“Bikes rule!”

“Somebody tell people the subway’s still running!”

“Chief Song, I love you!”

“Peeeace!”

The monsters, who had held the numerical advantage, were starting to get pushed back. Every kind of weapon imaginable was swinging through the air, carving out a path for us.

[What are some easy ways to lucid dream?]

[Han Yujin’s current location]

[How to teleport in a dream]

[Top 10 weapons that are easiest to imagine!]

[You can kill monsters too]

[How to get to Gimpo International Airport]

[Urgently hiring subway drivers capable of lucid dreaming!]

[Recruiting helicopter pilots for a group lucid dream attempt]

The moment the emergency broadcast about the dream world aired, countless posts and videos began pouring in.