The S-Classes That I Raised [EN]: Chapter 276

“W-What are you talking about….”

I was trembling. I was scared.

“Even if you’ve Awakened… why are you becoming a Hunter, Yoohyun? You’re still young, not even an adult……”

Han Yoojin’s younger brother is an S-Rank Awakener. Back then, even hearing those words didn’t really register. After the first dungeon shock [sudden appearance of dungeons], Awakeners appeared and a system of sorts was being established, but to ordinary people, it was still just a disaster.

Dungeons and monsters were just unknown fears. To me, too.

“Don’t go outside unnecessarily, just stay home.”

My younger brother said quietly. Up until this point, Yoohyun still showed that he was worried about me. If only I had obediently listened to my younger brother at this time… no, let’s not think useless thoughts. In the end, that lizard bastard would have approached Yoohyun, and then we would have…

“Yoohyun-ah! Han Yoohyun!”

My younger brother left my side. I, standing there blankly, couldn’t accept it. I thrashed about uselessly, trying to turn things back to how they were, even though the world had already changed.

“Yoohyun-ah, please……”

I was clinging to my phone, pleading. The background was our old house. My face was gaunt. I remembered not eating or sleeping properly.

“Don’t do things like being a Hunter, okay? It’s dangerous. If something goes wrong in a dungeon, they can’t even find the body. Not even the body…… But why are you going there, Yoohyun-ah……”

S-Rank Hunter. At this time, when dungeon difficulty was still relatively low, it was a rank that didn’t need to be worried about. But I couldn’t feel that at all. The rumors I overheard were all ominous, and the TV was constantly talking about the dangers of dungeons and monsters.

Equipment was lacking, Hunters were lacking, and experience was even more lacking, so even in low-rank dungeons, mid- to low-level Hunters often died. Dungeon raids failed, Awakeners didn’t return, injuries, deaths, disappearances.

Day by day, my blood dried up. I was afraid that a familiar name would appear on the list of injured, the list of dead, the list of missing. I had nightmares several times.

“Hyung will do better. So there’s nothing lacking, I’ll try harder……”

The other side of the phone was silent. That fact, more than my appearance at the time, more than the memories of that time, tore at my heart. What was he thinking as he listened to me? He must have known what I was doing; what was he feeling?

I cried.

“…Please don’t go into dungeons.”

Yoohyun-ah.

I didn’t understand, and my younger brother couldn’t back down. In the face of the rapid changes that came in the midst of confusion, we were both young and immature.

I shuddered and sent back the money Yoohyun sent, without even touching it. To me at that time, it was a terrible amount of money, no different from trading my young brother’s life. Yoohyun wanted me to live safely while receiving living expenses, but I, who believed that I had sent my brother to his death, could never accept it. Rather, only helplessness piled up. There was nothing I could do. I just paced back and forth. It was almost a relief that I was drafted into the army; I was just suffering from heartache that felt like I was suffocating.

The place I was assigned to was a unit that did dungeon-related support work. Looking back on it now, I thought Yoohyun had something to do with this—to protect me, who was wandering around the dungeon and even the Breaker area trying to stop my brother, and to inform me about the changed world.

While doing miscellaneous work that wasn’t very dangerous, I naturally learned more about dungeons and Hunters, and how amazing S-Rank Hunters were.

In that one year, the world adapted to dungeons. Related industries developed, the status of Hunters rose, dungeon breaks decreased, and it became commonplace. At the same time, high-level Hunters became objects of admiration. People around me envied my younger brother, who was building his own guild and growing rapidly. They even said it was like I had won the lottery.

Damn it.

“…No one’s here.”

Looking at the empty house I returned to a year later, I muttered. What was a good thing? What was there to celebrate? I have nothing.

I don’t know how they found out, but calls came in from everywhere, saying they heard about my younger brother.

I ran away that day. I threw away the house, of course, and all of my younger brother’s belongings that remained. It was at this time that I told Yoohyun not to contact me. I didn’t want to receive anything from my younger brother. If I received even a small thing, it felt like the sounds people were making would become true.

‘You must be proud of raising him. I’m going to benefit from my younger brother. They say he’s raking in money. I won’t have anything to worry about.’

I didn’t want it. I didn’t like it at all.

Even after running away like that, I couldn’t completely give up on getting my brother back.

[MKC Guild has succeeded in attacking the third S-Rank dungeon in the country. Many casualties occurred, and MKC Guild Leader Hunter Choi Seokwon was also seriously injured…….]

[There are continuing opinions that HaeYeon Guild’s successful bid for the S-Rank dungeon was too early.]

[Regarding the mysterious hospitalization of Sudam Guild Leader Hunter Yoon Gyungsoo…….]

Even S-Rank Hunters aren’t immune to injury. At the time, there were many worried eyes toward Yoohyun, who was the youngest S-Rank Hunter in the country, as well as overseas. If the dungeon raid period was longer than expected, negative articles poured out.

It was only natural that I, who had to watch all of that like a thorough outsider, began to cling to Awakening. Because that felt like the only way.

If I just Awaken. If I become an S-Rank Hunter, everything will go back to how it was.

“It’s worth seeing.”

My stomach is a little sore, but I’m okay now, so it’s okay.

– Don’t let your guard down.

The Changeling [a shapeshifting monster] raised one front paw and pressed it firmly against my cheek. The paw with the small claws was slightly soft.

“I won’t let my guard down.”

I know very well that this is just the beginning. It’s my life. But if it’s just seeing this much, it seems okay after all, because there are people waiting outside. If I don’t forget that.

Unlike now, the Awakening Center opened. Unlike now, I went to the Awakening Center and Awakened. F-Rank support-type Hunter. Would it have been easier if I had given up here? But I would have disappeared now. Instead, Yoohyun, who couldn’t leave me, and I would be here until the end in this world.

‘…Let’s not think about it.’

Don’t get involved.

“Anyway, you can’t talk to them nicely!”

With a thud, I was kicked in the stomach. My body floated up and rolled across the floor. I blinked at the tingling pain spreading through me. Uh, wait a minute.

“You only have the label of Han Yoohyun’s hyung [older brother] left anyway, so why are you being so stubborn?”

The man, clicking his tongue, squatted down and pressed my head hard against the floor.

Until just a moment ago, I was simply in the position of a spectator, but at some point, I had entered the illusion. Wow, this is really perfectly realistic 4D.

‘How far does calmly enduring go?’

The contract said not to resist the skill that was activated now, so do I have to just take it? I felt the pain, but it didn’t seem to actually damage my body. It’s just phantom pain. In the first place, the contract stated that the Skill of the King of Innocence does not inflict physical damage. I wouldn’t have signed it if it wasn’t.

I was a little embarrassed, but it’s still okay. Rather, it’s been too easy so far. That jellyfish bastard was so confident, but it couldn’t just end with looking back on my life.

“Even if you’ve been abandoned by your well-to-do younger brother, if you cling to him, he’ll give you something, even if he’s conscious of the people around him, right? Huh?”

“…Sorry, who are you again?”

“What?”

“There aren’t just one or two of you pathetic bastards, so I can’t even remember each one. How can I memorize all the extras who pass by?”

I glanced at the inventory list. It was almost empty, so it seemed I could only use the items I had at this time. My stats are still the same, F-Rank with no special abilities.

“Resisting with this body isn’t a violation of the contract. It said that I can react according to the situation, not my real body or stats.”

“What the hell are you talking about, cough!”

Since there was a suitable dagger in my inventory, I gently stabbed it into the neck of the guy in front of me. Twisting the wrist holding the dagger, I made sure to cut off his breath and looked around. Of course, there wasn’t just one person.

“C-Crazy!”

“Catch him!”

I threw the corpse with all my might at the guy who reacted the fastest and charged at me. The freshly dead corpse flew, scattering blood, and he freaked out and dodged. His flustered appearance was completely defenseless. If I just passed by such a gap, I wouldn’t be doing my duty as someone who was kidnapped and threatened.

Lowering my body below the guy’s line of sight, I approached and quickly tripped him. His body, which was already off balance, easily fell over, and this time I accurately struck his neck.

“Sh, shit! He killed someone!”

The remaining guy, reacting realistically to the illusion, ran away as fast as he could. I threw the knife at the back of his head, but with my strength, it didn’t reach and fell to the floor with a thud. If it was Yoohyun, it would have stuck in there coolly.

“Hey, you probably can’t hear me, but my younger brother didn’t abandon me.”

Not even once.

I was thinking that this wasn’t torturous at all, but rather refreshing, but only for a moment.

“Ugh, kuk!”

The pain of something hot tearing through my flesh was felt in my arm. I instinctively swallowed a scream. Screaming loudly just because I got injured in a dungeon is suicide. It’s like advertising to the monsters that there’s weakened prey here.

Clenching my teeth, I blinked my blurry eyes. A knife was stuck in my drooping arm. At first glance, it was quite a good item. It’s definitely not low-level equipment.

“Don’t, cough, think, ugh, too badly of it. Even if HaeYeon Guild Leader doesn’t care about his hyung, he still benefited from him, right? You sold your younger brother’s name quite a bit, right? So think of it as paying the price.”

Laughter fell over my body. I also heard voices cursing HaeYeon. They must have been guys who clashed with Yoohyun and received disadvantages, so they were venting on me.

After the fact that my relationship with Yoohyun had soured became known, guys who had conflicts with HaeYeon started taking it out on me. However, it didn’t last long, because HaeYeon said that it bothered them to associate Han Yoohyun and me and vent on me, so they swept them all away.

I was even publicly scolded for causing trouble for my brother by being beaten up like this.

“…It’s not Yoohyun’s fault.”

Then it’s my fault, as everyone around me says. I was jealous of my brother and said I would become a Hunter, but I got an F-Rank and just caused trouble. Han Yoohyun just threw away such trash, so if I just became decent, he would return to his original self.

Maybe that was my last hope… and at the same time, a wish that I was afraid to try to fulfill. What if Yoohyun was still cold even if I became okay?

“It hurts a little.”

Looking back, it was a hopeless life.

Short snippets of past violence brushed past my body. At best, it was just a feeling of, ‘I’ve been through a lot.’ Diarma was the best when it came to simple violence, because I didn’t die, he could try everything without holding back.

And then blood splattered again.

“R, run away……!”

A familiar face collapsed. It was a man in his mid-thirties.

– Kyaruk!

A monster pounced on me, who was standing there blankly. The monster, which looked like a large bipedal dog, swung its claws, and I reflexively dodged. My body was light. The opponent was an E-Rank monster, and I received double the stats of an E-Rank Hunter.

I swung the spear in my hand. I knocked away the monster’s snout, from which saliva was dripping, with the spear shaft, spun it around, and stabbed the spear blade into its neck. I lifted the monster’s corpse pierced by the spear as it was and blocked the attacks of the other charging dog bastards.

Thud, kwaduk—at the same time as claws and teeth were embedded in the corpse of their companion, I grabbed the spear shaft and soared upwards. Jumping like I was doing a pole vault, I jumped over the monsters and landed behind them, drawing my sword. The dead man’s skill suddenly came to mind.

I took out even the spare machete and skillfully used the two swords as if I were ambidextrous. Sharpness was added to the blades, and two dog heads were cut off with a snap. Immediately after, I threw the sword in my right hand strongly. Kwak! The blade was embedded in the back of the monster that was attacking the Hunter.

“Y, Yoojin-ssi!”

The Hunter, who had survived by a hair’s breadth, looked at me with surprised eyes. Originally, no one would have been saved. Even if strength was suddenly given, I wouldn’t have had the experience or mindset to move calmly. I would have just cried and swung my sword wildly.

The person I really wanted to save right now.

“…He’s alive.”

Even if being revived by regression isn’t perfect, he’s alive, so this is okay too.

“I’ll show you a few more times, so give up.”

As if agreeing with my words, this time it ended in one go. Instead, there was something that wasn’t in my memory.

“Hyung.”

He appeared in front of me. It was Yoohyun at twenty-five years old. Yoohyun was standing in our old house, the house we used to live in together. He was smiling faintly. I definitely didn’t have that in my memory.

“I’m sorry.”

His sword-like eyes looked very sad.