S-Classes That I Raised to Devour - Chapter 69

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 69. Lotto Dungeon (5)
Paradoxically, there were no major wounds on Kim Yeonghan’s body. Instead, his neck was flushed a dark, mottled red.
Slightly protruding eyes and tongue. He had died by strangulation.
“I told you—just run.”
The regret comes out as a bitter reproach. I close his mouth, shut his eyes. Looking down at him now, he simply appears to be resting.
My Buff isn’t invincibility. It can block the samurai’s blade and Sword Qi, but it doesn’t negate the impact itself.
And yet—whether confidence had gotten the better of him, or whether he simply wanted to be useful to me—Yeonghan disobeyed my instructions and fought the samurai.
“I can’t believe he didn’t even have time to say he was giving up.”
If, in the smallest chance, his only goal had been to buy me even a single second more, even at the cost of his own life.
“That’s a foolish choice. There’s nothing in this world more precious than one’s own life.”
So I choose not to believe it. I want to believe he didn’t die for me—that his throat was strangled too suddenly for him to speak, and he simply couldn’t resist.
Death. Everyone dies, but a Hunter’s death is different. To live as a Hunter means to wear death like a cloak.
I’ve witnessed countless deaths.
Some were strangers, some were acquaintances, some were close friends. Though pain should become familiar, I’ve learned that death never becomes easier to bear—especially when it’s someone you knew.
And even less so when it’s someone who showed me kindness.
“It’s hard when someone who liked you dies. So I wish you’d disliked me a little.”
I searched Yeonghan’s pockets. Fortunately, I found a wallet.
Inside the empty wallet, I discovered a condom, some crumpled thousand-won notes, and a Driver’s License.
I returned the condom and the notes to his pocket, then examined the Driver’s License.
–Kim Yeonghan
“So it wasn’t Bonggu—it was Kim Yeonghan. And a year older than me, too. I thought he was in his thirties, the way he looked worn down.”
I slipped the Driver’s License into my Shadow Bag.
“One year difference makes us friends, doesn’t it? Either way, what’s the point. He’s gone.”
I carefully folded his arms across his chest and placed my hand on his face.
“Whether you can hear me or not, I’m grateful you found the Heavenly Mandate Piece, and I’m grateful you fought for me.”
At that moment, an alert chimed, breaking the silence.
[Confiscation Target Updated.]
[Confiscation Target has died. Do you wish to Confiscate? This will be your last opportunity.]
“Sigh…”
My body itches fiercely. Should I covet his Skills in this moment?
My apologies are apologies. The living need to survive.
“I’ll compensate his remaining family with what his Skills are worth.”
Fighting the infected samurai made me feel it acutely: I’m still a Support-type. My only active Skill is the Taishan Pressing Sword.
I’ve been making do with Protective Force Qi, Sword Qi, and Mana Bullets to fill the gap, but I can’t guarantee how much longer these will hold.
‘I need more Skills.’
He’s not alive, and I didn’t kill him. What harm could it do, taking Skills from a corpse?
‘Besides, I probably haven’t built up much Debt Value with him. If I can at least pull one F-rank Skill, that’ll be something.’
With modest expectations, I opened the Confiscation window.
Confiscation Target: Kim Yeonghan
Debt Value: 100,112
[Confiscation List]
Characteristics:
‣Hunter’s Intuition (B)―30,000 [Confiscate Available]
‣Hemorrhage Aggravation (D)―3,000 [Confiscate Available]
‣Poison Application (F)―1,000 [Confiscate Available]
Skills:
‣Eyes that See All Things (A)―100,000 [Confiscate Available]
‣Flesh Tearing (C)―10,000 [Confiscate Available]
“…How is there so much?”
From meeting to a few words of conversation to party play—it barely took an hour. In the end, I didn’t even manage to save him.
I did next to nothing for him, yet his Debt Value has accumulated to over a hundred thousand.
“I’ll take it as your wish to give it to me.”
I look to Yeonghan’s dead eyes for confirmation, but the dead don’t answer.
“Even if you hated it, I’m taking it anyway. What else can I do? Heh.”
I give a bitter laugh and select one of his Skills.
[You have Confiscated Eyes that See All Things (A) from Kim Yeonghan.]
「Skill―Eyes that See All Things (A)」
Upon activation, you gain the following effects:
•See through concealment, camouflage, and illusion states.
•Visualize non-visible information.
•Consumes 30 Mana per second.
Since my Mana was fully replenished anyway, I decided to test the Skill.
“Ugh.”
For a moment, I thought my eyes were burning. I squeezed them shut reflexively, but the moment I opened them again, a new world filled my vision.
Shimmering colors flooded my sight—something like the flow of air, something like the pulse of Mana.
Air and Mana are things I could only feel before, never see. Witnessing them this way, visually, was a strange sensation.
“Even in death, Yeonghan is helping me.”
I even spotted a reward I’d nearly missed. There was a location where Mana pulsed intensely—where the infected samurai’s corpse lay.
Since Eyes that See All Things consumed Mana too rapidly, I deactivated it and examined the dropped item.
「Equipment―Demon Sword Arimakshi」
Rarity Grade: Unique
Quality: D
Socket: 0/2
•On hit, reduce target’s regeneration -50%
(10 seconds)
•On hit, absorb the target’s life force and heal the wearer’s wounds.
•Armor Penetration +50%
The Quality was low, but it was a Unique weapon with actual Sockets—a rare find.
By inserting Rune Stones into Sockets, you can enhance performance. Depending on which Rune Stones you use, equipment can surpass its base Rarity Grade.
‘This is worth keeping as a swap weapon.’
It seemed ideal for fighting enemies with strong regeneration or those with heavy armor.
“I’m moving on.”
The dead stay behind. The living move forward. That is a Hunter’s life.
I offered a brief silent bow to his corpse, then headed toward the Final Trial Room.
The time had come to put an end to this short yet endless journey to find Choi Gangim.
* * *
The Final Trial Room of the Lotto Dungeon was a golden altar.
A barrier blocked the golden altar, and hovering above its peak were the rewards I’d seen displayed at the dungeon entrance.
An A-rank Skill Book and a Legend-rank Shield. Around them, spaced at a distance from each other, stood five people.
They looked wary as soon as I appeared, and I addressed them.
“Is Choi Gangim here?”
I’m sorry for him, but having only memories of Gangim’s future face, I have no way of recognizing her now.
No one answered my call, but I identified her immediately nonetheless.
While everyone else wore expressions of confusion, one person alone bore the look of “Why are you looking for me?”
As I drew closer, my guess was confirmed.
“You are Choi Gangim, aren’t you?”
I was certain because of the shields.
Circular shields on both arms, and a large rectangular shield on her back.
In all the world, only this person would wear three shields at once.
“I’ve come to help you.”
I offered what I thought was my friendliest smile, but it seemed to burden her instead. She began backing away.
Like approaching a stray cat, I showed her my empty palms and moved forward slowly.
Then I stopped at a distance that was neither too close nor too far.
“I’m Chae Mujin, representative of Hunter Management Arc.”
I offered my Business Card like a treat.
Choi Gangim examined it first with her eyes before carefully accepting it. At that moment, I sensed something troubling.
“Can you not speak? If that’s the case, please nod.”
Choi Gangim hesitated for a moment. That hesitation was answer enough, but she nodded to confirm it beyond doubt.
Whether we arrived just moments too late or she lost her voice long ago, what’s lost cannot be recovered.
It’s bitter. I arrived as quickly as I could, yet her voice was already gone.
‘Still, I have to do what I can.’
I’d anticipated this scenario and brought something prepared. I pulled out a pen and paper from my Shadow Bag and offered them to her.
“Tell me about the Final Trial. I’ll help you clear it.”
While I held off on recruiting someone I couldn’t communicate with, I needed her experience to escape this dungeon.
Of course, there was another way. The system had informed me the moment I entered the Final Trial Room.
[You may return to the 1st Floor by sacrificing 100 Stats.]
But for the sake of the dead Kim Yeonghan, I couldn’t take that route.
Choi Gangim held the pen and paper for a long time, deliberating. Whether she didn’t trust me or what she was thinking, I couldn’t tell.
“Write down what you know. I’ll look around in the meantime.”
Apart from Choi Gangim and myself, there were four Hunters in this place. I didn’t approach them closely due to their heightened vigilance, only surveying the surroundings.
‘Multiple thick pillars, a ceiling that opens. Nothing else of note.’
I recalled Choi Gangim’s interview from my previous life. Back then, she had certainly mentioned the Final Trial.
“To clear the 5th Floor, I had to lose something precious.”
I had assumed then that she lost her voice, but that wasn’t it. So what exactly had she lost?
“That place was a peaceful hell, and I came to realize that to survive in hell, I myself had to become a demon.”
The interviewer asked what happened, but Choi Gangim didn’t answer, and the interview ended there.
Why did she call this place a hell?
I shift my perspective.
Instead of the scenery, I look at the people.
Then something distinctly different became apparent.
‘They’re starving. At least a week.’
The Hunters I’d thought were lean were malnourished. Cracked lips, sunken eyes, sagging skin.
From a third party’s perspective, it might seem foolish.
This dungeon can be abandoned and exited whenever they choose, so if they’re hungry, they can simply leave. Why endure starvation?
‘They’ve sacrificed everything to get here. Now you tell them to give up and go back? Who would? Especially with the reward right in front of their eyes.’
It’s identical to someone addicted to gambling. If someone has lost two hundred million, would telling them to quit work?
They’d keep gambling, trying to recover that two hundred million.
Tap-tap.
Just then, Choi Gangim tapped the ground with her shield, making a sound. I turned to see her waving the memo.
Reading the note, everything suddenly made sense. Why they’d been starving here for over a week.
–The barrier surrounding the altar cannot be broken. However, it deactivates periodically. You must wait for that moment and claim the Skill Book and Shield from the peak.
His handwriting, despite his appearance, was remarkably neat.
“How do you know when the barrier disappears?”
Choi Gangim picked up the pen and wrote rapidly on the memo.
–There is no fixed interval. It last opened three days and two hours ago.
“It opened before, so why didn’t you obtain the reward?”
–The barrier reappears too quickly after deactivating. Running at full speed might work, but as you can see, the competitors won’t allow that.
“So you waited for a barrier that opens at unknown intervals, and when it did open, you couldn’t seize the reward because you were all deterring each other. How many days has this been going on?”
–Thirteen days.
Some Hunters bring emergency water and rations as backup.
But regular food items can’t fit in inventory. So the most anyone brings is a protein bar or two.
An ordinary person struggles to survive a week without water and food. These Hunters have lasted two weeks only because they’re enhanced, but their hunger must be reaching its limit.
‘In that interview, she said she lost something precious. It was probably…’
I feel the Hunters’ gazes on us. It’s a different look than mere wariness.
Hunger. I can almost hear their stomach growls. Surely Choi Gangim beside me couldn’t withstand the hunger either.
Morality doesn’t matter in a situation like this. There are accounts of survival’s casualties in snow-covered mountains, where survivors ate the dead to live.
Who could blame them? The law acquitted them of guilt.
‘Though the circumstances with these people are different, of course.’
They can abandon this at any time and leave. Yet they cannot. The reward is right before their eyes. An A-rank Skill and a Legend-rank Shield. If a tank uses it, A-rank is easily achievable. Sell it, and they could live comfortably for life.
‘For that reward, they’d do anything. Even if it meant…’
Murder. Cannibalism.
It doesn’t horrify me. I understand their desperation fully. I acknowledge that an A-rank Skill and a Legend Shield have that value. I don’t condone it, but I understand.
‘When will their patience break? Today? Tomorrow? Or right now?’
I’m not afraid. It’s not a matter of fighting and winning.
Frankly, if I give Choi Gangim a Buff, she alone could kill all four of them. Then the competition vanishes. I simply wait for the barrier to fall.
As for their hunger?
‘That’s why Legend-rank equipment is broken, and why my Shadow Bag is Legend-rank.’
A Shadow Bag that can hold not just items but anything at all. Would I not have packed food?
“Choi Gangim, eat something first. You must be starving.”
I offered her Streusel Bread and Chocolate Milk. She stared at the food in my hands like she was seeing a mirage.
“You don’t like Streusel Bread? Then I’ll have this one.”
I took a big bite of the Streusel Bread and pulled out another pastry.
“Melon Bread, this one too…”
Grab.
Choi Gangim seized my wrist and nodded frantically.
“You like Melon Bread, then.”
I smiled and handed it to her.
Choi Gangim snatched it with trembling hands.
Her fingers shook as she tore the wrapper, but before putting even one piece in her mouth, she bowed briefly toward me.
Not a servile bow of submission, but a desperate reverence—that of someone who has grasped a lifeline in hell.
Sensing the intensity of their stares, I turned back to the other Hunters and called out.
“You’re all hungry too, aren’t you? Come over here. I have plenty of bread.”
Hunger can drive someone to eat human flesh to survive. But no sane person eats human flesh on a full stomach.
As expected, the four Hunters slowly but certainly approached me.
Yes, that’s what it comes down to.
People can act like villains to survive. But most aren’t villains. They’re not beings who enjoy hurting others.
‘But compromise is another matter entirely.’
Just because I gave them bread, would they suddenly say, “Oh my lord, please take all the rewards!” ?
No. That’s a separate issue.
I gave it anyway, knowing this. Because of what my mother taught me.
‘Don’t play tricks with food in front of a hungry person.’
Whether I’m making a deal or trading blows, fill their stomachs first.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————