S-Classes That I Raised to Devour - Chapter 98

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 98. Survival Report (1)
When I opened my eyes, the thick night sky filled my entire vision.
The familiar sky of Earth, of South Korea.
I had truly returned. From Deep Dive, that twisted land I had thought I could never escape alive.
And I hadn’t come alone.
‘We came back together.’
I placed my hand carefully on Rabbit’s chest as she lay sprawled on the ground. The erratic heartbeat that had been so ragged was now beating steadily. Even if I left her as she was, there seemed to be no immediate danger to her life.
To be honest, there was solid calculation behind my decision to bring her here.
‘She’s perfect for the final member of the 1st Generation.’
A healer who could also deal damage.
The concept itself was similar to Iljin. The difference was that while Iljin was a close-range healer, Rabbit was a ranged healer.
I imagined it. The power of the 1st Generation with Kim Yeoul, Lee Minji, Choi Gang-im, and Rabbit all together.
Shiver.
My body trembled of its own accord. Definitely not because the sea breeze was cold.
There was just one thing I regretted.
‘She was abandoned by her country, betrayed by someone she trusted. The motive was sufficient…was.’
But she had drunk from the River Lethe and forgotten those memories.
I had completely lost the opportunity to accumulate Debt Value.
That alone made things considerably ambiguous, but the bigger problem was whether her other memories remained intact.
The combat sense she displayed in the Land of Oblivion had exceeded my imagination.
Both her flawless Marksmanship and her weighty Greatsword Technique were excellent.
But what if even her combat instincts had been wiped clean?
If I had to teach her from scratch, that would be quite a troublesome problem.
Vroom….
Just then, the sound of a car engine tore through the silence from far away. I reflexively picked up Rabbit and hid myself in the nearby darkness.
A taxi pulled up at the entrance. When I peeked my head out to see who it was, it turned out to be Kim Yeoul in a fresh-looking robe.
I was about to rush out in delight when another taxi immediately followed and arrived.
‘It’s Minji and Gang-im, isn’t it?’
I wondered what they were doing here at such a late hour.
But when I heard it was all to rescue me, my chest felt heavy with emotion.
‘These kids, they were that concerned about me….’
Just as I was about to reveal myself, Brian appeared too.
The timing was off, and my body froze in an awkward posture.
As I stood there listening to what Brian was saying, I felt a wave of self-disgust. Why was I hiding and eavesdropping here?
I immediately stepped out of the darkness. Just then, Lee Minji collapsed with her forehead against the wall.
“Ahem, you guys?”
“….”
A strange silence fell. They all looked at me as if I were a ghost.
I felt awkward too and blurted out something random.
“You didn’t skip training while I was gone, right?”
“Am I going crazy and seeing things? The boss is standing right in front of me saying annoying things.”
“I guess I’m tired too. The manager is really here in front of my eyes?”
Choi Gang-im approached with disbelief and poked my forearm repeatedly with her finger, as if picking fresh fruit at a mart.
Then Brian stepped forward with a serious expression. He fixed me with a suspicious gaze and shouted.
“If you’re really the real CEO, then tell me our secret.”
“There’s no such thing.”
“Oh? That’s correct.”
Chae Mujin chuckled and shrugged his shoulders.
“I’m having trouble finding the right moment to say this, but… I’ve come back alive.”
“Wait, what’s that hidden behind there? Is that a person?”
There was Rabbit sprawled on the ground where Brian had pointed.
Lee Minji rushed over and checked Rabbit’s condition, then cried out.
“She’s dead!”
“She’s not dead!”
“You murderer!”
As the commotion unfolded, Kim Yeoul with tears streaming down her face rushed over and grabbed me around the waist.
“Really… you really did come back alive, right? I’m not going crazy, right? Waaah!”
As Kim Yeoul’s tears broke free, Lee Minji, who had been crying out, ran to me with a sob, and even Choi Gang-im, who had been hesitant, burrowed into my arms.
A strange sensation bloomed in my chest, something melting and warm. It felt so unfamiliar that I deliberately changed the subject.
“Enough, that’s enough. Everyone focus for a moment. I have lots of questions. How many days have passed, what happened, everything.”
“I’ll explain that.”
Brian began to brief me on the tense situation that had unfolded over the past three days.
Arc Management, my 1st Generation peers, the Bastard Guild, and even Cheon I-hwa.
Everyone had run around in all directions to save me, but ultimately found no solution.
So when the kids couldn’t bear it anymore and were about to recklessly throw themselves into Deep Dive, they encountered me instead.
Clap clap.
“That was a clean explanation. In short, people think I’m dead.”
“We didn’t. That’s why we tried to save you.”
“Why did you do that?”
“Huh?”
Did he think I would be moved?
Rather, I was angry.
“I told you to protect the kids. You should have stopped them from going in. If I had been even a little late and they’d entered Deep Dive, they would all be dead.”
“Uh… s-sorry.”
“You three are the same.”
This time I lined up the three 1st Generation members in a row and spoke.
“I’m grateful that you tried to save me, but that was the wrong call. You had no information, right? Were you planning to die with me? Would you think I’d be grateful for that? You should have stayed alive. That’s what I wanted.”
“Sir, that’s not what we meant….”
“Enough with the excuses. You obviously didn’t train for those three days straight while you were agonizing over this.”
I picked up the unconscious Rabbit and got into a driverless taxi. The 1st Generation members tried to get in with me, but there was no way.
“What do you think you’re doing? You three run to the company.”
“Run? It took an hour by car.”
“Then you’ll arrive in an hour too. You’re faster than a car, aren’t you?”
“…If you give us a Buff, it’s possible.”
“Absolutely not. You need to train for situations when I’m not around.”
“Ugh….”
“And don’t run naked. Run in full gear.”
Seeing the kids’ expressions as they reluctantly gathered their weapons, I finally felt a genuine smile spreading across my face.
The reality of having survived Deep Dive.
The fact that I could see these kids’ complaints and smiles again felt so overwhelming….
It was a feeling even I hadn’t fully understood about myself.
* * *
Two in the morning. The time when normal people would be in deep sleep.
Arc Management’s office was dark and silent, but not a single employee had left. They all sat in front of monitors bathed in blue light.
Eyes bloodshot from mechanical clicking and scrolling. A desperate struggle to find even the smallest clue related to Deep Dive.
They had been glued to this for a full three days and nights, yet no one had said out loud, “Let’s rest now.”
Screech.
When the sound of a car stopping came from outside the building, Han Seok-jin let out a heavy sigh.
“Reporters again. They’re relentless.”
The reporters who had swarmed like hyenas trying to dig into Chae Mujin’s disappearance. Despite turning them all away at the door, they kept showing up at odd hours like this, wearing everyone down.
“Since we’ve turned off all the office lights anyway, they’ll probably poke around outside and leave on their own. Don’t bother yourselves dealing with them.”
Kang Yuri said this while rubbing her puffy eyes, and the others nodded silently in agreement.
But contrary to their expectations, the elevator that had been on the first floor began to rise. Every employee’s expression hardened at once.
Arc Management’s main entrance and elevator couldn’t be opened by anyone except authorized employees due to strict security. But it was being used?
“Guess it’s not just a trespasser.”
“Should we call a Certified Hunter?”
“Let’s just see who it is first.”
They spoke calmly, but pistols were already in the hands of every employee.
Special firearms loaded with Mana Bullets designed to counter Hunters. And everyone here was a seasoned specialist in live combat shooting.
If whoever had broken in was a hostile intruder, they were ready to turn them into a sieve the moment the elevator doors opened.
Ding dong.
Finally, the elevator doors opened, and tension reached its peak.
The figure that emerged from the darkness was none other than Chae Mujin.
“Surprise. What are you all doing here instead of sleeping?”
Han Seok-jin rubbed his eyes, and Jin Seo-yeon pressed her temples while muttering.
“Have I gotten old….”
Yoon Hae-sol stared at the coffee cup he’d just been drinking.
He wondered if he’d eaten spoiled beans and was having hallucinations.
Kang Yuri, steeped in occupational habit, instinctively hit the camera record button, and Kim Min-woo took a shockingly impulsive action.
Bang! Clang!
Kim Min-woo’s pistol roared, but the cyan Mana Bullet bounced off a circular golden barrier that unfolded mere inches from Chae Mujin’s face.
“The appearance can be copied, but the skills can’t be! That bullet was blocked by the Heavenly Protection Barrier, so it’s definitely the real CEO!”
Kim Min-woo shouted with a proud expression.
Chae Mujin walked straight over and planted a solid flick on the top of his head.
“You could have just asked, Kim Min-woo. Why did you have to shoot?”
“Gah! Master! You really, truly have come back!”
Whoosh!
Kim Min-woo hugged him, tears and snot streaming down his face.
Chae Mujin could have dodged, but he held his ground out of consideration for the sincerity.
“CEO!”
“Chae Mujin!”
The other employees, finally understanding the situation, all cried out and rushed at him at once.
In a blur of chaos, they touched and patted him everywhere, verifying that he was really alive and checking for injuries.
“Stop, stop! Who touched my rear end!”
“You suffered for three days, so you owe us this much reward!”
Kang Yuri responded with surprising boldness, but Chae Mujin mercilessly pushed her forehead back and created distance.
“Everyone calm down. I can tell how hard you’ve worked just by looking at your faces. Come on, follow me and breathe. In~ out. In~ out.”
“Master!”
Unable to contain his emotion, Kim Min-woo came charging again with both arms spread, but this time Chae Mujin twisted away and let him crash to the ground.
“I’ve come back alive. I’ll explain how later, but are you all okay? None of you are hurt?”
“Does it look okay to you?”
Kang Yuri pointed to her dark circles that had reached below her jawline, and Chae Mujin waved his hand dismissively.
“I know you’ve worked hard. I just mean, were you injured while I was gone? That’s what I’m asking.”
“If that’s what you mean, no. Actually, to be honest, you came back at the most incredible timing.”
Now that she understood Chae Mujin’s genuine concern, Kang Yuri smiled faintly and tapped her smartphone screen.
The screen she showed me was a real-time trending search list.
―[Search Rankings]
1st: Chae Mujin Missing
2nd: Chae Mujin Deep Dive
3rd: Arc Management Bankruptcy
4th: Deep Dive
⁝
10th: Chae Mujin Death
“While we were running around trying to save you, our tail got stepped on. Now everyone in the world knows that Chae Mujin fell into Deep Dive and Arc Management is desperately trying to do something about it.”
“Brian mentioned the rough outline, but I didn’t expect the impact to be this big.”
“That’s why it’s such incredible timing! A dramatic return to life when the whole world is certain you’re dead! With just one good video, we could easily get a hundred million views, no, even a billion views!”
Kang Yuri, her dark circles glowing with the mad fire of a view-count obsessive.
But Chae Mujin’s response didn’t match her expectations.
“There’s no need to make such a big fuss, Yuri.”
“What? Why! A billion views means global sponsors, investor hype… it’s a golden windfall literally rolling in…!”
“Our main business is Hunter Management, not becoming a Newbube creator.”
Faced with Chae Mujin’s blunt statement, Kang Yuri nodded in agreement.
“Chae Mujin came back alive. Just announce that one clean line. Oh, and use that photo you secretly took of my face earlier for verification.”
Clap clap.
Chae Mujin clapped lightly, then made deep eye contact with each employee who had sacrificed three days for him, and smiled softly.
“Everyone has worked incredibly hard these past three days. Go home now, turn off your computers, and get some good sleep. And I’ll see you tomorrow. With smiling faces, not exhausted ones.”
* * *
The next day, early afternoon.
A video suddenly appeared on Kang Yuri’s Newbube channel without notice.
―Title: The Video the CEO Told Me to Upload
The video was barely over one minute long.
It was as brief as a common short-form video, but the impact it contained was nothing short of nuclear.
Chae Mujin, who the entire world was certain had died in Deep Dive, walking out of the elevator in perfectly fine condition.
Moments later, the screen shook and cut to a scene of tear-soaked employees embracing Chae Mujin in a tangle of limbs.
The video ended with Chae Mujin muttering a single dismissive line to Kang Yuri, who was holding the first-person camera.
“Our main business is Hunter Management, not becoming a Newbube creator.”
The screen faded to black, and a brief comment left by Kang Yuri was pinned at the bottom of the video.
―Thank you deeply to everyone who wished for and worried about our CEO’s safe return all this time.
Inevitably, Newbube, South Korea, and even the entire global Hunter world exploded.
A human had fallen into Deep Dive and walked back out on their own two feet. In just three days, no less.
Moreover, the Chae Mujin in the video was completely unharmed—not a single limb missing—and didn’t even show the delirium typical of Deep Dive survivors.
A world-first miracle.
Public opinion worldwide erupted at the existence of a Hunter who had returned from Deep Dive not just alive, but ‘intact.’
Of course, because the miracle was so unrealistic, not everyone believed the video at face value.
―@rizeup0: lol obvious AI Deepfake edit. who’s gonna fall for this?
―@GraduatedMilitaryService: but the channel that uploaded this is the official account of “Yuri’s World”? is she really gonna risk her career on a fake for a few views?
―@kayene: didn’t he just never go into deep dive? once you fall in you can’t get out. even the “survivors” are all locked up in psychiatric wards.
―@rizeup0: yeah i agree with the above. he definitely just lied that he went in to get attention. 100% spent three days napping in some underground bunker and crawled back out.
Public opinion was leaning toward the idea that this was a show staged without ever entering Deep Dive, not a miracle of Chae Mujin returning alive.
After all, there was no physical evidence in the world that Chae Mujin had actually entered that hell.
But there was one person. Brian, who had witnessed Chae Mujin entering Deep Dive, came to him and broached the subject carefully.
“Want me to testify? I saw you go into Deep Dive.”
If an unknown Hunter had come forward, the public would have scoffed. But if the speaker was Brian, the story changed 180 degrees.
Nightmare of assassins, anti-assassin, A-Rank Hunter approaching S-Rank capability—Brian.
His weighty word could never be dismissed as a joke.
More than half the public would likely trust Brian’s testimony.
But Chae Mujin shook his head quietly.
“That’s fine. Why would I go around boasting about entering Deep Dive?”
“Hmm? It seems like something worth boasting about though. Unless you’re the one.”
Tap.
Brian lightly tapped Chae Mujin’s shoulder and offered a faint smile.
“It’s a bit late, but I sincerely congratulate you on coming back alive.”
“Thank you.”
After this brief but sincere exchange, Chae Mujin had to return to the exhausting reality.
Chae Mujin’s days became frantically busy. Visitors poured in from all directions after hearing news of his return.
The reporters camping outside couldn’t be completely ignored, so I showed my face briefly outside the building and firmly shut them down.
“There. You all got good footage of me alive and well on camera, right? If you have your photos for articles, then please leave. You’re disrupting work.”
Even after sending the reporters away, I couldn’t stop the acquaintances who came rushing after hearing the news.
I received a solid smack across the back from my tearful mother, and bombardment of nagging from my father until my ears grew calluses.
After the whirlwind of family time, the Brain of Bastard Guild, Choi Bun-gae, and the Golden Bodyguard, Song Baek, suddenly burst through the door.
They kept shaking me, asking if I really did go into Deep Dive, what tricks I used to survive, one question after another.
“I don’t know how many times I have to say this, but I’ll explain everything once, so just calm down for….”
Crash!
Then, with a thunderous sound, the floor-to-ceiling window of my office shattered and someone burst through.
The speed was so overwhelming and so covert that even strong fighters like Choi Bun-gae and Song Baek couldn’t react immediately.
The mysterious intruder shot through the shower of glass shards and came hurtling at me like a bullet, without a shred of hesitation.
Just as Choi Bun-gae and Song Baek, judging it an assassination attempt, were about to counter with killing intent unleashed.
Jingle.
A clear, familiar bell sound brushed past Chae Mujin’s ear through the scattering fragments.
I immediately spread both arms and signaled the two guild leaders not to attack….
Whoosh!
The mysterious intruder crashed into my arms with overwhelming force, embracing me.

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