The S-Rank Warden Devours the Academy - Chapter 68
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 68
Something was wrong.
Yu Gwon bit down hard on his lip.
Ragged breath escaped between his clenched teeth.
The final match in the Combat Arena was in full swing, but he couldn’t focus on it.
No—he couldn’t even look.
His body felt strange.
His vision swam in dizzying circles, and a high-pitched ringing pierced his ears.
Heat roared up from deep within him.
It burned like fire.
And the source of it was….
“…….”
Yu Gwon stared down at his trembling hands through blurred vision.
Across the hand wraps, lines of color spread upward like veins—pulsing, shifting, alive.
‘Damn it.’
While everyone’s attention remained locked on the match, Yu Gwon hurried to tear off his hand wraps.
But.
‘Why won’t they come off?’
No matter how hard he pulled, the wraps wouldn’t budge.
As if they’d fused to his skin itself.
Damn it… damn it, damn it!
The crowd’s roar swelled louder.
The sound of him clawing at his arm was swallowed by the Grand Hall’s chaotic noise.
Just as the heat spreading through his hand began to creep slowly up his neck, it happened.
“You there.”
“…!”
Yu Gwon’s movements stopped dead.
A shadow fell long across his head.
“Looks like this old thing is glowing because of you.”
Yu Gwon’s gaze rose slowly.
It was Yeom Sa-hyeon, the instructor for Combat Class A.
He examined Yu Gwon’s form from crown to heel with meticulous care.
His scrutiny was relentless, as if he were turning bone and marrow inside out.
“Looks like I was right.”
“…….”
That smile felt so blatantly threatening to Yu Gwon that his nape went cold.
Hostility bloomed instinctively within him.
Yu Gwon’s eyelids fluttered, and unbidden, a thought crossed his mind.
‘I have to win.’
His fingertips twitched.
“Professor Yeom.”
Jae-hyeok approached and cut in.
“This isn’t appropriate. You’re disrupting the match. Please return to your seat.”
Already unsettled by the unexpected turn of events, this sudden commotion only added to his frustration.
A hairline fracture appeared in the composure Jae-hyeok had been maintaining.
Yeom Sa-hyeon glanced back.
On the Combat Arena floor, Tae Eun-o—having broken free from Tae-jun’s hold—was now locked in tense confrontation once more.
“They’re doing fine. Why?”
Yeom Sa-hyeon withdrew his gaze from the arena and shrugged, and Jae-hyeok exhaled as if left speechless.
“Master, what’s the matter?”
Yu-wol, who’d been waiting for Yeom Sa-hyeon, finally couldn’t hold back and followed in his wake.
The moment her gentle eyes turned toward Jae-hyeok, they flashed with open hostility.
Yeom Sa-hyeon tilted his chin toward Yu Gwon and spoke.
“That student’s condition seems quite unusual. Aren’t you concerned at all?”
Jae-hyeok’s eyes turned cold.
Coming all the way here during a match to spout nonsense—
Jae-hyeok furrowed his brow, about to open his mouth, when—
“Yu, Yu Gwon…! What is—”
Hyeong-won’s urgent cry tore through the hall.
He’d only just noticed Yu Gwon’s condition.
Jae-hyeok’s gaze finally turned to him as well.
Red marks crawling up his forearms.
Eyes glazed and unfocused, his hair matted with cold sweat.
He looked far worse than when he’d stepped down from the match moments before.
Jae-hyeok’s eyes narrowed.
‘He seemed fine just now—why…’
Had an injury sustained during the bout suddenly worsened?
The furrow between Jae-hyeok’s brows deepened just as—
“Ugh.”
Yu Gwon clutched his throat.
The next instant, he pitched his head forward and vomited onto the floor.
“Hack—!”
A red liquid splashed across the ground in a thick wave.
“!”
“Blood—blood?!”
Jae-hyeok’s eyes widened, and Hyeong-won gasped, lurching to his feet.
Yeom Sa-hyeon’s eyes narrowed.
‘No. That’s not blood.’
“…Master, that—”
Yu-wol, watching the liquid pool on the floor, let out a small gasp.
“Huk… huh….”
Yu Gwon’s pupils had lost all focus, glazed over completely.
The mana emanating from his body twisted murky and foul, like stagnant water.
Yeom Sa-hyeon exhaled a low, bitter laugh.
‘Never thought I’d see this here.’
“Yu Gwon, snap out of it! You’re—”
Hyeong-won lunged for Yu Gwon’s shoulders, but in that instant—
Bang!
Yeom Sa-hyeon’s foot shot out without a moment’s hesitation.
Yu Gwon, struck in the abdomen, flew into the air.
Crash!
He hurtled across the Arena and smashed into the far wall.
The sudden chaos sent the Grand Hall into pandemonium.
“What—?!”
“What just flew across there?!”
Spectators who’d lost track of what was happening began stirring from all sides.
Hyeong-won, who’d been momentarily stunned, shot to his feet, face flushed with rage.
“What are you doing?!”
His trembling gaze, burning with anger, fixed on Yeom Sa-hyeon.
Kicking a fellow student whose condition was already deteriorating—it was outrageous.
But the one who’d caused the scene remained composed.
“Saving him, that’s what.”
“…What did you say?”
When Hyeong-won demanded clarification, Yeom Sa-hyeon answered with a flick of his chin instead.
Crack, crack, crack.
Yu Gwon, embedded in the wall, was slowly working his way free, shaking off debris.
His pupils still unfocused, still glazed.
Now red marks spread from his neck up across his face.
Yu-wol watched that grotesque figure and murmured softly.
“Master, he looks… like that Monster we saw inside the Gate back then.”
“He does to me too.”
Yeom Sa-hyeon replied, thrusting a hand into his pocket.
“Sa-hyeon…! What in the—”
Hae-seong, rushing in late, spotted something and came to an abrupt halt.
“This is…!”
The liquid Yu Gwon had expelled was beginning to take on a distinct form.
The same crimson substance they’d seen oozing from the Gate at the Research Institute.
“Hae-seong.”
“Yes, yes! Yeom Sa-hyeon.”
“Check that bastard’s Status Window.”
“Yu Gwon’s Status Window, sir?”
Hae-seong fixed his gaze on Yu Gwon and activated the skill without hesitation.
As he read through the Status Window floating in the air, his pupils froze on a single point.
“…What? S, S-rank?!”
An astonished sound leaked through his lips.
“!”
Did he just say that guy was S-rank?!
The faces of everyone who heard Hae-seong’s words turned deathly pale.
“Yeom Sa-hyeon, something’s… very wrong here. You need to see this!”
Hae-seong gestured frantically and shared the system’s Status Window with Sa-hyeon.
Sa-hyeon’s gaze fell upon the bluish-white window that materialized before his eyes.
[Status Window]
Name: Yu Gwon
Age: 22
Rank: A
…….…
At first glance, it looked like an ordinary Status Window, no different from any other Hunter’s.
But….
[Rank: A]
[Rank: S]
[Rank: A]
…….…
The rank was fluctuating wildly, as if possessed.
“…What the hell is this mess.”
Crack.
Sa-hyeon exhaled a weary sigh and stomped down on the writhing liquid pooling on the floor.
Ssshhhhh—
The liquid crushed beneath his sturdy sole shrieked with a horrible sound, spewing acid before losing its strength and melting away like ordinary water.
But the situation was only beginning.
In that brief instant, a crimson fog exploded around Yu Gwon, billowing outward in all directions.
A surge of mana that seemed ready to devour the Grand Hall itself.
“This is…!”
Hae-seong’s eyes widened.
A sensation similar to the Mental-type Rainwater he’d encountered at the Research Institute Gate suddenly seized him.
Sensing the primal threat, he hastily covered his nose and mouth with his sleeve.
“Everyone else, evacuate….”
Sa-hyeon glanced around, then clicked his tongue.
“…Looks like it’s already too late.”
Below A-rank was nearly a total wipeout.
Lower-grade students already caught in the fog’s radius were slumped in their seats, groaning in agony.
Meanwhile.
Tae-jun and Tae Eun-o stood alone on the Combat Arena, bewildered.
“……Yu Gwon?”
“What the hell is happening…?”
The moment Tae Eun-o muttered uncertainly while scanning his surroundings.
Yu Gwon’s head turned toward Tae Eun-o.
“…I have to win no matter what.”
A voice that grated unnaturally, as if mingled with a monster’s cry.
“Huh? He’s talking to me?”
Tae Eun-o shot back toward Tae-jun in the same instant.
Yu Gwon launched himself into the air in a flash.
Clang—!
The moment Yu Gwon, pushing off the Combat Arena’s metal mesh, drove his fist downward in a vertical line toward Tae Eun-o.
“Watch out!”
Tae-jun stepped in front of Tae Eun-o, blocking his path.
Boom—!
“Ugh……!”
Tae-jun, pinned beneath Yu Gwon’s weight, let out a strained gasp.
“What are you doing, Yu Gwon? Snap out of it!”
Despite his shout, Yu Gwon only muttered similar words under his breath.
“Kill him, what am I doing….”
Yu Gwon raised his Hand Wraps, crimson Mana rippling across them.
“Nngh!”
Tae-jun twisted his body, trying to break free, but couldn’t budge an inch.
‘…Tae-jun is losing in pure strength?’
Jae-hyeok couldn’t mask his confusion.
In more than a year of teaching them in the Physical Technique Class, Yu Gwon had never once overpowered Tae-jun in raw strength.
Yet now, Yu Gwon was crushing him with overwhelming force.
Whoosh—
The moment Yu Gwon’s fist extended toward Tae-jun.
‘Dangerous.’
Jae-hyeok reacted on instinct, deploying his skill.
His one and only S-rank Defense Skill.
A solid barrier materialized above Tae-jun.
Yu Gwon’s fist drove into it.
Crackle-crackle-crackle-crack.
His knuckles pressed down on the barrier as if meaning to crush it through sheer force.
And then.
Shatter—!
“!!”
The barrier shattered like a pane of glass.
‘He broke through that…?’
Jae-hyeok’s eyes widened.
Whooom—
Yu Gwon’s fist was about to smash through Tae-jun’s face.
Snap.
Impossibly, Yu Gwon’s hand stopped dead in the air.
“……!”
“Yeom Sa-hyeon!”
Tae Eun-o cried out.
Yeom Sa-hyeon had caught Yu Gwon’s wrist with a single hand.
“Hmm, so these gloves really are the problem, it seems.”
He exhaled the observation flatly.
And without hesitation, he seized Yu Gwon by the head.
Crash—! He drove Yu Gwon down into the Combat Arena floor with full force.
Crack-crack-crack-crunch—!
Massive fractures spider-webbed across the entire Arena, tearing it apart catastrophically.
Dust billowed up in a thick cloud from the impact.
“…Wow, really something else, our instructor….”
Tae Eun-o tilted his head in genuine amazement.
“…….”
Tae-jun blinked blankly.
‘…Am I seeing a hallucination through some skill right now?’
That the Combat Arena—which had never sustained so much as a scratch through five years of intense training and combat—could shatter so easily seemed impossible.
Ignoring the stupefied stares pouring in from all directions, Yeom Sa-hyeon continued to suppress Yu Gwon’s head with one hand while surveying the surroundings.
Before he really got to work, he should probably clear away the obstacles first.
“There it is.”
His gaze settled on the VIP Seating.
“My, my three-billion-won Arena…!”
Whether drunk on the crimson haze or not, the President had collapsed in his seat, squeezing out pathetic tears.
Yeom Sa-hyeon jerked his chin toward him.
“Stop all filming.”
The cameras still broadcasting this chaos in real time.
The President stumbled over his words.
“W-what?”
If everything that followed were broadcast live, it would become troublesome in all manner of ways.
Yeom Sa-hyeon raised an eyebrow.
“Unless you’d prefer not to hold a tearful press conference in front of the media tomorrow.”
……!
The interrogator delivered a loaded warning.
What on earth was he about to do now?
The President’s face drained of all color, and he cried out in desperation.
“Cut the cameras right now!!!”
S-rank Instructor Devours the Academy Episode 68
Author
Baek Ru-ga
Publisher
Daon Creative
Planning / Editing / Production
Yun Tae-ri
Cover
Tong
UCI
G720:N+A036-20260512043.0068
ⓒ2026, Baek Ru-ga
※ This e-book is protected under the copyright law of the Republic of Korea.
No part or all of this work may be reprocessed in any form without permission from the author and publisher.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————