WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The S-Classes That I Raised ◈
Chapter 111: Greetings (2)
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The sight of a swaying head talking felt utterly grotesque. I’d seen undead in dungeons, but none that could speak.
“Is that the famous zombie? The kind that infects you if it bites?”
“We don’t know what it is, so stay back, Hyung.”
Yoohyun stepped forward. Then the zombie, or whatever it was, moved its lips again.
“I’m a mess, everyone. Just a moment.”
Then Yoon Gyeongsu’s appearance changed.
“Ah, the limited-edition Bunny Bunny Bear!”
“...Hyung?”
Yerim cried out happily, and Yoohyun muttered in confusion. I couldn’t say a word.
Far away, amid the ruins of the collapsed building, Yoohyun stood there. My little brother, older, with sharper features and taller than he was now. Without realizing it, I reached out and grabbed the arm of the Yoohyun in front of me. My twenty-five-year-old little brother smiled.
Whoever this was, they had sick taste. Or was I the problem? It seemed everyone saw something different.
“Hyung, are you okay?”
Yoohyun asked worriedly, but I couldn’t look away. Yoohyun slowly approached, coming within about ten steps.
That was fake. I knew better than anyone. I had no choice but to know.
“...Should I take care of it?”
Yoohyun asked, looking away so he wouldn’t have to see Yoohyun... no, that thing.
“...No.”
It wasn’t real, but how could I do that? Fuck. I didn’t know what Bunny Bunny Bear was, but it didn’t seem human, so maybe I should ask Yerim... Damn it, maybe I should just...
“Is this not an easy form to talk to?”
That thing spoke. It even had the exact same voice. Beside me, Yerim cried, “It went bwau! Cute!”
“If you know that, change back right now.”
The head-swaying Yoon Gyeongsu was much better. As I answered through gritted teeth, Yoohyun... damn it, that thing gave a small laugh.
“As you might have guessed, it isn’t a form I wanted. It’s what Hyung wanted to see.”
“...Don’t smile with that face.”
I was close to losing it, but fortunately, it changed shape. It became much smaller. The person it imitated hadn’t changed, though. It was still Yoohyun. This was going to drive me crazy in a whole different way.
“Ah, seriously, this is insane...”
Cute. My little brother at six or seven beamed at me. His puppy-soft hair, his round, plump, pale cheeks. His little hands and little fingers, even his tiny feet. Little Yoohyun, small enough that I could easily pick him up now...
“Y-Yoohyun. Hold me back.”
“What?”
“I want to run over there. Wow, seriously, really...”
I wanted to stroke his hair. I wanted to hug him. I wanted to touch his cheeks. I knew it was actually a corpse, but I still wanted to run over immediately. How could he be so lovable and cute?
“Mister, what are you even seeing?”
“...Yoohyun when he was little.”
“Gasp, I want to see too! I want to see Mister when he was little too! Change, Bunny Bunny Bear! It won’t change. Then dance!”
I clenched and unclenched my hands before pulling out my phone. I took a picture just in case, but it showed a zombie. Damn it. Video didn’t work either. Damn it.
“Yoohyun.”
“Hyung, I’m here.”
I turned toward my little brother at his slightly sulky voice. Seeing twenty-year-old Yoohyun after looking at six or seven-year-old Yoohyun filled me with fresh emotion. He had been so small. When had he grown this much?
“Our Yoohyun has really grown up.”
“Get a grip, Mister. You look completely out of it right now.”
“But he’s cute.”
What if I just stroked his hair once? No, of course not. Who knew what that thing was? Get a grip.
“Is this one hard to talk to as well, big brother?”
“Yoohyun!”
“Hyung!”
“Mister!”
Yoohyun and Yerim grabbed me at the same time. Damn it, calm down. But I couldn’t. Should I just close my eyes? But I didn’t have a single photo from back then. It was such a waste. Besides, he was moving, blinking, and talking.
My heart ached. He was so cute. Look at those little shoes. I wanted to buy him something delicious. It wasn’t real. It was fake. Damn it, photographs and videos weren’t the real thing either. Was there anything I could feed him?
“This won’t do. Big brother should just talk to me in my original form.”
“What? Wait!”
Little Yoohyun disappeared, and Yoon Gyeongsu’s creaking corpse took his place. How could this be? My little brother.
“Let me introduce myself again, everyone. I’m a sort of successor to the owner of the lizard.”
The corpse spoke. Yoohyun frowned, while Yerim tilted her head.
“It keeps going bwau bwau, but I don’t know what it’s saying.”
So it didn’t sound like human speech to Yerim. It seemed the words only reached people who knew about the filial-piety addicts.
“You showed up quickly. I suppose there wasn’t much to hand over.”
“There wouldn’t be. The owner died. There happened to be a human whose contract remained intact, so I came to say hello for a moment. Could anyone tell me who killed the lizard and how?”
“Like we’d tell you.”
“As expected. I don’t know much about this side either... and it isn’t in my nature to rush in half-prepared. So why don’t we make a simple wager?”
It was good news that Diarma hadn’t passed on proper information. In particular, it was fortunate that this thing knew little about what happened before my regression or about me.
However, it seemed the previous contracts had passed on to that zombie. I’d have to get rid of Choi Seokwon, or at least have the curse lifted. Were there others under contract too?
“What kind of wager?”
“I haven’t decided yet. First, I need to look around here a little more.”
“I don’t think we have any reason to accept a wager.”
The zombie shrugged.
“Or would you rather keep being interrupted? I’m not usually one to play it safe, either. But the owner of the lizard died, I don’t know the circumstances, and I’m not fully prepared. Still, I can’t do nothing.”
Yoon Gyeongsu’s head let out a long sigh. It swayed so violently that it was amazing it didn’t fall off. It was truly an ugly sight.
“I don’t intend to risk my life working, so let’s keep things safe for both sides. Hmm? Just once, and that’s it. Rock-paper-scissors, solving a maze, a duel, anything. Then I’ll consider my task complete and withdraw, while you work hard to stop dungeons. Sounds good, right?”
The zombie raised a hand and pointed at my chest.
“Diarma’s successor.”
“What an unpleasant thing to call me.”
I glanced at Yoohyun, but he showed no particular reaction. Like Yerim, what Yoohyun heard seemed different from what I did.
“The owner of the lizard was a little lacking, but their ability was useful. They were decent at combining cursed poison dragon species. I don’t know how you learned that ability, though.”
Judging by how it spoke, this zombie seemed to outrank Diarma. Of course, it could have been bluffing, or perhaps the two had a bad relationship and it was putting Diarma down. Still, it was better to overestimate an enemy’s abilities than underestimate them.
‘It definitely has some sort of mental-type skill, like hallucinations.’
That lizard brat had used a skill like that when it dragged me in too. Did filial-piety addicts tend to have mental-type skills? I’d have to ask Myeongu for a mental-resistance item. Could I not wring any items out of those unfilial bastards?
“Being interrupted while we’re busy stopping dungeons is obviously unwelcome, but I’ll answer after hearing the terms of the wager.”
“Fine. Pass it on to the unfilial bastards too. You’re in contact with them, aren’t you?”
After hesitating for a moment, I nodded. With Diarma’s ability, denying it would sound like too obvious a lie.
“I knew it. But why you? There’s a tasty-looking one right beside you. Great potential, and he has a spirit inside him too. I like him. How about putting him up as the wager?”
“Stop talking nonsense, and get lost if you’re done.”
Why did these bastards keep targeting other people’s little brothers? The zombie laughed and collapsed with a thud. At the same time, Yoohyun and Yerim turned to me.
“I only heard bwau sounds. Mister, it seemed like you had a conversation with it. What did it say? That zombie infection is going to start now?”
“No. Nothing like that... probably.”
I couldn’t be certain. Dungeons had appeared, so it wasn’t as though zombies couldn’t exist too.
“Yoohyun, what did you hear?”
“It said it was their successor and asked how I got out of the contract. It asked whether I’d make a new contract, so I refused. What about you, Hyung?”
“I...”
I trailed off while looking at Yerim, whose eyes shone with curiosity. I did need to tell Yerim, but I remembered what the Mermaid Queen had said about influence increasing the more one knew. It would be better to ask the unfilial bastards exactly how we should share information.
“Let’s go back first and talk about it...”
“Right!”
The corpse sprang to its feet again. Its head, which had been swaying with the rough movement, finally fell off and rolled across the floor. Regardless, the voice continued.
“I forgot to say I was leaving you a gift. Since the owner of this body is worth quite a bit, you’ll receive a fine gift. Do your best.”
Right after that, Yoon Gyeongsu’s corpse melted away. Then a gate appeared above it. An oversaturated dungeon gate on the verge of bursting.
The moment I saw it, I hurriedly stopped Yoohyun from entering.
“Hey! Who knows what’s in there!”
“I have a Gate Stone, so I’ll come right back out if it seems dangerous.”
“Then it would be better for me to go! I have the item Myeongu gave me.”
“Hunter Park Yerim, please take care of my brother.”
My little brother ignored me and pulled free. Yerim then grabbed my shoulders from behind.
“Even if you use that damage-negation item, it’s over if someone just carries you away. Look, you can’t even move when someone grabs you.”
...That was true, but still. Yoohyun placed a hand against the gate, only to be blocked as if he had touched a wall.
“It looks like an oversaturated gate.”
“It seems completely deactivated. Is someone inside?”
That couldn’t be. In any case, we couldn’t enter.
“Let’s back away for now and prepare for a dungeon break.”
Both of them nodded at my words. I took out my phone to tell Song Taewon, who should be nearby, what had happened, and stepped back.
Rumble.
The gate shook. Then blue water poured out from inside it.
Yoohyun snatched me up and leaped into the air. Yerim immediately used a flight skill as well. Kwaaaang! With a thunderous roar, the endlessly pouring water swallowed the isolation building in an instant. A whirlpool formed where the gate had been, digging up the ground.
In the blink of an eye, a small lake had formed. The gate sat in its center like an eyeball. No, was it really a dungeon gate? The gate floating on the water soon sank beneath the surface.
Amid the confusion, we first moved out of the lake.
“What happened?”
Kang Soyoung, standing at the edge of the lake where the water had only barely failed to reach, asked us. It seemed the people near the barricades had been swept away by the water. Fortunately, it was ordinary water, and they were swimming out without much trouble.
“I’d like to explain, but I don’t know much myself.”
There didn’t seem to be any monsters, and I’d never seen a dungeon break where only water came pouring out, not even before my regression. Usually, only monsters poured out.
Song Taewon appeared and asked what had happened as well, but there was little I could tell him. It felt wrong to leave it alone, yet there was nothing we could do about the lake either. Just as everyone was at a loss over whether we should drain it, Kang Soyoung spoke.
“Doesn’t it look bigger than before? The lake, I mean.”
She was right. The lake was growing slowly, but without stopping. The pace was slow, but if we left it alone, there was no telling how far the water would spread.
“...It might have been better if ordinary monsters had come out.”
Song Taewon’s expression hardened. Everyone else wore similar expressions. Then Yerim raised her hand high.
“Now that the water came out, maybe we can enter the gate? I’ll check. You know I have those earrings with the effect that lets me move freely underwater.”
No, Yerim. Even so, you can’t go alone.
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