Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 476 - Skirmish (1)

It wasn’t far off the mark to say that the only person authorized to enter the document storage room was the president himself. The vice president and the chairman of the national assembly could enter too, but only with the president’s permission.

His head started to hurt.

‘This is crazy!’

There were so many mysteries to solve with the raid of P. The United States had enough enemies as is, but now they had another one: the Freemasons. He had no idea how to go about this.

[Umm... sir.]

[What is it, P?]

[I’m afraid I’ll have to stay at Hunter Han-Yeol’s mansion until I get better.]

[Why?]

The president was already having a headache and was a little annoyed that P was making it even worse. As the president, it was better for him to get treated at a United States government hospital with state-of-the-art medical facilities than in a private residence.

[That’s um... Hunter Han-Yeol said he’s going to bill a huge amount of money for the treatment of the RC members, including me...]

[W-What?]

The president was stunned by P’s statement. Nothing was free in this world.

Han-Yeol delayed sending P to the United States, claiming that there was still poison in his system, and pretended to negotiate the price of P’s treatment. In the meantime, he observed P’s abilities and tried his best to understand his spatial attributes.

[Hmph!]

Zinggg!

At the same time, Han-Yeol kept asking him to use his abilities under the pretext of healing P’s body.

Without question, P used his ability as Han-Yeol requested, wondering if there was still poison left in him. The reason P didn’t suspect Han-Yeol’s suspicious behavior, which seemed obvious even from a third-party point of view, was because of Han-Yeol’s special quality.

P felt like he was slowly recovering from the poison because being close to Han-Yeol gradually made him stronger. P’s trust in Han-Yeol was growing, so he continued to open portals without any particular reason just because he was asked to do so, and continued to inform Han-Yeol about his spatial attributes.

Under the excuse of examining P’s body, Han-Yeol cast the Demon Eyes and observed every part of his body in detail. Thanks to the poison being a valid excuse, no one, including P, understood Han-Yeol’s behavior other than Karvis.

Just like that, three days passed by.

Ding!

[Analytic Eyes has increased in level.]

[Analytic Eyes has reached the master level.]

[Copy Eyes (F) skill has been created.]

‘Huh?’

The level-up of the Analytic Eyes skills was no surprise. He had spent three whole days using mana stones to analyze P’s portals, casting the Demon Eyes without stopping for twenty-four hours, thinking about it even if he wasn’t looking at it, reviewing it, and trying to recall it somehow.

Thump thump.

Han-Yeol’s heart pounded loudly because he had gained a new skill. This wasn’t just any skill, but Copy Eyes, a skill with such an unusual name!

‘This is exactly the skill I need right now!’

It was a huge hit.

[Congratulations, Han-Yeol-nim.]

Karvis congratulated him.

It wasn’t super rare that Han-Yeol got lucky like this, but since this was a skill desperately wanted, he couldn't help but feel a little different than usual.

‘Haha. Thanks, Karvis.’

Han-Yeol couldn’t hide his excitement at the new skill.

[W-What’s wrong with you all of a sudden?]

However, P didn’t know anything about this, and he felt weird as he watched Han-Yeol laugh to himself.

Laughing wasn’t a bad thing, but when Han-Yeol smiled, it didn’t look very pretty and gave P the creeps.

“I-It’s nothing, Let’s stop here for today.”

[A-Ah okay, but how much longer do we have to do this?]

P honestly thought it wasn’t too bad hanging out here, but he still wanted to return to the United States. He was a patriot, and he had left behind a lot of things in the United States.

‘It’s a shame, but it is what it is.’

Even if Han-Yeol could get P’s spatial attribute, his ability to create portals was really useful. So, it would’ve been beneficial to take this opportunity to steal him from the United States, but he couldn’t become enemies with them, so he had to let it go.

“At this rate, you’ll be discharged in two days.”

[Okay.]

Two days wasn’t a long time to wait, even for P who couldn't wait to get back to the United States.

However, Han-Yeol’s mind raced.

‘I’ll have to copy P’s spatial attribute as much as I can within two days.’

He had already obtained the basic parts of the attribute, so what he was trying to do now was to copy more practical skills beyond the basics.

Originally, he was going to give up halfway and send P back to the United States, but since gaining this new skill, he changed his mind.

According to the skill description of Copy Eyes, this skill enhanced Analytic Eyes, allowing him to analyze the mechanics of his opponent’s skill in detail and make it his own. However, the downside was that the level of this skill was still low, so it was hard to copy advanced skills, and it required a lot of time.

‘I’ll have to grill P for forty-eight hours!’

Han-Yeol’s eyes burned with passion.

P couldn’t help but break out in cold sweat when he saw Han-Yeol staring at him.

[W-What’s wrong with you, Han-Yeol?]

In the end, P worked tirelessly for forty-eight hours straight under the guise of being discharged. It was like squeezing water out of a dry rag.

Two days later, when he opened the portal to the United States, his complexion was so bad that even his parents had a hard time recognizing him.

‘Ahaha.’

Top secret US agents who had come to Han-Yeol’s mansion to ensure P’s safety looked at P’s condition and then glared at Han-Yeol.

Although given Han-Yeol’s status, half a second of glaring was the best expression of dissatisfaction they could muster.

Rumors about the RC unit had already spread within the United States. Under those circumstances, no one in the United States government was stupid enough to complain directly to Han-Yeol, so the White House ultimately abandoned the RC members.

[T-This can’t be...]

[W-We were abandoned?]

The RC members couldn’t hide their disappointment with the United States government’s behavior.

However, the United States government couldn’t do anything because Han-Yeol demanded ten billion dollars for the treatment of P and the RC members.

In Korean won, that was a staggering twelve trillion won per person. Even for the United States, this was too much money to pay for the treatment of a single special force member. P, the treasure of the United States, was worth twelve trillion won, so they paid the sum in whole immediately, but eleven of the twenty RC members were already dead.

Frankly, the United States didn’t want to invest twelve trillion won times nine people. In other words, it was 108 trillion won total for just one of its many special force units in an allied nation, not even an enemy nation (nor could they afford it).

In the end, the United States gave up on paying for medical treatment for the RC members, leaving Han-Yeol to deal with them.

Han-Yeol smiled after getting the result he wanted from the United States.

‘Hehe, just like this, I’ve succeeded in getting my hands on Red Twenty.’

[You haven’t gotten your hands on the time attribute yet, but that’s only a matter of time. Congratulations in advance.]

‘Hehehe, I am happy, but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves.’

[Alright.]

Although Han-Yeol said that, the corners of his mouth were already soaring through the roof.

*

Even though the United States had given up on them, this did not imply that they had become Han-Yeol's slaves or that the United States had completely abandoned them.

Through numerous procedures, they were simply transferred from the United States to Korea and were put under Han-Yeol’s organization, becoming a part of the Gurkha attack force.

[Welcome to hell.]

The nine surviving RC members couldn’t help but tremble at the sight of the Gurkha team leader’s murderous aura. Their assistant Gurkha team leader was an S-Rank Hunter Pagala, aka the mad dog of the Gurkha force.

Pagala, which meant ‘mad’ in Nepali, was his nickname, not his real name, but he liked his nickname better than his real name, and he wanted people to call him Pagala.

Even the RC members, America’s elite Hunter unit, lacked charisma compared to the Gurkhas, who had become Hunters by honing their skills in real-world combat against monsters since their days as civilians.

[B-But where did Red Twenty go?]

[H-How would I know!?]

For a moment, the members wondered about their youngest member who had been called away, but such thoughts were drowned out by the intense nagging that ensued.

Pagala also cleverly had the RC members split up instead of keeping them together so that they didn’t realize that Red Twenty was the only one missing. Of course, this was Pagala’s plot to keep Han-Yeol’s greed for Red Twenty from being revealed.

‘I don’t know what Han-Yeol-nim sees in that white kid, but whatever he’s about to do, I can’t let the US ruin something that is on the verge of success.’

His help wasn’t necessary, but his loyalty was strong enough to make him do something he wasn’t asked to do. As a result, the RC members were pushed harder than originally planned.

Unlike the rest of them, Red Twenty, Han-Yeol’s target, was called in front of him as soon as the training began.

[Y-You called?]

He was a timid man, and he was not suited to be called an American special forces member.

Han-Yeol naturally smiled when he saw Red Twenty’s behavior. If he was looking for a strong ally, his timid nature would’ve been quite annoying, but right now, all Han-Yeol needed from Red Twenty was to copy his abilities. So, his timidity was actually helpful.

Han-Yeol leaned to the right and sat down, resting his arms on the armrests of the couch and resting his cheeks on his fist in an arrogant posture. He was also looking at Red Twenty with an equally arrogant expression.

‘Oh no...’

Facing Han-Yeol’s stare, Red Twenty really wanted to go home, even though he knew that it was impossible for the time being.

“You.”

[Hic!]

Red Twenty reacted sensitively to Han-Yeol’s single word, and all the hairs on his body stood on end.