Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 488: Modern version of the Three Kingdoms (2)

Bam!

[Just why! If Hunter Han-Yeol joined the battlefront, then the sacrifices of our subordinates would be dramatically reduced!]

Not everyone in China and the HUN agreed with this decision.

In particular, Ferdinand, the commander of the peacekeeping force this time, was incredibly angry at the officer's decision, which was unlike him.

[It seems that the Chinese government and the officers are keeping Hunter Han-Yeol in check…]

Ferdinand’s bodyguard knight didn’t want to say it, but he couldn’t look the other way because it was so obvious.

[Damn it. Even as we speak, countless Hunters, soldiers, and innocent civilians are dying on the front lines, and the officers in high-ranking positions are still playing politics?]

[I’m so sorry…]

The bodyguard knight couldn’t look up because of the pathetic sight, even though none of this was his fault.

[From what was just reported, he’s taking a relaxed walk in a park.]

[Ha… damn it…]

Actually, Han-Yeol wasn’t relaxed at all, but the knights of St. John couldn’t help but rely on inaccurate information due to their limited network.

[Ha… I’ll have to make a formal complaint to the officers about that later, but what’s the situation at the frontlines right now?]

Ferdinand’s question made the bodyguard's face turn even darker.

[It’s still not great. They’re outnumbering us, but… our losses are continuing to pile up, so the Hunters’ morale is a mess.]

They were only holding out because there were a lot of Chinese Hunters. If this had happened in Russia instead of China, they wouldn’t have even lasted a month. This didn’t mean that Russia was inferior to China in terms of the quality of Hunters—it just meant that even Russia couldn't match China in terms of population. Only China could handle this never-ending war, although they were actually rotting from the inside out due to this war.

Han-Yeol had to make a big fuss about the battle to draw the hyenas’ attention, but he couldn’t do anything if they continued opposing.

‘Well, of course I should be able to have it my way if I wanted to…’

No matter what anyone said, he was the strongest Hunter in the world. Even if China and the HUN forbade him from hunting, that didn’t mean he had to obey their orders.

‘That would be so boring. I want them to kneel in front of me and beg me to help them… But I can’t waste time when I have work to do…’

This was a rather difficult situation in many ways.

[Well then, what about this?]

‘Huh, what?’

At times like this, he could count on Karvis.

[From what I hear, it’s not just southern China that the armies are sweeping through.]

Snap!

“Ah ha!”

After listening to Karvis, Han-Yeol snapped his fingers and his expression brightened. Although it was a simple statement without much detail, Han-Yeol was a man with good sense. He was intelligent enough to figure it out without Karvis explaining it to him step by step.

[Oh my!]

[What the hell…]

[What’s wrong with Hunter Han-Yeol all of a sudden?]

[I-I’m not sure…]

However, a few Chinese female employees walking by were startled by the loud snap of Han-Yeol’s fingers and suffered only minor(?) damage, shortening their life expectancy by about ten years.

‘Hehehe.’

But whether they did or not, Han-Yeol really liked Karvis’ idea. It seemed like a good way to get China and the HUN, who were keeping him in check, under his feet secretly without having to intervene directly.

As a Transcendent Master-Rank Hunter, Han-Yeol didn’t need to go to such troublesome lengths. He could simply use his own strength to punish them. However, such easy punishment would only make the recipient feel like it was unfair.

‘No, no, that won’t be any fun. I’ll have to crush their pride little by little, so they don’t think I’m being unfair and won’t dare to offend me again.’

Han-Yeol already had information that the HUN had recently collaborated with the hyenas to secretly research a new way to bring him down.

This wasn’t something his intelligence team told him. It came from Tayarana in Egypt.

‘Tsk, what a bunch of idiots. You’re secretly preparing a secret weapon to defeat me, and yet you chose an Egyptian as your lead researcher for something so important?’

Of course, they didn’t put an Egyptian researcher in charge without any preparation or thought. They doubled or tripled the defense and conducted round-the-clock surveillance to ensure no information leaked out. However, they hadn’t realized how far Mariam’s telepathic abilities had come.

As a person with master-rank telepathic abilities, she sat in Egypt and secretly communicated with the lead Egyptian researcher in Switzerland, reporting everything in detail.

Their physical security was impeccable, but the HUN hadn’t anticipated this aspect of Mariam’s abilities. However, they weren’t completely defenseless. They had someone attached to Mariam around the clock to keep an eye on her to make sure she didn’t go to Switzerland, but it proved useless. In this way, Han-Yeol was able to see through the HUN’s inner plans.

[Tsk, tsk, no matter how much they want to defeat Han-Yeol-nim, they share core skills with an unknown race and conduct joint research. According to the report sent by the Egyptian researcher, the hyena sorcerers didn’t pass on any of their core skills.]

‘Tsk, I know. Humans always act like they’re so smart, but sometimes they’re the dumbest race in the world.’

[Han-Yeol-nim is human too. Oh, maybe that’s why…]

‘That’s why what?’

[I didn’t say anything.]

‘Even if you didn’t, I still understood!’

[Oh wow, you’re catching on faster now.]

‘Hey!’

Han-Yeol and Karvis were a duo that always ended up off-topic after a good conversation.

*

Thump, thump, thump!

[Damn it, they’re coming again!]

Whoosh!

The Hunter troops guarding Tuyen Quang, Vietnam’s key defense line, were fed up with the sight of monsters charging at them, unaffected by the traps they’d set up.

Kwang!

“Kheee!”

“Khoooo!”

Even if they were monsters, they couldn’t be completely fine after being caught in a mana bomb trap with such lethal and destructive power.

“Khaaa!”

Boom!

A giant elephant-like monster named Marmokal did not survive the explosion and fell to the ground. It didn’t die immediately, but it was wounded in such a way that it would never be able to fight again.

Despite this success, the commander of the Vietnamese Hunters watching the traps was still not pleased.

[Ugh, I can’t believe we have to use all those expensive mana bombs just to take out those bastards!]

Even though one or two more Marmokals were taken down, the defense line commander’s brow remained crumpled and refused to straighten. After all, the role of the Marmokals was more askin to tanks, taking on the brunt of the mana bombs and other traps with their bodies. They didn’t have much combat power to begin with since they just had a lot of stamina.

After falling for the Vietnamese traps a few times, the monsters cleverly used the Marmokals, who weren’t really fighters, to take the impact of the traps in the front. The effects were great, and the monsters broke through the defense line without using too many combat monsters.

Their first and second lines of defense had already been broken through.

[Commander, the mana bomb lines have been eighty percent breached.]

[Ugh!]

‘Damn it, there’s not that many mana bombs left!’

In the first place, stockpiling enough of these powerful mana bombs to last indefinitely was simply not feasible for Vietnam's national treasury. In addition to that, the monsters were more clever than expected, and the Vietnamese defense line had been breached all over the place. They had already lost thirty percent of their northern territory to the monsters.

The commander gritted his teeth and glared at the black monsters gathering together with a murderous look.

[Everyone, prepare for battle.]

[Yes, sir!]

Wiiiing, wiiiing.

The promised siren sounded, and the Hunters nervously held their weapons or channeled their mana to prepare for the upcoming battle.

Swoosh! Kwang!

The defense line, where most of the Hunter forces from northern and central Vietnam had gathered, was led by beings other than the commander.

[These filthy monsters. We will get you for real this time!]

[...]

He was a Master-Rank Hunter from Vietnam. Vietnam used the same ranking classification as China, as it was originally a culture that used Chinese characters. However, after a territorial dispute with China, Vietnam became friendly with the US, with whom it had fought wars in the past, and started to use the American Hunter classification like other countries.

They didn’t send them to the side where the subordinates were, so the other Hunters couldn’t really feel it. The murderous aura emanating from the eight Master-Rank Hunters was so overwhelming that it was hard to describe it as anything less than terrifying.

‘We must avenge Lei and Lai with our own hands!’

Originally, Vietnam had a total of ten Master-Rank Hunters. However, in the process of stopping the monsters, they suffered the loss of one Master-Rank Hunter from the first and second lines of defense. Unlike other countries, Vietnam’s Hunters had close friendships amongst themselves, so the vengeance felt by their fellow Master-Rank Hunters against the monsters was unimaginable.

Gooooo!

The mana emitted by the eight Master-Rank Hunters was bloodthirsty for the monsters, while the other enraged Master-Rank Hunters released murderous auras.

[Haa, God of Heaven and Earth, please watch over me and help me return home in one piece so I can see my family again…]

In Vietnam, where more than 73.2 percent of the population didn’t have a religion or followed an indigenous religion, the Hunters on the defense line prayed to the indigenous faith of their hometowns for safety, even if they themselves didn’t believe in it.

[L-Let’s go!]

[Ahhhhh!]

In addition, the Vietnamese Hunters didn’t stay within the defense line. Instead, they took advantage of the natural environment and fought their battles in the jungle as much as possible.

Kwang!

[Khaaa!]