Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 461 - Spatial Property Force (2)

Chapter 461 - Spatial Property Force (2)

Stewart was not used to this type of procedure since, in the demon world, they didn’t go through such trouble even if they were the demon king or a demon lord.

“Humans are all about empty formalities and ostentation. How useless.”

However, after studying the human world ever since he served Han-Yeol, Stewart wasn’t completely unfamiliar with its patterns. He didn’t understand right away, but after thinking about what he had been studying, he could realize why people acted the way they did.

“Haha, Stewart, please understand. Humans need to make a living too.”

“I don’t understand how that has anything to do with this?”

“It is what it is.”

Honestly, Han-Yeol found this part very annoying too, but when Master Hee-Yun spoke into the phone in a dying voice and asked for a favor instead of threatening him, Han-Yeol couldn't just sit still and wait in Hawaii.

They had traveled all the way to the Consulate General in Honolulu to contact Korea because all of their electronic devices had died in the underground ruins. All the electronics functioned perfectly fine on the island’s surface—they just didn’t have any signal. But once they entered the underground ruins, they started to fail one by one. Eventually, even the spare electronics that Han-Yeol had stored in the subspace storage were blown up, and they had nothing left.

So, they had to go to the consulate general in Honolulu and contact Korea directly, but thanks to this, the Korean government was able to get the news out to the media faster and avoid being called out for being late in handling the situation. If Han-Yeol had shown up at the mansion alone with all his electronics intact, the government and the association would’ve been criticized for being incompetent.

*

The next day, at dawn, the Grand Fleet swarmed the waters around Hawaii like they said they would. The ships all had a Korean flag attached to them, indicating that they were the South Korean navy. This was a sight that would never be seen again in American history.

The United States rarely allowed foreign warships into its territory, except for the surprise invasion of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii by the Japanese during World War II, but due to the special nature of this situation, the Korean navy ships were allowed to enter Hawaii. The Korean navy was so imposing, and its soldiers had such vigor that the Hawaiian fishermen, unaware of the situation, might have thought that there was a war when they saw the ROK navy.

“Hunter Lee Han-Yeol-nim, it’s an honor to see you again. I’m Major General Lee Chung-Hee.”

Major General Lee Chung-Hee saluted Han-Yeol.

“Oh, congratulations on your promotion, Major General Lee.”

It had been a long time since they had seen each other. Back when Han-Yeol took over Japan, or rather, the Atarinia Archipelago, Lee Chung-Hee had been a brigadier general at the time and helped Han-Yeol make a pretty penny. Not much time had passed since then, but he had already been promoted to a major general.

“I will take good care of you.”

“I’ll leave it to you then.”

“Yes, don’t worry.”

Just like that, Han-Yeol returned to Korea aboard the DDG-991 New Sejong, a massive Navy Aegis ship they had sent from Korea.

In between that time, he had a quick meal with the Hawaiian governor, who felt that their time together was too short. Han-Yeol promised him that he would take a long vacation the next time they met.

‘Ugh, what a waste. I didn’t realize this from the pictures, but Hawaii is such a laid-back and beautiful vacation spot.’

As a city person who didn’t like the countryside, he was always skeptical about vacations, but seeing Hawaii with his own eyes made him change his mind. Hawaii was one of those places that made him think, ‘This is what the beauty of mother nature is like!’

It was definitely a place he would like to experience properly one day.

*

Bam, bam! Bammmm!

The military band played a cheerful tune, and a big event was underway to welcome Han-Yeol home.

The Korean government organized this event, which attracted a large crowd of people, including the general public. Thus, it was hard to say that this was just a celebration of Han-Yeol’s safe return.

“...”

However, Han-Yeol didn’t look so happy.

Seeing Han-Yeol’s expression, Master Hee-Yun became extremely apologetic and sighed heavily.

“Haha, I apologize, I didn’t mean to do this, but the new Hunter’s Association staff we hired this time are young and very enthusiastic people...”

In fact, she was one of the people who heavily opposed this event, as she was one of the few people who knew about Han-Yeol’s true personality.

However, the new staff argued that there was a need to lift the mood of the country, which had recently been in a slump. They insisted that it was necessary to hold an event like this to give the people something special, so she had no choice but to allow it. But her fears came true when she saw Han-Yeol's darkened expression.

‘If Han-Yeol-nim gets angry, everything would've been for nothing.’

There was a condition that had to be met in order to maintain the association and the newly reorganized government, and that was Han-Yeol’s support. This was unavoidable since Han-Yeol had destroyed and rebuilt the previous government and association.

Therefore, it wasn’t a good idea to offend him in such a situation.

Han-Yeol wasn’t the type of person to immediately dismiss or fire them, but the problem was that the people in Korea who absolutely supported Han-Yeol were growing rapidly.

They were an NGO civic organization called TSG, which was short for the Transcendental Support Group. The TSG was less than three months old, but the group already had more than one million members, forming an overwhelming force of public opinion, and it was possible for this organization to sway the public before Han-Yeol could.

Chuck!

Han-Yeol raised his hand in the air.

“...”

The place that had been as noisy as a marketplace suddenly became quiet as all eyes were on Han-Yeol, the star of the show.

Gulp.

Seeing Han-Yeol’s actions, Master Hee-Yun felt her body freeze up.

“I’m back!”

“Yayyyyy!”

But to her surprise, he did the complete opposite of what she expected.

Unlike his expression the first time he saw the event, Han Yeol looked relaxed and had a gentle smile on his face. He waved his hand slowly, giving the people who had come out to celebrate his safe return the true image of an imposing Transcendent Master-Rank Hunter.

In a way, it could be argued that he was acting arrogantly in public, but Han-Yeol had the right to do so. After all, who else could display such arrogance in public and still be cheered on?

Koreans, in particular, were obsessed with the title of being number one in the world, and Han-Yeol was undeniably the best Hunter in the world. It was only natural that the public would support him. Of course, there were people who opposed him, and some twisted minds would criticize Han-Yeol and post malicious comments on the internet. However, such people were in the minority, and their impact on public opinion was extremely minimal.

On the contrary, a few members of two IB sites with the same initials who had no idea what they were talking about regularly posted bad things about Han-Yeol on various sites (Y portal, T portal, G portal, and other foreign servers where it was difficult to sue for defamation) and got into a fight with a few TSG members.

Since they couldn’t get sued anyway, they got into an internet fight with all kinds of insults and curses.

However, this time, they picked the wrong opponent.

The opponents of that fight were former gang members who had left their organization and started a new life because they admired Han-Yeol so much. Even though they retired, their skills and fiery personalities never went away. They ended up visiting a hacker they knew from their previous careers to find the addresses of the internet trolls, and eventually made them pay for their crimes.

The members of the TSG, or the former gangsters, were eventually criminally prosecuted. However, they were sentenced to a light penalty of five million won, even though there were many reasons for harsher punishments like assault, revenge, and premeditation.

The TSG, which had full knowledge of the situation, also paid the fine in full. Of course, there was still a civil lawsuit for the medical expenses of the twelve victims, but the TSG legal team took care of that as well, so all in all, they had nothing to worry about.

However, that wasn’t all of it.

The internet trolls were also at fault and eventually faced legal action for defamation, despite the challenges of suing when the defamation occurred on a foreign server. There were no rules prohibiting them from taking legal action. They were under the impression that ordinary people didn’t know how to sue, when in reality, most people gave up suing because it was too difficult and complicated.

Police officers were more likely to try to resolve a case, especially if it was a high-profile or publicized case, as it would help them get promoted. In the end, twelve members of the two IB sites with the same initials were fined 1.5 million won without receiving a settlement.

They were already living at home with their parents, unable to find a job, and now they were fined and had a criminal record. Their future didn’t look so bright in terms of getting a job.

In any case, when Master Hee-Yun saw Han-Yeol’s displeased expression, she thought everything was doomed, but when Han-Yeol turned out to be so cooperative, she felt like he was a ray of sunshine.

“H-Han-Yeol-nim...”

Her eyes showed that she was deeply moved.

The problem was that Han-Yeol didn’t have a very nice personality. He leaned closer to Master Hee-Yun, and Han-Yeol whispered something only she could hear.

“You’ll have to compensate me for my acting later, Master Hee-Yun. Haha.”

“Huh?” she gasped, startled by Han-Yeol’s whisper.

‘I’m... dead meat!’

There was no way Han-Yeol would’ve been so willing to pretend to like something he didn’t like for her. This was all an act because there was something he wanted.

It wasn’t like Han-Yeol was a charity worker... or maybe he was, but regardless, he wasn’t a kind enough person to do favors without reason.

This was all something that he had to be compensated for.