Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 494: Descent of the White Dragon (2)

[This is preposterous, Sir Ferdinand. We all know Mr. Han-Yeol came to help us. He is the most powerful Hunter in the world and even the United States dares not to get on his bad side! Why are we prohibiting him from joining this war?]

[...]

[Sir Ferdinand!]

[Sir!]

The young officers were disgruntled by the actions of the executives and voiced their complaints to Ferdinand. However, one surprising thing about this Young Faction that rallied around Ferdinand was that a Young Faction among the Chinese Hunters existed too, and they too rallied around him.

[I have no idea what they are trying to achieve…]

[Me too. It doesn’t make sense.]

The leader of the Chinese Young Faction was Zhang Shuci. He was a talented Hunter, but he failed to progress his career as he lacked three vital things. He did not have a good family background or strong connections, but most importantly, he was not Han Chinese.

Times might have changed, but the racial disparity among the elites still somewhat existed. Proof of this was the fact that most of the Chinese Hunters who rallied around Ferdinand were all from ethnic minorities. They knew their chances of progressing in their careers were close to none, as the higher-ranking officials would be against promoting them due to their background.

There had been no precedent of a Hunter from an ethnic minority getting promoted. Zhang Shuci awakened as a Master-Rank Hunter, so there was a sliver of hope for him. Unfortunately, that hope was just hope, as there was no way he would be picked over the numerous other Master-Rank Hunters from the ethnic majority.

A Master-Rank Hunter was precious despite the fact that there were a lot of them in China, but getting a seat in the party was not something that could be achieved with skills alone.

The highest rank Zhang Shuci could ever hope to attain was most probably governing some rural province.

[Don’t we have to do something? Things could end up badly at this rate, sir!]

Zhang Shuci’s right hand man, Wu Xiaoqiao[1], was a large man contrary to his name. He had lost one eye to the monsters, but that only made him look more intimidating to others.

Wu Xiaoqiao was also of an ethnic minority background, which was also the reason why he joined the Young Faction.

[He is right. Our men are going to die meaningless deaths on the battlefield at this rate!]

Zhang Shuci’s left hand man, Ri Jang-Pil, was a defector from North Korea. His talents caught the eyes of Zhang Shuci, and he climbed up the ranks to become his left hand man.

However, he was in a worse situation as he was not even an ethnic minority. His background as a refugee made it absolutely impossible for him to gain any official rank, which meant he did not receive a salary from the government.

Still, he loyally served under Zhang Shuci despite everything.

The other Chinese Hunters voiced their complaints right after Ri Jang-Pil finished speaking.

[They are right! The feudal lords’ armies might not be as strong as the demon king’s army, but Lee Han-Yeol annihilated six of them in just a week! He annihilated the Six Feudal Lords!]

[The demon king’s army will be wiped off of the face of the Earth if Lee Han-Yeol joins the war! No, he just might annihilate Qin Shihuang too!]

[Then our boys no longer have to die…]

Zhang Shuci could not even raise his head and look at his subordinates.

[...]

The ethnic minority Hunters were the ones sent to the frontlines, which meant that they suffered the biggest casualties in this war.

[Ferdinand.]

[Yes, Sir Zhang?]

The leader of the HUN Young Faction, Ferdinand, and the leader of the Chinese Young Faction, Zhang Shuci. Both of them oddly felt they were alike in many ways and they found each other to be quite favorable.

[What should we do regarding this situation?]

[The best would be for command to officially request Lee Han-Yeol’s help, but…]

[Not a chance. Those arrogant old men will never ask for his help!]

Kyaaaak! Ptooey!

Wu Xiaoqiao spat on the ground after the arrogant old men making the decisions were mentioned.

[...]

[...]

Zhang Shuqi and Ferdinand were very troubled and concerned about their current predicament.

***

While the Chinese government and the HUN were not making any progress, Han-Yeol was fully enjoying the seven-star luxury hotel he had booked.

“Ah~ It feels like ages since I’ve been this pampered!” Han-Yeol said with absolute bliss in his voice.

He was in the suite penthouse’s queen-sized bed with a world-class masseuse giving him a massage.

The masseuse was a beautiful woman wearing a traditional Chinese qipao, and her milky-white legs could be seen through the slit in her dress.

Her beautiful face coupled with her slender yet mesmerizing figure would arguably rank her as one of the most beautiful women in the country, but the most impressive thing about her was the fact that she was a Hunter.

Unfortunately, only the fact that she awakened was impressive, as she was a non-combatant F-rank Hunter. The ability she awakened with was to infuse mana into her hands and enhance the physical condition of whoever she touched, helping ease their fatigue and improve their recuperation speed.

In other words, she had awakened with massaging skills.

“Ahh~ This is the life~”

Han-Yeol’s body was no longer that of a normal person after awakening as a Hunter. The mana circulating throughout his body allowed him to work tirelessly without needing any massages to relieve his muscles.

However, it was a different story if a masseuse who awakened with massaging skills was the one massaging him.

“Hey, part-timer,” Han-Yeol called out.

“Y-Yes, sir!”

Han-Yeol had hired some part-timers to translate Chinese for him during his stay in China. The HY Group volunteered to send their translators to assist him, but he refused their offer.

Instead, he asked them to post an ad for any Korean students studying in China who would want to work part-time as his translator. Han-Yeol only offered ten percent more than the market rate even though he was a Transcendent Master-Rank Hunter.

Surprisingly, they received a ton of applications for the position. The reason they received so many applications despite the pay only being slightly higher than usual was that war raging across the country completely crashed the economy, and lots of businesses could not afford to pay their employees due to the dire situation.

However, there was no cause for concern with someone like Han-Yeol, as he would definitely not stiff a mere part-timer of their wages.

The ad posting was for three part-time translators working eight hours each in three shifts, but they received more than six hundred applications just for the position.

The first applicant to get hired was a fat university student named Han Jae-Kwang. His face had pimples all over it and he wore tacky spectacles too. He was the classic example of a fat, tacky four-eyed student.

Han Jae-Kwang proved his fluency in Chinese, and he was immediately hired for the job, as that was the only criteria that Han-Yeol had put. He only needed someone who could clearly translate for him and not someone for their looks or potential.

“Ask her what her name is.”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

[What is your name?]

The masseuse, Linlin, grimaced at the question.

Han Jae-Kwang might be fluent in Chinese, but he was still just a university student working part-time at the end of the day. He did not have any special training when it came to translating, so he ended up just casually asking her for her name.

[Why are you asking? It’s none of your business.]

[A-Ah, H-Han-Yeol-nim is the one asking…]

Han Jae-Kwang replied awkwardly but that was enough to make Linlin calm down.

[Oh! You should’ve said so earlier!]

[I-I’m sorry!]

[Anyway, my name is Linlin. Make sure you tell him properly!]

[Y-Yes!]

“She says her name is Linlin, Han-Yeol-nim.”

“Linlin?”

“Y-Y-Yes, sir!” Han Jae-Kwang stuttered in response.

This was the first time Han Jae-Kwang was around such people. One was a breathtakingly beautiful woman he would probably never get a chance to talk to in his entire life, while the other was the most powerful Hunter in the world. He had to muster all of his courage and focus just to stand on his two feet.

On the other hand, Han-Yeol was thinking of completely useless and stupid things. ‘Geez… I really can’t get used to their names. I know it sounds normal to them but… Anyway, her ability is awesome–’

Badump! Badump! Badump!

Something started pulsating and throbbing.

‘Nice thoughts… Pure thoughts… Innocent thoughts…’

The throbbing was none other than Han-Yeol’s greed for useful skills and nothing else.

‘It feels like she’s using the chakra that you see in martial arts movies. The chi found in martial arts comics is very different from mana, so it’s difficult to recreate it in real life unless one awakens with an ability like hers. Hmm, the more I think about it, the more I want to keep her by my side as my personal masseuse…’

He could have this wonderful massage any time he wanted if he managed to poach her.

Her ability was indeed unique, making her all the more valuable. Sure, it would be a piece of cake for him to create a skill like hers, but the problem would be the actual massaging part.

How was he supposed to massage himself? He would only end up massaging other people even if he copied her skill. He could massage himself somehow, but massaging himself was not the same as receiving a massage from a masseuse.

‘Hmm… If I nurture her, then she might no longer be an F-Rank Hunter…’

Linlin might just be a masseuse right now, but Han-Yeol saw potential in her. Her skill could be altered to do the exact opposite of what she was currently doing and interrupt the flow of her target’s mana.

If she could master such a skill, then she was without a doubt going to become one of the deadliest melee combatants this world had ever seen.

‘Let’s see… How can I recruit her?’ he wondered.

[Are you perhaps thinking of abducting her?]

‘Why not? That’s the easiest way, no?’

[Haa… Han-Yeol-nim…]

‘I mean, there should be no problem, right?’

Karvis let out a sigh after hearing Han-Yeol’s brazenness. For some reason, his face was becoming thicker by the day.

***

Han-Yeol hired Linlin as his masseuse. He decided to take it slow even though he coveted her, as she was not affiliated with anyone, unlike the Americans he had to deal with last time. He was going to take his sweet time and build a connection with her through their massage sessions before finally recruiting her.

‘I have some other things to check, so there’s no rush.’

Han-Yeol was not in a rush to do anything. He did not go to China to liberate it or subjugate the monsters. He was just there to keep an eye on the hyenas so they could not cross over to the Bastro Dimension while the Light Faction was trying to reclaim the dimension back from them.

Also, he noticed that the hyenas started monitoring him closely after he had gone around South East Asia massacring the monsters.

‘Hoho! It’s all going according to my plan!’ he thought, smiling.

“You look like someone who’s mentally handicapped whenever you smile all alone like that, master.”

“Ugh, did you really have to disturb me when I was imagining something nice?”

“Hmm… I wonder what kind of imagination you were having?” Tia muttered before wrapping her arms around him.

“H-Hiiik!” Han-Yeol shrieked.

Tia’s hug attacks had become deadlier after she became the Arachnid Queen. Her upper body used to be that of a human while her lower body was that of a spider, but her entire body was now that of a human after her transformation.

She looked exactly like a human now–well, she did have spider legs protruding from her back, but she was normal if those spider legs on her back were excluded.

Thus, her skinship attacks became far more effective against Han-Yeol. He found it strange why he was so affected by her hugs when he had already spent numerous steamy nights with Scarlett, but that was something he would never find the answer to.

Why? Because Tia’s attacks would always be super effective against him.

Nevertheless, Han-Yeol’s days were hectic yet peaceful.

1. Xiao Qiao means small bridge ?