Leveling Up Alone

‘Excellent! So that guy is an outcast from their squad. Poaching people like him is far easier than poaching someone brimming with loyalty,’ Han-Yeol thought with a smile.

[It is truly a relief you do not have to resort to strange things, Han-Yeol-nim.]

‘Come on, everyone wants to get abducted at least once, right?’

[Ugh...]

They continued going down the underground bunker until they lost track of time, but there were no signs of the Venezuelan Hunters anywhere.

‘Hmm... Why hasn’t anyone shown up yet?’

P and Red One found it odd that nobody was in the underground bunker. The information they were provided stated that the bunker had no other exits, and the only way in or out was through the door at the start of the corridor they were currently walking in.

The door was locked from the inside, meaning there was definitely at least one person in the bunker, and the other agents found traces of battle in the corridor. That further supported the theory that there were people in the bunker. However, they had found no one in the bunker so far, and even the Master-Rank Hunter who sought asylum from the United States, Adal, was nowhere to be found.

‘Is this some sort of closed-room mystery murder? How can there be nobody inside when there are no signs of forced entry?’

P and the RC Squad were even more perplexed by the whole situation.

On the other hand, Han-Yeol stood at the back without a care in the world. The success or failure of this mission did not affect him in any way, so he spent his time looking around fascinated by the underground bunker he was seeing for the first time in his life.

‘Wow~ The only bad thing about this place is that it’s dark and eerie, but it’d probably be quite cozy if it’s brightened up. Oh? Should I build one back in South Korea too?’

[What do you think of building one in Atarinia too? That place is a mess, so building anything above ground is useless because the monsters will destroy it. Well, there are some places safe from the monsters, but building underground bunkers would prove to be the safest there.]

‘Oh? That’s a great idea.’

Han-Yeol continued chatting with Karvis.

Kaboom!

“Argh!”

“Aaaah!”

“W-What was that?”

[This mana is!]

The sound of explosion rocked the corridor and the faint stench of blood followed right after. Han-Yeol was now used to the stench of blood, but that did not mean he liked smelling it. He would be a weirdo if he enjoyed the scent of blood.

‘Damn it!’ Han-Yeol darted down the corridor. He could not care less if the RC Squad got annihilated, but it was a different story with P and that stupid-looking American agent, James.

The best-case scenario would be if all of them survived if he took into consideration his current good relationship with the United States, but it was not like his relationship with them would take a massive hit just because they died on this mission.

Also, Han-Yeol was not the type who would jump headfirst into the unknown and risk himself just to save others. The only reason he was rushing right now was simply because he had yet to obtain their special abilities.

‘Give me your abilities before you die!’

He was desperate. This was not about money or fame, as he no longer cared about those kinds of things. Well, he was still materialistic to a certain extent, but wealth was no longer a driving factor for him.

He was desperately trying to save P because his only chance to use the two swords sealed in his dimensional storage would be lost if P died. This meant that Han-Yeol would no longer be able to kill two birds with one stone from obtaining P’s ability.

Wealth and fame followed naturally after he became a Transcendent Master-Rank Hunter, and that caused his desire to naturally shift toward skills and items he was yet to possess. It was now or never for Han-Yeol to obtain the abilities of P and the stupid-looking American, and he was now one to let go of such a rare opportunity.

Chwak!

Han-Yeol arrived at the scene of the explosion in just 0.001 seconds after the explosion rocked the corridor. He was currently wearing a mask that covered his face, as the United States government repeatedly requested him to do so. They feared severe international repercussions if the enemy recognized Han-Yeol and caused an issue because of it.

‘Hmm? What’s that?’ Han-Yeol raised a brow after seeing an unfamiliar black man at the scene of the explosion.

Whoosh! Chwak! Chwak!

[Kikiki! Who are you?]

The black man tilted his head in confusion after looking at Han-Yeol, who had his face covered by the mask. He asked him something in Spanish, but there was no way Han-Yeol would understand, as his ability had yet to support the Spanish language.

“...”

Han-Yeol was concerned, but his concern was something entirely different, ‘Tsk... I hope I don’t add another language to my ability by accident...’

He was no longer interested in the language used on Earth, so his concern was indeed valid.

[Ah, it seems you don’t understand Spanish. I guess I should speak in English since you’re probably with those Americans.]

The black man changed to English this time, and Han-Yeol could finally understand him.

Ugh...

‘Oh right!’ Han-Yeol exclaimed inwardly after suddenly remembering what was important.

“Hey, are you alright?”

[Y-Yeah... A bit...]

Fortunately, P and James were still alive, but ten out of the other nineteen RC Squad members were dead. Red One and Red Two were fortunate enough to survive as well.

However, the state of the RC Squad was not that good, as most of them had at least one body part severed.

The black man possessed a peculiar ability to cut his own flesh and turn it into razor-sharp blades, and it was highly likely the RC Squad suffered their current wounds from this strange ability.

‘That guy’s probably at least a Master-Rank Hunter if he was able to do this in such a short time. Tsk... Every Tom, Dick, and Harry is a Master-Rank Hunter these days...’

Han-Yeol was right. More people had awakened as Master-Rank Hunters after Earth transitioned into the second dimension.

‘Restore!’ Han-Yeol healed P after noticing he did not look good.

Wooong!

[S-Stop!]

‘W-What?’

Shockingly, P’s wounds started to open up even more rather than heal after Han-Yeol used Restore, forcing him to cut off his mana flow.

[Hahaha! The test was a success! Perfect!]

“What?”

[Ah, no need to be so surprised. This is a poison I spent a lot of effort to develop. It will spread the moment it grazes its target, spreading all over its body. It will prevent those poisoned from getting healed by any skills. Instead, the healing skills will cause more damage to them! Hahaha!]

The man burst into laughter as if he found this entire situation amusing.

Shwiish! Shwiiish!

A part of his body would fall off and turn into blades every time he laughed.

Thud!

P grabbed the hem of Han-Yeol’s clothes while grasping his chest in agony.

“Hey! Are you alright?!”

[I-I can still endure it. T-There’s something I have to tell you before that...]

“Tell me what?!”

[That is...]

Cough!

P coughed up dark blood.

‘Tsk... This isn’t looking good,’ Han-Yeol clicked his tongue inwardly. The fact that the poison managed to neutralize his Restore was alarming, as he thought only instant death was the thing that could stop his Restore.

[T-That guy is... Adal... The target of our rescue mission!]

“What?” Han-Yeol muttered. Then, he grimaced and asked to confirm, “Are you telling me Adal betrayed us?”

[N-No...! He’s different... He doesn’t have that strange ability and there’s something off about him. I can feel it... Something went wrong here!]

Cough! Cough!

P coughed up a lot of blood and was unable to speak.

On the other hand, Adal smirked and licked his lips.

Slurp!

[Now, why don’t you hand P over? All I want is him, and I’ll make sure you won’t suffer if you hand him over! Kikiki!]

Han-Yeol noticed that Adal’s personality was extremely twisted. Then, a thought suddenly crossed his mind. ‘Hold on... Why does he sound so familiar?’

He racked his brains for a while until a face popped up.

“Ah, are you Dr. Santinora by any chance?”

[Oh? My, my, I did not expect one of you incompetent White House people to know it’s me when I’m using a proxy–no, I didn’t expect anyone else aside from the higher-ups to even know of my existence! Kikiki!]

Han-Yeol made a wild guess, but it turns out Adal was currently controlled by Dr. Santinora for some reason.

“Why and how are you in Adal right now?”

[Hahaha! This Master-Rank Hunter possesses quite an interesting ability. Ah, this isn’t Adal, by the way. I abducted him long ago, dissected him, and extracted his DNA. This is just a clone I made from his DNA! What do you think? It looks like the real one, right? Kiki!]

Dr. Santinora turned and showed off Adal’s body just as how a fashion model would show off their clothes.

“A clone?”

[Kikiki! You will not understand it even if I explain. We will have to dive deep into biology heavily, and not many people understand it. Oh, before I forget, listen to how I planned this! I needed the DNA of that man, P, and I used Adal’s memories to lure him out! How did I set this up? All of Venezuela is under my control! That story is for another time, but it was extremely easy to seize control of this country!]

Dr. Santinora divulged all sorts of important information without any worry.

‘He probably thinks it doesn’t matter since he’s going to kill me anyway.’

From Demon Eyes, he could see that Adal—no, Dr. Santinora’s mana—definitely surpassed the mana of a Master-Rank Hunter. He was not sure what kind of test the mad scientist had done to achieve this, but the opponent in front of him was definitely not going to be an easy one.

‘The best case scenario is if I can kill him here once and for all, but...’

Unfortunately, Demon Eyes confirmed that Dr. Santinora was nowhere near here and he was simply remotely controlling Adal from somewhere else. In other words, this was not Dr. Santinora’s body.

[Hmm... It seems you are waiting for something, but I hate wasting time, you see. Hand over P, and I promise you a painless death.]

A big chunk of Adal’s body fell off and turned into a long blade aimed at Han-Yeol.

Chwaaak!

The blade flew at him, but Han-Yeol instantly reacted by forming a barrier.

‘Not a chance! Force Shield!’

Krwaaang!

The blades bounced off of Han-Yeol’s Force Shield.

[Wait! This power is...!]

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