Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 120: A New Generation (2)

There were no more victims thanks to Han-Yeol, and not everyone who had failed to make it to the monster shelter was killed. Fortunately, twenty out of the sixty workers who hadn’t sought safety at the monster shelters were able to hide in a corner and avoid being discovered by the monsters.

However, their joy lasted only for a moment. As soon as they discovered nearly forty of their colleagues dead across the factory, the workers went back to mourning.

They might be strangers to Han-Yeol, but he could relate to their grief. After all, losing someone you knew was always a painful experience.

“Sung-Jin…” Han-Yeol called out.

“Ah, Han-Yeol,” replied Sung-Jin after he wiped away his tears and forced himself to smile.

“I’ll go home now.”

“Yeah, you have to go home.”

“Alright then.”

“See you.”

Han-Yeol left the Sung Jin Factory and went to his father’s shop.

***

The sun was slowly rising.

Bzzt…! Bzzt…! Fwaaa!

The billiard hall was in a mess.

An electricity pole outside of the building had collapsed, its wires dangerously buzzing with electricity. Also, almost every single car parked on the street had burned down or was still burning. A few cars even had burnt corpses of those who had failed to escape in time before the vehicle went up in flames.

‘This is a mess… What the hell was the government doing?’?Han-Yeol grimaced at the once lively streets that had been reduced to something akin to the valley of death.

The government might argue that they had been caught off guard by the monsters appearing late at night when people had gone to sleep. However, it was absurd that no single emergency siren had rung in the night to inform the people of what was going on.

The entire city had been plunged into a state of panic last night.

Almost a fifth of South Korea’s entire population resided in Seoul. Not only that, but almost all government complexes and main offices of large conglomerates were also concentrated in the city or in its outskirts. The capital city was so important that it falling meant that the country was going to fall as well.

However, that important city had been razed down overnight in a matter of a few hours.

‘Tsk… It’s not something that I should get involved in…’?Han-Yeol thought as he went up to the second floor.

Kwachik!

The first floor had been completely destroyed. There were shards of glass everywhere on the floor and there were quite a lot of bloodstains too.

However, one significant difference between this place and the others was the fact that the bloodstains here were blue instead of red. There were also numerous monster corpses littered all over the place.

The culprits behind this carnage against the monsters were none other than the two Void Devils Han-Yeol had summoned to protect this place.

Ring…! Ring…!?

Han-Yeol’s father leased the entire second floor for his billiard hall. After starting small at the beginning, he ended up expanding across the entire floor as business was booming.

Murmur… Murmur…?

‘Hmm? There were other people too?’?Han-Yeol thought after seeing that his father and the Void Devils were not the only ones in the billiard hall.

There were quite a lot of people, possibly customers, all huddled up in the corners trembling in fear.

“Han-Yeol!”

He was instantly greeted by his father as soon as he entered the door.

“Han-Yeol, are you hurt anywhere?”

“Not at all. I am much stronger than both of the Void Devils tasked to protect you combined.”

[Futile… Everything is futile…]

The Void Devils were not interested in anything else aside from the request Han-Yeol had made so they did not react much to his words. No, it was more accurate to say that they were not interested in what he had to say.

“That’s a relief… What’s going on? Why were there monsters in the city all of a sudden?”

“I have no idea. Did the government make any announcements?”

“Announcements?”

“Yes, they should have made some announcements after something this big happened, right?”

“Oh, you’re right…”

Han-Yeol’s father was not able to think rationally due to the fear and anxiety he felt toward the entire situation.

It was only after Han-Yeol, who was surprisingly calm, had asked him about the announcement that he finally grabbed the remote and turned the TV on. He changed the channel to TBS2TV and could see the president of South Korea on the screen.

The president of South Korea was standing on a podium in a neat and dandy suit despite the country having been plunged into chaos.

It was quite well-known in history that most presidents or leaders would wear a yellow jacket in the event of any catastrophe or emergency to show that they were engaged in any rescue efforts, but that did not seem to be the case this time.

The president addressed the nation from the podium.

[Dear citizens. I hope that all of you have managed to remain safe overnight. Dimensional holes appeared and caused great harm to citizens last night at 09:15 pm, and this was not an isolated event in our country. The rest of the world suffered the same disaster too. We are currently investigating the cause behind the incident, and we have issued a state of emergency to mobilize all Hunters in our nation to clean up whatever remains of the monsters.]

Han-Yeol listened to the president’s speech before he grumbled, “Don’t fuck with me. I didn’t receive anything and it’s practically impossible to find any Hunters on the streets right now.”

He found it difficult to suppress the anger welling up from inside.

Every single Hunter registered with the Hunters’ Association was going to receive an emergency message that would cover their smartphone screen with a red text, alerting them that an emergency mobilization had been issued.

The emergency message was programmed to blare out a siren even if the phone was on silent, so it was practically impossible to miss the message even if one was a deep sleeper.

However, Han-Yeol had not received anything on his smartphone. The only messages he had received were a few game marketing messages from K Company.

Also, Han-Yeol had scanned the ten-kilometer radius around him numerous times and rarely found any Hunters on the streets. In fact, the monsters had been dealt with by the demons he had summoned and not the government or their Hunters.

In other words, the president’s speech was a load of horseshit.

However, the president continued his speech.

[The monsters in Seoul are quickly being taken care of, and we have started to subjugate the monsters in other areas as well. I hope that all of you will be able to calmly stay indoors and place your trust in us to stabilize the situation.]

[Lastly, I would like to repeat this once again. This incident has occurred all over the world and is an international incident. Our country was not the only one affected by this incident, and some countries are experiencing far more destruction than ours.]

“Tsk… What a bunch of lies and excuses,” said Han-Yeol as he clicked his tongue in disgust.

He could see right through the president’s efforts to hide his administration’s incompetence by emphasizing that this was a global incident.

Most people were probably going to get fooled by this pathetic excuse, but Han-Yeol was not dumb enough to believe it.

[So please place your trust in us and stay indoors. We will be restoring peace and security very soon.]

The screen shifted to the news anchors who were relaying news about the current situation, but they were not saying or showing anything of substance.

“H-Han-Yeol… What is going on? Is everything going to be alright?”

“Ah, yes. I cleared all of the monsters in this area.”

“Really?”

“Yes, you will not be seeing a single monster here.”

Han-Yeol hadn’t personally gotten rid of the monsters but the demons he had bought for ten tons of gold. However, he claimed credit for their work as he was technically the one who had summoned them in the first place.

“Oh… That’s a relief. Hey, everyone! He says that there are no longer any monsters out there! You don’t have to be afraid anymore!” Han-Yeol’s father shouted.

“Is… Is that true?”

“Yeah! My son is a Hunter, and he is a famous one at that! He personally cleaned up the monsters in our area!”

“Ah… That’s a relief…”

The people huddled up in the corner of the billiard hall finally let out a sigh of relief. All of them got up from their spot, but they still remained anxious and vigilant of their surroundings.

Ddreuk!

They opened the windows to check the situation outside. All they could see were the cut-up power lines. It was true that not a single monster was in sight.

“Wow… It’s true.”

“I don’t see any monsters…”

“Thank you, god!”

The surrounding areas had lost power due to the power lines having been cut up from the incident. Fortunately, the building still had electricity to power it as it had its own power supply.

Most new buildings had an emergency generator on the third basement level that kicked in once the main power supply was disconnected or in case of emergencies. That was the reason that they were still able to watch TV despite there being a blackout in the area.

“B-But what if a monster suddenly appears…?”

“Ah…”

“That’s going to be a disaster…”

“Waah! Waaah! Waaah!”

They might have been told that there were no more monsters out there, but none of them dared to take a single step outside. The billiard hall was quite safe as there were two demons and a Hunter, which was the owner’s son, protecting this place.

However, they were certain that nothing was going to protect them from harm once they stepped out of this place. They could not help but be worried that a monster hiding somewhere was going to pop up and come get them.

It was then…

Boom!

“Hiiik!”

“Mommy!”

“Waaaah!”

“W-What was that?!”

When a burning car suddenly exploded, the people in the billiard hall all rushed to hide behind whatever furniture they could find.

“Haa…”?Han-Yeol let out a sigh and shook his head.

It was not that he found them to be pitiful or pathetic. It was just that he could not believe how the government was going to sit still and do nothing while the common folks were trembling in fear.

‘Why is it that our government doesn’t change no matter how much time has passed…?’?he wondered.

***

Han-Yeol stayed a bit longer at the billiard hall.

Murmur… Murmur…?

The people taking refuge in the billiard hall started to leave one by one after the sound of police sirens and fire trucks could be heard.

It only took one person to muster the courage to leave before the rest followed suit. It seemed that the sound of sirens and the presence of the authorities gave them a peace of mind to finally leave their refuge.

The people might have finally relaxed, but the devastated city was still no different from another battlefield for the fire department.

Wiiiiing!

“Hey! Prop that up higher!”

“Be careful! Hey! Pay attention!”

“There’s no support over there! Snap out of it!”

“I apologize, sir!”

The firefighters were busy running around, clearing debris and rescuing people.

Han-Yeol used Psychokinesis to help the firefighters out. They were incredibly short-staffed as the entire city was in ruins thanks to the monsters’ attack.

However…

‘Those damned Hunters…! This is the time for you to step up!’?Han-Yeol grumbled while helping the firefighters.

He saw a few familiar Hunters blending in with the crowd while he was busy contributing to the rescue operations. However, the Hunters seemed to have no plans of helping out at all as they continued to blend in with the crowd and simply watch on.

“Heave… Ho!”

“Hey, search deeper in there!”

“A survivor!”

“We need an excavator here!”

“We need ten people here! Hurry up!”

The firefighters ran around without being able to catch a break while Han-Yeol continued to support them with his skill.

“It is an honor to work with you once again, Hunter-nim!” the fire department chief said.

“Haha! The same goes for me. I am just glad to be of help in these times of difficulty,” Han-Yeol replied.

“You are indeed the best, Han-Yeol Hunter-nim!”

This was the second time that Han-Yeol was working with the fire department, and the firefighters were looking at him with eyes beaming with respect.

“Now now, we still have a lot of work to do, so let us focus on the rescue operations…” Han-Yeol said, feeling awkward from the attention.

“Yes, sir!”

However, he only felt even more awkward when the fire department chief, who was in his fifties, responded with a salute.

It was while the rescue operations were underway that Han-Yeol suddenly remembered someone who he had completely forgotten about.

“Ah! Yoo-Bi!”

He might have given up on having any romantic relationship with Yoo-Bi, but that did not mean that he did not care about her as a comrade and a friend. She was quite an able manager and Porter, so he was going to suffer a huge loss if something happened to her.

He could not help but feel nervous and worried if Yoo-Bi had been able to come out unharmed from this incident. After all, she had not yet awakened as a Hunter.