Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 132: The Black Dragon Mavros (4)

Han-Yeol knew that the abilities Yoo-Bi had awakened with were quite promising. A non-combat awakened being was not that highly valued, but those who awakened with abilities specializing in crafting gears were highly valued in the industry.

The awakened beings with crafting abilities did not have any problems making a living even if they had awakened with the ability to craft normal equipment. This was all thanks to the number of low-ranked Hunters being far greater than the number of high-ranked Hunters, and all they had to do was rely on quantity over quality to make a living.

On the other hand, the awakened beings who had the ability to craft powerful gears, like the owner of the Dwarf’s Workshop, would stand to make a fortune simply by crafting custom-made equipment for high-ranking Hunters.

In short, those who had awakened with crafting abilities were able to earn a lot of money.

The former who usually mass-produced equipment and supplied them to the Hunter Mall or other outlets would earn money in that way, and the latter would earn by dealing directly with a Hunter.

Thud…!

Han-Yeol sat on a large boulder.

“Kyu! Kyu!”?Mavros cried out.

The baby dragon, who had been quiet the entire time, suddenly smiled brightly and rubbed itself on Han-Yeol. It came bounding over once the battle ended.

“You must be bored, right?”

“Kyu!”

Without the possession of any combat abilities, the baby dragon unfortunately had to stay back and watch while Han-Yeol fought the entire time.

Funnily enough, he appeared to be unhappy about the fact that Han-Yeol could ‘play’ with other monsters. Still, he would immediately run toward Han-Yeol and bury himself on his chest whenever the battles ended.

Mavros was happy whenever the battle ended, because he could then be close to Han-Yeol again. As for some other people, they were greatly saddened whenever the battles came to an end.

“Hiing…?Mavros is so mean… He eats everything we give him, but he will run to Han-Yeol Hunter-nim whenever he gets the chance…”

“What can you do about it? I heard Han-Yeol Hunter-nim is the one who hatched Mavros, so we are just people who feed him while Han-Yeol Hunter-nim is someone he longs for.”

“Hiiing!”

The Mulan film crew’s youngest member pouted in disappointment despite her senior’s attempt to console her.

Mavros, armed with his out-of-this-world cuteness, was able to charm not only Han-Yeol, Tayarana, and Mariam, but anyone who came across him.

Han-Yeol spent his time hunting down the Marowak Tribe.

Ziiing! Whiiiing!

The new Porters Han-Yeol had hired were hard at work, dismembering the Marowaks’ corpses.

‘It’s really not easy to hire good Porters these days…’?he thought.

He threw money at all of his problems these days to save time and effort, but he had personally interviewed the candidates who applied to be his Porter. Through a personal interview, he could immediately determine if the Porter was a good one or not thanks to his previous experience of having worked as a Porter himself.

Han-Yeol greatly empathized with what he had heard from Sung-Jin recently. The number of applicants on the websites where Porters usually looked for jobs had dropped by more than half compared to just a few years back.

‘The number of monsters is on the rise while the number of Porters is declining… This is bad…’?

There was nothing Han-Yeol could do about this social issue. He had a solution that he could rely on, which was to simply borrow the Porters affiliated with the Horus raid party whenever he wanted.

However, he was still concerned about the social issues at hand as its collapse was going to affect him, his father, and the people around him, and that was a situation he was unwilling to witness.

‘However… Is there something I can do about it…?’?he wondered.

Seuk… Seuk…

Han-Yeol was stroking Mavros’ head while deep in thought.

“Kyu…”?Mavros let out a small dejected cry as if he understood his owner’s concerns.

‘This is completely different from what happened to North Korea. It’s going to be impossible to fend off the monsters if we stop producing Hunters and our numbers decline later on,’?he thought.

Most people thought that the monsters would not be a concern as long as they did not enter the hunting grounds. However, that was a huge misconception that had come about due to the complacency of today’s society.

The energy barrier preventing the monsters from leaving the hunting grounds was bound to be overwhelmed if nobody reduced the monsters’ numbers from time to time, and this was the reason that most countries focused on increasing their Hunter population.

However, the South Korean government was foolish enough to enact laws limiting the number of Hunters. They argued that a reduction of normal people was going to cause the collapse of society, and that was the main reason why the country was facing this current predicament.

‘I really hope that the government will wake up and start making the necessary changes…’?thought Han-Yeol as he gritted his teeth.

The presidential scandal that had happened twenty years ago had dealt a huge blow to South Korean politics, and the government still hadn’t recovered even though two whole decades had passed.

‘We’re at a crucial time, but there’s no news of them trying to make any changes. Hell, there’s not a single media outlet reporting on what’s going on right now,’?Han-Yeol thought in frustration.

In the end, the only thing he could do was sincerely hope that his country’s government would finally wake up and start making progress from now on.

It was then.

Beep!

“Hunter-nim! Twenty Marowaks have been spotted one kilometer east of here.”

“Okay, Roger that.”

Han-Yeol decided to set aside his concerns for now. Besides, the only thing he could do for his country was to vote responsibly and do his best to subjugate the hunting grounds.

Han-Yeol was the type that would slaughter a lot of monsters whenever he hunted, so he was quite good at reducing the number of monsters in the hunting grounds.

“Heave-ho!?Alright, shall we go on a rampage again?” Han-Yeol jumped down from the boulder.

He enjoyed fighting monsters.

Initially, he had been quite scared of possibly dying in the process, and getting blood on his hands hadn’t been something he had been comfortable with. They might be monsters, but he had still seen them as living creatures in the end, so his heart had been riddled with guilt whenever he killed one.

However, he was completely different now. He did not feel even a sliver of guilt whenever he killed monsters, and he was no longer scared to die or reluctant to get blood on his hands. The only thing that mattered to him now was the rush of endorphin and adrenaline he got whenever he fought to the death against monsters… He really enjoyed this feeling.

‘Sometimes… I can’t help but suspect that I’m an adrenaline junkie addicted to combat…’?Han-Yeol shook his head.

Wooooong!

When his mana started to react to the incoming battle, he thought, ‘See? My mana is already acting up at the thought of fighting those monsters.’

Han-Yeol could not help but laugh at his current self.

[Wow! I’m an avid viewer of Level Up Broadcast and a huge fan of Han-Yeol Hunter-nim, but it really feels like he has something new prepared for every broadcast. I wonder just how far he will continue to grow from now on…?]

[Yeah, the other channels feel mundane and boring these days, but it’s different for Han-Yeol’s channel. He always hunts in different hunting grounds, and seeing him grow is quite entertaining!]

[His channel is really the best! It’s so flashy and extravagant!]

[Flashy and extravagant aside, he is quite strong.]

[Ah… But where is our Yoo-Bi-chan?!]

[YOO-BI!]

[Shut up, you otakus!]

[This is a Hunter channel! Go watch those female streamers if you’re looking for women!]

[Yeah! Get lost!]

There was a squabble in the chat room, but this was quite a normal occurrence. Han-Yeol was now a famous streamer who had a lot of subscribers, so there was bound to be some confusion when his main MC had suddenly stopped appearing. However, that did not deter people from coming to watch his channel.

‘I should probably tell Han-Yeol Hunter-nim to hire a new MC,’?thought Soo-In as she wrote down in her memo while monitoring the chat room.

Yoo-Bi had been doing quite well as the MC, so her sudden absence from the channel had sort of changed the channel’s overall feel. There were a lot of people who supported Han-Yeol and solely came to the channel to watch him in action, but there were still a lot of people who complained that the show was not as lively as it used to be without Yoo-Bi.

‘We?could easily hire a celebrity to host the channel with his wealth… I’m sure we can get a famous idol to do it,’?Soo-In thought as she scribbled her thoughts on her memo.

There were quite a lot of B Grade idols these days who had shifted to hosting channels run by Hunters instead of performing in low-paying concerts, and most Hunters liked the idea of having these celebrities in front of the cameras. This was because they attracted a lot of male viewers who would donate to the channel to get their attention.

‘We?can kill two birds with one stone if we spend a bit on the idol, who will be more active in hosting. Our viewers will then open their wallets for her.’?Soo-In steeled her resolve to convince Han-Yeol to invest in a celebrity MC.

Why?

‘One percent of the profits! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity I shouldn’t pass on!’?she clenched her fist in determination.

The Mulan film crew had renewed their contract with Han-Yeol. Their new contract was going to last for three years, with their pay doubling compared to before. Also, Han-Yeol had added a clause where one percent of the profits were going to be the Mulan film crew members’ bonus.

Most people would say that he was being stingy by only giving them one percent, but anyone who dared to say that would instantly shut up once they learned that the one percent in itself was a huge sum of money. All they had to do was consider the fact that the Level Up Broadcast channel was raking in twenty-two billion won a month.

[Forget about that! The big news is that thing!]

[That’s definitely going to rile up foreigners as well!]

[No, the whole world is going to go crazy once they hear about this!]

[Did anyone imagine that this was going to be possible…?]

The chat room had calmed down a bit. However, when Mavros had first been captured by the camera a while ago, it had truly been utter chaos.

[I still can’t believe this is real… Isn’t that just CG animation…?]

[Y-Yeah! It doesn’t make sense that a Hunter can tame a monster!]

[Aaaah! It’s so cute!]

[Please take me! I love you Mavros-nim!]

[That’s forbidden love! Shut up!]

The female viewers were in an uproar after being charmed by Mavros’ cuteness. The baby dragon was so popular among viewers that the Mulan crew had to dedicate one camera for him alone so that the V Ticket holders could watch him and him alone.

In fact, the Mulan film crew checked on their server that the number of viewers who had tuned in to the baby dragon’s dedicated camera numbered more than one thousand five hundred.

‘Well, Mavros is quite the charming creature.’?Soo-In understood why the baby dragon was so famous among viewers, and she was already planning various content using Mavros. She clenched her fist once again and thought, ‘I will definitely turn this channel into the Top Korean Channel!’

Soo-In had a secret grand ambition of turning Han-Yeol’s channel into the nation’s top Hunter channel. She did not tell anyone about this ambition of hers.

Chwak!

Han-Yeol cut a Marowak’s head off of its shoulders with his sword.

“Kwak! Kwak!”

The Marowak Warriors encircled Han-Yeol and tried to threaten him by barking loudly, but they failed to instill any sense of suspense in both Han-Yeol and the viewers watching. The reason was that both Han-Yeol and the viewers now knew, through countless battles, that the Marowaks were not a difficult opponent for him.

Seuk…!

Han-Yeol fixed his grip on his sword and infused mana into it.

Tak!

Then, he kicked off the ground and charged at the Marowaks.

***

The internet was in an uproar after Han-Yeol finished his five-day hunt schedule thanks to the official statement that had been published by the Horus raid party.

[It has been revealed that the first Korean Hunter to possess multiple skills, Lee Han-Yeol, also has the ability to tame monsters as pets. The Horus raid party’s Tayarana has paid Lee Han-Yeol two trillion won to procure two monster pets.]

There were thousands of comments on every news article regarding the matter.

[Wow…]

[Just how many more surprises does he have in store for us?]

[Does this even make sense…?]

[T-Then… Han-Yeol Hunter is turning that pet system we see in games into reality?!]

[I saw on another news article that other Hunters won’t be able to replicate what he does. He is the only one who can tame monsters! Isn’t this a monopoly for him?!]

[A-Amazing!]

[The whole world will be clamoring for these pets, but he is the only one who can do it?!]

[Don’t forget! The Horus raid party has already set the price tag! One trillion won per pet! ONE TRILLION!]

[This is insane! He will make one hundred trillion won just by selling one hundred pets!]

[It’s one trillion won for now, but who knows how much higher it will go?!]

[Crazy! The world is going crazy!]

A familiar scene of a wave of reporters waiting in front of the Horus raid party’s mansion after they had published their official statement appeared once again. The only difference this time was the fact that there were reporters from major foreign news outlets as well.

The news of a Hunter being able to tame monsters was so groundbreaking that foreign media and foreign governments could not help but pay attention, even if the news were in another country.

[We garnered much more attention than we thought it would,] Tayarana said while looking out the window.

[Haha, I guess you’re right. This is quite burdensome if you ask me.] Han-Yeol awkwardly scratched his head in response.

He had anticipated that the news was going to garner quite a bit of attention, but he never imagined that it was going to be this much. In fact, it was not an exaggeration to say that there were probably thousands of journalists flocking to South Korea right now just because of this single piece of news.

Every news outlet broadcasted the scene live, and rows and rows of cameras and reporters could be seen on TV.

‘Phew… People might think the dead came back to life or something…’?Han-Yeol thought.

[Lift your head, Han-Yeol. There’s no reason for you to feel burdened. The title of the Horus raid party’s Vice Leader is going to be wasted on you if you feel burdened by something like this. You are a Hunter who possesses one of the best abilities in the world.] Tayarana encouraged Han-Yeol, after seeing him feel a bit nervous and overwhelmed by the whole thing.

[Haha, do you think so?]

[Yes.]

Han-Yeol scratched his head in embarrassment.

Then, Mariam chimed in. [Tayarana-nim is correct. Han-Yeol Hunter-nim has destroyed whatever theory and knowledge the world has of Hunters, and you have done it again by successfully taming monsters as pets. That in itself is already quite the achievement as most people would struggle to do it even once in their lifetime.]

[D-Destroyed…?]

Han-Yeol could not help but feel even more overwhelmed after the two beauties showered him with praises…in their own ways.