Leveling Up Alone

‘I shook hands with someone that famous?’ Han-Yeol thought in disbelief as he looked at his hand. Then, he shrugged and thought, ‘But is it alright if she appears on my video when she is so famous…?’

The production crew that Han-Yeol recruited, which he had decided to call Mulan, was currently at a temporary office he was renting. They were busy editing the clips of his battle against the terrorists that they had recently taken, and they were also working on Han-Yeol’s personal channel which would broadcast his videos from now on.

Mulan was basically in charge of editing the videos and managing the channel, since they were all experienced in the broadcasting industry.

‘Tsk… Do I have to consult with a lawyer or do I have to ask the Egyptians themselves…?’ Han-Yeol wondered.

However, he soon set aside his dilemma and headed out, since he was supposed to visit a real estate agent today. He was going to look for a place that Mulan could use as their permanent office, and he had to personally go and meet with the real estate agent since he did not have anyone whom he could entrust the issue with.

‘It’s a bit awkward to hire a manager just to handle such matters…’ Han-Yeol thought.

Of course, he was not referring to a manager who went on hunts and managed the Porters. He was talking about managers who managed the assets and day-to-day things on a Hunter’s behalf.

Han-Yeol was quite free whenever he was not out at the hunting grounds, since all he did was workout or go equipment shopping in his free time. He was also not losing out on anything by running those errands on his own, since his situation was different compared to people who considered their time to be equivalent to gold.

Han-Yeol drove to a famous real estate office in Hongdae.

“Welcome, how may I help you?” the receptionist at the office asked.

The real estate agency’s office was quite large, unlike the average ones out there, and it had a very professional yet luxurious interior.

“I have a meeting with your president at three. Can you call him for me?” Han-Yeol asked.

The receptionist scanned Han-Yeol, who looked quite ordinary, from head to toe, and thought, ‘He does not look like someone the president will schedule a meeting with, no matter how much I think about it…’

The receptionist had spent seven years working at this place, ever since she had been twenty years old. Having developed quite an eye when it came to scanning people based on their looks, she could immediately tell that Han-Yeol was a fail based on her scan.

Just as she was about to ask Han-Yeol to wait while she placed a call, a middle-aged man suddenly walked out and said in a delighted voice, “Haha! You must be Han-Yeol Hunter-nim, who called a while ago.”

The receptionist turned around to find that her employer, who was also the president and owner of this real estate agency, was walking toward Han-Yeol with a bright look. When she heard that the man whom she had deemed a fail turned out to be a Hunter, she was completely shocked. ‘H-Hunter?!What the? How can a Hunter walk around without even a single branded item on them? What kind of a Hunter wears those cheap clothes bought from those cheap discount shops?’

Needless to say, the receptionist was flabbergasted.

The clothes that Han-Yeol currently wore were either bought at cheap discount shops or on sale online. Looking at him closely, the receptionist thought, ‘He must be very stingy…’

She could tell that Han-Yeol was not a complete nobody, judging from the fact that the agency owner himself had come out to greet him.

‘But still… Even those useless F Rank Hunters earn at least ten million won a month… Gosh… I guess there are all sorts of people out there…’ she thought.

While the receptionist was distracted by her own thoughts, the agency owner suddenly said, “Ms. Lee, please bring two cups of coffee to my office.”

“Yes, president-nim,” she replied.

Tap…!

Han-Yeol saw the agency owner casually pat the receptionist’s butt. It was a subtle and sneaky movement, but there was no way that an ordinary person’s actions could avoid the eyes of a Hunter, whose eyesight became greatly enhanced the moment they awakened and had mana flowing through their bodies. Also, a Hunter’s awareness of their surroundings grew as their experience battling monsters increased.

This real estate agent dealt with a lot of Hunters, so it seemed that none of them had bothered to call him out for his actions.

‘Well… A Hunter wouldn’t really care if a normal person is sexually harassing someone or is having an affair with their receptionist…’ Han-Yeol thought. He eventually decided to ignore the agency owner’s perverse action as he thought, ‘That’s their business, after all.’

All he wanted to do today was to find a suitable office space for himself.

Han-Yeol sat on the sofa in the agency owner’s office.

Tak!

The agency owner clapped his hands and said, “Now, Han-Yeol Hunter-nim, what do you need from our Hongdae Real Estate Company?”

Han-Yeol placed his briefcase, which looked like the one a certain British spy from a movie carried around, on the table.

‘I really wanted to try this at least once ever since I was young,’ Han-Yeol thought. Ever since a young age, he had fantasized about withdrawing a lot of fifty thousand won bills from the bank and filling up a briefcase just like a movie sequence.

“Hmm… It seems to be around five hundred million won, but why are you giving this to me?” the agency owner asked.

The agency owner was not surprised or swayed by the massive amount of cash being placed in front of him. This was because he owned the largest real estate agency in town, and he regularly dealt with cash worth more than a billion won.

He was a greedy man, but his constant exposure to large sums of cash allowed him to learn how to tame his greed.

‘Sigh… This guy is no fun...’ Han-Yeol lamented inwardly. He was expecting the agency owner to give some sort of reaction, so he was disappointed by the middle-aged man’s lack of a reaction.

Well, it did not really matter that much, since Han-Yeol got to do the briefcase move that he always wanted to do. Still, he could not help but feel disappointed when he did not get much reaction from doing it the first time.

Anyway, that was the end of that story.

“I want to get an office space in Hongdae,” Han-Yeol said.

“Hmm… What kind of office are you looking for?” the agency owner asked. He appeared to have lost interest in Han-Yeol when he heard what he was looking for.

‘I should’ve just asked Manager Kim to handle this…’ the agency owner thought.

To the agency owner, there was no need for him to personally assist a Hunter who was looking to rent an office. He would not have minded personally assisting Han-Yeol if he planned to purchase a building or rent an entire floor for himself, but renting an office space was not something that required his assistance at all.

However, Han-Yeol’s next words completely caught the agency owner by surprise.

“Hmm… I would prefer to build my own building, but that will take a long time before I can use it, right? So I wanted to ask you to do two things for me. First, find me an office space that I can rent for now, and make sure that it will take up the entire floor. Second, find a suitable building for me in Hongdae that I can purchase, and make sure that I will be purchasing the entire building. After all, you cannot help me build a building, right?” Han-Yeol said.

“Ehem! Ah, no, that is not true! We realtors are not only about helping our clients buy and sell properties these days. In fact, I also possess a construction license, so it is not illegal for you to get a consultation from me. There are plenty of buildings being built around this area these days, so you cannot make a living if you do not have one of these licenses! Hahaha!” the agency owner replied with a burst of boisterous laughter.

The agency owner’s attitude made an abrupt shift. He finally caught the scent of money from this poorly dressed Hunter, and he could immediately tell from Han-Yeol’s words that he was a loaded Hunter even among the Hunters.

‘That’s right… There are people like him as well. They act and dress like poor people, but they are actually loaded with cash,’ the agency owner thought.

However, there were only a handful of them, so it never crossed the agency owner’s mind that Han-Yeol could possibly be one of them.

The agency owner was delighted; it had been quite a while since such a big fish came looking for him. He had made a lot of money by working with the Hunters back when they had lived harmoniously with the civilians, but that all changed when the government and the Hunters’ Association had made a new city exclusively for Hunters, most of whom had relocated over there. Thanks to that, the real estate agency had not had any Hunter customers for a long time.

‘Alright… This is a jackpot! A jackpot! I should just shut my company if I let such a big fish slip through my fingers!’ the agency owner thought as he steeled his resolve to close the deal with Han-Yeol.

“Oh, is that so?” Han-Yeol said with a hint of surprise in his voice.

He always thought that he had to go look for a construction company instead of a real estate agency if he wanted to build his own building, so he had only mentioned it to the agency owner as a passing joke. However, it all somehow worked in his favor, since the agency owner just said that he could take care of the construction part as well. This reduced the amount of work and running around Han-Yeol had to do.

“Then, do you have a budget or any floor levels in mind for your building?” the agency owner asked. He was acting very carefully, so every single word coming out of his mouth oozed with respect toward Han-Yeol.

“Budget? Hmm… Maybe around fifty billion won? I am planning to construct a building of around six floors,” Han-Yeol nonchalantly replied.

‘Heok! F-Fifty billion won?!’ the agency owner exclaimed inwardly in surprise.

The price that came out of Han-Yeol’s mouth was not an amount that could be found in Hongdae, and the agency owner was certain of this. He was well aware of the transactions in this neighborhood, with him usually closing most of the expensive listings here.

Han-Yeol could actually buy a building in Gangnam with that budget.

‘He’s the real deal… He is really a jackpot…!’ the agency owner thought.

In fact, Han-Yeol was such a big fish for him that he was planning to stop whatever other work his agency was doing and put all hands on deck on Han-Yeol’s project. Han-Yeol’s request was no different than a goose that laid golden eggs since the amount of commission he would get from completing each step of the process was going to be astronomical.

“Please come over here, Hunter-nim. Let me serve you with a service that you deserve,” the agency owner said with his glib tongue.

“Is that so?” Han-Yeol nonchalantly replied.

Han-Yeol was secretly feeling delighted ever since he saw how the man’s attitude made a hundred-eighty-degree reversal the moment he had mentioned his fifty billion won budget. He knew that having someone suck up to you was a good feeling, but he had no idea that it was going to be this pleasing.

‘I will be using quite a lot of cash on this project, so I’ll just have to diligently hunt a few times,’ Han-Yeol thought as he shrugged.

Of course, spending fifty billion won in addition to the fees that he would have to pay for purchasing the building was not a small amount. However, it was not enough to make a dent in Han-Yeol’s fortune, which was close to hitting one trillion won[1] mark.

That was how Han-Yeol ended up spending a few hours at the real estate office. He resolved the issue of him getting his own building as well.

***

“Hey! Director Lee! What happened to the cameras? Are they ready yet?!”

“They are almost ready!”

“What about the audio team?”

“We are ready!”

“Lighting team?!”

Tak!

A woman from the audio team raised her hand and gave a circle signal above her head.

“Alright, this is our first filming of the day, so make sure you guys do not lose your focus. Do not be too nervous! Let’s wrap this up without any incidents. Got that?”

“Yes!” the members of the production crew, Mulan, enthusiastically replied.

They were all visibly nervous despite their enthusiastic response, and this could not be helped as this was the first time that they were coming out to the hunting grounds with a Hunter. Their nervousness only increased upon knowing that the Hunter they were with was hunting solo.

They had seen records of Hunters hunting solo, but this was their first time seeing a Hunter solo hunting in person. The fact that they were accompanying him also made them even more tense and nervous.

“Hoo… Hoo…”

Even Soo-In, who was the one in charge of the entire filming, could not hide her nervousness. She was the only one among the twenty production crew members who had previously filmed Hunters at the hunting grounds, but those times had more than twenty Hunters in a party. That was why she could not help but be very anxious and nervous about following a single Hunter to the hunting ground.

The production crew were not the only ones feeling nervous about this hunt.

“What? Is he really going solo…?”

“This is driving me nuts…”

“I have a feeling that we are walking to our deaths…”

These were the Porters that Han-Yeol had hired for this hunt.

Han-Yeol had a lot of luggage for this hunt, since he had to bring an entire production crew and had plans to hunt a bit longer this time. That was why he had decided to hire a team of Porters for this hunt.

The team was composed of five Porters, all of whom had refused to come when they heard that Han-Yeol was hunting solo. However, they instantly changed their minds and came without a fuss when Han-Yeol offered them five times the normal wage.

Still, they could not help but be nervous when they personally saw that Han-Yeol was indeed going to be hunting alone. The only reason they stayed was that Han-Yeol had already paid them half of their daily wage in advance.

“Haa… Well, I don’t think that Hunter is an idiot to simply throw money away like that. There’s no way that he is going to run with his tail tucked between his legs when he brought such a big group with him and invested everything, right?” one of the Porters said.

“Yeah… I guess you’re right…” another Porter replied.

Then, the Porters turned their gazes to the production crew.

“Hehehe… They are so pretty…”

“I know, right…”

The Porters seemed to be very interested in Han-Yeol’s production crew.

“Did that Hunter pick his production crew based on their body and face?” a Porter grumbled.

“I know right? They are all so busty and beautiful that they can pass as celebrities,” another agreed.

“Ahh… I’m so jealous…” another muttered in defeat.

“I hope that I can become a Hunter soon and have those kinds of women in my life too!” another Porter exclaimed with a burning desire to awaken.

The Porters were all dreaming that they could live in a huge mansion with a swimming pool while surrounded by beautiful women in bikinis. They also hoped to get to spend the night with those women to their hearts’ content, just like the Hunters that they see on social media or TV. This was a definite possibility as long as they managed to awaken and become Hunters themselves.

Well, they were free to imagine whatever they wanted since they were currently free. A Porter would usually be very busy before a hunt commenced, but Han-Yeol was hunting solo and he had his personal Porter, Yoo-Bi, with him. That was why the only thing they had to do was to check the equipment they were going to use before the hunt started.

Yoo-Bi perfectly executed her role as Han-Yeol’s personal Porter by taking care of everything he needed even before the others could do anything. The other Porters were now gathered around her since she was designated as the leader among them.

‘Wow… She’s a beautiful Porter…’

‘I wonder how perverted that Hunter is…?’

The Porters wondered.

It was obvious that their imaginations would run wild. If they excluded the five of them, then Han-Yeol was the only male among the twenty-two people at the party. However, they did not think ill of him at all, since this was the life that they were dreaming to have one day.

‘I’m so jealous!’ the five Porters thought in unison.

Again, they were free to imagine whatever they wanted.

1. One trillion won is approximately around $700m USD in today’s conversion rate, for those who are curious but too lazy to look it up. ☜