Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 249: Dragon of Destruction (5)

The Sword of God encountered difficulties when trying to obtain information due to their inability to expand their organization's influence. One of the world's three powerhouse countries, Egypt, was actively pursuing them, and any careless attempts to increase their influence carried the risk of exposing their hideout.

To mitigate these risks, the organization began sourcing information from social media and the news, as it posed significantly less risk to their operations.

[However, we've discovered something intriguing,] one member remarked. [The leader of the Hunters sent to Nepal is the woman named Mariam.]

[Really?]

[Yes, take a look at this,] the member replied, handing a picture to Raiden.

The image showed Mariam standing in close proximity to Han-Yeol.

[And what does this signify?]

[As you can see, the Korean Hunter is seen with Mariam. This is irrefutable evidence of a connection between the two.]

[I see. So what's your point?] Raiden questioned.

[What I'm suggesting is that by targeting the Korean Hunter, we can easily draw Mariam out and send a clear message to the Asians for their close association with the Egyptians.]

[Oh? I find that idea appealing,] Raiden responded.

Although they were aware of Han-Yeol's recent promotion to Master Rank Hunter through the news, they remained unfazed. After all, they possessed their self-proclaimed most powerful Hunter, who had held the Master Rank for the past twenty years. They were confident that capturing Han-Yeol would be straightforward, as long as their Zeroth Sword complied with their directives.

[In that case, our immediate objective is to capture the Korean Hunter?]

[Yes.]

[Very well, let's use all available resources to craft a foolproof plan.]

[Yes, leader.]

The First Sword of God exited the meeting room. It was now time for him to concentrate on executing his task, now that his plan had received approval from Raiden.

[Hoho… Egypt is going to fall into my hands soon…!] Raiden let out a sinister laugh as he clenched his fist.

The appearance of dimensional gates did not eradicate the various terrorist groups around the world; these groups persisted and continued to cause trouble whenever possible.

However, the Middle East and Africa were among the regions most severely affected by the dimensional gates. African countries managed to recover only after aligning themselves with Egypt during a golden age spurred by secularism. Surprisingly, Africa became wealthier than before the dimensional gates emerged, while the Middle East struggled with recovery due to ongoing turmoil and internal conflicts.

This situation was precisely why terrorist organizations like the Sword of God could maintain their existence. They simply retreated to the war-torn lands of the Middle East whenever they faced imminent capture.

***

The party finally came to an end, and Han-Yeol took an entire day to recover from the effects of the celebration. The first thing he did was call one of his teams in Egypt.

"Ah... It's scorching here.”

"Yeah, I heard the desert can get incredibly hot. Turns out, it's true…”

“Ugh… I hate getting sweaty…”

“Stop overreacting.”

“Alright…”

This rowdy and whiny bunch was none other than the film crew from the Mulan production team.

Han-Yeol had been quite busy in recent days, so he didn't livestream as much. He allocated a budget to the Mulan film crew to film other raid parties while he was occupied, but the response from viewers wasn't that great. The viewers had already become captivated by Han-Yeol's broadcasts, to the point where watching other Hunters no longer satisfied them. It wasn't that the other Hunters were lacking, but rather, Han-Yeol's on-screen presence was just too strong.

Of course, this didn't mean that the Mulan film crew abandoned the other Hunters just to film Han-Yeol. Mulan had evolved from a small broadcast team that exclusively followed Han-Yeol to a full-fledged media content company after receiving Han-Yeol's approval. They retained the name Mulan as their identity and upheld it by only hiring women in the company.

It was a pure coincidence that Han-Yeol ended up hiring all women for the Mulan film crew, but they somewhat believed it was his preference, as they only recruited women for the company. There was significant backlash from men when they learned that the company exclusively hired women.

Working at the company came with the perk of the possibility of meeting Han-Yeol in real life, so many media-related graduates aspired to work at Mulan.

South Korea lacked anti-discrimination laws, but there was blatant gender discrimination. An example of this disparity was the benefits women received that men did not. Companies could face repercussions for refusing to hire women but not for refusing to hire men. Mulan exploited this loophole to exclusively hire women.

"Are you the Mulan film crew?" Purva and ten other Gurkhas greeted the women as soon as they landed at the airport.

"Ah, hello, Mr. Purva. How have you been?" Su-In replied.

"Oh, long time no see, Ms. Su-In. I've been well, what about you?"

"Haha, my life isn't interesting enough to have any problems," Su-In replied with a chuckle.

Purva and Su-In had met a few times already at Han-Yeol's mansion.

"Boo! Couples, get lost!" one of the other women playfully teased.

"Screw you two!"

"We're here for work! Excuse you!" the other women exclaimed, expressing their discontent at the playful banter and the burgeoning connection between Purva and Su-In.

‘Why those little…!’ Su-In raged inwardly.

She was attempting to set the mood with the handsome mercenary, but her juniors completely ruined the moment. Nevertheless, she was here to work, so she decided to let them off this time, but...

‘Just you wait until we get back to Korea!’ she gritted her teeth and glared at her juniors.

"Now, now, let's hurry up as Han-Yeol Hunter-nim is waiting for all of you," Purva intervened.

"Okay!"

The Mulan film crew was escorted to the bus by the Gurkhas. These women had quite a pleasant trip as they didn't fly commercially. No, they took Han-Yeol's other private jet, which he had purchased just in case his preferred one had to undergo maintenance when he needed it.

It might have been a backup jet, but it was still one of the most expensive jets on the market.

“We will depart now.”

“Okay!”

Vroom!

***

Han-Yeol sipped on a cup of green tea, which helped lighten his mood. This was a much-needed break for him as he hadn't had the chance to rest properly in recent days.

"So, the girls from Mulan have landed?" he inquired.

"Yes, Purva-nim has met with them," the response came.

"That's good."

During Purva's absence, a mercenary named Vidya stood in for him.

‘Hmm?’

Someone was rushing toward his location, and he couldn't help but grimace upon sensing it. ‘Ugh... It can only mean bad news if someone's in such a hurry…’

Bam!

"H-Han-Yeol Hunter-nim!"

The door was nearly kicked down as one of the Gurkhas entered.

"What is it?" Vidya asked.

"W-We have a problem!"

"A problem?"

'Damn it... I was right...' Han-Yeol became annoyed as his bad premonition turned out to be correct.

"T-The bus Captain Purva was on...! It's been hijacked by terrorists!"

Bam!

"What?!" Han-Yeol jumped up from his seat and shouted.

He had expected the problem to be related to monsters or something, so what the Gurkha had just revealed was truly shocking. He stood up and slammed his hands on the table so hard that the table was completely destroyed, but the table was not what mattered right now.

"Are you sure?" he demanded.

"Yes, we are. T-Their names were on the list of foreigners missing after a bomb exploded near the airport."

"Damn it!"

Bam! Kwachik!

Han-Yeol slammed his fist on what little remained of the table, trembling with anger at the thought of his people being held hostage.

"H-Han-Yeol-nim..."

"What should we do, Han-Yeol-nim?"

"What did the Egyptians say?"

"They said they're trying their best to locate them."

"That's it?"

"Y-Yes..."

Han-Yeol was further enraged by the lack of useful information. He had sworn not to abandon his people anymore after turning his back on his friends from high school, and that was why he was so furious now upon hearing about the abduction.

"Those damned terrorists...!"

He already harbored a grudge against these terrorists for their antics in South Korea, but they had completely crossed the line this time by messing with his people.

"Vidya."

"Yes, Han-Yeol-nim!"

"What are the Egyptians doing right now?"

"We heard that the entire palace is in a state of emergency, and a special task force team has been set up under the command of the president. That's all we know as of now, as we cannot gain access to their command center..."