Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 83: Special Member of A Raid Party (4)

[Wow! Amazing!]

[As they say in baseball, the game is not over until the ninth inning with two outs.]

[But who is the Horus raid party? Anybody knows?]

[Speaking of unique items, are there any raid parties in the country that possess unique items other than guilds?]

[I have no idea?]

[It doesn’t matter. It's just so awesome! They're not just lending him a unique item, but they are giving it to him for free! This is so crazy that I can’t believe it!]

[There are also not that many of them in Korea!]

The number of viewers that had drastically dropped due to the prestigious raid parties ruining the atmosphere began to slowly rise again thanks to the Horus raid party’s jaw-dropping offer, which included unique items being mentioned.

‘H-Horus raid party? Just who are they?’?the raid party representatives were shocked when they heard the offer.

‘Hoo… Who is this Horus raid party?’?Han-Yeol thought as he felt his mood brighten up.

His mood had initially plummeted to the depths of the world as he had been prepared to unleash hell against the raid parties, but he soon relaxed when he saw the rapid influx of viewers that had gathered after hearing the rumors of unique items being offered to him.

In fact, Han-Yeol himself was curious about the unique items as well. The other raid parties did not matter to him anymore. He thought, ‘They were just pawns that I was willing to sacrifice anyway.’

Han-Yeol did not act up sooner not because he was folded to the prestigious guilds trying to teach him a lesson, but because he was thinking about how he was going to overturn this situation to increase his brand value which had been stagnant up until this point. He certainly did not expect that the person who would provide him with the solution was also among the representatives.

The sudden game-changing offer from the Horus raid party caused an uproar among the raid parties that were colluding with each other to reduce Han-Yeol for cheap.

[H-Hey you! Just who do you think you are to say such nonsense in here?!] one of the raid party representatives angrily yelled out.

[Are you making a mockery out of this sacred event?!] another raid party representative shouted.

[Who the hell are you people?! Who invited them here?!] another raid leader yelled out in anger.

Embarrassment, annoyance, and anger could be heard from the voices of the raid party representatives who had tried to collude together.

However, the game was almost over.

“Oppa,” Yoo-bi said as she slightly tilted the microphone down and looked at Han-Yeol.

When Yoo-Bi gave the signal and wondered what she was supposed to do next, Han-Yeol gave her a smile and nodded firmly.

Yoo-Bi, seeing Han-Yeol’s signal, nodded in response to say that she understood what he meant. She quickly returned to the microphone and announced, “The last raid party has submitted their proposal. It was originally planned that a few days would be taken to carefully discuss and weigh each and every one of the proposals, but Han-Yeol Hunter-nim has decided to make his decision right now. The raid party that has been selected from this raid party selection meeting is the Horus raid party! Congratulations!”

The chat room erupted as soon as Yoo-Bi’s announcement was done.

[Wow! I knew it!]

[Serves those arrogant raid parties right!]

[Screw you!]

[HAHAHAHAHA!]

[It’s been a while since I saw these arrogant raid parties get humiliated! This feels great!]

[Yoo-Bi! This oppa loves you so much!]

There were a few strange chats mixed in between, but the overall reactions were favorable to Han-Yeol.

The prestigious raid parties always had an air of arrogance around them, and the general sentiment toward them was not favorable. Many people were sick of their arrogance. That was why the viewers rejoiced when they saw these arrogant people suffer a blow.

[W-Wait! Our Hike raid party will raise the dividend for Lee Han-Yeol Hunter-nim to 3.0 and rent three special items for free whether he is in our raid or not! We will loan it for three years!] the representative of the Hike raid party said while panicking.

[Our Falcon raid party will also raise the dividend to 3.1 and loan our special items for free for five years!] the Falcon representative quickly interjected.

[Our Destino raid party will…!] another raid party quickly joined in.

The representative of each raid party started to panic when they realized that the tides had turned on them, and they hastily tried to raise their offers.

The raid parties that had colluded among themselves to try and scoop up Han-Yeol for cheap were now starting to enter into a bidding war in a last-ditch attempt to appeal to him. However, the damage had already been done and the situation could no longer be reversed no matter how much they tried, and there was no way that they could ever outbid the offer that had triggered this bidding frenzy in the first place.

[Tsk tsk… Do they think that they can beat the offer of free unique items?]

[Tell me about it! I would choose the proposal that’s offering to guarantee my freedom to do whatever I want even if the dividend is a bit lower! Not to mention, they made sure that it was going to be a no-brainer the moment they threw in the unique items as a gift!]

[I always say that our nation’s raid parties are all stupid.]

[How can they be so similar to politicians? Tsk tsk…]

Most of the viewers of the raid party selection meeting were from small or medium-sized raid parties and some temporary parties, so the flurry of criticism the prestigious raid parties suffered ended up becoming even harsher.

The average Hunter was often subjected to power abuse and being looked down on for being weak or having no backing by the members of the prestigious raid parties. This was why the viewers were relentless and merciless when it came to dishing out their criticism against these prestigious raid parties.

The natural law of this world dictated that the weak had to keep their mouths shut in public and keep their opinions to themselves. However, times have changed and the advancement of the internet granted people the gift of anonymity and the right to criticize along with it.

The pent-up anger that the ‘weak’ people felt had reached a tipping point long before, and Han-Yeol’s raid party selection meeting was the trigger that burst open the floodgates of criticism.

The raid party selection moderators were watching the situation unfold right before their very eyes, but they could not do anything about it. The torrent of malicious comments flooding in was too much for them to moderate.

‘Heh, they look like zombies chasing after a prey,’?Han-Yeol thought while being amused at the situation.

Han-Yeol could not listen to anything the raid party representatives were still shouting into their microphones as they tried to grab his attention, and this was because Yoo-Bi had already muted the broadcast from their side. However, she kept their side unmuted so that they could still hear Han-Yeol give a final closing speech.

Han-Yeol got up from his seat and went towards the microphone that Yoo-Bi had left for him. He said, “I would like to express my deepest gratitude and sincere apologies to all the viewers who watched my raid party selection meeting. I wanted to show you some thrilling and intense competitive bidding, and I also wanted to show off my cool side. Unfortunately, things did not go as I expected due to some unforeseen circumstances. That is why I am giving everyone who tuned in to the broadcast a one-time coupon to use on my channel for free as a token of my apology.”

[Oh wow! That is so cool!]

[Sweet!]

[I love you!]

[As expected, Lee Han-Yeol Hunter-nim is extremely generous!]

[God Han-Yeol!]

[Kyaah, I'm getting drunk from the euphoria!]

[So cool! Unlike a certain type of people!]

[Kukuku!]

By promising to give every single one of the viewers a free channel access coupon, Han-Yeol caused the chat room to erupt once again. The viewers were absolutely thrilled when he announced that he was giving away channel access for free, since a Hunter’s channel was always operated under a pay-per-view scheme.

However, Han-Yeol did not stop there.

“Lastly, I would like to thank the twenty-one raid parties that proposed their offers first. I was able to choose a raid party to join without having to contemplate on it too much thanks to all of you! I was originally planning to take around three days to consider every single offer proposed, but you people have helped me save three days of my time. Once again, I thank you for saving me those three days which I can now go and use to earn billions of won,” Han-Yeol said.

He explicitly directed his words toward the prestigious raid parties that had colluded against him.

The raid party representatives seemed like they were still trying to say something to grab his attention, but Han-Yeol could not hear them at all since they were muted. He also had no plans to listen to them any longer.

“I owe a big debt to all of you, and I will slowly pay it back someday. Once again, I would like to thank everybody who participated in this raid party selection meeting, and I hope all of you will have a wonderful day,” Han-Yeol greeted the participants for the final time before logging off.

Beep…!

Then, Han-Yeol pressed the button to end the broadcast. He did not completely terminate all connections, keeping his connection with the Horus raid party’s representative, who was presently still on his screen. Then, he turned on his audio and greeted, “Nice to meet you, representative of the Horus raid party.”

[Nice to meet you too, Lee Han-Yeol Hunter-nim, and thank you for choosing our Horus raid party,] the Horus raid party representative replied.

The Horus representative was extremely polite, just like how they were a while ago.

“How about we stop talking here and actually meet in person to continue our chat? After all, we are going to be a family now,” Han-Yeol said.

[I apologize. We would love to meet just like Hunter-nim suggested, but our master has requested us to invite you to a meeting, Lee Han-Yeol Hunter-nim. I hope that you will accept our master’s invitation,] the representative said.

‘I can’t refuse such a polite invitation,’ Han-Yeol thought.

“That would be great. I can expect the place to be nice, right?” Han-Yeol lightly joked, trying to lighten up the tense atmosphere.

The representative smiled slightly in response to Han-Yeol’s attempt, then said, [Of course, we cannot invite a person like you, Lee Han-Yeol Hunter-nim, to a shabby place. You do not have to worry about it at all. Ah, the place that we are going to invite you to is not far from where you are currently at. It is a small mansion near Seoul. We are not sure if it will be to your liking, but please forgive us if it does not live up to your expectations.]

‘Well, I don’t really have a specific place I want to go to anyway,’?Han-Yeol thought.

Han-Yeol did not think that there was any reason for a raid party that had gone through all the trouble of recruiting him to suddenly turn around and attack him without any reason. Besides, South Korea had one of the best security among the countries prior to and after the Dimensional Gate crisis.

“Can I bring my manager with me?” Han-Yeol asked the Horus representative.

[Of course, your manager and anyone else who you would like to come along are most welcome,] the Horus representative assured Han-Yeol.

“I see, then when should I go there?” Han-Yeol asked.

[You may come at any time that is convenient for you. We will prepare for your arrival if you contact us with the number we’ve provided,] the Horus representative explained.

“Hmm, I understand,” Han-Yeol said.

[Then, goodbye,] the representative said before hanging up.

After the video call with the Horus representative ended, Han-Yeol rubbed his chin and fell into deep thought. He began to wonder, ‘Something is strange…?It's already unusual for anyone to give away a unique item, but why?are they?being?so?polite?on top of that?’

Han-Yeol was well aware that his abilities were rare and that everyone wanted him to be a part of their group, but he had only shown a sliver of what he was really capable of. In fact, the ability he had showcased was not so amazing that it had given the prestigious raid parties the idea to collude against him. However, this raid party was being very humble toward him.

‘Well, I guess I’ll find out soon enough when I go there,’?Han-Yeol thought as he decided to push the matter to another time. It did not matter if the Horus raid party turned out to be a farce, since he was not in dire need of a raid party anyway. ‘If that is the case, I can just go alone.’

Han-Yeol decided to just take it easy and go with the flow. He asked Yoo-Bi, “Yoo-Bi, you’re coming with me this time right?”

“Of course, this is work after all,” Yoo-Bi replied.

“Hehe, okay,” Han-Yeol laughed at Yoo-Bi’s response.

Hearing the name, Horus raid party, suddenly made Han-Yeol feel confused. He could not help but feel like he had heard of the name before. He thought, ‘Where?did I hear?it?before…? I can’t remember all of a sudden.’?

***

Han-Yeol got into his van and drove towards the address that was on the message sent by the Horus raid party representative.

“I should be the one driving,” Yoo-Bi said from the passenger’s seat, feeling uncomfortable.

Yoo-Bi was Han-Yeol’s personal manager and Porter hired for his convenience, and it was unimaginable in a normal employer-employee relationship for a Porter to be comfortably sitting in the passenger seat while the Hunter was driving.

However, the relationship between the two was not just work-related anymore. They had been spending a lot of time together and their relationship was now also on a personal level. Han-Yeol considered Yoo-Bi as his own sister, and that was why he did not intend to make Yoo-Bi drive.

“Well, it's really not that far, and I can drive too,” Han-Yeol said.

Han-Yeol knew that he was now in a different social bracket, but he did not really care about that. This was just the sort of man that he was.

Also, the address provided by the Horus raid party was not that far away. The address was located at Gapyeong, a place where people often visited for vacations, and this place was famous for having a lot of country houses.

Han-Yeol and Yoo-Bi naturally assumed that they were going to the standard pretty brick houses that lined up the area, since a raid party could afford to purchase one of those without any difficulty. However…

“...”?Han-Yeol, who arrived at the address, could not help but be surprised.

“O-Oppa…” Yoo-Bi muttered in shock. Her eyes darted between the front of the van to Han-Yeol as if asking for an explanation.

Han-Yeol could not come to his own senses, so he was not in a position to respond. He simply shouted, “W-What the hell is this?!”

In front of Han-Yeol was a massive fenced-off land with a sign ‘private property’ in front of the main gate. The sign also had the address that was written on the cell phone message.

As they stared blankly from the middle of the road, two men wearing suits and sunglasses who were on guard at the entrance approached them.

Knock Knock…!

The two men knocked on the window of the van, and Han-Yeol lowered the window. One of the men in sunglasses asked, “This is a private prop… Oh, are you perhaps Lee Han-Yeol Hunter-nim?”

“Yes, i-is this perhaps where the Horus raid party is at?” Han-Yeol asked the man in sunglasses.

“Yes, that is correct. You arrived exactly on time for your appointment. Please come in, our master is waiting for your arrival,” the man said.

“Ah, o-okay,” Han-Yeol said.

Han-Yeol was trying to put up a front so that he would not look small in front of the imposing property, but he could not help but stutter while speaking. He did not really have the best pronunciation, but it got considerably worse now that he was nervous.

Clack… Creak…!

The guarded iron gate swung wide open, and Han-Yeol took a deep breath before slowly driving the van inside. While still seemingly shakened, he wondered to himself, ‘Just who the hell is this Horus raid party?’