Leveling Up Alone

[To strike the heart by concentrating mana stronger than the Emperor’s.]

Karvis had discovered Emperor Qin’s weakness through her analytical skill. Thus, Han-Yeol specifically chose to use a stabbing attack.

Crumble.

Emperor Qin raised his right hand and looked down at his crumbling hand in despair.

[My second life comes to an end in vain just like this…]

“You’re nothing more than a ghost of history that existed in the past. Your life ended thousands of years ago.”

[Hahaha, what a shame. If it weren’t for you, this world would’ve been mine.]

“...”

Han-Yeol didn’t have much of a response to this, so he kept his mouth shut.

‘There’s no need for hypotheticals for things that already happened.’

Emperor Qin held out his arm, which was now nearly gone.

[I will definitely be resurrected once more someday. Then I will…]

He couldn't finish his sentence.

Whoosh!

The wind blew, completely sweeping away the last remaining bits of Emperor Qin’s body.

[Kugh!]

[T-This can’t be…!]

With the death of the emperor, the power that made up the terracotta warriors also disappeared.

[Ahhhh!]

[P-Please!]

[I don’t want to die!]

They were already dead beings who had been resurrected as terracotta warriors. They screamed in terror and ran away, trying to stay alive, but it was all useless. They also turned to dust and disappeared with the wind.

***

Crack!

[Agh!]

One top-ranked Hunter trembled as his neck was stepped on by a foot made of dirt, killing him instantly.

After brutally killing all five high-ranking Chinese Hunters who had been called upon in an emergency, Li Yuxin finally succeeded in plunging his sword into Liu Shibo’s neck as the man tried to escape.

[L-Li Yuxin…!]

[Die, you piece of crap.]

Gush!

[Agh!]

The high-ranking Hunter team, including Liu Shibo, was wiped out.

Emperor Qin’s defense line had been organized to the best of its ability, but it was nothing more than a lantern in the wind in the face of Li Yuxin’s overwhelming strength.

Shhhh!

[Huh?]

Suddenly, his surroundings became noisy. It had been noisy this whole time, but while the previous noise involved explosions and enemy screams, the current noise came from the terracotta warriors.

The terracotta warriors, who had been wiping out their enemies without any sense of self, had suddenly started to scream.

[Ahhhh!]

[P-Please d-don’t kill me!]

When the emperor died, the chains that had bound their sense of self disappeared, causing them to revert to their former selves for a moment. They struggled to stay alive, but they were already dead beings and had no power to maintain their current bodies.

There was only one place for them to go: hell.

[T-This can’t be!] Li Yuxin exclaimed in shock.

He had been so busy dealing with Liu Shibo that he only just realized that his master, Emperor Qin, had died.

He quickly turned around. [Long Er!]

Long Er had been reacting to Li Yuxin’s words with an expressionless face, but she now stood there with the same lively expression she usually had in the past even though her body had turned into clay. However, the smile plastered on her face was a sad one.

[Yuxin…] Long Er uttered.

[Nooo!]

Shaaa.

She, too, was dead and had been transformed into a terracotta warrior. Naturally, when Emperor Qin died, the mana that had made up her body slowly started to disappear.

Li Yuxin trembled, but he still couldn’t bear to touch her. He felt like if he touched her even the slightest bit, she would turn to dust and disappear.

[Yuxin, thank you for loving someone like me… I love you…]

Shaa!

[A-Ahhhhhhh! Long Errrr!]

Long Er eventually turned to dust and disappeared.

Li Yuxin had to feel the despair of losing the woman he loved once again.

Shhh.

Sand and dirt also fell from Li Yuxin’s body as he hugged the sand where Long Er had turned to dust. However, he was not like Long Er or the other terracotta warriors. As the dirt and sand fell away, his original human form appeared.

Step, step.

Countless footsteps echoed around Li Yuxin.

***

After defeating Emperor Qin, Han-Yeol received a significant reward. His level jumped from five hundred sixty-eight to six hundred, a whopping thirty-two levels.

There was no other reward besides the level increase, but a thirty-two level increase was still a massive reward. Additionally, there was a different reward that Han-Yeol really needed anyway.

Whoosh. Tak!

“This is the Grey Stone, right?” Han-Yeol asked.

[Yes, it is,] answered Noras, the head of the Roe Deer race.

Noras stood right beside Han-Yeol and stared at the Grey Stone in Han-Yeol’s hand with sparkling eyes.

“It’s incredible. It has so much mana.”

Han-Yeol was ecstatic at the magma-like mana he felt from the Grey Stone.

Noras, who was also a wise sorcerer, advised Han-Yeol, [But you have to be careful. Objects that contain powerful mana also contain danger.]

“I know, which is why I put the Black Stone in the subspace storage too.”

Whoosh!

Han-Yeol threw the Grey Stone behind his back and into the subspace storage, which then slammed its door shut and disappeared.

The subspace storage only appeared when Han-Yeol summoned it. It was like the safest vault in the world, a safe place to keep the rare Black and Grey Stones without worrying about the hyenas stealing them.

[It’s an amazing skill every time I see it—a place that’s safe from any danger…]

The Bastrolings lost many treasures to the hyenas every time they went to war.

‘If only we had a storage like that, we wouldn’t have lost so many precious treasures.’

Even though it all happened long ago, Noras’ heart still ached for the lost treasures. However, things were better these days. Han-Yeol had brought new hope to the Bastro Dimension, along with the possibility of finding their lost treasures again.

“Ahh!”

Crack!

Han-Yeol did a big stretch, and his joints popped, making a sound that sounded satisfying to anyone listening.

“I can’t wait to rest!”

It wasn’t like he hadn’t gotten much rest in China, but even the most luxurious hotel couldn’t compare to his mansion, which had taken a long time and nearly a trillion won to build.

*

The two giant monster armies that terrorized China were now gone. Commoners fluttered the Chinese flag and rejoiced that they were finally free from the monsters.

The whole country was in a festive mood, but there was also a place where the atmosphere was more like a household in mourning. It was the conference room of the World Alliance army’s chief executives.

[...]

[Damn it!]

Bang!

The meeting was held by high-ranking executives, so the atmosphere rarely got this dark, but now it was so fierce that it would explode at any moment. The situation was bad.

[Damn it! We’re the ones incurring all the losses so far, but Hunter Lee Han-Yeol is the one receiving all the fame!]

To the high-ranking executives, the happiness of the commoners, who were finally free from the two terrible monster armies, was not important. What mattered was that all the honor, praise, and most importantly, all the profit had once again been sent to Han-Yeol.

[The HUN is very upset about this, and they said they’re going to halve the original recovery fund.]

[W-What!?]

The rest of the HUN chief executives, except for the staff in charge who worked together with the Chinese government, had left for Europe as soon as they heard that Han-Yeol had killed Emperor Qin.

Because Han-Yeol had killed all the monsters, it had ruined all the HUN’s plans to kill Emperor Qin as well as the Demon King and his immediate subordinates, recover the mana stone, and recoup the money they had invested.

Han-Yeol had, of course, taken that mana stone. Moreover, most of the mana stones the World Alliance army had obtained were useless. With such great losses, the HUN was, undoubtedly, incredibly furious.

[J-Just how!]

‘Damn it. I was going to do something big with that money!’

The HUN had promised they would give China a huge recovery fund when the war was over, and in return, China had given the HUN an increased share of the mana stones. However, China and the HUN lost more than they gained, as Han-Yeol had taken all the major profits.

Unfortunately, the US had recently cut back on its international activities and withdrawn its funding from HUN, so the cash-strapped HUN was unable to give China the full amount promised for the recovery fund. Even half the original amount was too much for them, but a promise was a promise. So, even though they didn’t want to give China the money at all, they cut the amount in half and settled for a ten-year installment plan.

Nobody knew how long it would take for the western and southern regions of China to recover from this modern-day monster version of the Three Kingdoms, which destroyed buildings, crops, people, and animals.

The larger the land, the more costly and time-consuming it would be to recover from the damages. With the HUN’s funding halved and not as many mana stones coming in as they’d hoped, China couldn’t afford the repair bills.

Ironically, the chief executives of the Chinese Hunters were more upset that their plan to steal the funds for the repair bills had been ruined than the fact that there was a problem with making the repairs.

Regardless of whether the chief executives had the funds, it was the 1.3 billion ordinary Chinese people who had to suffer, although that number had shrunk so much that now it was probably less than a billion people.

Bang!

[W-We’re in trouble!] [What’s all the fuss? I told you not to come in unless it’s something special!]

[What’s going on?]

[T-There are riots happening all over the country.]

[What?]

Thud!

A high-ranking official stood up from his seat so fast that his chair tipped over backward and made a loud clatter.

[Elaborate!]

[According to the news, mobs have stormed the military compound with guns and have stolen large amounts of guns, heavy weapons, and other equipment.]

[Wow! The whole country is in a crisis, and they dare to start a riot?]

[Call in the Hunters right now and capture all of them!]

The use of Hunters in the face of civilian protests was against international law and the recommendations of the Human Rights Commission. However, China never paid attention to international law and the recommendations of the Human Rights Commission in the first place.

[T-Thats…]

[What are you waiting for?!]

[T-That’s, um…]

The soldier who delivered the news couldn’t answer easily.

[Speak up!]

[According to other news, there are rumors that contact with the troops on the front lines has been lost and that the troops are too in agreement with this coup…]

[What!?]

[N-No way…]

The mood in the conference room quickly turned sour.

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