Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 460 - Spatial Property Force (1)

Krr krr!

When Han-Yeol burst through the gate in the boss’s chamber, he didn’t find himself on the strange island in the North Pacific where they had first crashed.

‘Karvis?’

Thanks to Karvis’ analytical abilities, he was equipped with a GPS, a feature that didn’t work in other dimensions. Han-Yeol summoned Karvis and instructed her to locate where they were, but for some reason, their current location felt vaguely familiar.

‘I feel like I’ve seen this place before.’

He hadn’t been to many islands in the past, so it was obviously a new place for him. But somehow, he felt like he had seen this place many times before through TV and photos.

Karvis’ next words explained why he felt this way.

[T-This is H-Hawaii.]

‘Hawaii?’

[That’s right. The strange island that we landed on and Hawaii are very far from each other, but this is where that weird gate led us...]

Karvis’ voice conveyed a sense of absurdity.

While gates could connect between dimensions, bridging this distance might not seem problematic. However, the destination it led them to was Hawaii, an unexpectedly random tourist spot.

Han-Yeol and Karvis both found this ridiculous.

“This is?” Stewart asked, realizing that Han-Yeol had figured out the location.

“Oh, t-thats...” Han-Yeol stuttered, then told Stewart and the others what Karvis had told him.

The funny thing was that even Scarlett didn’t realize that they were in Hawaii. She’d been to almost every place in the world, so it was obvious that she had been to Hawaii before. The problem was that this was Lehua, a very small and desolate yet beautiful island off the tip of Hawaii.

This island resembled a crab's pincers and harbored only a sparse array of plants and animals. Its desolation meant only a handful of tourists knew of it, and it was used for occasional photo shoots, making it an unlikely destination for a top-tier agent like Scarlett.

Thud!

“Waa!”

“Waaa!”

Sniffle sniffle!

Once it was clear that there were no longer any monsters there to threaten them, the civilian crew members started to cry, letting out their sorrow.

Up until this point, survival had been their priority, so they couldn't cry or grieve to their hearts’ content, even if they were injured and scared. But now that they were out of the dungeon, they could release their built-up emotions as much as they wanted.

“Yoon-Chul... Waa!”

The sense of loss for those who lost a close colleague was indescribable. In this industry, people often worked in teams for a long period of time, so it was common for people to join the company and retire at the same time. The loss of such coworkers was devastating.

“What do I tell your wife, you idiot?”

One of the men who died was a newlywed who had been married for less than two years and had a pregnant wife at home.

‘This makes me feel uncomfortable.’

Although the accident had happened during their shift and should have been covered by workers’ compensation, Han-Yeol couldn’t help but feel that he hadn’t done enough to protect them.

Of course, Han-Yeol hadn’t necessarily done anything wrong. He had also fallen into the trap along with them, and the death of the crew members was because of the monster's surprise attacks. He had clearly told them to stay hidden, but their curiosity had gotten the better of them, leading them to poke out their heads, only to be attacked and killed without Han-Yeol even realizing it.

Still, having so many deaths on his team certainly dealt a bit of a blow to his pride.

“Don’t let it bother you too much.”

“Ah, yeah, I shouldn’t, I shouldn’t, but...”

‘I can’t control how I feel... This is so annoying.’

If people could control their feelings, how great would that be? Han-Yeol mulled over it, deemed it impossible, and then let out a self-mocking laugh.

They had made it to a safe area, but unfortunately, they couldn’t grieve to their hearts’ content because it had been a while since the crash, and they had to tell their home country about this as soon as possible.

‘I left bombs in South Korea and the Atarinia Archipelago that could go off at any moment. Haha.’

Han-Yeol had two kinds of very loyal subordinates: the strongest warriors from the Bastro Dimension and the others who didn’t even know which dimension they were from.

In any case, the bombs were the Black Orcs Han-Yeol had transformed into completely new beings. They were able to adapt and live because of Han-Yeol as he acted as the control element, but what if Han-Yeol prolonged his absence?

This could cause them to cause trouble with humans in some way.

Therefore, it was important for Han-Yeol to announce that he was alive in Korea as soon as possible to reassure the Bastro Warriors and the Black Orcs.

‘I’m always busy, whether I’m in a strange dimension or on Earth.’

Though this wasn’t exact since they were on a different time axis, according to Karvis’ calculations, he had been working day and night in a strange place for roughly three months without a day’s rest. He honestly just wanted to relax and enjoy a vacation in this tourist spot, Hawaii, with white girls, but unfortunately, he couldn't even though he was the strongest Hunter out there.

“What are you looking at, Han-Yeol?”

“I-It’s nothing, Scarlett.”

‘Ha, what a waste.’

While she paled in comparison to Tayarana, Scarlett's beauty was such that she could easily rival any Eastern celebrity. It would be so much fun to enjoy a vacation together with her, day and night, but he didn’t have the time for that right now.

‘Ugh!’

He really wanted to, though.

‘Smack.’

After smacking his lips, Han-Yeol sighed heavily and gathered his group to start moving again. A few tourists were fascinated by the poorly dressed members of Han-Yeol’s group, but he wasn’t nosy enough to care what they thought. After all, they wouldn’t have understood each other anyway.

Hawaii was made up of a number of large and small islands, making Han-Yeol's sudden appearance there technically an illegal entry into the United States. This could’ve been a problem, as the United States was pretty strict about illegal stays, but within their group, they had Scarlett, one of the highest-ranking secret agents even in the United States.

Once she stepped in, everything went smoothly.

Han-Yeol then went to the Korean Consulate General in Honolulu and made a direct phone call to his mansion in South Korea to inform them of his safe return.

‘The protocol is to notify the government or the Hunter’s Association, but I don’t want the Bastro kids to freak out because I didn’t notify the mansion.’

Han-Yeol didn’t care so much about the government or the association, but he did care about what Riru thought. She was a female Bastro Warrior who had been by his side like an older sister or mother since his days as Harkan and had fought alongside him in many battles. Many Bastrolings knew Riru as Harkan’s subordinate, but she wasn’t. In fact, she was his best ally.

Along the way, however, Han-Yeol learned a surprising piece of information.

“Huh!? Really?”

“Y-Yes, it’s true.”

Due to the surprise, Han-Yeol instinctively released his mana flow, and the consulate employee could barely open his mouth to reply.

“T-That can’t be...”

Han-Yeol was in disbelief.

[T-That’s surprising.]

Not only was Han-Yeol surprised, but Karvis, who tended to be more rational, was also quite surprised. The three-month period they had anticipated, allowing for some margin of error in their calculations, turned out to be entirely inaccurate.

In reality, Han-Yeol had been missing since the plane crash for only about twenty-eight days, which was less than a month. In other words, less than a third of the time had passed compared to what Karvis had estimated.

‘Well, that’s not too bad.’

[Really?]

‘Yeah, we spent about three months in that world, but we’ve spent less than a month in real-time, so it's basically like we got two months for free.’

[That’s true.]

‘There’s a saying for a time like this.’

[What a deal.]

‘What a deal!’

Karvis said it about a tenth of a second faster, making her and Han-Yeol say it almost simultaneously.

‘Oh, you’re quick to catch on.’

[There is a saying that the sparrow near a school sings the primer.]

‘Haha, true. Karvis, you’re much better than a sparrow.’

[Aren’t you saying the obvious too naturally?]

'Well, how else am I supposed to state the obvious if not naturally?’

[Hmm, I haven’t thought about that.]

‘Then keep thinking about that, Karvis-nim.’

[Alright.]

After sending Karvis into a spiral of thoughts, Han-Yeol informed Stewart of this.

Sadly, Scarlett had already parted ways, as she had to return to her organization’s secret hideout in Hawaii because she had been away for too long.

“I assumed so.”

“Huh, really?”

“Yes. Didn’t you know already?”

Stewart cocked his head slightly and looked at Han-Yeol with an expression as if to ask why he was asking the obvious.

Of course, it wasn’t like Han-Yeol didn’t have anything to say.

“Yeah, I knew there was a time warp, but I didn’t think it would cut down to a fraction.”

Stewart shook his head at Han-Yeol.

“Han-Yeol-nim, you’re an amateur for not expecting that. Time warping is very much possible, especially with that particular place since that damned angel had set it all up. We should be grateful that the time warp only had a difference of a third.”

“Okay, okay, you’re the smartest of us all.”

“Well, I definitely am the best at magic in the human world.”

“Ugh, you’re so annoying.”

Han-Yeol was trying to be sarcastic toward Stewart, but the way he took it so nonchalantly made him even more annoying.

Regardless, Stewart continued to ask him more questions.

“Does that mean we can go to Korea now?”

“No, Korea said they’re going to pick us up directly.”

“Huh?”

Stewart furrowed his brows at Han-Yeol’s answer. He didn’t understand why they had to go through the trouble of waiting for someone to pick them up from Korea.