Chapter 335
The secretary was surprised by how the person on the phone responded.
‘He’s more patient than I thought?’
-...Tell Hunter Choi Yeonseung that I’ll be waiting for him to contact me.
-Yes, I understand.
In this situation, other people would’ve responded with something like “Hunter Choi Yeonseung is taking advantage of the United States to unreasonably bully good countries! Such hegemony is unforgivable!”
However, the conclusion of this call was amazing!
“Don’t be too anxious. They’re just being petty,” said Aine, offering careful advice.
It might’ve been different for other countries, but the Chinese government would hold onto grudges for an absurd amount of time.
Normally, if other countries got scolded because an internal situation, like a monster invasion, was getting out of hand, the government would just suck it up, even though it was unpleasant, if the critique was valid.
However, China would just get defensive in a situation like that, replying with hostility, “How dare you interfere in the matters of our country? We will retaliate by any means possible!” Then, they would unreasonably punish the people who called them out.
In the current situation, the Chinese officials felt regretful, so they swallowed their pride, bowed their heads to Choi Yeonseung, and called him for help… Although, there was still a chance that later on they would forget about this and try to retaliate.
“I swear, if they try to get revenge on me...” Choi Yeonseung murmured.
“The easiest thing would be to target Dragon Industry.”
Banning the sales of Dragon Industry-related goods, blocking the export of various raw materials, causing a disturbance in front of the factories in China...
“But wouldn’t that blow up in their face?”
When going after a specific target, one naturally had to be prepared to get hit back. Dragon Industry was an American company, and the US government would most certainly not stand by and watch as one of their companies was being attacked by China.
“Well, China doesn’t care about diplomacy in the first place and just acts...”
“That’s true.”
Choi Yeonseung was convinced about China’s policies!
“Putting that aside, it’s still weird... Why are they contacting me like this? It’s not like there’s a shortage of A-grade hunters,” Choi Yeonseung wondered.
“Don’t they think you know something about the situation?”
“!”
Aine’s words caused Choi Yeonseung to have a lightbulb moment. Come to think of it, it wouldn’t be strange for the Chinese government to misunderstand that Choi Yeonseung knew what the situation was in Guangzhou.
After all, he had warned the other hunters not to steal or smuggle monsters because of how dangerous things could get…
‘If you can assume that, you should’ve listened to me, you bastards.’
Choi Yeonseung found it very insulting that they were asking him for help after essentially throwing his sincere advice in the trash.
And apart from that…
‘I don’t know that much either…?’
Choi Yeonseung didn’t know much about the current situation. Of course, the Future Sight vision had shown him a monster unleashing destruction, but other than that, it had been rather vague.
“I don’t know anything besides that… That’s a big problem.”
Aine suggested, “Since they’ve got the wrong idea, can’t we use that to our advantage and squeeze information out of them? Wait, would that be too devious?”
Once again, Aine had spoken without thinking it through. When she realized how her suggestion sounded, she immediately tried to back down on it.
“What nonsense are you saying? Of course, we should do that! Call them again! Let’s do it!”
“I guess? I was thinking that too.”
Choi Yeonseung nodded.
-If you tell me about the current situation in Guangzhou, I’ll consider helping you guys.
In fact, Choi Yeonseung wasn’t expecting much. Perhaps it was taking so long because a unique monster appeared and took over an important area, making it impossible to do a raid without collateral damage.
...However, the answer that came back from the contact person was beyond Choi Yeonseung’s imagination.
***
China’s C-grade hunter, Xia Ling, was an ordinary hunter belonging to the Five Dragons clan.
Generally speaking, there were two types of C-grade hunters.
There were the C-grade hunters who burned with ambition to gain a higher rank and rejoice in wealth and fame. The majority of hunters retired or relocated after they reached E or D-grade, so C-grade was definitely a coveted position…
However, in order to live the life of glamor of debauchery like those hunters portrayed in the media, one had to be close to B-grade at the very least.
…But not all hunters were like this.
Quite a few C-grade hunters gave up their greed and chose to simply be grateful that they had been lucky enough to make it that far. They had been on the verge of dying against monsters many times along the way. How could they keep fighting to get to B-grade?
-I just need to save up my fortune and retire. If I invest smartly, I won’t have to be jealous of other rich people ever again.
-I’m going to appear on a show.
-I was invited by a company this time. I’ll enter the world of corporations.
Xia Ling was the typical case of a hunter who just wanted to live his life comfortably. Thus, he was quite irritated by this Guangzhou incident.
-What kind of lunatic smuggled monsters?!
-Shh, be quiet. There’s nothing good about public peace. The government probably let this happen.
-I thought I could take it easy after the last monster wave.
The last few years had been tough for the Chinese hunters. An S-grade monster had appeared on the continent because of the monster wave, and after that, the party had ordered them to attack the realm of a constellation…
If the governments of other countries gave unreasonable orders to a clan, the hunters would protest vehemently and refuse to carry out the orders. However, in the case of China, if a hunter talked back to a party member, they would get a one-way ticket to a special prison.
No matter how infuriating it was, the hunters had to smile and obey.
Do you want strength?
-...??
Do you want strength?
-What the... I-Is it a constellation? Which constellation is it?
I’m not a constellation yet, but I can give you more power than a constellation could.
-...I-I don’t believe it. I don’t know what you’re doing, but show yourself! There are dozens of hunters waiting behind here?
Foolish human. Fine. I shall tell you who I am. My name is Almagoria, and I am the king of kings who rules all the vampires in the endless Abyss!
-???
Bam!
Xia Ling felt a tingling sensation in the back of his head before he lost consciousness. After waking up, he was a completely different person.
“I made up my mind.”
“??”
“What are you on about, Xia Ling?”
“I... I am the king of Guangzhou. I am the king of Guangzhou!!”
“...”
“...”
“Hey, that’s pretty creative, huh? Are you pretending to be crazy so you can leave the city?”
“Stop it, you dumbass! Are you trying to get punished by the clan?!”
His colleagues were frightened and tried to get Xia Ling to stop with this nonsense. However, Xia Ling didn’t listen to them.
“I am the king of Guangzhou!”
“Aghh!” One of the hunters groaned as Xia Ling grabbed him by the neck and dragged him through the defenses. How was he so strong?
Xia Ling’s were glowing red as he exuded a huge amount of magic power from all over his body.
The hunter who was being dragged felt exactly like he had during the S-grade monster raid: he felt helpless and terrified.
“King... You’re right! You are the king! You are the king!” cried out the hunter, desperate to live.
Xia Ling smiled and nodded with satisfaction.
“Yes! I am the king. You are the first to admit it, so I’ll make you prime minister.”
“...”
‘Even if he went crazy, this is too much...’
The hunter realized that Xia Ling had to have been affected by some sort of psychic attack or some other thing that messed with his brain…
What the hell was going on…?
“Gasp...”
“How dare you look at your king like that?!”
“N-No, Your Majesty! I’m sorry!”
“We were wrong!”
Xia Ling didn’t stop. He knocked all the clan hunters to their knees and moved to another clan area.
The hunters tried to think about what to do.
‘If I go somewhere else, will this end...?’
‘Maybe. How many hunters are here?’
Xia Ling had either taken the wrong medicine or received the wrong power from a constellation. But at the end of the day, he was still a C-grade hunter.
The rest of the hunters thought that if other hunters from other sectors intervened, this mess would be over.
...But that wasn’t the case.
Bang!
“Wei... Wei Chang?!”
Xu Ling defeated Wei Chang, China’s A-grade hunter.
Wei Chang stared at the broken sword in his hand and then at his opponent in disbelief. He had never expected this C-grade hunter, leagues below him, to be so strong.
Wei Chang couldn’t believe that Xu Ling effortlessly blocked his magic swordsmanship, which he was very confident in, and shattered his artifact.
“Wei Chang was defeated?”
“Don’t be stupid! Wei Chang can’t lose! He’ll get serious now and kick this guy’s ass!”
Wei Chang’s face turned red when he heard the other hunters shouting behind him.
Unfortunately, due to the hunters’ terrible performance in the dungeon prepared by the explosion constellation, even the Chinese people were saying, “What the hell are the A-grade hunters doing that they can’t even clear a dungeon when they’re supposed to?”
“...I’ll do it right away!” Wei Chang exclaimed fiercely as he unleashed more magic power. He was going all out…
“...?!”
Before he managed to do anything, Wei Chang was baffled by a red energy wrapping around his body.
[Almagoria’s Blood has absorbed your magic power!]
[All the opponent’s skills are blocked!]
[Almagoria’s Blood forces the opponent to follow your order!]
Xia Ling was baffled by how much power he gained.
“Ahahahahaha! Ahahahahaha!”
“...”
“...”
The moment Xia Ling knocked down and subdued Wei Chang, an A-grade hunter trusted by everyone, all the other hunters fell silent. They felt as if the world was about to end.
“Address me with ‘Your Majesty,’ your bastards!”
“Gh… Ghaah. Go die! Where did this C-grade hunter...”
“Bah!”
“Ghaah!”
“I’m not addressing you with ‘Majesty’!”
“Aaghh! Ghaah! Your... Your Majesty!”
“Yes! Now, what are you going to do?”
“...Y-your Majesty!”
“Your Majesty...!”
Just like that, Xia Ling subdued all the clans in the city, one by one.
The moment several top hunters were contaminated by some peculiar blood and succumbed to it, the hunters below them were unable to escape or fight back.
The Chinese government was busy controlling information and realized what was happening too late.
-...Why are all the clans gathered in one place when each of them should occupy the areas designated to them? Find out what’s going on!
-I am the king! Get lost! Tell the party that this is MY kingdom now! I want them to officially recognize my kingdom and send diplomats! I will tear down this whole area if anybody does anything wrong!
-What... What are you talking about?
Frightened, the government officials mobilized the military and the hunters outside Guangzhou, but Xia Ling was formidable. He summoned the vampires and commanded the hunters he had captured to fend off the attacks from the military and outside hunters.
Just like that, Guangzhou had become a semi-independent country.
***
“...It’s creative.”
Choi Yeonseung was impressed.
Every time he looked at hunters, they would always come up with something creative, like renting a hotel and seeing who would destroy it faster with magic, finding a way to combine drugs with psychedelic magic to have the most amount of fun, driving a car over 186 miles per hour in the city center, etc.
However, this incident was especially creative. China was still intact, but a hunter occupied a city and declared that it was his kingdom.
-Successor, can we also do this?
“...”
Choi Yeonseung considered it for a moment but quickly came to his senses.
‘Whops, I was thinking about something crazy.’
That hunter had declared that Guangzhou would be an independent country, but there was no chance the Chinese government would recognize it. Not even the countries that hated China would acknowledge it.
Because of that, the so-called kingdom wouldn’t last long…
“Hunter clans have actually established countries in regions with unstable security, such as South America and Africa... There’s also a country in Eastern Europe where a hunter became a dictator. But I didn’t expect this guy to do something like this so confidently…”
Aine also hadn’t expected this. She had just thought that a monster problem had broken out. She hadn’t expected a crazy hunter to claim a city as his own country.
“But isn’t it good that it’s a human and not a monster? If negotiations go well, we can rescue the people trapped in the city.”
“That’s true, but...”
The secretary, who was listening to the conversation between the two of them, carefully said, “China is still waiting for an answer. What should I tell the person?”
The contact person had endured all kinds of humiliations, but despite that, he had still given Choi Yeonseung valuable information. Thus, they had to show him some compassion.
They had to give them advice on how to handle the situation!
“Tell them to do their best and work hard.”
“...Uh, should I really tell them that?”
“Yes, tell them.”
For the first time, Aine felt sorry for the other person.
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