I Alone Level-Up

The Korean media was fired up.

Two nation team up! j.a.pan and Korea joining forces to defeat the magical beasts that turned Jeju Island into a wasteland!

What story could possibly be more exciting for the nation"s citizens than the reclamation of their land from the hands of the magical creatures? Every news broadcast dedicated a segment of their programme to airing news about the planned raid, and pieces on the Korean-j.a.panese S-rank superteam covered the front page of every newspaper.

At least in Korea.

For even though the j.a.panese hunters outnumbered the Koreans 3 to 1 in the operation, the j.a.panese media was strangely silent (although n.o.body in Korea noticed amidst the fanfare). On the few articles that did appear, the comments were all negative.

[So the Koreans are so incompetent that they couldn"t even close the gate by themselves? OMEGALUL]

[Why tf do we have to clean up Korea"s s.h.i.+t.]

[They better be compensating us for the damages we incurred from that ant.]

[An incompetent j.a.panese Hunter a.s.sociation, and a bunch of irresponsible Korean hunter s.h.i.+ts. I hope they all drop dead on Jeju Island.]

Although the two nations worked towards the same goal, their citizenry clearly had different opinions of the multilateral effort.

But the hunters and the national a.s.sociations either did not see or did not care about the Internet quibbles, and the day of the operation slowly drew near.

Meanwhile, for Jinwoo, these few days had been the happiest ever since his mother had been hospitalized.

His life had changed suddenly, again. First, he had escorted his mother home from the hospital.

Click.

As he opened the door, he froze, trying to process the size of the mess Jin-Ah had managed to create in the few days he was in the Demon Castle.

"..."

His mother simply smiled as she calmed down Jinwoo, who was pinching hard on Jin-Ah"s cheek in exasperation.

After that, they had spent the next few hours cleaning up the house. Despite having regained consciousness for the first time in four years, the first thing his mother had wanted to do after getting back home was cleaning up. Jinwoo tried relentlessly to dissuade her, to convince her to take some rest, but she stubbornly insisted, and the entire family found themselves rolling up their sleeves and getting down to work.

But as the house grew cleaner, their three faces grew brighter. The home which had felt painfully empty since Park Kyung-Hye had been hospitalized finally felt whole again, and for the first time in a long four years, Jinwoo felt like he could finally stretch his legs out and shut his eyes, and truly relax.

The next morning, as Jinwoo came down the stairs, he froze as he saw his mother cutting green onions in the kitchen [1], and the reality of the situation truly, finally hit him. His mother was back.

She smiled as she saw Jinwoo descend, gesturing towards the breakfast, already prepared, on the dining table.

"Did you sleep well son?"

"...yes."

Jinwoo answered sleepily, and smiled.

-----

An old man with thick-looking gla.s.ses filled the TV screen. He was helpfully introduced as an expert on magic creatures.

"The speed at which these ant-like magic creatures have been evolving is truly extraordinary."

The talk show host, a younger man, seated across the desk, recoiled in mock horror, and replied with an exaggerated astonishment.

"They can evolve!? I thought the winged ant discovered in j.a.pan was simply a mutant?"

"You"re correct. But the number of such mutants will continue growing, and, in the case of a beneficial mutation like this one, eventually overtake the original variant in number. That is what we call evolution."

Then the program seamlessly cut to a prepared video: the appearance of the ants on the first and second attempts to close the S-ranked gate.

As the video started, footage of the first failed expedition was shown. Hunters battled huge groups of the monsters, which, from all appearances, looked and acted simply like giant ants, crawling across the floor in droves.

Then the video was briefly paused.

"You see, initially, these magic beasts were simply particularly dangerous giant ants. But now, see how they changed in our third attempt to close the gate."

The video resumed, switching scenes to the third attempt. Shockingly, the ants were like almost completely different creatures. Their enormous heads had shrunk, to a more human-like proportion, and their four front legs were used like human hands. They moved with far greater agility.

"In just 2 years, many of the characteristics defining the species itself had changed substantially."

The audience murmured with a mixture of fear and surprise. It was plain to them, and to everyone who was tuned in to the segment, that these ants resembled human-ant hybrids far more than simple giant ants. The expert continued.

"And this is the appearance of these ant-like magic creatures when they recently appeared in j.a.pan."

Yet again, the video began playing, and a collective gasp rose from the audience.

The ant was now more human-like than ever, and - perhaps more startlingly, had enormous wings jutting from its back.

The show host quickly spoke up with a startled voice.

"Those wings...are you saying this thing can fly now?"

"Yes, unfortunately, that is correct. This will be a decisive moment for the Korean-j.a.panese hunter alliance."

"Korean-j.a.panese hunter alliance, huh."

Jinwoo quietly turned off the TV as those words came out.

He had ultimately chosen to decline Go Gun-hee"s request to join the operation.

Initially, when Go Gun-hee had presented the plan, Jinwoo was thrilled at the prospect of being able to gain experience. But as his excitement subsided and he reevaluated the situation more objectively, he realized that he couldn"t accept Go Gun-hee"s invitation.

"It hasn"t even been a day since my mother woke up. And she doesn"t even know that I became a hunter."

He remembered, with great pain, how his father had gone missing in a gate, and how his mother, distraught, didn"t sleep a full night for months.

No, after all that she"d been through, he couldn"t tell his mother now, after their first reunion in years, that he had become a hunter and he intended on going into a S-ranked gate on Jeju Island. No matter what, at the very least, he would stay with his family for the next few days.

"I..."

He didn"t want to say it, but he gathered his resolve and, with great difficulty, continued.

"...will not partic.i.p.ate."

His mind was firm as the words finally came out. He would not regret his decision.

A colossal amount of experience awaited him on Jeju Island, and declining the raid meant turning it all down. But Jinwoo didn"t care. This was something more important than experience. It was the moment he had been desperately waiting the past four years for, the very reason that he had endured torturous training over and over just to become stronger.

Even now, Jinwoo did not regret his decision. Still...

[Why is Sung Jinwoo not on the list of Korean partic.i.p.ants?]

[Kek you think he"s changed just because he became an S-rank? Once an E-rank, always an E-rank. He probably p.i.s.sed his pants and ran lol]

[Literally all 21 j.a.panese S-rank hunters are partic.i.p.ating, and Korea"s got a fckin retired hunter partic.i.p.ating...and Sung Jinwoo isn"t? SMH]

[He"s acting like this after becoming an S-rank hunter? This is so embarra.s.sing T.T]

Jinwoo chuckled wryly at the keyboard warriors huffing and puffing without any real understanding of the situation.

"As if they knew. Well, I don"t really care what other people say about me, and I don"t think my mom will see, given that she doesn"t even use the Internet. On the other hand..."

Jin-ah seemed to have gotten quite upset over what people were saying about Jinwoo, and Jinwoo so far had been unable to convince her to let it go.

Tsk.

Jinwoo clicked his tongue and put his phone down. It was merely unfortunate timing. If the raid were happening a week or two later instead, he almost certainly would have gone.

He looked around, noting how quiet the house was. His mother had gone to bed early, and his sister wouldn"t be home for another few hours. With nothing to do, he decided to go outside and get some fresh air for a change, only to be interrupted by his ringtone. He smiled as he recognized the name and picked up.

-

"Come to think of it, is Jin-ho still in the motel?"

-