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I Alone Level (Solo Level) Chapter 92.2
I Alone Level (Solo Level) Chapter 92.2
The interiors of the building were quiet. Without a single Awakened Being waiting for their testing,
only few Association employees were walking around here and there. It was not at all unrelated to
the mass of reporters outside.
“Please, this way.”
“Okay.”
As he followed Go Gunhee’s escort to the accurate measuring room, Jinwoo noticed two familiar
faces.
‘Oh?’
At a break room across the hall, Baek Yoonho and Choi Jongin were seated. They were in the area
where the scouters from the small Guilds were three days ago. When they met Jinwoo’s eyes, they
both stood up and lowered their heads. Jinwoo returned their greetings and continued past the hall.
As they quietly walked, Go Gunhee smiled,
“Those two, they came here an hour ago and have been waiting for Hunter-nim.”
The two representative Guildmasters of South Korea were waiting his testing results for an hour? As
if reading Jinwoo’s mind, Go Gunhee spoke with a peaceful voice,
“You are the nation’s first S-rank Hunter in two years. On top of that, Choi Jongin even saw your
prowess through his Guild member’s accounts.”
Jinwoo nodded.
“Oh my.”
“Association president.”
On the way, few Association employees bowed before Go Gunhee and stared at Jinwoo with awe.
‘Who is that man? The association president himself is escorting him?’
‘He must be someone amazing.’
‘How does a young man like that know the association president?’
Even if a cabinet member came to the Association, Go Gunhee wouldn’t have escorted them
himself. And so, looking at this scene right now, the employees were shocked.
Go Gunhee spoke while looking ahead,
“I heard yesterday’s reports.”
The elderly man speaking looked elated. In reality, Go Gunhee was ecstatic. As he suspected,
Jinwoo truly was a rare man, unlike any other Hunters. When he heard Woo Jincheol’s report of the
A-rank Dungeon and Jinwoo’s powers, Go Gunhee clenched his fists as if he was there.
‘Of course, power is power, but,’
It was Jinwoo’s actions afterwards that truly moved the association president’s heart. Even though
the young Hunter had solo cleared the entire Dungeon, he had not shown any greed at the spoils.
Instead of having a goal of earning money or fame, Jinwoo’s objectives truly were to fight magic
beasts and protect the people. Go Gunhee, and by extension the Association, was prepared to help
him with every single means at their disposal. After all, helping such Hunters was the true founding
goal of the Hunter Association.
‘If only I could bring him to the Association…’
Still, what could the elderly man do? As Jinwoo said few days ago, if he entered the Association, he
would lose the opportunity to fight with magic beasts. When he thought back on Jinwoo’s abilities
from yesterday, it was a power too strong to be wasted outside of Dungeons.
Soon, the pair reached the testing area deep within the building.
“Before the remeasurement, we will determine Hunter-nim’s category.”
Jinwoo knew this. Depending on the power they were Awakened into, Hunters were divided into
categories of Fighter, Mage, Healer, Supporter or other classes.
The employee waiting in the testing area bowed deeply to Go Gunhee and spoke to Jinwoo,
“Please, this way.”
Jinwoo followed and ended up in the middle of the testing area. The room was like a large
gymnasium found in schools. Unlike ordinary gyms, there was a strong magic power filling the walls
and the floors. It seemed that the room was reinforced to prevent any accidents.
The examiner asked,
“So, what can you do?”
From a corner, Association President Go Gunhee looked upon the testing with great interest. This
was the main reason why he himself had come to escort Jinwoo. Even just a second faster, Go
Gunhee wanted to see Jinwoo’s abilities with his own eyes.
“I can do this.”
Jinwoo summoned a single Shadow Soldier.
“Whoa!”
The examiner jumped. Who wouldn’t upon seeing a soldier clad in pitch-black armor rise from the
ground? Even though Jinwoo had purposely selected the weakest soldier among his army, the
soldier still gave off a dangerous aura to an ordinary man.
“Is this… summoning? You can wield summons?”
The examiner’s voice was shaking. Jinwoo wanted to explain that he was not in any danger but held
his words back. With a pitying look, Jinwoo replied,
“...Well, something like that.”
“If, if that’s the case, how many summons can you bring out?”
‘There’s no use in lying.’
After all, there were many witnesses yesterday who saw his battle. Jinwoo rounded down the
number of his Shadow Storage limit and spoke,
“About… a hundred.”
Hearing the number, the examiner’s eyes shot open wide,
“A-a hundred?”
“Yes.”
Jinwoo replied calmly.
In that moment, Go Gunhee’s eyes lit up as he looked at the Shadow Soldier,
‘He can wield a hundred of something like that…’
At a simple glance, the Shadow Soldier had a magic power comparable to a B-rank Hunter. If the
man was able to call forth a hundred of them, in a way, Jinwoo maintained a power surpassing an
average large Guild. It was truly an amazing ability.
Jinwoo felt Go Gunhee’s fierce gaze on him. Taking in the responses around the room, he sighed
deeply in relief.
‘If they’re reacting like this to an ordinary soldier…’
Jinwoo was glad he did not pull out Ygritte or Tusk. Anyways, with this, his category was
determined,
“Then… Hunter Sung Jinwoo-nim is a Mage-class.”
The examiner recorded the results down, then raised his head.
“Okay, we can head over to the measurement room now.”
As she always would, Jinah went to a convenience store to buy a banana-flavored milk after her
third class for the day. She still had about an hour to go until lunch was over. If she didn’t fill her
stomach with at least some milk, it would be hard to focus on the classes.
As if on cue,
growl
Her stomach rumbled in hunger. Jinah came back to the classroom while rubbing her belly, when
one of her friends approached her with round eyes,
“J-Jinah!”
“W-what?”
Her friend’s shock carried over to Jinah,
“Your brother! Your brother’s on TV!”
“What? Why is my brother on TV?”
Jinah’s heart sank to her stomach. Was he hurt again? Or what if…
Without explaining, her friend impatiently took Jinah’s wrist and dragged her into the classroom.
Jinah moved her gaze over to the giant TV next to the blackboard.
“O… oppa?”
The banana-flavored milk fell from her hands onto the floor.
Lunch Time.
The mining team who had completed their morning work were comfortably sitting around here and
there, eating their lunch. Even though they were just miners, since the job had never resulted in any
accidents or issues, their moods were carefree and happy. There were Hunters that filled their plates
with food, Hunters spending free time on their phones, and Hunters who even enjoyed a drink during
the day with snacks.
“Huh?”
A Hunter that was on his phone suddenly shot up in surprise.
“Isn’t this Sung-ssi?”
Lee Sunggu’s ears perked up.
“You’re right!”
“Sung-ssi’s on the news!”
His hearing was not off,
“I knew it!”
His face slightly red from the day drinking, Lee Sunggu quickly ran over to where his teammates
were gathered. His mouth did not stop talking on the way,
“I knew it from the moment I saw that fucker’s eyes! Let me see! What crime that evil-looking shitbag
commit! Let me see!”
Was it because Lee Sunggu’s voice was too loud?
“Sung-ssi?”
“Sung-ssi committed a crime?”
Including Team Leader Bae, all the Hunters of the mining team gathered around. The Hunter who
was on his phone held out his screen for all to see. Jinwoo’s face was on it, and below his face, a
caption:
[...Following Hwang Dongseok, then Cha Haein, South Korea’s 10th S-rank Hunter, Sung Jinwoo-ssi
just…]
“WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?!!!!!!!”
Lee Sunggu fainted.
[N/A]: Oh man, I got chills when I realized I would no longer have to substitute “E-rank Hunter” for Jinwoo, T.T
“Taxi.”
After getting away from the reporters, Jinwoo hailed a cab on the side of the road. As he wanted, he
had obtained an S-rank license. Leveling up and Dungeons were a priority, but right now, the most
important thing was his mother’s cure.
‘The Holy Water of Life…’
That item really might be able to cure his mother.
‘Even if there was a one in a thousand chance, no, a chance in a ten thousand…’
His highest priority was to finish clearing the Demon Castle and obtain the ingredients to craft the
Holy Water of Life. Jinwoo spoke the destination from the backseat,
“Korean Hunter Auction, please.”
Glancing at him through the back mirror, the driver smiled,
“Looks like you’re going to sell something crazy. I heard that the items exchanged in the Hunter
Auction cost at least several dozen millions.”
Instead of replying, Jinwoo just smiled.
gulp
The driver gulped. If this man was on the way to the Hunter Auction to sell something, that meant
that he was a Hunter. Ordinary people had to be careful around Hunters. Among the Hunters, there
were people with personalities as terrible as their powers. An unintended slight could result in a big
incident.
‘That young man doesn’t look like the type, but I should be careful.’
Reading Jinwoo’s mood, the driver shut up, and the taxi became quiet. On the way, Jinwoo pulled up
the Hunter Auction website on his phone. While navigating the internet, Jinwoo realized that every
single website, whether it was social media, news or content aggregation site, was displaying the
news of the new S-rank Hunter. Just this morning, the number one search keyword was “Lee
Minsung”. Now, the actor’s name didn’t even show up on the top ten trending searches.
tsk
Jinwoo clicked his tongue.
‘I didn’t think it’d be this bad.’
He had expected some level of attention but did not realize it would be this great.
Well, it made sense.
Only ten people in South Korea. If you discounted the dead and the expat, there were only eight S-
rankers in the country now. The people’s attention made sense.
‘But why was it so quiet during Cha Haein’s time?’
When Korea’s ninth S-ranker Cha Haein appeared two years ago, her news did not make the rounds
in the media. Jinwoo had hope that he would’ve been the same. After looking into a bit, he realized
that it was because Cha Hain had asked the Association to put a moratorium on her information after
becoming an S-ranker.
‘Oh? If you just ask the Association, both Guilds and the press can’t talk about you legally.’
There was such a convenient method, why didn’t the association president let him know?
Ah.
Jinwoo recalled the question he was asked on the way to the testing area. The association president
had asked him,
“Do you perhaps have a Guild in mind to join?”
“Not yet.”
Was this why the elder had asked? Perhaps the association president did not want to prevent the
Guilds from approaching him and did not bring up the idea of an information block.
‘Well, that’s that.’
Jinwoo sent a quick request for an information block through the Association’s website, then made a
call to the Korean Hunter Auction.
click
- “Hello, this is the Korean Hunter Auction.”
“There’s an artifact I would like to appraise. I’m on the way to the Hunter Auction, is that alright?”
- “Of course. What kind of an artifact is it?”
“It’s a marble that amplifies your spell power.”
- “Oh? A spell amplification tool… If you know its effects, have you already received an appraisal
from somewhere else?”
“Yes, but I wanted to obtain a second opinion from the Hunter Auction.”
- “Haha. You’ve made a good choice. We are number one when it comes to appraising the value of
an artifact.”
The employee briefly became silent as if writing something down then spoke again,
- “From your past appraisal, how big was the amplification effect?”
“100%”
- “Excuse me?”
“The amplification effect is by a 100%.”
- “...”
The voice spoke after a moment of hesitation,
- “I’m sorry, but are you, the seller, a Hunter?”
“Yes.”
- “For a smooth appraisal process, we’ll need the seller’s identification. Could I have your name and
rank?”
The corners of Jinwoo’s mouth rose.
‘I knew it would be like this.’
If an E-rank Hunter tried to sell this insane and unheard of artifact, the Hunter Auction would’ve just
hung up then and there. In a way, it was for this moment that Jinwoo went and got a retest. The S-
rank Hunter spoke calmly,
“S-rank. My name is Sung Jinwoo.”
Jinwoo held up the dagger the weapon specialist showed him. To be honest, it was… disappointing.
‘It’s worse than the B-rank Knight Killer.’
The attack power displayed by the System wasn’t even half of Knight Killer. Jinwoo returned the
dagger with disappointment and asked,
“How much is it?”
“Thirty million won.”
Jinwoo’s eyes opened wide. How much did this piece of crap cost?
“Excuse me, how much?”
“Thirty million won, Hunter-nim.”
“Hold on.”
Jinwoo turned around and pretended to go through his pockets. He summoned Knight Killer and
turned around.
“How much would this go for?”
This time, the employee’s eyes opened wide.
“Is this Hunter-nim’s item? Whoa, I feel an elite crafter’s skills all over it!”
Er… No… It’s just a shop item…
After a moment of review, the employee spoke while smiling,
“I’m not an official appraiser, so it’s hard for me to say, but it looks like it could go for at least a
hundred million won.”
Jinwoo’s face froze.
‘I bought this for three million gold in the shop.’ [2]
To be more accurate, 2.8 million gold. Reading his expression, the employee scratched the back of
his head in embarrassment,
“Was I wrong? I apologize, I’m a weapon specialist, so I may have spoken out of my place.”
“No, it’s nothing like that.”
He was just shocked at the price of his item. Well, if he thought about it, even Kim Sangshik’s Steel
Sword he used was said to cost three million won. And Yoo Jinho’s expensive gear that didn’t see
much use cost hundreds of millions of won. The fact that the System’s powerful items went for a high
price in the real world wasn’t that crazy.
‘I just didn’t pay much attention to it.’
He lost interest in money a long time ago.
‘Wait…’
His inventory was filled to the brim with gold. What if he could exchange that gold for real money by
selling the System’s shop items? Jinwoo’s head ran with quick calculations...
‘...I don’t have to sell the Marble of Avarice.’
When his mind reached that thought.
WAAAAH-
Was he mistaken?
Jinwoo swore he heard cheering coming from the mages in his shadow. [3]
Translator’s Notes:
[1]: Heh heh heh, remember all those times Jinwoo looked at his phone and saw missed calls from an unknown number? “If it’s important,
the person will call again”? Heh heh heh
[2]: Just a reminder, the last time we see Jinwoo’s funds, it’s 900 million gold, and this is BEFORE he fights Volkhan half way. He climbs
about 20 floors after that. 3 million gold = $100k item. Wonder how fast MC’s math is?
[3]: YES, THANK YOU. EVEN THE SHADOW ARMY KNOWS HOW FUCKING STUPID IT IS TO SELL THE MARBLE. HANDS DOWN THE
#1 DUMBEST FUCKING THING THIS MC HAS CONSIDERED.
“Dear, don’t you think you were too harsh on Jinho today?”
“Hmph.”
Yoo Myunghan roughly tried to remove his necktie.
That little brat.
To think that was his reply after he was offered Yoojin Guild, the Guild that would become the
cornerstone of Yoojin Construction.
“I’m going to join hyungnim’s Guild.”
What was that? Join hyungnim?
“He deserves every little bit of it.”
Yoo Myunghan snorted. If the boy wants to stand alone, he sure as hell will do it with his own
strength. He planned to teach his son that every choice had a consequence.
Was it because he was too emotional? His tie wasn’t coming off easily today. When his rough hands
began to pull at the tie, his wife came over and reached out.
“Here, let me.”
At her gentle hands, the tie unraveled smoothly. Yoo Myunghan stood still and let his wife work.
Suddenly, holding the tie in her hand, his wife laughed,
“What is it, wife?”
Yoo Myunghan was confused. She had helped him take off his tie their entire life. Something like a
knotted tie should not have been funny.
“Dear, are you really angry?”
“Hmm…?”
Was she feeling alright? What did she mean by that. Yoo Myunghan tilted his head and looked at his
face in the mirror.
‘What…?’
He was shocked. His words only moments were ranting in anger, so why did he look so happy in the
mirror? Embarrassed, Yoo Myunghan rubbed his chin and cheeks.
“Today was the first time, right?”
“What do you mean?”
“That Jinho actually stood up to you.”
“...”
That is indeed why he was angry. A business could not function if the orders from the top did not
flow like a river to below. The man held the same creed in his household. Because he had ran his
household with the same attitude as his business, he had never allowed his orders to be disobeyed
at home. But what was this? His order was thoroughly refused today. And while he was certainly
angry, why did he not feel bad about it?
‘I’m angry, but I don’t feel bad about it?’
He could not make sense of this feeling. As if reading her husband’s mind, his wife spoke as if
comforting a child,
“For the first time, Jinho is making and going down his own path. Why don’t you cheer him on
instead of being angry?”
“...”
Yoo Myunghan firmly closed his mouth. He had difficulty composing his thoughts.
“For now… I’ll watch him.”
“Yes, do that.”
With a gentle smile, his wife helped him take off his suit jacket.
But suddenly, Yoo Myunghan stared blankly at his wife’s face.
“How strange.”
“What is?”
“Dear, I’m looking at two of you right now.”
“What?”
His wife opened her eyes wide. Yoo Myunghan suddenly lost his balance and fell down.
“Dear?!”
Surprised, the chairman’s wife quickly ran to his side. Shaking his head, Yoo Myunghan took rough
breaths.
“pant, pant”
His wife’s eyes became wider,
‘He’s sweating so much!’
Yoo Myunghan fought back the sudden wave of sleepiness overwhelming him. The chairman lost
the fight and fell unconscious.
In the VIP room of the nation’s best hospital, Yoo Myunghan opened his eyes. The hospital put up a
round-the-clock watch on the chairman, rotating doctors every few hours. The doctor on duty came
over and looked over Yoo Myunghan’s state,
“Are you awake, chairman?”
“...”
Looking around, Yoo Myunghan immediately understood the situation.
“How long have I been here?”
“You’ve been asleep for two days.”
Two days? Diligence did not even began to describe Chairman Yoo Myunghan. No matter how tired
he was, the man had never slept for more than five hours in a day.
“...”
Having closed his mouth for a moment, Yoo Myunghan spoke casually,
“It seems that I’ve been quite tired lately.”
He did have quite a bit on his plate lately. The sudden collapse and long sleep must’ve been
because of that. However, the doctor continued to maintain a serious expression. Yoo Myunghan
was a man standing at the top of one of the nation’s top companies. He had tens of thousands of
employees under him. The man knew how to read another’s expression. Looking at the darkened
expression of the doctor, Yoo Myunghan asked,
“Is there… something wrong with my body?”
Before leaving, Jinwoo carefully peaked into his sister’s room. Because it was so early, Jinah was
still deep in slumber. Still, her older brother was worried.
‘What if someone gets to her while I’m gone?’
Of course, people wouldn’t be stupid enough to harm the little sister of an S-rank Hunter, but at the
same time, people were unpredictable. At the very least, he needed to plan a few contingencies.
‘Wait, my soldiers can hide in someone’s shadow, right?’
Jinwoo recalled the soldiers he put up as patrol for the serial killer around the neighborhood. At that
time, the shadows were moving while hiding in various objects’ shadows. With that, he might be able
to protect his sister without being noticed. In fact, there were few soldiers perfect for protecting
someone.
‘Come out.’
Jinwoo called the magic beast soldiers that once acted as Tusk’s bodyguards.
shooo
Big even for a high orc, the three soldiers filled up the entirety of Jinah’s room.
Hold on.
‘Wait. Why are there only three of them?’
Weren’t there definitely four bodyguards? Combing over his memory, Jinwoo silently exclaimed in
realization,
‘Ah.’
He realized that he left one of the bodyguards nailed to the ceiling. He forgot to extract that one’s
shadow.
‘I’ll have to be more mindful next time.’
With a smile, Jinwoo sent the three former high orc bodyguards forward. All three of them were Elite
Grade. It was a step above the Normal Grades given to the ordinary high orc warriors. If it was those
three, even an A-rank Hunter wouldn’t be much of a trouble. This wasn’t just a theory, Jinwoo
recalled seeing the A-rank Son Gihoon struggling against ordinary high orcs. These three were
much stronger than those enemies. Jinwoo raised a chin towards Jinah.
shooo-
The bodyguards melted into their shadow forms and traveled across the floor. They were absorbed
into Jinah’s shadow.
‘Alright.’
Just quietly hide in her shadow. If she is in danger, no matter who the enemy is, eliminate them
without mercy. With that order, Jinwoo carefully closed the door.
‘Now I feel a bit better.’
His worries were abated. After making sure the door was secure, Jinwoo went outside.