Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 78: Ready, Action! (4)

“Alright, please listen up everybody. The monsters we will be hunting this time are the Land Stalkers. These monsters resemble a large snake,” Yoo-Bi briefed.

The Porters that Han-Yeol hired this time were all veteran Porters, and they were very well aware of what the Land Stalkers were. However, it was a ritual among Porters to hold a briefing before a hunt so that they could exchange information and review their knowledge about the monster they were hunting. That was why nobody complained when the briefing started.

“As you may be very well aware, there are three types of Land Stalkers. One type shoots poison, another injects poison into its prey after biting them, and the last type has no poison but will constrict its prey to death. We are going to hunt all three types this time,” Yoo-Bi said.

“Huh? All three types?” one of the Porter muttered in surprise.

“Yes,” Yoo-Bi said.

“Haha!” the Porter laughed out loud.

The Porters were taken aback and baffled. The parties that came to the Snake Den to hunt mostly chose which type of Land Stalker they would hunt depending on the composition of their party. The fact that a solo Hunter was going to hunt all three types of Land Stalkers without even making any preparation could only be seen as laughable.

“Do you think that you are making any sense right now?” the Porter asked with a hint of hostility in his voice.

“What do you mean?” Yoo-Bi asked. She feigned ignorance even though she was fully aware of what the Porter meant.

“The Land Stalkers possess highly venomous poison except for the anaconda-type that does not possess poison, and the fact that the poisons differ according to their type makes them even more lethal. It is common knowledge not to carelessly challenge these monsters without preparing an ample supply of antidote.

“Of course, I am aware that the leather and poison that you can get from the Land Stalkers are highly valuable, but they are not worth you gambling your life away. I noticed that you did not prepare any antidote, but you are telling us that we are going to hunt the Land Stalkers. This is akin to telling us to commit suicide. We cannot understand what you are thinking,” the Porter explained.

Nod… Nod…?

The other Porters silently expressed their agreement with firm nods. The Porter who spoke up had said nothing wrong, and it could be argued that he was the logical one right now.

Yoo-Bi smiled and shrugged her shoulders before she replied, “Well, technically… You are not wrong.”

“Then…”

Yoo-Bi suddenly cut the Porter off and said, “That is, of course, within your own boundary of logic.”

“Huh? What do you mean by that?” the Porters asked in unison, feeling confused.

“Hmm… I did explain this yesterday. You are all aware that this hunt is going to be symbolic since this is to commemorate Han-Yeol Hunter-nim starting his own channel, right?” Yoo-Bi asked.

“Yes, you did mention that, and we have not forgotten about it,” the Porters replied.

The teaser video for Han-Yeol’s channel was still not ready. The edit had already been done by the production crew, but they had to check if there were any legal problems with the Egyptian Hunter being included in the video or not. In fact, Han-Yeol had consulted the matter with a famous law firm regarding the issue.

It was difficult for them to postpone the launch of the channel just because their teaser and promotional video were not ready. That was why they were planning to go ahead with the launch without releasing any teaser or promotional video at all.

Also, the Land Stalker hunt today was going to be a live broadcast.

“Han-Yeol Hunter-nim plans to showcase all of his abilities in today’s broadcast, and one of them is his ability to heal anything,” Yoo-Bi said.

“W-What?!”

“H-Heal?! He has healing abilities too?!”

“What the hell?!”

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The Porters were in an uproar.

The public was not yet aware of Han-Yeol’s healing ability as the promotional video of him helping at the rescue scene was still unreleased. The Porters were struggling to recover from Yoo-Bi’s shocking revelation.

‘To think that he has the ability to heal everything…’

‘It all makes sense now. That means that the poisons are not a threat at all…’

‘The Land Stalker’s poison does not instantly kill the target too…’

‘Now it all makes sense…’

The Porters were all deep in thought.

The Land Stalkers, except for the anaconda-type, were dangerous because of their poison, but they were not threatening once their poison was neutralized. That was why the Snake Den was a very efficient and famous hunting ground if a party had a member with the ability to neutralize poison. It would be unwise to hunt here without such a member, because the prices of antidotes on the market were ridiculously high.

Thanks to that, this hunting ground was rated as [Average] when it came to its popularity, and not a lot of Hunters frequented it. However, the parties that possessed a member who could neutralize the monsters’ poison tended to stay for quite a long time in this place to hunt.

Here, most of the lucrative hunting spots were all under the control of the big guilds, and the regular Hunters were forced to hunt somewhere secluded. Of course, Han-Yeol was forced away from the lucrative hunting spots and was forced to hunt somewhere far away just like the other regular Hunters.

Vrooom!

One would never imagine that Han-Yeol’s party was a solo hunting party due to the sheer number of vehicles moving in a convoy. The seven-vehicle-long convoy consisted of five trucks driven by the Porters, a moderate-sized bus for the production crew, and a truck carrying all of the filming equipment. In addition, the whole convoy was being filmed from the sky by a drone.

They finally arrived at their hunting spot, which they had already surveyed prior, after thirty minutes since they passed the military checkpoint.

“We will be setting up our base camp over here,” Yoo-Bi said.

She had already gathered information that there were no Land Stalkers spawning in this place, and this was also a spot frequently used by other Hunters as well.

“This is the first time that so many people are present for your hunt, oppa,” Yoo-Bi commented.

“I know right,” Han-Yeol replied.

“I think I prefer this over last time,” Yoo-Bi said with a smile.

“Really?” Han-Yeol asked.

“Yes,” Yoo-Bi replied.

Han-Yeol nodded in agreement, and he felt that the money he had invested was not wasted after hearing Yoo-Bi’s words.

While the others finished setting up their base camp, Han-Yeol was getting ready for the broadcast.

“Hunter-nim, we have finished our preparations,” Soo-In said.

“Is that so?” Han-Yeol muttered in response. He looked around the production crew and saw that they were all equipped with their gear.

Most Hunters needed to be on the move unless they possessed one of the lucrative spots that were always monopolized by the big guilds. That was why the filming gear was all made out of special lightweight material so that the crew could easily carry it around with them.

Some might criticize them for opting to use expensive equipment that needed to be carried around when a smartphone or a small filming camera would have sufficed. However, these were important decisions that had been made to satisfy the viewers’ endless desires.

The viewers did not want pretty women or flashy effects to be shown in the videos; the one thing that they would never compromise on was the quality of the videos. That was the reason why Hunters tended to invest a lot in their equipment to deliver crystal clear high definition videos to their viewers, especially now when the competition among Hunter channels was becoming fiercer by the day. In fact, the channel rankings heavily depended on how well the video quality could be transmitted to their viewers.

For example, there was a time when a server error had led to America TV’s video quality dropping. That incident had been enough to push them down to second place in the industry for a whole week. Of course, they then invested an astronomical sum of money to remediate the error, and they reclaimed their spot as the industry leader in no time.

The platform that Han-Yeol registered with, Golem Mania TV, was a platform well known for its good video quality. However, not a lot of Hunters were registered with them since they were a young platform and their budget constraints made it difficult for them to entice the Hunters to join them.

“Alright, we will start filming now!” Soo-In, who was the overall director for this filming, announced. Then, she raised her hand and signaled the start of the filming. “Ready… Action!”

The banner of Han-Yeol’s channel was uploaded to the top of Golem Mania TV’s website as soon as he started broadcasting. It was not often that a new channel’s banner was uploaded on the main page, but it had been a while since a Hunter opened a channel with them.

On top of that, Han-Yeol’s channel was not a normal raid channel, but it was a rare solo hunting channel. That was why Golem Mania TV’s management decided that it was worth giving it a chance to promote Han-Yeol’s channel and, in turn, gain more exposure for the platform.

However, the biggest reason as to why the management had agreed in the first place was that Han-Yeol had paid quite a hefty sum in marketing fees to the platform.

Viewers started to enter Han-Yeol’s channel when his banner was uploaded on the main page along with the keywords ‘solo hunting’ and ‘free for today’.

[Hello!]

[Wow, a new channel is on the main page?]

[Is it true that this is a solo hunting channel?]

[I stopped by out of curiosity.]

The chatroom started to get busier and busier.

“Yes, welcome everyone to Hunter-nim’s newly opened Level Up TV! My name is Han Yoo-Bi, and I am the personal Porter of Hunter-nim, as well as the main MC for this channel. I am pleased to meet all of you!” Yoo-Bi greeted the viewers.

At the back of her mind, she thought, ‘Wow… It feels like I’ve become a celebrity…’

There had been a point in time when Yoo-Bi wanted to become a celebrity since she was tall, beautiful, and even sang well. In fact, a lot of people had told her that she should try and audition to become a girl group member, and watching the girl groups on TV did make her want to become one as well.

However, her dreams had been shattered by ruthless reality. She had to give them up to make ends meet. Nevertheless, becoming the MC of a channel was like a consolation to her since she still felt like she was living her dreams of becoming a celebrity.

[Wow, you are damn pretty.]

[Cute!]

[You look so cute and beautiful!]

[Is this a female cam room?]

The MC of a Hunter channel was usually the Hunters themselves, since Hunters were hungry for fame. However, Han-Yeol was running this channel so that he could make a name for himself as a Hunter and raise his value in the process, and he was not interested in becoming a celebrity or anybody famous. He only wanted to become a celebrity Hunter known for his abilities if ever he were to end up becoming famous.

Yoo-Bi continued, “Hunter-nim’s hunt this time will of course be a solo hunt, and the party is composed of Hunter-nim, six Porters including myself, and twenty production staff. Say hello everyone!”

The view broadcast suddenly shifted to the drone capturing them from above.

The production crew would shift the view to different cameras whenever it was necessary to match the atmosphere.

The five Porters hired for the day excitedly waved when they were shown on the broadcast while some of the production crews blushed shyly.

[What… Is that a flower field…?]

[Wow… This Hunter is a pervert…]

[The production crew is entirely made up of women…]

[They are all beautiful too…]

[I think a lot of us will be saving this channel as a favorite…]

[They are more than enough for me to watch this channel!]

[I’m so damn jealous of that Hunter…]

“Hmm… Of course, we will have to introduce Hunter-nim to all of you since he is the owner of this channel, but we will be skipping the introduction for now. All of you can then decide for yourselves as to what kind of a Hunter he is,” Yoo-Bi teased before she paused for a moment and continued.

“The monster we will be hunting today is none other than the Land Stalkers. I’m certain that most of you who frequently watch hunting broadcasts would be familiar with where we are today. However, I will briefly explain for those who are not familiar with the Land Stalkers and this place. This hunting ground is the habitat of the Land Stalkers, and there are three types of Land Stalkers living here. There are two types that use poison to kill their prey while the last one is an anaconda-like monster that constricts its prey to death. It is very difficult to hunt the Land Stalkers without any antidotes on standby.”

[Yes, yes, I know about that.]

[I’ve been a viewer for seven years now. That’s basic knowledge.]

“Hehe, I will skip over the details since you are all veteran viewers, and we will go straight to the hunting part. We were actually supposed to have a professional MC for our channel, but our channel is not that rich as you can see…” Yoo-Bi said as she made a sad gesture. “That is why I became the MC due to the lack of budget… I wish to ask for your understanding, since I will have to participate in the hunt because I am a Porter as well.”

[I love you, Yoo-Bi!]

[Just leave it to oppa! I will make sure to fund you really well!]

Perhaps it was the effect of having a young and beautiful MC like Yoo-Bi, but the channel’s chat room reacted explosively. The effect of a beautiful young girl like Yoo-Bi being a damsel in distress triggered the viewers, who were mostly men, to react strongly.

Of course, there were still a lot of people who posted sexual comments on the chatroom, but they were able to restrict them in time thanks to the manager sent by Golem Mania TV.

“Oppa, there are two Land Stalkers three hundred meters in front of us,” Yoo-Bi said.

“Alright,” Han-Yeol replied.

He activated his skill, ‘Demon Eyes.’

His eyes started to glow red, and that sight was broadcasted live on his channel.

[His eyes turned red.]

[Is it a vision enhancing skill?]

[It looks different from a normal skill.]

[Maybe it’s a unique skill?]

[I don’t think it simply enhances his vision… I’m certain that it has another function as well.]

[Ohhh! This channel is getting interesting!]

The experts, who were actually the viewers that watched quite a lot of Hunter broadcasts, analyzed Han-Yeol’s skill, and this coupled with the fact that the hunt was about to start further increased the influx of viewers to the channel.

One distinct difference that a Hunter’s channel had over normal channels was that the channel’s name on the main page turned red while they were hunting, and this was one of the main reasons that there would be an increase in viewers whenever a hunt commenced.

After all, the viewers were looking for action-packed scenes to watch. The flashy action scenes that the Hunter’s delivered to their viewers were something that no other normal BJ could ever deliver.

Just as Han-Yeol was about to come into contact with the two Land Stalkers, his channel’s name turned red, and a huge influx of viewers came pouring into his channel. This was all thanks to him and his production crew’s plan to bait the viewers into coming in by offering free streaming for today.