Chapter 227: Solitude – 1

#227

Solitude – 1

#1

Jaehw.a.n.g acquired Pantland, or rather, the Central West region of Somalia.

Somalia's interim government showed an unconditional welcome to his occupation of Pantland. They seemed to be ready to elect Jaehw.a.n.g as the president of Somalia if he could drive out the world's most radical Islamic militia.

The World Hunter Secretariat announced the occupation of Pantland and called for a review of its sovereignty. Then, they announced that they would soon begin rebuilding the city. The public expressed their concern that it was a hasty action because if the World Hunter Office delayed or withheld the examination, all the resources, and manpower that was put in could be lost.

Here was the word of Jo Yonggi, the Invincible's adviser.

After the occupation, Jaehw.a.n.g went back to Invincible and called for a meeting. He asked Jo about the rebuilding of Somalia. This was because Jo was the living legend who revived the Korean economy for the past 60 years, and he was the perfect candidate for this issue.

Somalia was running for almost 150 years of anarchy by now.

Of course, Somalia had tried different methods all this time but they all ended up as a failure. There would be many factors to it, but Somalia was almost like a vegetative nation that had no will to relieve its glory once again.

When Jaehw.a.n.g asked about the prescription of Somalia to Jo, he summed up his answer in a simple manner.

“Just pour in a capital in so they cannot resist.”

“That's all you need? Money?” Jaehw.a.n.g asked questionably.

“Yup, but a lot of it. Flood them with money to the point that they could wash themselves from poverty.”

“I heard there were many tribal and religious conflicts surrounding that region, is it okay to ignore those factors?”

Jo swirled his coffee cup and replied, “That's also true… Freaking Islam… or rather, the main problem is the Sharia law. Some experts might say that blind monetary support is not the best solution but the people who said that they didn't have the money in the first place. This coffee is very good by the way.”

“Do you want me to give you some mixed coffee packs?”

“Sure. People who work under me here are all so pretentious that they only drink coffee with weird names. It's nice to have something different for a change.”

Jo, who just made internationally renowned experts into penny-pinching losers, preferred the instant coffee mix one can get from any shops around the corner. Jaehw.a.n.g shrugged and asked him again.

“So coming back to the main issue, how much do we need to pour in?”

Jo laughed at Jaehw.a.n.g's question.

This man who was the source of all the income does not even know how much he is making but that did not surprise him. His wealth was growing at an exponential rate. In fact, the wealth that Jaehw.a.n.g was acc.u.mulating was already past the point of a measurable sum.

People would often a.s.sume that a monsters' remains were the only things of value, but once they considered the existence of those belonging to the 9th tier, everything would change. An enormous amount of money would be paid to those who were able to capture those monsters or retake the land that they took. Now, Jaehw.a.n.g's money was coming in steadily.

Jaehw.a.n.g did not even have to concern himself with reinvesting his income. Even if he just saved up all of these, his safe would still skyrocket. In fact, he had already divided his bank account among several countries in the world because of the insurmountable amount of money that he had. The government of Korea itself was worried that his money might be able to affect their economy negatively and they were the ones who pleaded with Jaehw.a.n.g to diversify his income. The Republic of Korea was now too small to handle the price of Jaehw.a.n.g's raid.

Just from his recent income, Jaehw.a.n.g was now probably the world's richest man.

“If you just empty a few of the accounts that you have now, Somalia would be free from poverty. You can probably buy the entire country if you want but that, I don't recommend of course. There's not much value in the land except for some of its natural resources.”

Jaehw.a.n.g nodded at Jo's advice. He probably had enough money to go on with his plans.

“Great. Then, can you take care of the reconstruction project of Somalia yourself Adviser?”

“Sure thing.” Jo shrugged.

Jaehw.a.n.g did not even ask how much that was. Jo was well aware of the situation of Jaehw.a.n.g. It was still difficult for him to manage his a.s.sets and Jo was still helping him despite that. He also consulted the Prince separately regarding his finances.

“What level of reconstruction are you hoping for?”

“Help them forget about religion and their tribes if possible. There is no limit on how much you can use.”

“Wow. It's been forever since I was given so much money to play with. You're not going to be stingy like your brother?”

“Yes, of course, use as much as you need”

“Perfect. Then I'll do what I can”

As he left Jaehw.a.n.g's office, Jo did not forget to take some instant coffee mix from the a.s.sistant's office. He was a man of cheap taste.

#2

Jaehw.a.n.g returned to Somalia and hurried to find Abdul Hussein. As soon as he completed his preparations, he led his troops to Elus.

Abdul Hussein was not a stupid man and instead of shutting down the gates, he set up several dangerous b.o.o.by traps near the Elus gates. In multiple sites, there were TNT bombs that weigh a few tonnes and Hussein's gangs were waiting on that before they attack their troops.

There would have been catastrophic results if the troops prematurely pursued them, but the first troops that lead the way were the group of elites. Less than half a day later and after disabling all their traps, their team quickly caught up with Abdul Hussein's using Jaehw.a.n.g's chase skills.

Abdul Hussein tried to disrupt the chase by using the powerful monster's habitat and its features. Like a guerrilla, he ran through the environment with an impeccable level of stealth. He seemed to have sought the escape route in advance and systematically hindered Jaehw.a.n.g's pursuit. But ironically, less than three days later, he was caught.

Hussein's mistake was simple.

The first was that he thought that Jaehw.a.n.g would move away from the monsters' habitat, and the second was that he underestimated Jaehw.a.n.g's skills. Jaehw.a.n.g went through monsters' habitat, of course, and he encountered a lot of monsters just as what he had planned but they weren't strong enough to stop him. He was a natural hunter and playing a game of chase was too simple for him. He soon reached the large plains of Elus and it was then when Abdul Hussein realized that he could not escape his pursuit.

So, he prepared himself for a fight and his plan was brutal.

He ordered his 3000 men to do a suicide attack after having them drugged and laced with bombs. His guards that were basically brainwashed rushed against Jaehw.a.n.g's troops like a herd of savage animals, but still, they were all dead men in his hands.

Abdul Hussein and his men's complete destruction became a worldwide issue. Now, Jaehw.a.n.g wasn't just regarded as a competent 10-star hunter but also an unbeatable death machine.

‘Ma.s.s genocide, heartless a.s.sa.s.sin, global criticism.'

In Operation Pantland Takeover, there were a total of 156 fatalities with only 45 of them being killed directly from his attack but the people perceived it as him killing them without mercy. The world preferred to show a more stimulating headline and so, another 3000 deaths were now added to his hands.

‘World Hunter Secretariat 10-star Hunter Summon Announcement'

Even though they were villains, 3,156 was still a big number. Villains were criminals and were harmful to societies, but they were still humans and have the right to be tried. But because Jaehw.a.n.g wiped them away like trash, a lot of human rights organizations poured in criticisms upon him.

‘The dignity of a human being must be recounted now that the world is being freed from the fear of monsters. Gone are the days of lawlessness, in which villains were subject to execution without trial. That is why the genocide in Somalia deserves to be criticized.'

The fire started when the Secretary-General of the World Human Rights a.s.sociation mentioned Jaehw.a.n.g's name in an official statement.

Religious organizations have also begun to embark on the ruthlessness of Jaehw.a.n.g. In particular, certain religions in the Republic of Korea held a joint wors.h.i.+p in front of the Invincible Palace, and the pastors have raised their necks to voice the ruthlessness of Invincible.

“Everyone is a child of G.o.d. It is clearly stated in religious doctrines that even those who are bad are still a child of G.o.d. And no matter how wrong it is, at least there is no right for the state to deprive someone of his or her life because it is a G.o.d-given life and their dignity is endowed by our own const.i.tution. And It's not just a deprivation of life, it's a basic right. By protecting the human rights of the villain, the human rights of everyone in our society are better protected.”

Every religion that was usually busy tearing each other apart was now busy with criticizing Jaehw.a.n.g with a single voice.

Jaehw.a.n.g, of course, made no statement like he didn't care about all these criticisms. As if wanting them to misunderstand him if they wished so, he focused on hurrying upon the reconstruction of Somalia.

And Farrah, who just a few days ago almost had his wife dying of malnutrition and his daughter on the cusp of getting raped, had witnessed a flood of relief supplies as he watched their city getting rebuilt. There, he prayed to his G.o.d as thanks for sending his angel.

#3

“Delicious”

The moist tiramisu disappeared into her red lips.

“How did you find out about this place? Wow, my Jaehw.a.n.g is all grown-up now! You're treating a lady right!”

“…”

Basically talking to herself, Goongi showered Jaehw.a.n.g with compliments.

Still, Jaehw.a.n.g laughed at Goongi's compliments before pouring in his focus on his practice book.

This small alley bakery Jaehw.a.n.g was now with Goongi was a hidden restaurant in Korea that he specifically ordered for. Goongi deliberately praised Jaehw.a.n.g even though she knew everything about what he was doing.

Because they do everything together and because their souls were intertwined, they cannot hide anything from each other. When Jaehw.a.n.g first had to be with Goongi, he was very uncomfortable. From going to the toilet to moving on to wash himself, everything was about their relations.h.i.+p was awkward. Of course, he could consciously stop thinking about it, but at some point, he got too lazy to do that as well.

At some point, everything got familiar and a matter of fact,

“Do you want me to study for you??”

Goongi asked about Jaehw.a.n.g's driver's license exam and Jaehw.a.n.g rejected her, saying, “No, it's not like you're going to drive too.”

“You will never know and why do you need it anyway? You can fly your private jet or just use a driver…”

Goongi was technically not wrong and it was not only a private jet, but he could also fly his recently bought American fortress megquad-copter Atlas to over Korea. But, then again, Jaehw.a.n.g did not want another wave of unnecessary attention like that.

“I just want to try a thing called an automobile.”

Not long ago at Dong-cheol's wedding, Jaehw.a.n.g gifted his friend a hunter's off-road handmade vehicle but when he gave him a present, he also became greedy about Maika. The man's dream is said to be with Maika, and he must be a man himself. He was finally starting to understand why a hunter would buy a house at the moment they start making money.

“Hmph…” Goongi seemed dissatisfied as he squinted her eyes.

“I'll play with you later.”

“Just empty words…”

“Yup.”

“You're becoming sleazier every day.”

“Thank you for the compliment”

“Who ruined my innocent Jaehw.a.n.g…”

Goongi was just about to clean up the area in a specific way when the waitress came in with a beautiful plate of desserts.

“Here is the ‘Madame Catherine Special' you ordered.”

“Try it, I heard that this was a pre-order menu only”

“Hmmm,” Goongi grunted but after a moment, she started to dig in. Soon, her cheeks reddened.

“Ugh so gooooood.”

Even a half-human does not seem to have immunity against delicious food.

*Snickers*

“Don't laugh, I'm losing my affection.”

Jaehw.a.n.g snickered once more at Goongi and went back to his test prep. In the past, the exam was so easy that the pa.s.sing rate was over 90 percent, but now, the percentage of those who pa.s.sed among all the exam takers was now about 30 percent. Brains had nothing to do with one's hunter abilities.

People would usually a.s.sume that being a hunter would make one smart but that's not true. Their concentration becomes better so they might get to study more effectively, but they do not necessarily become more intelligent.

And Jaehw.a.n.g was physically experiencing that himself. He had more wrong answers than right ones, and he couldn't help but frown after checking his score.

“Ugh… I must really have no talent for all of this brainy stuff”

“So, I just said that I'll help you!”

“No….”

“So stubborn”

Jaehw.a.n.g sighed and leaned back in his chair at Goongi's unenthusiastic remark.

“This is nice”

It was a place where no one would notice them just like an ordinary couple sitting inside a bakery, they're having an ordinary day.

Even the bodyguards were laid off for the day, She even made Jaehw.a.n.g and herself less visible and noticeable to others, and this may be just an ordinary day for other people but to Jaehw.a.n.g and Goongi, it was such a relaxing day and a very precious one…

Goongi, who was snacking on the opposite table, transformed and came on Jaehw.a.n.g's lap with her eyes looking a bit sad.

She leaned her head on Jaehw.a.n.g's chest.

“It's not your fault.”

“I know.”